How much are we worth? (was Re: Did I overreact?)

["Mike Starr" <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>]

Last year, I checked the salary data on http://www.salary.com/ for a 
senior-level technical writer in both Chicago and Milwaukee. They classify 
technical writers as Technical Writer I through Technical Writer IV with IV 
being the most experienced. Having been a technical writer for 20 years, I 
consider myself as fully qualified to fill a position as a Technical Writer 
IV but in lean times, I'd more than likely be willing to be compensated as a 
Technical Writer III.

Using their numbers for base pay plus benefits, the median total 
compensation for a Technical Writer IV in the Milwaukee area was $103,729 
($75,515 in base pay). Dividing that total compensation number by 2080 
(number of work hours in a normal year) one arrives at an hourly rate for 
total compensation of $49.86. As far as I can tell, their numbers are as 
accurate as salary surveys can make 'em... they say: "This Basic Salary 
Report is based on broad national data, reported exclusively by human 
resource departments of tens of thousands of employers from all sizes, 
industries and locations. Although these numbers are based on national data, 
the results are most similar to the data from companies with approximately 
1,000 employees."

Now that number assumes a full year of work... for a contract where the term 
of employment is limited, there should typically be a premium added to that 
hourly rate... the shorter the contract, the greater the premium should be. 
In addition, the contract agency adds its own markup (a closely guarded 
secret as far as the employee and the client are concerned).

However, that's nowhere near what I'm hearing from recruiters when I field 
their calls. So what do I do? I make my best guess as to the strength of the 
market, taking into consideration the hourly rate I'm hearing from 
recruiters and the number of calls I'm getting, then I set my own personal 
bottom line. Sometimes I can negotiate a tad more than the recruiter's 
initial offer, other times I can't. At that point, I concede to the 
recruiter that I'm probably a tad overqualified for the client, since they 
obviously don't want to pay what someone with my skills and experience is 
worth.

I just ended a great contract assignment where I named my rate to the 
staffing agency I was working through and the client accepted it. I worked 
there for almost three months and they made noises about bringing me in as 
an employee. It was a great fit, the people were nice, the work was 
interesting, pretty much everything I'd want in a staff position so when my 
manager asked me how much I'd be looking for, I named a number (again, 
taking into consideration the valuation placed on my skills and experience 
at salary.com). My manager didn't appear to think the number I quoted was 
out of line, but I told him I thought it was possible that corporate (this 
is a Fortune 50 company) might think it a bit excessive and that one 
strategy that might work to bring me in at that kind of money would be to 
bring me in as Documentation Manager (I was the lone technical writer so I 
was doing all of those chores anyway).

Well, apparently I overpriced myself so drastically by corporate standards 
that they felt there was no point in even negotiating... they cut me loose 
and brought in another technical writer. I was pretty much told that I was 
too expensive.

BTW, I just checked the numbers again on salary.com and they went up 3.5% 
since last year from the numbers I quoted above. If anyone wants a copy of 
the PDF report I created based on last year's data from salary.com, ping me 
and I'll fire it off to you.

So tomorrow, another agency is sending me on an interview with a client not 
too far from home and the entrails seem to be predicting a positive outcome. 
Keep your fingers crossed.

Mike
--
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
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Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax:(262) 697-6334
Email: mike -at- writestarr -dot- com      -      Web: http://www.writestarr.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kapoor, Shelly" <SKapoor -at- imf -dot- org>
Subject: Did I overreact?

A recruiter called me last week to discuss a tech. writer position at a
company.  She waxed eloquent about this "billion-dollar" company, its
values etc.  When we got around to discussing the compensation package,
she quoted a figure of 24 dollars an hour.   Needless to say, I was
quite peeved to learn that this "supposed billion dollar company" was
offering me peanuts in exchange for my services. 

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