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Re: Who's Heard of the STC Outside of This Field? (was: Not again:ce rtification)
Subject:Re: Who's Heard of the STC Outside of This Field? (was: Not again:ce rtification) From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 18 Apr 2001 10:40:16 -0700
bryan -dot- westbrook -at- amd -dot- com wrote:
>
> I don't think a certification from STC is going to impress very many
> managers anyway, unless they are writers themselves because very few people
> outside of our field have ever even heard of STC.
> Actually quite a few within it have never heard of STC either.
According to a poll on the techwr-l site, just over 71% of those who
responded belong to a professional organization. In most cases, I
imagine that professional organization must be the STC. However, these
results are heavily filtered in favor of joiners: they're from people
who respond to polls who also read the techwr-l list or site.
Another approach: find some current stats for the number of hi-tech
workers in your area. Then divide by 30 (from previous discussions on
this list, I conclude that 1 in 30 is the maximum ratio of other
employees to tech-writers at a company). Then snag the number of people
in the local STC chapter from the STC site, and compare it with your
results. I've done this calculation for several Canadian provinces and
American states, and I conclude that saying that 50% of those in the
field belong to the STC would be extremely generous. A more exact
average would be 40% or lower.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com
"And Tyler smiles, Tyler smiles,
At an angry crowd stretching miles and miles,
Six hundred years, and the lesson wasn't learned."
- Attila the Stockbroker, "Tyler Smiles (22nd November, 1990)"
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