This is the information age, exploding at rates so quickly that technical writers can barely keep up with the documentation requirements of the software and hardware industry. In 1995, the Society of Technical Communicators (STC) had over 20,000 members in the United States and Canada, which probably doesn’t account for half of all technical writers. The average salary for a technical writer with eight years experience and a four-year degree is currently $42,469 a year, according to the STC 1995 Technical Communicator Salary Survey.

At this time, many technical writers are faced with a decision about their career: whether to continue, or embark, on a career as a permanent employee with a well established company; or to launch off on their own into the growing sea of independent contract technical writers. The opportunities for both choices are currently abundant.

For some, it is a simple obvious choice; for others it is not. Ultimately, the choice depends on the personality type of the individual. The good news is that you don’t have to make the choice and live with it for the rest of your life. Most contract writers have spent some time as permanent technical writers and vice versa. There is no law that says you can’t do both in your career.

It is the changing workplace of the last twenty years that has largely forged this road in contracting opportunities. It is no secret to anyone that corporations no longer feel obligated to provide a "family" of employees with a lifetime of employment security. In fact, the downsizing and restructuring trends being followed by corporations in an effort to cut costs and respond to manufacturing automation have created a sense of growing insecurity and low morale among permanent employees.

I have been through corporate restructuring at every company I have contracted for in the last five years, oddly emerging unscathed while permanent employees were axed all around me. This illustrates the fact that: 1) contractors are cheaper to keep than permanent employees despite the fact that they earn a higher salary, and 2) companies are retaining employees who are the most valuable to the current short-term development. A permanent employee who has been on board for ten years working on the same project may not be as valuable to a company as a contractor who has a wide variety of experience and knowledge of the latest in software/hardware development. (Not surprisingly, permanent technical writers forced out of work by reorganization sometimes go on to more lucrative careers as contractors.)

According to Michael K. Gilfillan, author of Atlanta’s Project Based Computer Jobs:

Contractors also serve as "buffers" in a time of downsizing. One human resource manager I spoke to said that contractors were valuable buffers in the hiring and firing involved in downsizing. Her company would cut long term contractors instead of permanent employees. This gave the permanent employees a feeling of security and caused little hard feelings among contractors who did not expect to remain with the company. This particular company used contractors for over 20% of their total workforce. This shows how contracting will remain a viable alternative to corporations as long as downsizing/restructuring is occurring.

In a recent survey by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), several large corporations made the following statements about restructuring in their future:

William J. Bettyas, M.S., made this comment about this survey:

One of the greatest drawbacks about being a contractor is the very real risk of not finding employment. In this way, being a contractor is no better than being a permanent employee in these trying times.

Or is it?

First of all, permanent employment is no more secure today than contracting, perhaps less so. With the current trend toward company downsizing and restructuring, sometimes the first to go are the permanent technical writers. Employers are realizing the savings of contractors vs. permanent workers.

On the other hand, when the downsizing starts, sometimes it is the contractors who go first. But, they are also the first to get a new job, being used to change and having many contacts who can refer them to new employment. Someone who has been in the same writing position for 12 years and is suddenly laid off is faced with the psychological trauma of having to make a major change, not to mention the devastating ego blow. They may also have little idea about other opportunities in their field, having been isolated for so long.

Bettyas says that our economy has moved from a "Mass Production Era" into a "Knowledge/Service Based Economy" since the 1980s. Production now revolves around efficient organizations, technological advances in manufacturing, and organization development much of which has been learned from foreign countries in global competition. One of the ways that companies conform to this knowledge/service based economy is by hiring more temporary employees who don’t require benefits and are used only for the life of a specific project. In this way, contractors perform a service to companies, and contracting, also known as consulting, is now considered a "service industry."

Author Michael K. Gilfillan believes that, "...computer related jobs are one of the few white collar professions which easily lend themselves to short-term employment and hourly pay structures." He adds:

The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics says that "service-producing industries will continue to account for virtually all job growth" in their report on employment projections for 1992-2005. They also say that the computer profession as a whole will nearly double to account for more than two million jobs by the year 2005. (4)

Career Horizons, Inc., a national provider of temporary staffing made these findings in a 1995 Salary and Employment Survey of 500 companies in the United States:

"Temporary staffing continues to be an important business strategy. 28% of the respondents reported that their actual expenditures for temporary staffing in 1993 ranged from $25,000 to over $150,000. As far as 1994 budgets, 35% reported actually having a predetermined budget and of those, a full 30% have budgets ranging from $25,000 to over $150,000. A full 23% of the respondents reported planning an increase in their budget for temporary staffing for 1995 by 16%." (5)

The following tables show a brief list of the relative pros and cons of contracting and permanent employment.

The STC’s 1995 Technical Communicator Salary Survey reported that a permanently employed technical editor with a doctorate degree makes an average of $48,000 a year. Contractors make from $25-50 per hour which equals an average of $37.50 per hour, or $75,000 for 50 weeks of work. (Holidays and necessary personal time off always eat up at least two weeks out of the year.)

According to Mark Linimon of Lonesome Dove Computing Services, "An oft-quoted rule of thumb is that contractors should make about twice the amount one would expect as a full-time employee, just to break even. Factors such as the self-employment tax, paying for one’s own medical expenses, equipment, sick time, vacations, and time between jobs consume the difference." (6)

Contracting Agencies. A contract broker or agent is someone who finds the job for you and then gets a percentage of what you make. You actually work for the agency and the company you write for pays the agency. The agency then pays you. This has lots of advantages for a technical writer, although it may sound a little shifty. Some agencies are even beginning to offer small benefits as the competition in this service industry increases, such as direct deposit for paychecks and paid vacation time after a contractor has worked a certain amount of hours.

A contracting agency also handles all the sticky aspects of paying your taxes so that you don’t have to deal with the issues of self-employment. When your work through a broker, you’re not self-employed; you are technically an employee of your contracting agency. You receive a standard W-2 tax form at the end of the year to file with the IRS, just as you would at a permanent job.

Most agencies charge up to 50% of your salary for your services. So if you are a contractor making $25 an hour, your broker is charging the client $37.50 an hour for your services. Your alternative is to be self-employed, pocket the $37.50 an hour (or more) for yourself, and pay approximately 48% of that amount to the IRS in self-employment tax each quarter. It works out to be about the same, although each individual’s case is different, of course. I find it easier to go through a broker, because I then alleviate the need for a financial accountant (who also costs a lot of money!). Again each person’s needs differ and some people will need to hire a financial accountant regardless of the tack they take.

NOTE: Increasingly, major companies will only hire contractors through agencies because of the stiff IRS penalties should you fail to make your required self-employment tax payments.

There are a growing number of contracting agencies emerging to meet this need. One STC member maintains a list of contracting agencies in the Atlanta area alone which currently lists over 85 agencies. Any of these agencies would be more than happy to help you find a job.

There is little competition among contractor writers, I have found. The fact is that there is more than enough work for everyone, and we belong to a sort of informal fraternity that works together to help everyone stay employed. I know one local contractor who holds an open pot-luck dinner every Saturday at her house for contract technical writers to gather and network. Needless to say, she is consistently employed and frequently in demand.

NOTE: Many contracting jobs will ultimately lead to a permanent offer and this is generally stipulated up front. Sometimes employers like to hire on a contracting basis to give you a sort of "trial run" before they make you a permanent offer. This can be to your advantage and the employer’s. If you get a contracting position and decide you don’t like the company, you can always turn down the permanent offer. On the other hand, if you decide you don’t like being a contractor, you can jump on the opportunity to be permanently employed again.

As a permanent employee, you may be paid lower wages than you would as a contractor, but you will undoubtedly have better benefits. For example, as a permanent employee, you generally receive:

These benefits can add up to a sizable chunk of money, usually around 10 - 20% of your salary.

But it is precisely these benefits that make companies hire contractors rather than permanent employees. As a contractor, I rarely take vacation time, go to work even when I’m sick, and loath holidays. Holiday time equals lost wages for me. As a healthy single person, the health insurance isn’t much of a loss for me, but for a person with a sick child, the health insurance benefits of permanent employment are priceless.

I find that I can purchase my own health, dental, life and disability insurance; participate in a 401k plan; and take time off whenever I need to, and still make more money as a contractor than I would as a permanent employee.

If you’re employed by a small software firm, no matter how successful the company, you could be stuck writing about the same thing for the next 20 years. Frankly, I don’t have the patience to do that. I find that I can only write about the same piece of software for a maximum of three years. After that I’m too saturated with knowledge to be objective enough to write to the lowest common denominator—the new user. I believe that this saturation point applies to all technical writers and ultimately leads to poor documentation.

• If married, will you be covered under your spouse’s company health insurance?
• Have you or any of your dependents had any major illnesses in the last 2 years?
• Have you spent over $5,000 on health care in the last year?
• Do you have a history of, or ever been treated for, alcoholism, chemical dependency, or mental illness/disorder?
• Are you currently ill with a major illness?

2. Taxes: How will you handle your taxes? Through a broker or 1099? Do you have enough deductibles? Do you own a home? If you are going to be working out of your home, are you going to deduct part of your home mortgage? Do you have a tax accountant that you trust or will you file your own taxes?
   
   "Of particular interest to contract employees who want to work on a 1099 is form SS8, which lists the factors that the IRS uses to distinguish an ‘independent contractor’ from an employee. Publication 937 also contains useful information on this topic, though it is aimed at the employer rather than the employee." (7)
3. Financial responsibility: What is your financial responsibility? Are you heavily in debt? Do you have child support or alimony payments that stretch your resources? Can you take some down time in employment?
4. Do you have a nest egg that could support you for up to three months if you couldn’t get work? Do you have other sources of income (spouse, inheritance, savings, stocks, etc.)
5. Can you handle job and economic insecurity? Can you accept the fact that you may not work at one place for very long?
6. Are you self-motivated? Do you need supervision and guidance? If left to your own devices, do you surf the net or play Solitaire? All technical writers are expected to be a self-starter on some level, but for the contractor this is an especially important attribute. You’re expected to come in and do your job quickly, efficiently, and quietly without being too much trouble or making too many waves. That’s why you’re valuable. A permanent employee may get away with whining about wanting an office away from the noise and path of traffic, but not a contractor.
7. Are you flexible? Do you adapt quickly to change? The American Mental Health Association lists "changing jobs" as the third highest stressor we encounter as adults (death and divorce being number one and two). However, as a contractor who changes jobs once and sometimes twice a year, I find that I have learned to take the change in stride and even enjoy the changes. When you get a new job:

• your commute will change completely
• your co-workers (and sometimes friends) will change completely
• your work schedule may change completely
• your tools (software and hardware) for accomplishing your job will change completely
• your work environment will change completely
• your software or hardware subject will change completely
• your style and editing requirements will change completely (this is sometimes the hardest change)
  

8. How marketable are you? Do you have good examples to prove your work? Are you knowledgeable in current word processing systems? Do you have good references you can rely on to vouch for you? How much work experience do you have? Do you have any special talents that would improve your potential as a contractor (photography, Master’s degree, etc.)
9. Do you learn quickly, or does it cause you anxiety to encounter new software and procedures?
10. Do you make friends easily, are you pleasant to work with? Or does fear and shyness overwhelm you and inhibit your work?

A Personal Survey Response

What does it take to be a contract technical writer? For a survey response to this question from a few of my peers, and to insure that this paper was not produced entirely according to my bias, I conducted an informal survey of eight contract writers who are currently working at the same location where I am working.

The questions on my informal E-mail survey were:

1. How long have you been a contract writer?
2. How many contracting jobs have you had in that time?
3. What made you decide to become a contract writer?
4. Would you continue to be a contractor even if you were offered a permanent position on an assignment?
5. Name five personality traits that you think one needs to become a contract writer.

Reasons given for becoming a contractor ranged from being laid off from a permanent position to:

• "needed more flexibility"
• "wanted to try out several companies until I found one I could settle down with"
• "wanted more variety and less boredom in what is essentially a boring career"