Re: College and qualifications

[The Tech Writer <techwrtr -at- CRL -dot- COM>]

On Tue, 19 Sep 1995, Steve Jong/Lightbridge wrote:

> If you are looking to hire recent college graduates, asking about SATs and
 GPAs
> seems like the only thing you can do.  SATs are excellent predictors of
> freshman performance, which is all they were designed to do (!).  However, for
> any other class of worker, experience and developed skill ought to be of
> primary -- or sole -- importance.

I would have to strongly disagree with you, at least when referring to
recent college graduates of Technical Writing degree programs. I was not
in any of my interviews asked about SAT and GPA data. In fact, I don't
know either--the skills I learned in classes seems to be of much greater
importance than whether you earn good grades in mandatory classes like
Celtic Literature.

In my schooling, I learned how to write online documentation--both theory
(more important) and application (important, but worthless without the
former). I learned how to run a printing press, how to talk to a printer
and get my point across, and how to save my company money while still
producing quality printed documentation. I learned how to work with others
toward a common documentation goal. I learned how to quickly run through
a piece of writing and copyedit it. I learned a whole lot of things that
can't be summed up in an SAT score or a GPA.

These are the things that an interviewer can ask a recent college
graduate about.

-David Castro
 techwrtr -at- crl -dot- com
 http://www.crl.com/~techwrtr/