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- #TECHNICAL WRITER SALARY HOW TO#
- #TECHNICAL WRITER SALARY SOFTWARE#
- #TECHNICAL WRITER SALARY PROFESSIONAL#
#TECHNICAL WRITER SALARY HOW TO#
You have to know how to create styles, use tracked changes, create a template, use hyperlinks, change the document layout, and many advanced Word features. Advanced Microsoft Word skills are a must. You’ll need to know how to use desktop publishing software. You need excellent grammar, punctuation, and editing skills. You must be able to write in a very organized, coherent manner. The most important thing you need is strong writing skills. You need a combination of soft and technical skills to become a successful technical writer. I’m currently making about $120,000 a year at an IT consulting company that - ironically - supports the California prison system, where I was once incarcerated.Įxperienced technical writers who land jobs at huge, well-known technology companies can sometimes earn between $100,000 and $140,000 a year. I generally make between $52 and $65 per hour, mostly because I have 20 years of experience and live in California. Entry-level technical writers can easily earn between $15 and $28 per hour during their first or second year. The average 2020 salary in Florida was $62,640 and in Logan, Utah, it was $59,010.Ĭontract technical writers, like me, tend to make more per hour because companies usually don’t give us health benefits, vacation pay, 401(k), or other perks that full-time, permanent employees get. The average annual 2020 salary in California was $95,170 because California has a ton of technology companies and the cost of living is so high.
#TECHNICAL WRITER SALARY SOFTWARE#
Writers who specialize in software development documentation and medical writing are among the top-paid technical writers. Technology is one of the highest-paying areas of technical writing. Salaries vary a lot, depending on the job location, area of technical writing, and years of experience you have. How much does it pay?Īccording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median 2020 pay for technical writers in the US was $74,650 a year. Examples of end-user documentation are cooking recipes, the user guide you got with your new smartphone, or that Medium article that showed you how to publish an article to a publication.Įxamples of engineering-related documents include guides that show technical people how to design and create software, drugs, cars, aircraft, electronic devices, and appliances. Most technical writing involves 2 primary areas: end-user documentation or highly technical documentation for engineers, software developers, and other more technical people. It’s also used to create user guides, standard operating procedures, knowledge bases, training material, and other documents that show people how to do new things. Technical writing is used to communicate information in the form of reports, business plans, white papers, technical specifications, policies, and many other documents. Technical writers work in almost every area of business and technology. Technical writing is the creation of documents that communicate information or show people how to do new things. In this article, I’m going to give you some details about technical writing that will help you decide if it’s a good career choice for you.
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I sometimes had to deal with pushy project managers and office politics, but it was a lot better than dealing with angry cellmates and prison politics. This was almost as much as I was making during many of my drug-dealing years, and it was legal! After taxes, I sadly made significantly less than $80,000, but I was doing something I enjoyed. I landed my first technical writing contract in 2002 and by early-2005, I was making $80,000 a year.
#TECHNICAL WRITER SALARY PROFESSIONAL#
I later got my BA in Technical and Professional Writing. It was very strenuous and paid $8 an hour.Īfter several people told me I needed to get a good education to find better jobs, I looked thru a local university course catalog and stumbled on technical writing. My first job was loading beer into diesel trucks. I faced a lot of discrimination because of my criminal record and had a hard time finding decent jobs.
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