RE: Fear of certification (was:Definition of Engineer )(was: What to do?)

Subject: RE: Fear of certification (was:Definition of Engineer )(was: What to do?)
From: eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 15:06:31 -0500




"Giordano, Connie" <Connie -dot- Giordano -at- FMR -dot- COM> wrote on 10/31/2003 02:37:12 PM:

> Certification is done by a
> professional organization to demonstrate competence in a
> particular field of endeavor.

Rubbish. Certification has nothing to do with competence. How many incompetent
developers or network security advisors are there happily running around
showing-off their collection of MS certifications?

> Certification in PR is not a requirement for the vast
> majority of positions
> I see listed, and I received accreditation in 1989, so
> I've seen a lot of postings.

Seems to me that that's proof positive that certification for the sake of
gaining respect or weeding out the incompetent workers is an utter waste of
time. Considering the weight the STC has in the techwriting field is any
certification effort worth it?


> In my experience certification/accreditation is not for
> everyone but it is
> an important concept to many who like competitiveness or
> testing themselves against a standard (no matter how arbitrary).

Hmm. Seems to me that every possible certification or training course a
techwriter should need is already available. Just go out and sign up for
certification tests or training in your particular field. Take mechanic's
certification courses, become a certified HVAC specialist, take automotive
maintenance courses, basic electronics classes, engineering certificate
programs, DBA programs, programming language/scripting classes, web page design,
train the trainer certification, find cross-over/related professional
associations that provide certificates, etc, etc, etc. Even better find
something your employer will recognise. Personally I have a B.Eng. in Mechanical
Engineering and Automotive Design. Not necessarily a deal closer for my current
position, but it helped. Two semesters of my university were however recognized
as 6 months of seniority by my employer's HR department.

> The vast majority of
> recruiters don't look for it communications fields, even
> though there are
> several great accreditation programs available. It is onetactic for
> developing a professional body of knowledge or accepted
> best practices.
> There's where I see TW accreditation as having particular
> long-term value.

Perhaps, but I honestly don't see why people are concerned one way or the other.
If your boss currently doesn't give a rodent's pa-toot whether you're in the STC
or not will they care if you hold some certificate issued by them? By some
smaller techwriting group?

Talking generalities is a waste of time. Come up with specific criteria to teach
and test, THEN we can discuss the merits. But even then it won't necessarily
amount to a hill of beans to the techwriting community at large if accreditation
programs with much larger and more influential organisations in other fields is
anything to go by.

Eric L. Dunn
Senior Technical Writer



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP FOR FRAMEMAKER TRIAL NOW AVAILABLE!

RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



Previous by Author: Re: Engineering & writing
Next by Author: ADMIN: Re: Academic position announcement
Previous by Thread: RE: Fear of certification?
Next by Thread: RE: Fear of certification (was:Definition of Engineer )(was: What to do?)


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads