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>WRITING MANAGERS know STC exists. Many of them belong. HR and
>engineers may be part of the hiring process, but at least some of
>the time the decision maker has some idea of what's going on.
>And do you know the HR pro society? Yup, sure there's one! At
>*least* as unknown as STC ... suepstewrt -at- aol -dot- com
I came from the HR field to the TW field. The human resources field
breaks down into several disciplines, most of which have professional
societies and a respected certification process. The Society for
Human Resource Management, American Society for Training and
Development, and the American Compensation Association are three I'm
familiar with.
Granted, not many outside the field know about these societies,
either. Nor is it necessary to have accreditation in order to work
in these fields. But having the accreditation is more than a foot in
the door in the job hunting process, and many job listings state a
preference to accredited applicants, if not requiring accreditation
outright.
The accreditation process isn't a walk in the park, either. In the
compensation field, for example, one takes a minimum of seven
three-day courses and must pass each course's exam with a minimum
score of 70% in order to earn the Certified Compensation Professional
(CCP) designation (I took two of these exams prior to coming to TW,
and the exams are not easy). This designation can be placed on one's
business cards (i.e. Mary Smith, CCP). The individual holding this
designation is immediately recognized by most HR professionals as a
knowledgeable professional at the very least; in my experience as an
expert. This certification process helps standardize the profession,
so that all CCPs can be expected to have a core knowledge in the
field.
The designations went a long way toward dispelling the myth that HR
people were nonexempt people who had worked their way up from the
typing pool or punching cards in payroll. Judging from many posts
I've read here, those we work with may suffer from a few similar
myths themselves... Daren (darend -at- wordperfect -dot- com)
