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This pretty much sums up how I feel too. I have been a technical writer for
over 15 years, after being a systems analyst for several years. I am
absolutely swamped in my job, and this topic just seems to be adding to my
stress levels. I really don't even want to think about certification and
kudos for those members who have the time available to devote to this
exercise; I simply don't.
And Larry's right - many employers aren't even aware of the STC, and I've
never seen membership as a requirement for any position. One of the roles
of the STC was to raise awareness and to advocate for technical
communications. I'm not entirely convinced that they have been successful
in that role, and don't really have a lot of confidence that certification
will have a positive impact on our profession. It's starting to feel like a
topic I may want to filter out of this listserv. Can we not leave it to the
STC listserv?
Suzette Leeming
Documentation Manager
On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 5:03 PM, Larry Landis <lawrence_landis -at- yahoo -dot- com>wrote:
> Yes, it's true that doctors, attorneys, architects (the AIA kind, not
> information or software), etc. are required to be licensed - but they can
> be held legally liable for their mistakes or bad judgements. I have 20+
> years in documenting mostly software, so when software companies can be
> held more to account legally for their badly designed and/or functioning
> programs or products that use software - and therefore, the liability gets
> passed down to the tech writers involved - then I might get more excited
> about certification.
>
> Also, it's my experience that many employers haven't even heard of the STC
> (or don't really care about it), so until the STC improves its general
> standing in the marketplace, I suspect that an STC certification may not
> mean as much as we might like.
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