Alphabet Soup--the comeback

I have decided to start including my CPT (Certified Performance Technologist) credentials after my name again. Click on the CPT logo in the left column to read a more extensive description of what being a CPT involves. I've had this certification for about eight years, but quit using the credentials a while back. I think I felt a little pretentious putting that many letters after my name. Aside from coming to accept myself unapologetically as the credential junkie I am, there are some other reasons I have chosen to do resume their display.

User assistance as performance support

As a writer (and I still see myself as a writer) there is a tendency to think of Help and other user assistance strategies as content, something to be packaged into containers and taxonomies. But Help is performance support, something to be delivered in the context of a user trying to do a task or accomplish a goal. Posting my CPT is a constant reminder to myself about what I really do.

Certification as a professional differentiator

I have been involved in the STC's efforts to evaluate whether our profession would be well served by a certification program, and I have become convinced we would. So showing my current certification is a way to support certification as a professional strategy. And in a tough economy, instead of standing on the side of the road with a sign that reads "Will communicate technically for food" I can now advertise "Will support performance for food."

Heck, for a beer I'll do both.