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Subject:Re: Degrees, certification, blah, et cetera From:Stephen Arrants <arrants -at- BRIGHTWARE -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 13 Dec 1996 10:58:53 -0800
On Friday, December 13, 1996 3:09 AM, Lisa
Higgins[SMTP:lisa -at- DRDDO1 -dot- EI -dot- LUCENT -dot- COM] wrote:
>> I'm just wondering: Is it an overwhelming trait that technical
>> communicators tend to see things in black and white?
>>
>> Must we all be degreed or non-degreed?
>>
I don't think it is technical communicators so much as Human Resources.
I have had to push ahead a candidate in the hiring process because she
had all but one semester towards a BA in Sociology. The HR folks were
resistant because of the way the pay scale and job grades were
structured. Basically, if you didn't fit into their predefined boxes,
you weren't gonna get hired. I don't know of ANY tech pubs manager
who'd say "Gee, you've got great experience and lots of talent, but you
don't have a degree so we won't hire you."
It is frustrating, because we're the ones who have to work with the
employee, and if we feel secure about the candidate, HR should back off
and let us do what we need to get the job done. But from what I know of
HR, they've got their own constraints to battle with.
We have to keep educating the folks outside the group as to what we do
and how we do it. More often than not, you can make them allies. But it
is sometimes a constant job to do it.
