Alternate Career Paths forTechnical Communicators

By Jack MolisaniPresident, ProSpring Technical Staffing

Executive Director, The LavaCon Conference

About the SpeakerAbout the Speaker

Associate Fellow, STC President, ProSpring Technical StaffingExecutive Director, The LavaCon Conference

Warnings and DisclaimersWarnings and Disclaimers

Group ParticipationI am not a Professional Statistician Speaking in HypertextChinese ArtistsControversy!

Career Path #1Career Path #1

Other ProfessionTechnical WriterSr. Technical Writer Documentation Manager (maybe)

Career Path #2Career Path #2

Other ProfessionTechnical WriterSr. Technical Writer / Doc. ManagerContractor Technical WriterTechnical Writing Business Owner

Career Path #3Career Path #3

Other ProfessionTechnical WriterOther Profession (This time in a related field.)

Related FieldsRelated Fields

New field is related to technical writingUses the same core competencies You take a specific task of technical writing and specialize in itIdentified not as a “tech writer”but as a “_________”

Core CompetenciesCore Competencies

Written Communication SkillsInterview Skills Project Planning and Project ManagementCritical Thinking Skills Conflict Resolution User AdvocacyQuality Control

MarketingProduct ManagementProject Management Proposal ManagementQuality AssuranceRelease Management TrainingUsability User Interface Design Website Development Other

Accessibility Business/Software AnalysisChange ManagementCoding/Programming Compliance Content ManagementCorporate Communication Documentation Management Graphic Design/IllustrationID/Courseware DevelopmentLocalization / Internationalization

Related FieldsRelated Fields

Corporate ValueCorporate Value

My premise: Related fields are more valued by management…and thus receive better compensation.Why? Because they are perceived to add value, reduce costs or generate revenue.

Corporate ValueCorporate Value

Or: Because they are perceived to add more value, reduce more costs or generate more revenue then technical writers do.Exceptions: Illustrators and QA/Testers

The SurveyThe Survey

I created a web-based survey that asked about transitioning from technical writing into related fieldsPresented a predefined list, but also prompted for other answersAlso asked about compensationIncluded TWs who haven’t transitioned to get a compensation baseline

The SurveyThe Survey

351 self-selecting responsesCompensation answers were given in both hourly rates and annual salaries, so we annualized the hourly rate by multiplying the by 2,080 hours.Note that this affects the true average annual compensation since not all contractors bill 2,080 hours a year…

The SurveyThe Survey

…and some fields are more consulting oriented than others.But since we did the same annualizationacross all answers, the survey should present relative differences between technical writing and other fields. (Remember that this is an informal survey with a limited self-selecting audience.)

Other DisclaimersOther Disclaimers

I reassigned some “other” responses that were very close (or actually on) the predefined list to make tabulation easier.We limited respondents to choose only one field for the same reason.I did not include fields with fewer than three votes or answers that didn’t make sense (such as one person who gave a salary but whose field was “Unemployed.”)When given a range of compensation, we used the average. (Foreign currencies were converted.)

Yes, 79%

No, 21%

Have You Transitioned from TW?Have You Transitioned from TW?

Into What Alternate Career FieldInto What Alternate Career Field

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Acces

sibility

Busines

s/Soft

ware Ana

lysis

Change

Man

agem

ent

ing/P

rogram

ming (XML, J

ava, J

avaS

cript,

Perl, C++, e

tc.)

Complianc

e

Content

Manag

emen

t

Corporat

e Com

munica

tion

Documen

tation M

anag

emen

t

Graphic

Design

/Illus

tratio

n

Instru

ction

al Des

ign/C

oursew

are Dev

elopm

ent

Loca

lizati

on / In

terna

tiona

lizati

on Mark

eting

Produc

t Mana

gement

Projec

t Man

agemen

t (non-d

ocumen

tation)

Propos

al Man

agemen

t

Quality

Assura

nce

Release

Man

agem

ent TrainingUsa

bility

User In

terfac

e Des

ign

Website

Dev

elopm

ent

Patent Claims WritingProcess EngineeringProgram ManagementProposal ManagementPublishingReal EstateRegulatory AffairsSystems EngineeringTW recruitmentUser Experience ManagementXML validation

Association ManagementCreative WritingCustomer Support (Help Desk)Database Creation and DesignEditingHuman Resources/RecruitingInformation ArchitectInnovation managementKnowledge ManagementLawyerParts Sales/Service Manager

Other:Other:

Business Owner9%

Contractor/Consultant 31%

Staff Employee59%

Staff Employee and Consultant

1%

Type of EmploymentType of Employment

How Long in New Career FieldHow Long in New Career Field

0 to 3 years31%

3 to 6 years18%6 to 9 years

16%

More than 9 years35%

Average Compensation by FieldAverage Compensation by Field

$-

$20,000.00

$40,000.00

$60,000.00

$80,000.00

$100,000.00

$120,000.00

$140,000.00

$160,000.00

Acces

sibility

Busines

s/Soft

ware A

nalys

is

Chang

e Man

agem

ent

Program

ming (X

ML, Ja

va, J

avaScri

pt, P

erl, C

++, etc

.)Com

plian

ce

Conten

t Man

agem

ent

Corpora

te Com

munica

tion

Docum

entat

ion M

anag

emen

t

Graphic

Des

ign/Ill

ustra

tion

Instru

ction

al Desig

n/Cou

rseware

Dev

elopmen

t

Loca

lizatio

n / In

ternati

onaliza

tion

Marketi

ng

Produc

t Man

agemen

t

Projec

t Man

agem

ent (n

on-doc

umen

tation)

Propos

al Man

agem

ent

Quality

Ass

uranc

e

Releas

e Man

agem

ent

Technic

al W

riting

Training

Usabil

ity

User In

terface

Des

ign

Website

Dev

elopment

AvgAvg Salary by Employment TypeSalary by Employment Type

$-

$20,000.00

$40,000.00

$60,000.00

$80,000.00

$100,000.00

$120,000.00

$140,000.00

$160,000.00

Business Owner Contractor/Consultant Staff Employee Staff Employee and Consultant

ObservationsObservations

The survey disproved my premise that professionals in related fields are more highly compensated than technical writers. The relative compensations followed a bell curve:– 11 fields were higher– 2 were the same– 9 were lower

The people who reported the highest compensations were business owners.

www.ProspringStaffing.com

www.LavaCon.org