The Career

Question: May I get your perspective on the annual rates that two companies have floated as trial balloons? One requisition is funded at $85k per annum, or equivalent to the amount that I earned in 2005 as a contractor at Nokia. Does $85k per annum seem high, low, or in the middle to you? A start-up is offering me $88k per annum, plus benefits and stock options. As I reflect on what to do, I know that the economy is in a severe contraction and that many people are being laid off from their jobs. This naturally causes companies to offer lower salaries. However, I also know that the 2008 Salary Survey for User Assistance Professionals reported that the top 25% of online help authors earned between $85k and $190k per annum last year. The $68 per hour that I currently earn gives me an income of $130, 560. for 48 weeks of work per annum. That places me right in the middle of the salary range for online help authors, which as I mentioned ranges from $85k to $190k.

Answer:I think you should stay in your present contract, and not take a job where you accept a salary that is roughly 68% of your existing salary.

If you have to change jobs, go with the:
Biggest, most stable company
The one that has the most successful product (biggest installed base)
The one where you learn Java or other APIs, or gain expertise in something very saleable, like databases, SQL, PKI, or some hot new security protocol

I think the economy will remain rocky, shaky, frail, and deflationary for the next two years. All of our banks will continue to lose $100s of billions of dollars on stupid mortgage and HELOC loans they made, which people now walk away from and do not pay back. The biggest tsunami of these bad-debt, loser loans happens in 2009, then a whole ton more in 2010 (resets). In 2010, we will have 4.3M empty houses people have abandoned in America. Many more banks will fail: banks like Citigroup. Eventually our government will run out of money to keep giving them.

So go with 1., 2., and 3., above.

Question:
What do you mean by 'Technical Writer?' What do technical writers do, exactly?

Answer: The kind of technical writers our Webster TechWriters Agency finds for our client companies have worked in technical publications departments at high tech, software and hardware companies.

They have written online and Web-based Help, databooks for chips, API guides with Java code samples, white papers, installation and operations manuals.