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Subject:Re: Free Lance Rates in Chicago From:Elna Tymes <etymes -at- lts -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 07 Aug 2001 11:19:41 -0700
jarnopol -at- Interaccess -dot- com wrote:
> George Hook is wondering why he's getting the silent treatment on the phone
> when he quotes his rate at $85 an hour in Chicago.
>
> Because George, only consulting companies, like Spherion, Anderson - or
> whatever it's called these days, and KPMG can get away with charging that
> rate for writers. And one of the reasons they can is that they guarantee
> the work of their consultants.
> ...
> Unless you're in a highly specialized area and in great demand I think that
> $85 an hour is a pipe dream.
It's the market, folks! And usually "the market" is local. In Silicon Valley,
it was easy for us to get well over $100/hour last year. This year, things are
different.
What seems to make the difference is the boatload of tools and experience you
bring to the interview (and the job), your credibility in terms of delivering
on time and on budget, and your ability to get the client to understand the
process in terms that are meaningful for them. We wind up talking about the
seven steps of the documentation process with clients almost every single time
- some have no clue why minimizing the number of reviews is important; some
really don't understand why it takes so long to produce a first draft; some
honestly never thought about what happens to the docs when, for instance,
development and marketing folks disagree as to how the product works or what it
does.
However the overridingly most important factor is how many really qualified,
senior people are on the market at the time the group needs help. The fewer
there are, the more the company is willing to pay for senior help. Conversely,
such as now, the more there are, the lower the rate.
The lesson that another poster's former client learned about using cheap labor
is one of those things that many companies seem to have to learn by experience,
at one time or another. However the "do it cheap" mentality seems to stick to
the edges of the remaining management - even when it's been demonstrated that
"do it cheap" doesn't pay, it's almost impossible to get high rates to fix the
resulting mess.
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