Source
r/technicalwriting•
MereReplication

Remote Senior Technical Writer: Job Search Results

I always like seeing these Sankey diagrams of job searches, so I thought people here might want to see the results of my recent search for a Senior Technical Writer role. I applied exclusively to remote positions because I've been working remotely since before the pandemic, and it's awesome. I'm sure some number of those No Responses would turn to rejections or maybe even interviews if I waited a couple weeks, but I have the motivation to do this tonight, so here it is.

Requirements: Tech industry and $100k base salary minimum

Timeline: It was about 4 weeks from when I sent my first application to accepting an offer.

Background: I have 6 years total of technical writing experience, with 4 in the tech industry and 2 in an unrelated industry.

https://preview.redd.it/hhqr793wyyy81.png?width=2478&format=png&auto=webp&s=a0f2043e989082138a58d7cd5b493dd5db8f2445

Posted May 12, 2022, 4:27 AM UTC

4113
sharksandwich70•

Congrats on the new role! I had a similar job search:

Currently a Senior Technical Writer, with three years experience as a TW, ten years in IT support.

Searched for two months for $95000.

Don’t know how many I applied for, probably over 300.

Probably around 50-70 phone screens.

Probably around 20 interviews. Around 7-8 second or third interviews.

Turned down one offer, accepted one about three weeks later. The new role will be IT Communications Specialist and Technical Writer. I will continue working 100% remote.

I had a really good interview the same week I accepted the offer I got. The recruiter told me they really liked me but thought I was overqualified. Never had that happen before.

9
Albarra-XVI•

Congrats! I'm just wonder; do you know why most interviews rejected you? Not enough experience or something?

2
sharksandwich70•

Thanks!

Some just didn’t contact me after the interview(s). A couple told me that I was very qualified but they wanted someone with more experience. I got one email from a vice president I interviewed with. He told me that he feels it’s his responsibility to follow up with candidates and they wanted someone with proposal writing experience. Nice of him to take the time to do that.

Interesting thing about the offer I accepted-I didn’t hear anything from them for over a week and figured they weren’t interested. The recruiter called me about an offer about ten days after the second interview and told me the people I interviewed with usually take a long time to make decisions. By the time the recruiter called me, I had gotten rid of all my notes about and emails from that company and was ready to move on with my job search.

4
andidntjustserfdaweb•

Thanks for sharing! How do you ensure these job postings meet your 100k base salary requirement prior to applying?

4
MereReplicationOP•

I briefly research every company before applying. Here are a few strategies I use:

  • Check Glassdoor. If there aren't any TW salary reports, I take the average of a few positions that are probably in the same ballpark (business analyst, senior graphic designer, etc.) and get a number.

  • Sometimes, I'll even check postings that the company has for their other open positions. They're hiring a business analyst and want 3 years of experience, and Glassdoor says they're paying their business analysts $95k? That tells me they'll almost certainly pay a Sr. Tech Writer at least $100k.

  • Take the company's location into account. A company from TN quoted me $75k for their Sr. Tech Writer role, but companies out of the Bay Area or CA more generally will regularly pay >$100k.

  • I try to never bring up salary until they bring it up first. The idea is to prove you're a great candidate before talking about money so that they'll offer you more. If the recruiter wants to talk salary right away, I ask for a range. If they're difficult and won't give a range, I simply name $100k as my floor and either get another interview or don't.

  • Check how many years of experience the position requires and what skills they want you to know. More years of experience tends to mean more money. If they want knowledge of coding languages, APIs, or experience with tech writing in something relatively specific (machine learning, info sec, aws, etc.), then that also tends to mean more money.

13
andidntjustserfdaweb•

Thank you for the breakdown!

1
backdoorbants•

50 applications to get a job. The job market is wild right now.

3
-cdz-•

Great post and congrats on the job!

For anyone else on a job search, here's one site that I use to research to see if a job's worth applying to:

https://h1bdata.info/

If a company hires employees on H1B visas, then they have to list the salaries of those employees on that site.

A good rule of thumb that I've observed is that if a company is willing to pay senior devs $200K and up, then they'll likely hire a senior tech writer at ~$120K or above, but YMMV.

If I can't get a good idea of how much a company will pay, I'll apply to the job and once a recruiter contacts me to set up a screening call, I'll just straight up email them back asking what the range is. Most of the time they'll tell you, but if they insist on getting on a call, I typically stop correspondence.

2
monsieurpommefrites•

Do you mind parsing a sample application with us?

1
MereReplicationOP•

I'm not going to post my resume, but I will say that the best resume advice I've received is to focus on accomplishments in your past that set you apart. Don't merely list duties you performed in a previous TW role. Any TW would perform those same duties. List things where you went above and beyond, like instances where you established a new process or took the initiative to create new documentation in some domain.

Also, use numbers wherever possible. How many users took your training? How much money did you save by doing this thing rather than that? How do you measure the impact of your work?

Edit: Sorry, I thought you said resume, not application. What do you mean by parsing an application?

9
jkgatsby•

This is great info, thanks for sharing!

1
Appropriate_East3066•

What are the qualifications for this role?

1
MereReplicationOP•

It's one of the very few tech writing roles I found that specifically required a master's degree in TW or English, which I have. It also wanted 6 years of TW experience, experience using Confluence, experience documenting both hardware and software, and bonus points for video editing experience, all of which I have.

1