Hi,

Just done a search for this, but couldn't find any hits for my specific question. I've looked at 3 salary generators and none of them list technical writer, or anything comparable, so I'd appreciate it if anyone could give me some guidelines. I've been offered a job as a Technical Writer in Basel in the life sciences area, a 60% position, but the salary seems very low, i.e less than I earnt in the UK although this was previously only a part of my job. Does anyone know of a salary generator where this job title is included or of the sort of range that goes along with this job.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Janey

This is a very specialised position and i don't think one would locate it on a salary calculator in chf.

If the job is 60% and at a Uni, don't expect it to be high. If at one of the big Pharma's in Basel then maybe you may negotiate a little. However, taxes in switzerland are much lower than the UK so factor that in as well.

Interesting question and I have no idea of the answer but would like to know how much the writer gets paid compared with the practitioner. Many engineers or scientist write their own technical reports and papers, so I would think that unless it is simply formatting and writing up, the rate should be pretty good if it requires domain knowledge...

dave

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. It's not one of the big Pharmas, but for someone who sells specialized integrated software to the big Pharmas. Part of me is pleased to have, at last, found part-time work in Basel that isn't freelance, but at the same time I don't want to start off underpaid. Medical writers I know tend to earn quite a lot, but I've no idea how this compares to technical writing which also required domain knowledge, but doesn't have the big bucks of the Pharma industry behind it.

I think I'm also a little unsure how much negotiating goes on in small companies vs larger companies, hence the question about a salary range...

Janey

Hi Janey,

I'm in exactly the same field and have been advised that for a contractor about 75 CHF per hour is normal for someone with masters quals and about 3 yrs in technical and 6 years in academic writing.

When asked at an interview in Basel at Genedata, I cheekily suggested 85k for a 100% position and they didn't blink . They haven't gotten back to me yet either though... (why don't you try them too? www.genedata.ch has an open position page. I probably wouldn't take a job there anyways as it's so far - 3 hours commute each day ) Go for it and best of luck to you!

Hiya,

That's useful to know that that's the going rate I have 6 years experience writing in a spin-off company, mixture of scientific and technical writing. Is 75CHs/hour the consultancy rate, i.e what gross salary would you expect with your experience? Will have a look at gendata too thanks for the tip!

Thanks and good luck with your job search,

Janey

A technical writer in my field (engineering) would command somewhere in excess of 6200*13 for 100% although there is a strong dependancy on the technical expertise in the area in question. If you're truly an expert and self-sufficient then you could easily look for 7000

A pleasure

75CHF is the get down and get your hands dirty hourly rate, as I have been advised. That is collaborating with engineers and the like, and producing docs in HTML, XML and some with adobe framemaker etc as well, depending on how much $ the Co. wants to spend on their doc dept). That comes out to about 145k CHF per year based on a 40 hour week, and that's once you calculate in the 20 days holiday etc too. On such a freelance rate though that doesn't afford you paid sick days. Would suit me fine.... just hope I get the job! As for my expactations for a gross salary, I based it on the fact that my man with 6 months experience got an IT job at 82k and then got a raise to 100k after 3 months. With that, taking in to account that I'm female (salary calculators do seem to indicate that women still get lower pay for the same job) but still have 3 years technical experience plus the academic stuff, 85k would be reasonably modest. And if you're a whizz on HTML/XML and single sourcing you should be able to afford a bit more confidence with your salary request.

But then Tech managers seem to place quite a low importance on documentation and are reluctant to pay too much... Any managers out there who can comment?

Working with single source data seems to be a prerequisite too. Is that the case all over Europe and is it relatively recent?

My experience has been working mostly with bog standard MS Word. Some docs were up to 1000 pages too, so you can imagine the nightmare with that! But because it was a very archaic governmental military defence department, their systems could only handle Word97! ... So am having to teach myself to use these things.

Data conversion, and producing documentation to meet the requirements of some process standard or other is widespread in most technical industry. It is often done after the event. Many years ago I did a contract to write a design document for an in-service product. Our is not to reason why....

Companies like freelancers to do this because:

a) they can get a fixed price for a document that present little risk to the freelancer (its either a good or bad document its a qualitative measure)

b) no permanent staff want to do such boring work, so they would be happy for an outsider to come in and do it and make their nagging boss go away, while providing the appropriate tick-in-the-box to make the QA man go away too...

c) they dont have the overhead of a full time staffer on the project

I hope you get the job. I think because such a job that can be done almost anywhere it has plenty of potential for really flexible working...

dave

Thanks again for the replies. I think I would expect lower than an engineering technical writer as it's a crossover between scientific/technical, as scientists (sigh!) always seem to be lower paid. Thanks for the salary points too since that makes it easier for me to say I'd like the job but what about increasing the salary to ???, since I am experienced with framemaker, HTML and PDF conversions, along with a reasonable XML knowledge. Not to mention engineer collaboration...

Am already doing freelance and don't like the isolation of working at home and never being included in anything. Sad I know since the salary is better but just doesn't fit my personality. Have to bite the bullet with negotiation next week then for the first time.

Keep the replies coming it's really helpful for me.

Janey

We just employed a tech-writer with minimum 3 years job experience here in Lausanne for our company, speaking at least 3 languages. The industry is IT.

For this position the going rate was somewhere between 85k - 95k base salary per annum for 100% job.

Hope this helps.

Thanks stout,

I think I'm going to ask for 90 and be happy if they push me down to 85, but not quite sure what to do if they just say that's our final offer, as part-time job are so hard to find...

Janey

If you are sure you can either accept or reject it on the spot, (final answer ??) or defer it by saying you would like to think about it for a couple of days. Then phone them up saying that you really like the job etc, but you are really looking for that extra 5k, and if it were available you would be happy to say yes. That gives you a second chance to attempt negotiation which for any of a number of reasons may succeed where it didnt the first time...

As an aside employers usually have a band for the job spec, and you need to find out what this is, and ensure you are at the top of it at least...

dave

Oooh just got an interview for next week as a 12mth fixed tech writer contractor working on site... ... Exciting!

A lot of technical writers post bids on www.elance.com (you could too). It may not help with Swiss rates but you could get a feel for the general marketplace.

Hi,

Dave A first-I'm just not sure I'm in a position to reject this as this is the first part-time job, i.e. not freelance that I've seen in 6 months for this type of work in Basel. I do like the idea of asking about the extra 5K as it makes me seem less greedy and maybe via phone is better than via email as I can guage the response. Thanks for the advice!

puddycat -best of luck with that interview, is it closer to home?

undersiege-thanks for the link will take a look at that later.

Have a good weekend,

Janey

Hi Janey,

Thanks for the wishes. Yes the job is closer to home ... cyclable even!

I have just got a phone call from a recruiter in Basel... he was interested in sending my profile to Roche. Basel is still a bit far for me, and I thought of you... I must admit it's another contract position and it's for 5mths but it's 75CHF (or more if you can wangle it) per hour, and if you're really desperate it might be an alternative .

I'll PM his details to you.

Meanwhile have a lovely weekend.

Puddy.

Hi
I've got a similar question for you guys and girls.
I'm a French technical writer working in Paris and looking for a job in Switzerland. I've been offered recently a position in Zug in the financial software industry.
I'm an engineer (French diploma from Engineering school, you may know "grandes écoles") and I have seven years of experience in English tech writing.
The thing is that the company offered 71000CHF per annum for a full-time job. I think it's particularly low.
What do you think?

Thanks for your help.

Hi!

I think this is too low for the job, the location, your experience and the industry.

Here is a gret link from the Swiss federal institute of statistics
http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/e...h_branche.html


... this is based on the real taxation and not on some data collected from volunteers on the web. So it is the real deal... a great flash map... I played around with it for half a day when I first found it and you can find out lots of stuff:
- your salary depends heavily on the region
- women are not treated equally (I guessed so, but not to the extend shown here)
- foreigners are first cheated and after some years their salaries get closer and closer to the locals... very interesting...

Have fun and find out what you really should earn ;-)

Cheers,

Chris

thanks but hard to make one's mind because the gross salary varies a lot depending on the way you calculate it : by branch, activity, education, permit type or age !