Technical Writer, Documentation Manager, Author, Magazine Writer

John V. Hedtke

Experienced technical writer seeking position

Steilacoom, WA USA 98388

****@******.*** • 541-***-**** • www.hedtke.com

Recent Accomplishments

• Wrote and managed team of writers creating FedRAMP (NIST 800-53) compliance documentation that secured a $1B contract with the DoD (including policies, standards, procedures, and SSPs).

• Wrote APIs and SDKs for SaaS products.

• Selected, acquired, and implemented a document management system for secure/classified documents.

• Wrote disaster failover procedures, ran tabletop tests, and wrote disaster preparedness plans. Published a book on disaster preparedness.

Career Highlights

Writer: 20+ years of product and technical documentation for consumers and product developers. Manager: 16 years in documentation management with teams of up to 24 writers. Speaker: Training and keynote presentations on technical/business writing, career development, disaster recovery, and crisis communications.

Author: 27 books to date on software, hardware, online help development, and disaster preparedness. Developer: 5 years as a programmer/analyst on accounting and large records database systems. Honors: Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication, 26 writing awards, listed as one of the top 25 most influential technical communicators in the world two years in a row. General Experience

Managing: Building and managing documentation departments, project planning and management, scheduling, needs assessment, budgeting, mentoring, supervision, software evaluation and selection, employee reviews, product management, and localization. Writing: Manuals, training materials, user guides, APIs, SDKs, programming references, FAQs, business and process analysis, white papers, web content, compliance and regulatory documentation, blogs, executive presentations, books, magazine articles, and ghostwriting. Training: Workshops, college classes, and webinars on technical writing, project planning and management, Microsoft applications, database internals, policies and procedures, web development and security, and career development.

Tools and Skills

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, FrameMaker, Google Docs, RoboHelp, SharePoint, FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, PCI, ISO 27001, Document Locator, relational and hierarchical databases, certified Scrum master, book coaching, GitHub, Markdown, GDPR, Wrike, HTML, JIRA, Confluence, Acrobat, Visio, Agile, Bugzilla, Audacity, AWS, SQL, SGML, LaTeX, US Tier 2 clearance, amateur radio (KD7WS). John Hedtke ****@******.***

541-***-**** www.hedtke.com

Selected Clients and Projects

Past clients include SAP, SAP Concur, IBM, Microsoft, High Alert, Visio, Seterus, Invitrogen, Children’s Orthopedic Hospital, Boeing, Alcatel, VoiceStream (T-Mobile), America Online, Wall Data, Federal Home Loan Bank Board, GTE (Verizon), CoBank, Sierra Online, Society for Technical Communication, and Carver Stereo. Designed and wrote printed and online documentation, training, and presentations for all levels of users and developers in the following venues:

Financial and records software: Accounting, tax

preparation, budget analysis, broker and financial analysis software, financial software reviews.

Technical: APIs, SDKs, language guides, HTML

guides, software selection guides.

IT and client/server software: Enterprise

information portals (EIPs), factory automation

management systems, zero-fault networks, voice-

response application programming.

Training and presentations: Software products,

business continuity, career development.

Compliance and regulatory documentation:

FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, analyzing, defining, and

creating suites of compliance and regulatory

documentation for private and government

venues, SSPs.

Medical and health software: Medical records

software, gene splicing and mapping systems.

Disaster planning and business continuity:

Disaster recovery analyses, server farm and system backup and recovery plans, pandemic and business

continuity plans.

Telecomm and communication: Telephone

switching, routing, voicemail, cell phone fail-over systems, backbone routers.

Other products: AOL and other online services,

messaging, whiteboarding, videoconferencing,

marketing case studies, CAD, online help for Visio and Excel, game software, music software.

Hardware: Controller cards, storage, video, wifi,

Bluetooth, cable and electronics test equipment,

amateur radio equipment.

Books and magazines: 27 books and roughly 200

magazine articles on accounting and tax software,

MP3s, communications, online help, Windows and

online games, disaster preparedness, software

selection, and other topics.

Samples

Writing samples can be downloaded here. This contains two folders of samples:

• General writing samples, including documentation for end users and developers, disaster recovery analyses, technical books and articles, and training.

• Management samples, including articles about software selection, managing, and skills development, sample project analyses, consulting reports, project planning, and white papers. John Hedtke

541-***-**** ****@******.***

To Whom It May Concern:

My resume describes my professional experience in a couple of pages. This cover letter provides additional information about my expertise, starting with the requirements for this job. I’ve been a technical writer documenting software for 20+ years. My goal with documentation is to maximize the value of the company’s products while minimizing the customer’s need for technical support. As my writing samples on my resume show, I have an uncomplicated writing style that’s very approachable and have received 26 regional and international writing awards for clear, effective communication. I was also listed on the Top 25 Most Influential Technical Communicators in the World list two years in a row.

Most recently, I’ve been writing compliance and regulatory documentation necessary for Federal compliance. This would need to be reviewed by auditors, in-house legal staff, and risk specialists. I also did disaster recovery failover/failback plans, pandemic preparedness plans, and extensive table- top exercises to check plans for completeness and fit. In addition, I have extensive experience as a documentation manager and team lead. I’m comfortable running writing groups and teams but I am also happy working as the solo writer on projects. I create style guides, templates, and procedures to ensure predictable, repeatable results. As you can see on my speaking topics pages (http://hedtke.com/speaking/), I do presentations on documentation plans, time management, working with other departments, and team building. Here are a few other accomplishments I’d like to mention that are relevant to this job:

• Developed templates, style guides, and best practices documents on many jobs to establish writing guidelines and ensure a consistent look-and-feel to the company’s products. (I can provide samples of some of these if you’re interested.)

• Wrote APIs, SDKs, programmer references, administrator manuals, and online help for a SaaS budget analysis software company, a voice-response application development system, an enterprise information portal, and other products.

• I’ve written end user guides and documentation for many products, including the online help and installation guide for AOL for Windows and online help for Visio and Microsoft Excel, as well as the user documentation for PowerPoint.

• Worked with AWS-based applications at SAP. Currently studying for my AWS Solutions Architect certificate.

• Worked with GitHub and Markdown for docs-as-code.

• Wrote disaster recovery failover and failback procedures, business continuity plans, and operational procedures for a mortgage processing company.

• Wrote 27 books and roughly 200 magazine articles on software, high tech, and disaster preparedness, as well as taught classes on how to get into these branches of technical writing. John Hedtke ****@******.***

541-***-**** www.hedtke.com

I have a strong background in software development and product release. As a technical writer and documentation manager, I’ve seen every aspect of content development, including interviewing SMEs and coordinating reviews. I’ve written menu/command structures, mouseover help, and online help systems to enhance the usability of products. I’m also adept with Microsoft Word, SnagIt, and many other tools.

Prior to becoming a writer, I was a software engineer for five years, working on accounting and database records systems. I continue to use my developer skills by creating macros and scripts in Word and FrameMaker to enhance documentation processes. I’m also a certified Scrum master. To summarize, I have extensive experience as a documentation manager, technical writer, and trainer. I can write at all levels of documentation from end-users to developers. But the best thing I can tell you about me is that I love what I do. Even after writing and publishing close to nine million words, I still enjoy writing and managing enormously. It’s great fun! I look forward to talking to you further. Thanks!

Yours truly,

John Hedtke

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