Cherryleaf/HyperWrite Survey Results

During March and April 2003, Cherryleaf, in conjunction with HyperWrite, carried out a survey into the current trends in technical communication. Thank you if you participated. We have been analysing the findings, and here is a summary of the results.

Professional Body Membership

80% of respondents belonged to a technical communicators professional body.

Areas for Skills Improvement

In this question, respondents identified which areas they wanted to improve their skills in, ranking by low desire to high desire.

Size of Teams

Respondents were asked to indicate how many technical communicators they worked with, categorised by employment type (permanent and contract).

Salary

As respondents came from many countries with varying currencies and buying power, we have attempted to compile the European results into a British Pound (GBP) equivalent. (Salary figures were supplied in either Euros or British Pounds.) The average salary for European respondents was GBP33,560, and the range extended from GBP15,200 to GBP70,000. The graph below shows the distribution of European salary figures.

Respondents outside Europe were asked to quote their salary in Australian Dollars or US Dollars. The quoted figures were standardised into Australian Dollars, although this method is not entirely reliable due to the different buying power of currencies. Nevertheless, the figures showed that outside Europe, the average salary was AUD83,794, with a range from AUD45,000 to AUD140,000. If only raw AUD figures were used, the average salary became AUD69,000, with a range from AUD45,000 to AUD100,000. The graph below shows the distribution of non-European respondents.