Sean Hower's Resume
The following is some general information about my skills and experience. You can peruse this page or download one of my resumes in your favorite format for more detailed information.
General resume: DOC - ODT - PDF - RTF - TXT
Business analyst resume: DOC - ODT - PDF - RTF - TXT
Technical writer resume: DOC - ODT - PDF - RTF - TXT
If you're interested in hiring me, or just want more information, just send an e-mail to .
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Qualifications
Proven excellence in the following areas:
- Business, public sector, and technical domain knowledge
- Large document production
- End-to-end software development procedures and coordination
- Interview and research techniques
- Digital graphics, layout, and design for documentation, Web sites, and software applications
- Self-starter who thrives in dynamic environments
- Quickly acquires new skills
- Excels as both an individual contributor and as a member of a team
Key Accomplishments
Proven excellence including the following accomplishments:
- Researched and documented numerous city, county, and corporate business processes
- Established policies and procedures for documentation departments
- Researched, designed, and produced technical manuals, online help, user guides, training materials, white papers, case studies, release notes, installation and configuration guides, and test procedures
- Designed and led the implementation of company-wide usability
- Designed and led the implementation of company-wide design patterns
- Collaborated with other business analysts to develop and refine entire SDLC
- Coordinated cross-departmental resources to complete software changes
- Designed and coded online-help system using HTML, XML, XSL, and JavaScript
- Key contributor to GUI design for large government ERP solution
- Published industry-related articles
- Silver award from Northern California Authors and Publisher's Association for best design/layout/cover (2011)
Skills
| Skills/Interests | Software | Technology |
|---|---|---|
| Writing/Editing | FrameMaker | HTML |
| Business analysis | Microsoft Office | CSS |
| Government/public sector | OpenOffice.org | XHTML |
| Desktop publishing | InDesign | XML |
| Research | XMLSpy | XSL |
| Ethnographic research | Photoshop | DocBook |
| Contextual inquiry | GIMP | DOM |
| UML | Inkscape | JavaScript |
| Data modeling | Balsamiq Mockups | VB.NET |
| Section 508, WCAG, WAI | SnagIt | SQL |
| Personas | Camtasia | Relational databases |
| Design patterns | Visio | Wireless networks |
| Object-oriented programming | RoboHelp | .NET framework |
| Linguistics | ForeHelp | |
| Anthropology | WebWorks | |
| Behavioral economics | Homesite | |
| Dreamweaver | ||
| WebMatrix | ||
| Apache Forrest | ||
| Visual Source Safe | ||
| Visual Studio .NET |
Publications
The following is a list of my nonfiction publications. Click a link to jump to the item. Note that these are all on external sites.
| Nonfiction Publication | Description |
|---|---|
| 5 Ways to Write Your Way into Technical Writing | Highlights some ways you can break into technical writing. This has been published on both Writer's Manual and School for Champions. |
| Hokum Home | Web resource for business, technical, and fiction writers. The content on this site has been used in training and college courses. I closed the site in March of 2006. |
| Managing Edits for an Online Help Monster | Describes the editing process used at a company He worked for. This has been published on TECHWR-L |
| "Notes from the Cubicle" | Biweekly technical writing column on Write Thinking e-zine (ended in November 2004). |
| Piecing Together Your Audience | Tips on doing audience analysis. This has been published in the July 2003 issue of Intercom. |
| What's in a name: Guidelines for Naming Files | Provides tips for managing file names. This has been published on TECHWR-L. |
| An XML Primer for Technical Communicators (part one and part two) | A two-part, whirlwind tour of XML and related technologies. This has been published on TECHWR-L. |
