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Subject:Re: Certification From:Donald Ray <dray -at- CELCORE -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 12 Jun 1997 11:37:48 -0500
Having this certification issue kicked around long enough I have decided
to put in my two cents worth.
Siemens, with 380,000 employees world wide could care less about
certification. In the 17 years that I worked there there only two of
us, that I know of, were STC members.
Siemens was more interested in one's technical background than one's
technical writing background. There are a lot of large companies that
could care less whether one has majored in technical writing.
That being the case, my guess is that most of the large corporations
will not care whether one is certified. Certification sounds like
something that was dreamed up with someone who has too much idle time.
There are a lot of technical writers out there, and only about 15
percent of them are STC members (and probably degreed technical
writers).
>----------
>From: Wally Glassett[SMTP:wallyg -at- THEGRID -dot- NET]
>Sent: Thursday, June 12, 1997 11:09 AM
>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject: Re: Certification
>
>Dennis Meier wrote (in part):
>
>> After all,
>> if a single test were sufficient to indicate future performance, then
>> we
>> all would have gotten our degrees as soon as we passed our SATs and
>> our
>> GREs without the need to attend classes and perform work within
>> acceptable
>> requirements.
>>
>> Dennis Meier
>> 2(DM) Technical Communications
>> http://www.2dm.com or http://www.execu.net/2dm/index.htm
>>
>Dear Group:
>
>You know, there's an old management joke that is relevant to this entire
>certification issue, and it goes something like the following.
>
>Three people got together to do something. First, they picked a leader.
>Second, they picked a follower. Then, the leader and follower agreed to
>exclude the third person.
>
>Certification is an exclusionary process, and I would suggest that those
>who advocate certification spend a little time thinking about who, how
>and why they might want to exlcude others from being tech. writers.
>
>Wally Glassett
>
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