[TCP] certification (was: ranting STC)

[Evans, Diane L (Rosetta)]

>Diane -- and I ask this question with respect -- do you tell the story
partly to identify the shortcomings of *not* 
>having gotten the expected training? 

OK, the moral of the story:

If you are sufficiently talented, you can get hired without a degree.  
A degree, on the other hand, will give you valuable assistance towards
getting a job.
No, I am not against certification.  I will have a master's degree in
Technical Communication on May 4 of this year; over a year ago, I earned
my CSQE -- which verifies that I understand the software development
life cycle from requirements through testing.

My only objection to certification is that there are so many types of
technical writing.  I work in an analyst role most of the time; I
haven't written a user manual or help file for quite some time.  On the
other hand, some people specialize in those types of documents.

So, that is the biggest problem I see -- there are so many types of
technical writers, how can we find a certification criteria that fits
them all?

On the other hand, a physician is first certified as a general
practitioner, then works towards other certifications such as surgery or
internal medicine.  

Any certification program would need to have a multi-tiered approach as
well -- skills that all technical writers should have, and skills that a
subset of these writers should have.

Of course, then we have to decide who can set the criteria.

I knew there was a reason I keep out of this debate :)



Diane Evans
Requirements Analyst
ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer
Rosetta Inpharmatics
206-802-6560


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