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Subject:Re: Certification (longish but good stuff!) From:Win Day <winday -at- IDIRECT -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 8 Jan 1996 07:05:52 -0500
At 04:48 PM 1/6/96 -0700, George Allaman wrote about what certification
would entail. I'll only quote here the section to which I'm responding:
<SNIP>
>I also think that a written statement of satisfaction with the writer's work
>from all managers during the period(s) of experience considered should be
>required. This way, if you have a bad experience with an employer, you can
>still get a certificate - you just don't use them as a reference, and you
>can't use your period of employment with them as applicable experience. But
>the prospective employer still has a solid affirmation that you have been
>able to work with others, do the job, and stay reasonably sober for a
>significant period of time. This gives the recruiter a rough but useable idea
>of the quality of your personality as it pertains to your work.
I have a problem with not being able to use a "bad experience with an
employer" as applicable experience. I spent a year in Marketing with an
engineering company. I had a TERRIBLE relationship with one of the salesmen
to whom I reported. After filing several sexual harassment complaints, I
ended up leaving the company when nothing was done.
The work experience, however, was invaluable. That's where I learned how to
write proposals; how to function under incredible stress and tight deadlines
with ever-changing products; how to manage staff; how to take a document
from conception through production; and, yes, how to turn out a quality
product while working with someone I absolutely hated. I received glowing
reviews from everyone except that one supervisor. But since he was the
senior salesman, he would have been the one to supply a written reference.
Also, the company had a policy to limit information available on references
to confirmation of term of employment. They would NOT ever comment on the
quality or value of an employee's work, because they were afraid of the
legal problems that might follow. How would this certification process
handle employers' policies like that?
Win
-------------------
Win Day
Technical Writer/Editor
Email: winday -at- idirect -dot- com
