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> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Posada
>
> ... OTJ experience without certification could be 10 years of
> creating four-page inserts for toasters. I'm not demeaning that
> kind of writing, but would you want that writer to come to your
> shop and take over a long-term enterprise software project and
> staff of 10 where your company has millions of dollars at
> stake?
>
No, but you'd know that from their resume and writing samples.
> What the certification tells you in this instance is that the
> person has a familiarity with most of the needed requirements
> to which that person will be exposed.
>
What the certification tells you in this instance is nothing of value.
Someone who's spent 10 years of creating four-page inserts for toasters
-- and yet has certification for a totally different kind of work -- is
a little suspicious, to say the least.
> I'd never claim that you couldn't be a very good technical
> writer and not be certified. A certification would only be of
> use in a narrow range of applications. In fact, you probably
> wouldn't want a staff writer to be certified because you know
> that person doesn't want to crank out documentation day after
> day, just as someone with a CPA designation is not going to be
> happy processing A/P invoices day after day. Certification is
> for the writer who wants to be brought into an environment
> that requires a wide range of skills.
>
A writer who wants to be brought into an environment that requires a
wide range of skills had better have the resume, the writing samples,
the successful interviews with your SMEs, *and* the references -- or
else expect to get entry-level pay and benefits.
Man, I have *got* to go buy that garlic...
-- Dan Goldstein
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