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The question of certification has, historically, been quite a can of
worms on TECHWR-L. For some perspective, search the TECHWR-L archives
for "certification."
> I was wondering, are there any certifications for technical writers, like
> there are for programmers and network engineers?
No.
> Are they worth the money/time needed to earn them? How do employers view
> them?
Not applicable, since they don't exist.
>Would IT technical writers benefit from certifying in programming languages?
My opinion: If you work in the software industry, you might
potentially benefit a great deal, especially if you're writing API
documentation or have some other kind of need to prove your ability to
read and understand code.
The kinds of certifications that will be beneficial to you will depend
largely on the kind of work you do. I have done a lot of business
process documentation in recent years, and having received formal
training in CMMI and ITIL has been helpful. I've also done a lot of
project management in the last several years, and am currently taking
classes that will enable me to sit for the PMP (Project Management
Professional) exam next year; this seems to be a valuable credential
right now, as the Project Management Institute (http://pmi.org) has
done a brilliant job of marketing it.
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