Golden train of technical communication
Two people in Poland say they have found a Nazi German train cloaked in mystery since it was rumoured to have gone missing near the end of World War Two. Unfortunately I am not one of the two, but last week found the train full of gold and gems of technical communication.
Something old, something new
Before last Thursday I thought that I know quite a lot about technical communication and learning. Spending ten years in learning world means something but during the ITCFQ training I asked myself few important questions:
- How will I answer the question about my job?
- How to explain what is the Technical Writer job about?
- What does Information Architect do?
- What is the standard process of creating documentation?
- Can you list all deliverables as a nicely crafted list?
I was not sure. I knew the details but I was not sure if I can answer those question with a single tweet (or not more than 2). Last training changed it. During the training and few days after it I was able to readjust the way I look at learning and technical communication.
I readjusted the way I look at the learning industry and technical communication.
People from ITCQF (check them here) did a great job creating syllabus and gathering all of necessary information and combining them into very solid training materials and Syllabus that draws the baseline for must-have knowledge and understanding that each technical (not only writer) person should have.
Certification
After 2-day training I approached the certification exam. As the autors of the certification say on their website :
ITCQF® exams are organized in a consistent way worldwide and are based on a precisely defined number of questions, distributed in accordance to the syllabus topics.
From my perspective it was not easy, but I was able to fill in the form in 20 minutes. It is worth taking and worth sharing as it confirms that you understand the industry and have the right perspective. That’s all for now, without bias of passing or failing the exam.
The details of the exam can be found on the gasq.org website: Cetrified Technical Communication Professional.
Urodziłem się w małym mieście na Podkarpaciu, tam po raz pierwszy zmuszono mnie tego, żeby zdobyć formalne wykształcenie, chociaż wolałem social learning, zbieranie puszek po napojach i przesiadywanie godzinami przed komputerem w poszukiwaniu szybszej metody na wczytanie gry z kasety do swojego Commodore 64.