Make $67,520 a Year in Technical Writing

I did not make up the annual income figure in theIn cities and regions with vibrant economies like Seattle,
headline.Boston, Northern Virginia, Research Triangle in NC, Los
That is the mean annual salary earned by technicalAngeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, Houston,
communicators across the United States in 2005Austin, Dallas, New York, and Chicago there are
according to the "2005 Technical Communicatoralways good jobs for technical writers. Just check any
Salary Survey" conducted by Society for Technicalemployment listing for these cities or at where you live
Communication of which I'm a proud Senior Member.and the chances are you'll be convinced.
The lowest paid entry-level tech writers made $40,730And you really do not need to be a creative genius to
and those writers in the supervisory senior-levelsbecome a technical writer either.
made as much as $111,100 in 2005.Forget about plot, dialog, character, original concept, etc.
Not bad considering the image of a "starving artist"Actually someone quipped "if it ain't boring then it ain't
that the word "writer" conjures up in populartech writing." The truth is, technical writing is not about
imagination -- and sometimes with good reason asflowery descriptions, emotional rhetoric and linguistic
well.pyrotechnics at all.
Just because you like writing does not mean you needIf you like explaining hard-to-understand processes and
to live a life of want and destitute.concepts in a plain language and with a consistent
If you are sick and tired of not making the ends meetvocabulary, if you like simplifying complex processes
as a writer you owe it to yourself to check outand make them easily accessible, then you'll enjoy
technical writing.technical writing while saying goodbye to your financial
Not only the average tech writer made over $67K lastworries.
year but those working within a corporate environmentIt's the kind of writing job that you can retire from with
enjoyed a rich benefits package as well.a secure nest egg, at an age when some of your
Just like the engineers and the managers they workwriter friends who insisted on trying their luck with
with, most tech writers enjoy medical insurance forpoems or screenplays might still be waiting tables.
themselves and their families, paid leaves andThere are two "downsides" (if one can call them that)
vacations, 401K and sometimes even retirement plans,that I can think of to tech writing:
dental and vision coverage, reimbursement of1) You'll never get any bylines. So if you are counting
college-credit classes, etc.on making your name a household item or win an
Keep in mind that the demand for technical writers isOscar, you'll be very frustrated in tech writing. This is
very strong across all industries and geographicnot a job for ego aggrandizement and flashy
regions in the United States and Canada.personality trips.
Here is a short and random list of companies that2) A great majority of technical writing jobs require
regularly look for technical writers:you to be present on the premises due to the need
Software, hardware, networking companies, securityfor constant interaction with the engineers, managers
access equipment manufacturers, medicaland other corporate departments. A tech writer
manufacturers, hospitals, all government agencies,always writes as a part of a team, in close
publishers and advertisement agencies, militaryconsultation with other project members. Thus there
installations and agencies, all Fortune 500 corporations,are almost no "telecommuting" technical writing
all non-profits, Internet and web companies, allassignments that you can perform from your home
international organizations like the United Nations oroffice.
NATO, any company that manufactures anything, allYet in this day and age of global outsourcing, the local
real estate and mortgage companies, financialcharacter of tech writing also translates to relative job
institutions and brokerage houses, etc. etc.security. Many North American companies have seen
Why? Because every business or non-profittheir engineering positions exported overseas due to
organization needs someone to explain to their clientsoutsourcing but not the technical documentation
and consumers in a plain language how to use thepositions. Not yet anyway.
product or service they are providing.Besides knowing how to write well, having a good
We usually think installation guides and user manualscommand over MS Office Suite is usually a sufficient
are a nuisance but think how frustrated we would be ifqualification to confidently apply for an entry-level
the products we bought came without any manuals?technical writing position. You can learn the rest as you
Think about the expensive lawsuits that would be filedgo along.
for lack of user manuals and the consequences thatDepending on where you live and the local economic
might follow.conditions, you'd be surprised at the number of
Or, would you like to buy a software product thatemployers who would be willing to give a novice tech
does not have a help file? Of course not. Technicalwriter with no track record a head start in technical
writers write those help files as well.writing.
That's why, as long as people manufacture things andWriting is not starving. Ask any technical writer and he
offer services, there'll be technical writers explainingor she will probably wonder why the idea even
them to the consumers.occurred to you in the first place.