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Subject:Re: A Preponderance of Females (long) From:Kathryn Leventhal-Arnold <kleve -at- HILCO -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 11 Apr 1996 13:36:19 -0500
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From: Sarah Lee Bihlmayer[SMTP:tecscrib -at- SIRIUS -dot- COM]
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 1996 1:04 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: A Preponderance of Females
Matt Danda writes:
>I heard someone say (not me, someone else) that wages for technical =
writers
>have been declining as a result of more women in the profession.
Sarah Lee Bilmayer writes:
I've not found that to be true in my own experience...however, it does =
seem
that wages are declining. I can't help but notice that the high demand =
for
writers has affected personnel requirements for so-called "senior" and
"managerial" positions--the qualifications sought seem to be decreasing
steadily. I suspect that demand has created a situation where there are =
an
<snip> Comments?
Move to the midwest. Salaries here are just now starting to come =
anywhere
close to TW salaries on the coasts. The qualifications for writers keep=20
getting higher. Unfortunately, we seem to have a dearth of qualified
tech. writers. Salaries here seem to be rising as the demand for =
qualified
writers increases.=20
The company I work for has been looking for a technical writer with
more than 2 years of experience and knowledge of UNIX, Windows/NT/95, =
manufacturing (if possible), and online help development. After about 3 =
months of=20
searching we hired someone with just 2 years experience with Windows/NT
and online help experience. He left 3 months later for a job that paid =
more
and offered him an opportunity to do training. It has now been 2.5
months since he left. And, oh by the way, it usually takes someone
about 6 months to a year to get up to speed on our products and
business. We've gotten about 9 resumes in since then and (according to
HR, I don't see them when they get here) all but one had almost no=20
experience as technical writers. And the one decided she wasn't =
interested
before we even got to interview her.
We're also getting ready to release some new products comprised of
about 5 + modules (each almost equivelent to a product), enhance
5 smaller products and one large product. Plus, we want to move to
an online environment. We're slowly moving from solely UNIX-based
software to Windows/NT/95 based sofware.=20
Oh yeah. And I'm the sole technical writer for standard product.
I have no idea of what Hilco will pay a new hire, but I should darn well
hope it's a good chunk better than what I got when they hired
me 3 years ago. As a matter of fact, I'm sure it is!
The company has now hired a recruiter to try to find someone.
I hope it helps.
Salaries and qualifications going down? No.=20
Availability of qualified Technical Writers going down? YES.
Sorry, had to vent a little.
Kathryn Leventhal-Arnold
Documentation Manager
Hilco Technologies, Inc.
St. Louis, Missouri=20
kleve -at- hilco -dot- com=20
