Repost: Experiences and Accomplishments Scratchpad

Originally posted August 6, 2007, now archived here.

I’m trying to come up with a good set of descriptors of what I’ve done and of accomplishments, both as selling points for the new support business, and as resume fodder to have a more traditional resume available. This was my initial set that was oriented mainly at distilling the massive amount of software and hardware experience into a relevant series of bullet points. Below this I’ll put what I have come up with so far, starting from scratch, with minimal reference to this first list, incorporating some things that don’t necessarily fit into a “what software I’ve used” type of scenario.

Built, upgraded, repaired, used and supported many PCs and peripherals over the past 19 years.

Used and in some cases supported almost every version of Microsoft Windows and DOS, with lesser exposure to other operating systems, including OS/2 Warp and Linux.

Supported multiple versions of Microsoft Word, both as part of Microsoft support and for law firms and other users. Specialized in macros, drawing tools, and interaction between Word and other software. Used several other word processors, text editors, and mixed software packages/suites from 1985 onward.

Used and sometimes supported Microsoft Excel, other spreadsheets, personal and business finance and accounting software, including Peachtree, Quicken, and Juris.

Worked extensively with Paint Shop Pro. Used and sometimes supported various other graphics, presentation, scanning software, and associated standalone or networked scanning hardware.

Supported Microsoft Access, SQL Server and MSDE. Used or less extensively supported several other database tools.

Supported Dragon Naturally Speaking versions 3.0 through 9.5, tested alternatives, and supported a handheld digital dictation device and associated software and hardware for download and transcription.

Online or connecting remotely to other computers in some form since 1993, involving BBS, PC Anywhere, or internet, involving modems, DSL, T-1, and FiOS.

Supported all things computer-related in law firm environments for several years. That includes industry-specific applications such as those from Juris, Westlaw and others.

Used and supported various backup and file consolidation/compression software, including PKZip, Winzip, ARCserve, Backup Exec, Retrospect, and more.

Installed, used, supported — informally or formally, troubleshot, and sometimes even wrote and maintained countless software applications, from the obsolete and obscure to the recent.

Cleaned viruses and malware from dozens of machines, manually and with software tools. Installed, ran, troubleshot and supported antivirus, spam filtering, and malware scanning software, including Norton individual and corporate, Sybari Antigen and Spam Manager, Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and others.

Set up, troubleshot and supported peer-to-peer and client/server networks since 1993.

Here are the other blurbs I’ve come up with. I’ve modified or purged as needed to eliminate some overlap.

Wired ethernet cable to install twenty network jacks in a three room office. Made patch cables from raw materials.

Configured Small Business Server 2003 and networking controlled by it, established internet connectivity for the network, added six workstations and associated network and Exchange accounts, and added a networked printer/scanner/copier.

Migrated a network of fifty users from Novell and an NT member server to a pure NT network.

Setup and maintained Exchange Server 5.5 and 2003. Migrated Exchange ahead of impending hardware failure.

Setup a proxy server, implemented internet connectivity via T-1, and established internet e-mail transfer via Exchange for a fifty user NT network.

Cleaned up viruses, including Code Red and Nimda, and malware outbreaks manually and with freely available tools in an environment where the management refused to deploy corporate protection.

Installed, used, supported — informally or formally, troubleshot, and sometimes even wrote and maintained countless software applications, from the obsolete and obscure to the recent.

Wrote customer timekeeping software.

Wrote and supported a utility for gathering and formatting complete and accurate information for Visual Basic support cases being escalated to second level support.

Maintained and tweaked code for a customer document/legal case management software package.

Pioneered and helped set standards for “web response” online Microsoft Visual Basic support.

Migrated firm of fifty users from DOS/bTrieve-based Juris Classic accounting system to Windows/MSDE-based version of Juris and associated offline timekeeping software.

Deployed and supported beta version of legal case and document management software at two small firms.

Tested legal case and document management software as it was being developed.

Wrote a supplemental utility to copy all the documents associated with a case from the file server, optionally changing case status to archived and purging the documents from the server.

Created and maintained web sites starting in 1997. Started blogging in 2003. Co-founded and administered Carnival of the Capitalists, pioneering and largely defining topical blog carnivals.

Wrote documentation for a computerized time clock system.

Revised, improved, scheduled and managed the entire new hire training program for Visual Basic support. Taught the introduction and product history, Setup Wizard and app distribution, and graphics segments of training.

Determined client requirements and designed user interface for an extension to legal case/document management software, intended to ensure accurate, complete collection of data on the nature and outcome of legal cases when assigned a status of closed. Supervised coding, tested and debugged, and integrated the module into the existing program.

I know I could come up with more, and that some of this is better than others, and that what is included or emphasized depends on the target and purpose. What’s weird is that putting this all into a blog post made it easier to read and edit what I already had, and to add more. Why should it matter whether it’s blogging or a blank Word document?

Experience Posts (links to reposts):

Intro to Experience Dump
Hardware Experience
OS Experience
Word Processing Experience
Spreadsheets and Accounting
Graphics and Presentations
Database and RDBMS
Dictation Software
Communications, Internet, PDA, Blogging
Legal Industry Software
Backup and Compression Software
Miscellaneous Software
Security, Spam, Malware…
Call Center and Tech Support Tools
Languages and Programming Tools
Server Software
Software Creation

Employment and College
Experiences and Accomplishments Scratchpad