The Ol' Razzle Dazzle
I am not one to toot my own horn. This makes it difficult for people like me when interviewing. Much like Chris Farley's iconic air quote obsessed Bennett Brauer SNL character, I'm more comfortable listing all my faults than ever talking myself up. I don't "wear clothes that fit me". I have NO "charisma". I don't "fit the mold". You get the idea.
Anyway, this is where I'm supposed to give you the ol' razzle dazzle. Blow you away with all my accomplishments and amazing work projects. Bah! Who needs all that. I don't have a huge personal portfolio at this point, and I'm also blocked from sharing any of my past corporate work by the Man and his "copyright protections".
As a result, I've instead shared here a random smattering of side projects I've worked on over the past few years. Things that I've come across at one time or another that I thought could be improved, or helpful to share. Don't judge me too harshly. It's nothing fancy. Everyone has to start somewhere. Hopefully you can at least get the sense that I have some idea how to organize info, and am not, you know, a "total moron".
Pictured below: me in an interview
Project 1: Worst. Documentation. Ever.
Since I'm blocked from sharing my own past work, I was trying to find public examples of procedures that maybe needed some improvement. I don't talk to anyone in real life, so I turned to Reddit. Turns out there is no shortage of people online looking to complain about other people's work. I soon came across this message thread helpfully titled "Does anyone else feel like Microsoft documentation is the worst documentation you've ever encountered?" Classic.
Far be it for me to critique someone else's technical writing, but I did find this Create users in bulk procedure that I thought could use some improvement. It had a lot of good and helpful details but overall seemed like it could be structured a bit better. I added headers, notes, and a few warnings. I also cleaned up some details that seemed repetitive or unnecessary. Behold! My updated version is here.
Project 2: Traverse City Boogaloo
I did all the writing for this site, but if that's not good enough for you, I also have this blog post you can check out. It's got headings and subheadings, and all that great stuff technical writers know and love. As a bonus, it's about a family trip we took to Traverse City, so it's (hopefully) more entertaining than reading some boring old user manual.
Project 3: Who Needs to Know How to Clean a Dryer Vent?
I took a TechComm Fundamentals Bootcamp class through the Society for Technical Communication (STC) awhile back. Sadly, it seems like STC is no longer around, but at the time, the class was taught by an instructor named Leah Guren. We had a few different projects throughout the 8 week session, one of which was to design a flyer. I created this one with the idea that it could be used in laundromats or shared laundry areas as a reminder for people to clean the dryer vents. When I showed my wife, her first comment was "Who needs to know how to clean a dryer vent?" Fair point! I was proud of my design though.