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"Andrew Plato" <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote in message news:216086 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
> Its why most college group-projects are a
> sham. One person busts ass because they want a good grade and the other
people
> just sit back and do nothing. Group projects allow morons to hold
competent
> people hostage. Hence, group-respect is a sham as well.
Unless you're working by yourself, for your own company, what project isn't
a group project.
Then again, what project doesn't have its share of both butt-busters and
slackers?
>
> The fact is most of the people who have made something of themselves did
so
> because they were tireless self-promoters. And the ones that actually go
really
> far backed up their tireless self-promotion with a little bit of skill and
> expertise. The only person you can count on to have your best interests in
mind
> is YOU.
My first company out of college was IBM. They had--and probably still
have--as part of introducing freshly minted degree-holders to the workaday
world, a mentoring program. Everone new had a mentor. Mine sat across the
hall, and of all the things he ever said, one sticks stongest in mind. He
said "You have to tool your own horn because no one else will do it for
you."
>
> That much said, the sigma of tech writing is the direct result of flooding
the
> profession with incompetent, non-technical people. There are just too many
> font-fondling "I am a communicative artist" flakes in the profession. And
this
> is because there is simply not enough barriers to entry into tech writing.
> There are too many "weekend certification" programs and "personal
development
> seminars" that tell incompetent, unqualified people they can be high-paid,
> communicative artists if they just follow these five easy steps.
But that can be said about many professions. Plenty of certification
courses, some quite brief, for fields such as Realtor, tax preparation, etc.
That said, the blame can't be laid solely on those writers with English
majors who became tired of writing for peanuts, took a course, and jumped
onto the tech bandwagon. Someone had to hire these people, and I doubt these
same people would hire a programmer who came in and said that they just
finished a night course in Visual Basic. (Then again, in those heady times,
warm bodies were being hired for many roles.)
But I'll join you in regularly shouting from the highest mountain top that
the "techncal" side of technical writing is just as critical to both success
and respect as the "writing side." Certificate courses don't typically focus
on that "technical" side, where full-fledged degree courses usually do.
>
> As for doing something about it - I did. I ignored all those stupid STC
> meetings and the pedantic ramblings of other writers. I told my writers
that
> they need to be experts on their products or they could look for work
> elsewhere. Those that had hissy fits, got fired. Those that adapted,
excelled.
> Its just that simple. Adapt or die.
>
How does one become an expert at the product? Like a programmer, QA, or
other member of the development team, knowledge of the particular clients
product is rarely there from day one. Competency must be available on the
technical side, though, to know the underlying technologies, and then use
that knowledge to understand the product as quickly as possible.
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