Sharon Burton
Even if you’ve barely been awake for the last few years (um, actually 35 years…) in the Tech Comm world, you know there’s been talk back and forth about the value of certification in our field. In the larger sense, it’s really a discussion about quantifying what we do such that we can measure it. I think it’s part of a larger discussion about the value we add as a profession.
On Techwr-l recently, the discussion has come up again, specifically surrounding the certification STC is setting up. It’s the first baby steps towards defining and setting formal standards for what we do.
To sum up the plan, you submit a portfolio of work in one (or more) of several defined areas.
- User analysis
- Document design
- Project management
- Authoring (content creation)
- Delivery
- Quality assurance
A group evaluates the portfolio, using modern standards for that area. You get certified for 3 years, assuming you pass.
Back and forth
I’ve been back and forth on the subject of certification over the years. Right now I’m for it. Here’s why:
- This is a wretched economy. For every job opening, there are 15 to 100s of people applying for the same position. Anything you can do to float yourself to the top of that pile is a good thing. Even if you are already employed, we all know that tomorrow you may not be. I’m hearing of massive layoffs in the oil and gas industries right now.
- Why shouldn’t we have some sort of standard? What we do is not magic or unknowable. We have good practices in our field, we can be measured and show an ROI for what we do. Why not certify that importance?
- Employers can’t tell good from bad until they hire. Very often, a bad writer gets hired and no one realizes it. Then, over the course of several months, it becomes clear this is the wrong person and the long goodbye process starts. It makes employers scared about the next person. Certification can add some sense of confidence that this person has been vetted at some level already.
- We’re professionals, dammit. We *are* professionals. Most of us are very proud of what we do. We should value things that shows the profession as a whole has standards and is valuable. Certification can be part of that. It’s not all of it, certainly, but it’s a big part of it.
These are my thoughts. Feel free to share yours.
I’m coming in late to these certification discussions and I don’t feel I know enough about it to form a strong opinion one way or the other yet, but as someone who has just spent the past two years earning an M.S. in Technical Communication I’m a little apprehensive about it. What will certification mean for those of us with advanced degrees in the field already? Is STC certification going to be something we’re going to need on top of it? I know this certification is often compared to the PMP credential… Don’t a lot of people who are PMP-certified also have MBAs?
I’m also curious how the certification will work in regard to the portfolios. I assume this means a person will need to have prior work experience in order to have a portfolio to submit for certification. If certification eventually becomes a requirement similar to PMP certification (which involves exams and work experience, I think), this could make it harder to break into the field, which in the long run might not be such a bad thing in terms of quality and enhancing the profession. But it could also make the whole catch-22 of needing experience to get a job and needing a job to get experience that much harder to obtain.
Obviously, I’ve got a lot of questions. On August 19th the Carolina Chapter will be hosting a webinar with Steve Jong, chair of the STC Certification Committee, to talk about the certification program. We’re inviting anyone and everyone to attend. You can sign up for the event here. It should be an interesting discussion.
@Sharon “Employers can’t tell good from bad” might be more to the point. Having been contracting for most of the last 20 years, I’ve plopped into projects at a lot of different places and been asked to “update” the documentation. When I dive into what’s already there, it has run the gamut from merely crappy to downright execrable. The common aspect of all of these examples? They were all considered “fine” or at least “good enough”.The clients/customers/managers I’ve dealt with (none of them involved professionally in documentation) usually don’t have a clue when it comes to what constitutes decent documentation, much less good or excellent documentation. Their first objective is to be able to put a checkmark in the box labeled “Documentation” and their second objective is to be able to do it cheaply.
@John I’m inclined to agree that certification isn’t likely to make much of a difference… at least not for a number of years. However at some point certification may bring to technical writing what it has to project management. I suspect there are very few project managers hired without a PMP after their name these days (that’s just a WAG on my part, not based at all on any research).
I have not yet decided whether to pursue any of the certifications available. I’ve got the chops for pretty close to all of ‘em but a big part of it will depend on my budget.
Thanks for posting this, Sharon. While I am in full agreement with certification being portfolio-based rather than test-based, I take issue with the idea of adding certification as another notch on the belt to help a resume rise to the top of an HR stack. This thinking is what prevents talented performers who simply cannot afford the time or the money to earn such credentials from getting work for which they would
be perfect.
Besides, I wouldn’t want to work for a company that gave that much power to their HR departments. (Listen to this, government agencies!) I refuse to submit resumes blindly, because it is a well-known fact that this method of applying for work is far less effective than building relationships with the people who have the power to hire.
To me, certification is only a means by which we can obtain third party assessment of our work outside of our local market, for the benefit of personal growth. Sharing the feedback with our companies would be beneficial so they can see where their documentation compares to standards applied elsewhere. It also provides us with an opportunity to receive that pat on the back we may seldom get at the 9 to 5 (fortunately I deliberately seek to work with people who appreciate my efforts).
In this way, I see certification as a means to apply some (hopefully) recognizable value to the STC’s ignored awards program. I think people who give presentations on their work should consider submitting their topics toward certification.
So while I like that the STC has finally decided on a model for certification, I hope that the process is designed as a framework that can be adapted to cover the breadth and depth of the TechCom industry, and not a rigid set of criteria that people need to meet.
PS: Hi John!
Hey, Tony, good to see you here!
I actually don’t see certification as a pat on the back, myself, simply because I’m paying for it. And my STC awards and recognitions are more important to me as recognition than a certification would be. But it’s also not terrifically important to me: I don’t see that it’ll make any difference to my employability or what I do.
Mike Starr’s comment may well be accurate. This may make a difference in the future and now that the STC has a portfolio-based model rather than a test-based model, it’s a reasonably functional way of determining certification status. OTOH, I’ve been hearing that the PMP status–waved about heavily by the pro-certification crowd for years–is not what it’s cracked up to be, either. But wotthehell? We’ll find out if a TC certification makes a difference.
@Peggy: I’ve got a high school diploma myself and I’ve done all right, so I’m inclined to believe that the certification is not a true gateway because a college degree wasn’t a true gateway, either.
I think this is a wretched economy and I don’t mind us having a standard, but I don’t think that certification is going to make a difference. If people with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Tech Comm can’t get their degrees in the field noticed, will certification make a difference? I think not.
I could be wrong, though. There’s no telling what people will latch on to. Certification might be The Thing for employers. So I’m glad that the STC will be providing a method of certification. I am particularly pleased that there will be no grandfathering of any kind in the STC’s certification system: everyone will have to run the gauntlet. (There’s been a lot of flap about that by people who feel like they should be granted a pass, but if certification is to mean anything, it means that it’s applied for everyone who wants it.)