Re: Just can't help myself

[Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>]

John and Bill,

At one point John helped organize an off-list discussion group on 
certification. I participated for a while and then the discussion 
petered out, as, I gather, similar past efforts have done.

Now this is coming up again, and this time John has proposed a rather 
ambitious catalog of skills (that he is now about to flesh out).

Let me propose another approach.

I think John's list, plus or minus some elements, might be appropriate 
for certification as, say, a "master technical writer" or some such. And 
I'm certain there are times when a company wants to hire a master 
technical writer.

But I think that most of the time companies might like the option of 
knowing whether a candidate meets the _minimum_ requirements for a 
technical writer. I'm not talking about a company that wants a typist 
who can occasionally write up a procedure semi-competently. I'm talking 
about companies that have a regular need for writers in project 
environments. They're tired of getting burned by wannabes who really 
can't do the work, and they just want to know that someone's being 
certified means they meet the basic requirements.

So before we go off into the stratospherics of John's list, maybe the 
discussion ought to be refocused on the skills one ought to have at a 
somewhat lower level.

Otherwise, only three people in the world will qualify for 
certification. And that doesn't work to anyone's benefit.

Whaddaya say, guys?

Dick

John Posada wrote: