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Assistant writer vs senior technical writer

The differences between assistant writers and senior technical writers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an assistant writer and a senior technical writer. Additionally, a senior technical writer has an average salary of $70,820, which is higher than the $58,543 average annual salary of an assistant writer.

The top three skills for an assistant writer include press releases, proofread and repair orders. The most important skills for a senior technical writer are technical documentation, subject matter experts, and API.

Assistant writer vs senior technical writer overview

Assistant WriterSenior Technical Writer
Yearly salary$58,543$70,820
Hourly rate$28.15$34.05
Growth rate6%6%
Number of jobs10,28080,897
Job satisfaction-4
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 78%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Average age4646
Years of experience22

Assistant writer vs senior technical writer salary

Assistant writers and senior technical writers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Assistant WriterSenior Technical Writer
Average salary$58,543$70,820
Salary rangeBetween $34,000 And $99,000Between $54,000 And $92,000
Highest paying City-San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state-California
Best paying company-PayPal
Best paying industry-Technology

Differences between assistant writer and senior technical writer education

There are a few differences between an assistant writer and a senior technical writer in terms of educational background:

Assistant WriterSenior Technical Writer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 78%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Most common majorCommunicationEnglish
Most common collegeNorthwestern UniversityUniversity of Houston

Assistant writer vs senior technical writer demographics

Here are the differences between assistant writers' and senior technical writers' demographics:

Assistant WriterSenior Technical Writer
Average age4646
Gender ratioMale, 37.8% Female, 62.2%Male, 51.8% Female, 48.2%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 6.6% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 8.7% White, 71.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%Black or African American, 6.6% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 8.7% White, 71.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage11%11%

Differences between assistant writer and senior technical writer duties and responsibilities

Assistant writer example responsibilities.

  • Manage a team of RFP writers and work with a cross-functional team to meet RFP requirements and establish deadlines.
  • Coordinate logistics management for signal elements, including securing training sites, movement of personnel, communications, and equipment.
  • Train guides and drivers in content and route management; design custom private tours and events.
  • Develop sophisticated FrameMaker templates in multiple page sizes.

Senior technical writer example responsibilities.

  • Manage and participate in logistics programs, and commercial and DOD technical manual complements.
  • Manage team activities for internal and client documentation development that supports the SDLC methodology.
  • Lead team to deliver the first simultaneous release of the product stack across UNIX platforms.
  • Manage multiple SharePoint sites for active documentation projects and resulting archives to meet customer version control and compliance requirements.
  • Identify and initiate wholesale computer upgrade to accommodate new CMS while allocating and managing staff resources devote to developing the software.
  • Design and develop standalone and context-sensitive help with RoboHelp HTML, enhancing application usability.
  • Show more

Assistant writer vs senior technical writer skills

Common assistant writer skills
  • Press Releases, 40%
  • Proofread, 27%
  • Repair Orders, 12%
  • Blog Posts, 10%
  • News Articles, 10%
Common senior technical writer skills
  • Technical Documentation, 7%
  • Subject Matter Experts, 6%
  • API, 4%
  • Java, 4%
  • PowerPoint, 4%
  • XML, 4%

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