School's Never Out

Formal Education

While there are a lot of qualitative benefits we expect to get through our education, a good job with decent compensation is often what gets the most discussion. In general, we expect that more education will result in higher salaries and the WinWriters Salary Survey supports that supposition. Completing post-graduate work results in the highest average annual salary of $61,000 followed by completion of a Certificate Program at $59,000.

However, the differences due to education are small compared to other influences found in this salary survey. Individuals with a four-year degree coupled with heavy management responsibilities averaged $69,000. Those having a high school diploma coupled with 3-5 years of Web experience averaged $60,000.

Training

The survey also asked where respondents learned the majority of their core Help skills? The majority, 55%, learned on the job. Just 7% said they learned core skills from seminars and conferences, but these respondents enjoyed the highest average annual salary of $60,000. Only 2% indicated they learned core skills through their formal education and these folks were rewarded the least with a salary of $53,000.

Forty percent of the respondents answered "Yes" to the question of whether they had a degree or certificate directly related to technical communication. So a good number of us have pursued formal education to advance our careers. But only fifteen individuals in that group indicated that they learned core skills through their formal education. In professions like engineering, law, and journalism, core skills is the raison d'être for the programs. It is questionable whether the many formal technical communication programs are doing their job.