Introduce Yourself Here!

ElisabethBaker

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Posted 04 April 2012 - 09:25 AM (#1)

Introduce Yourself Here!

What has been your proudest achievement so far? :)

Good morning, Webdevvers!

I'd love to hear about your proudest achievement as yet, and anything you'd like to tell about your next winning effort!

Living in a foreign country, between jobs, without strong local language skills, I wondered whether it was time to move back to the US. Then a bulletin board job posting listed my qualifications! I prayed, "See God, it would be easy for you to get me that job!" Then it was like God tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Elisabeth, it would be easy for me to get you *any* job." Oh! that's right!

The next job was a tech editor position -- user manuals, instructional materials, reference volumes and marketing materials. All familiar, and I knew I was qualified. I also knew many brilliant (and successful) software engineers that are really unfamiliar with MS Word's advanced features. I went in with the idea that I'd show them some best practices in documentation and content management.

Soon, I saw that (a) we'd be using LaTeX, not MS Word, and (

I was not qualified -- I had a lot of learning to do! I learned LaTeX, fell in love with it, developed .sty files and a fresh, new corporate look-and-feel to show off the clarity of content, and even learned how to develop bash scripts to compile various sets and subsets of manuals, instructional materials, reference volumes and marketing brochures! As I grew from technical editor to Technical Documentation Manager, single-source publishing became my passion, whatever the document processing system. My proudest achievement is that 13-volume corpus and all the 2-4 page brochures it propagated!

Back in the US, I've been working with federal contracting organizations rather than high-tech producers -- and that space uses MS Word. I've learned a lot about proposal development and coordinating the input of multiple contributors -- but my favorite people to work with are still engineers, or at least the engineering minded. Cheers to you!

Elisabeth Baker

TheEmpty

I say words in sequences.

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Posted 04 April 2012 - 09:42 AM (#2)

ElisabethBaker, on 04 April 2012 - 09:25 AM, said:

I'd love to hear about your proudest achievement as yet, and anything you'd like to tell about your next winning effort!

Posting in this thread.

But, no seriously... posting in this thread. Can't say I'm too proud of any products I've worked on, sure they shipped, sure they work, but they weren't good buisnes models and didn't really "explode."

Reserved.

@Tom

space

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Posted 04 April 2012 - 09:42 AM (#3)

Thanks and welcome

ocelotapps.com
jr wdR comedian under ThatRailsGuy

arronhunt, on 30 June 2012 - 10:09 PM, said:

Sir you are the first person to make me piss myself laughing. Kudos.

SapporoGuy

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Posted 04 April 2012 - 01:45 PM (#4)

18 years in a country that thinks I'm a hairy barbarian, a cute daughter, typical guy achievments

, friends with the local rough guys - that is an achievement in this country!, hopefully have brainwashed a few kids to go to better univerties than what they have been rold was not possible (placed a few in the number 1 univeristy over here), learned enough of the language to terrorize the natives and complain in police stations ... Hoping current code project makes a mark ... Nothing really awesome but hopefully have helped a few people

Where dis you post for your jobs? I need a back up plan ... Tsunami and declining birth rate is starting to put nails in the coffin.

Just interviewed with a small dev house and starting hourly is $13 ... Less than half what I get paid to bore kids in front of the blackboard

Greatest achievement? My daughter

X and crappy governmental enforcement keeps her out of reach

Even with this, I'd do it all over again

lol ... Pun ?

Oh! Expressive use of smileys should be added to list of irratating achievements

Where are my manners!

Welcome aboard Elisabeth with an "s"

ElisabethBaker

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Posted 04 April 2012 - 07:36 PM (#5)

SapporoGuy, on 04 April 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

Greatest achievement? My daughter

Welcome aboard Elisabeth with an "s"

Congratulations for making the world a better place through good teamwork!

Funny how all the years I lived in Finland, that "s" was never an issue -- but first thing when I came back at the end of 2005...!

Cheers everybody!

TheEmpty

I say words in sequences.

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Posted 04 April 2012 - 07:53 PM (#6)

ElisabethBaker, on 04 April 2012 - 07:36 PM, said:

Congratulations for making the world a better place through good teamwork!

That is a great youthanism (damnit, wrong word), I'm going to try that at school tomorrow.

Reserved.

ElisabethBaker

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Posted 05 April 2012 - 09:20 PM (#7)

ThatRailsGuy, on 04 April 2012 - 07:53 PM, said:

That is a great youthanism (damnit, wrong word), I'm going to try that at school tomorrow.

Your spelling is close!

Now you can spell it 'euphemism'

Greek... eu=good/favorable, phem=spoken expression
(Using a favorable expression in place of a less favorable one.)

NeilHanlon

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Posted 05 April 2012 - 09:31 PM (#8)

Welcome aboard!

Greatest Achievement, heh?

I'm honestly not sure. Being only 17 - I haven't had too much time to have any great achievements, but I guess being as mature as I am at my age, and also being one of the only people in my area that is actually working in a real business environment and doing what I love.

Welcome again!

ElisabethBaker

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Posted 06 April 2012 - 09:57 PM (#9)

NeilHanlon, on 05 April 2012 - 09:31 PM, said:

...only 17 ...being as mature as I am at my age, and also being one of the only people in my area that is actually working in a real business environment and doing what I love.

That sounds good Neil Hanlon!

What thoughts do you have about further formal education? I must ask carefully, because when I was in grad school I met a 19 year old who had already completed his baccalaureate degrees and was working on one PhD in Violin and another PhD in Mathematics.

Oh hey -- what is it that you love to do, anyway? Website development? I love to arrange words, mostly on pages or in tables. I also love to collaborate.

Cheers and thanks!
Elisabeth