RE: Certification: Ernest and Scribbler

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

Ya go away for just a weekend, and look what happens...

 Suzette Leeming said (and I agree): 
> 
> I've waited and pondered this situation before adding my 
> opinion. I'm glad
> to see I'm not alone with ambiguous feelings toward Ernest & 
> Scribbler (aka
> good techwriter, bad techwriter). I see aspects of myself in 
> both, and was
> surprised to see some attributes being described as good, 
> when I thought
> they were bad (i.e. following even a bad style sheet). 

How about the part where the writer even recognizes 
that the style sheet is good/bad/relevant? 

For example, I've met stylesheets that were bad because 
they were simply imported (copy-pasted?) from somewhere 
else for dubious reasons. I've met stylesheets that were 
"bad" because, good as far as they went, they were incomplete. 
I even made one of those partial monstrosities before 
being urgently re-assigned, and never got back to the 
beast. 

I've met stylesheets that were earnestly compiled by 
collaborative effort among a crew of writers and 
other stake-holders, and were reviewed and revised 
before being published.  And they still looked exactly 
like something produced by a committee. 

The best one I ever saw was constructed in an afternoon 
by a group of mostly TWs using a big expanse of wall and 
a thick wad of yellow stickies.

> 
> As far as separating the wheat from the chaff during the 
> hiring process -
> don't companies do techwriting tips, or check references 
> before hiring? Why
> can't my experience and references speak for themselves?

As Keith and others pointed out, your experience and 
references speak only to somebody who:

a) cares to look, and hasn't screened you out by 
automated means 

b) is qualified to understand what your experience and 
references mean.
 
> When I started in this field, there weren't any 
> courses/programs around. I
> came into techwriting via being a software trainer, then a 
> systems analyst.
> I'm more or less self-taught (read a lot of books and 
> listened a lot), but I
> believe the quality of my work is good, and do my superiors, 
> which is the
> most important.

But when you have the bureaucratic gene, where do you draw 
the line for grandfathering (sorry, should that be grand-
mothering?) old farts who grew up in the previous cycle(s)? 

I maintain that pushes for certification are always a 
combination of scratching the insatiable itch of the 
bureaucratic gene, and creating/pushing a cause that can 
be exploited by those with the political genes. 

 
> Would I pass "certification"? I don't know; I suppose there's 
> always the
> chance that I'd fail on a few minor items like project 
> estimated (which I
> still consider myself weak in). I resent that after 15 years 
> in this field,
> I'd be expected to take a test to see if I'm qualified to do 
> what I've been
> doing for so long.

Your resentment (like mine, and Keith's and Bill's and....) 
is noted, and counted as a point against you, and will be 
stored in bureau'ratic (the 'c' is silent) memory against 
the time time that you finally give in and submit yourself 
to the machine.
 
> If I were a hiring manager, I would take experience & proven 
> results over
> certification, any day. 


As noted above and elsewhere, you won't have the choice. 
The purpose of certification is to hand the HR department 
an "officially" sanctioned screening tool. Ms. Hiring Manager, 
you will get to choose from that pile of resumes the HR 
minions dump in your in-box. You will never see the resumes 
that were pre-screened and eliminated for want of the correct 
letters after the applicant name. 

> So, from both perspectives it appears the
> certification would not add value, so then what would the 
> benefit of being certified? 

Binary in-out.  If it comes into being - which eventually 
it will - it will be ruled by bureaucratic and political 
types. They will work to make it ubiquitous and "indispensible". 
The apathetic will repeatedly ignore or immediately forget 
'scandals' in which political pushes for this-or-that addition 
or modification to the program is propelled by 'champions' 
with fiscal interest in certain training companies, tool 
vendors, book authors pushing specific branded methodologies, 
and so on. 
 
You will have to have the approved ticket in order to be employable. 

Actually, you and I might not suffer much from eschewing 
the whole enterprise. It'll be younger sorts coming up via 
non-approved channels who will be forced into the mold or 
find themselves (and their resumes) constantly on the reject 
pile.

Just as in general political society, zealots and the 
politically motivated almost always win because they keep 
trying and trying in a single, focused effort. 

The rest of us are unfocussed in our individuality and 
our separate lives, and so react only when 
obviously threatened. But life intrudes, we get 
distracted, or other threats from other relentlessly 
focussed groups divide our attention. When we come 
back to the original can of worms, it has spread and 
is even more difficult to contain.... and while we're 
looking at it and trying to beat it back, the other 
groups are encroaching on a different flank.  And then 
the baby gets sick, or the parent breaks a hip, or 
the teenager turns out to be a star XYZ-player and 
needs support and travel and big money to advance to 
regional or national competition... oops! Took your 
eye off the encroachers again, didn't you?

 - Kevin 


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