Re: Certification--a new concept. Discuss

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

I suppose it depends on where you're doing your writing, but in the
industries I've written and managed for (aerospace, semiconductor
design and manufacturing, biotech and medical instrumentation), 
technical writers *are* in "the same major category" as engineers; 
same position grades, same salary ranges, same education and 
experience requirements.  All of my writers have the necessary
qualifications to be able to transition to product design or testing
if they wanted to; many of them transitioned to writing *from* those
branches of product development.  I do understand that there are 
some environments where someone with an English or Journalism 
degree and no technical experience can be hired as a technical writer 
and be reasonably successful.  Ours is not one of them.  We have a
number of criteria we use to screen prospective candidates, foremost
among them the education and experience requirements I mentioned
above.  At present, they don't include any offically-issued credential
that is technical writing specific.

Gene Kim-Eng




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com>