Re: Degree

[Rahel Anne Bailie <rbailie -at- NEWBRIDGE -dot- COM>]

David Hailey wrote:

> Emru has hit the nail exactly on the head.  Of all the dozens of employers I
> have interviewed as a part of my research, very few care if you have a
> degree.  They are looking for some indication that you can do the job.  They
> will look for technical skills first, then writing skills.

IMHO, I think that, yes, employers want someone who can do the job, and they
this demonstrated either through experience or academics. The more you have of
one, the less you need of the other. (If you have both, fine.) In the days
before desktop publishing, single-sourcing, multimedia presentation, on-line
help, and CBTs could be considered part of a "regular" tech writing job,
experience was more easily gained in adjacent professions such as journalism,
where transferrable skills, such as research and interviewing, counted for a
greater percentage of the total job skills. Now that job functions are divided
up between the "traditional" skills and those more recently demanded, it helps
newbies to have the academics to back them up. For those at the beginning of
their careers, I can't imagine how they could "happen to" pick up such specific
skills, but how the person comes to that skill set ends up being irrelevant
after a while.

Rahel Bailie
Vancouver, BC