Re: Reality Check Time

["Miller, Lisa" <Lisa -dot- Miller -at- ANHEUSER-BUSCH -dot- COM>]

Mary:

I develop Winhelp (actually you were my first instructor in this area).  I still
felt that the salary range was a bit high.  However, I will say that the line
between writer and developer is becoming blurry thanks to electronic
documentation development.  Everyday electronic documentation specialists (oh,
yeah a new title) must increase their knowledge and comfort level with
programming and software development processes and environments.  As these
specialists increase their knowledge and comfort level with development, they
are more likely to perceive themselves as developers (or on par with developers
in terms of skill specialization), so are the companies for which they work.  It
doesn't surprise me that people on WinHlp -L were comfortable with that range.
I think the shift to electronic development will be one from which many can
profit.  As a final thought, I will say Carla's friend did not have these skills
as far as we knew from the message.

Lisa Miller
Technical Writer
lisa -dot- miller -at- anheuser-busch -dot- com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mary Deaton [SMTP:m_deaton -at- KWARE -dot- COM]
> Sent: Friday, June 18, 1999 4:55 PM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Reality Check Time
>
> I am cross-posting this because the original question was cross-posted and
> because there was a very interesting pattern to the responses.
>
> On the Tech Writers alias, most people agreed with me that $65,000 per year
> is alot to pay a technical writer except in very senior, management or
> specialised fields.
>
> On the WinHelp alias, most people seemed to feel $65,000 was not
> unreasonable. Is that because many of the people on WinHlp-L are not
> classified as technical writers by their companies, but as developers? Or
> because they are programmers who also happen to do Help and are, therefore,
> being paid as programmers?
>
> Inquiring minds want to know.
>
> And for those of you who found my comments unacceptable, KNOWware writers
> get paid in much the same salary range as Microsoft employee writers, and
> more than many Microsoft contractors.
>
>
> Mary Deaton
> President, KNOWware, LLC
> (206) 682-6113
> *       Smart User Assistance and Training http://www.kware.com
> *       Microsoft MVP for HTML Help
> *       Program Associate, Winwriters 2000 Online Conference
> http://www.winwriters.com/ohc.htm
> *       Speaker, Help Technology Conference,
> http://www.winwriters.com/htc99.htm
>
> From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==
>
>
>

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=