Silicon Valley market for tech writers

["Elna Tymes" <etymes -at- lts -dot- com>]

A note about what passes for reality in the Silicon Valley job market.

Through my company I sometimes work as a consultant in technical writing.  I'm
in such a mode right now.  I finished a contract last Wednesday, about noon,
and after lunch made a few phone calls, sent email to a couple of friends, and
browsed Monster.com and DICE.com.  Granted, I'm a very senior writer, but I was
unprepared for the response:

- by Wednesday evening I had a hard offer;
- by Thursday I had another hard offer;
- by Friday I had two more offers.  All the offers were very high rates, all
were interesting projects with good people and good companies.  And three of my
other contacts were very frustrated that their clients hadn't been able to move
very fast.

I started the new assignment this morning.

Moral to the story: the Silicon Valley job market for technical writers with
experience is the hottest I've ever seen, and I've been here for over 30
years.  Because experienced writers are in so much demand, there's also a
market for junior writers who can demonstrate anything that looks like
experience.  AND companies are likely to be more than usually willing to take a
chance on entry-level writers, provided the candidates have something that
shows they know how to write and know some of the tools.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems