Re: New TECHWR-L Poll Question - Why discuss certification?

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

Most technical writers I have interviewed have been remarkably 
candid about what specific technical, authoring or tool related skills 
they didn't have, even in these recent tough times, and in my 
conversations with non-writing hiring managers who have had bad 
results from writers they hired I have not encountered many who 
hired writers who turned out not to have the skills they claimed to 
have.  The bad experiences are almost always the result of a 
disconnect between the skills the non-writing hiring managers 
thought the writers they wanted to hire should have and the skills the
writer really needed to succeed in the project or environment.  For 
example, hiring a writer with no background or understanding of
their products or technology because writers with specific technical 
backgrounds were "too expensive" and saying, "we can feed the 
writer the content" (which, of course, they never do).

So from my point of view, the real need is not to certify that writers
really do have specific levels of skill, but to educate those who hire
writers as to what levels of skill their writers really need to have.  

Gene Kim-Eng



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Posada" <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>