Re: STC chapter question -- what should an employer expect?

[keithwriter -at- hotmail -dot- com]

If the team is relatively inexperienced, AND if the manager thinks there
may be room for serious improvement in terms of processes and tools used,
getting the team involved in STC might really help.

But if the team's a bunch of old pros, and there's nothing badly broken
enough in the team's methodology to require fixing, I'd probably pass.

I found the STC invaluable in ramping myself up as a newbie tech writer.
But in recent years I've stayed enrolled mostly out of loyalty. Although
it's also through the STC that I became aware of the short-term health
insurance information it provides, which came in very handy after I got
laid off this winter.

As a newbie, the STC made me aware of some pretty cool tools and solutions
that my mostly-rookie team at the time weren't hip to, so it helped me
take a leadership role within my team. But again, that was as a newbie. I
think the STC has potential value to most tech writers, but would have a
harder time pinpointing its value to employers. I never asked my employer
to pay the tab. But I never minded the expense, either. The salary survey
was helpful to me in salary negotiations, and the basic foundation the STC
helped give me really helped me move up among the ranks of the other
writers I worked with, most of whom were a hodge-podge of career-changers
with no real focus on tech writing (and most of whom have never heard of
Techwr-l).



Keith C


PS - I probably won't be around much - I just picked up a management gig
for the B2B marketing team at a nearby Fortune 500, so I'll be spending
most of my time on The Dark Side. But I'll try to peek in from time to
time.

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