Guibord Technical Writing Services Daniel J.M. Guibord - Biography, skills and CV

Biography

I was born in Montreal, province of Quebec, Canada.

My first job was with Bell Canada as a Central Office Technician. My responsibilities were essentially preventive and corrective maintenance of telephone switching equipment.

My interest in physics and semiconductor technology had always been very high; In my spare time and weekends I designed, engineered, and produced audio amplifiers, which were then considered as the-state-of-the-art in the field of audio equipment.

In 1975, I left Canada for Argentina, where I spent close to three years and learnt Spanish. While in Argentina, I sold some of the audio amplifiers that I had designed, engineered, and produced while in Canada. I also established a business that provided technical services for discos' electronic equipment.

From 1978 to 1991, back in Canada, I owned and operated Guibord Research and Development Laboratory Inc. The company’s main business was R&D, and design & engineering of custom built electronic equipment.

From 1991 to 1992, I studied at CEGEP Ahuntsic towards a C.E.C. in electrotechnology.

From 1992 to 1995, I studied at Concordia University towards a Bachelor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

From 1996 to 2001, I worked as a consultant to the electronics industry, providing design, engineering, and technical writing services.

Aside from physics and electronics, my main interests are concrete actions towards bringing awareness to citizens as to what Democracy could be, and maintaining my excellent health through an active participation in sports.

Skills

38 years experience in the fields of electronics and high technology,

of which more than 20 years experience in documentation and technical writing.

Communication

Verbal, textual, and graphical. Excellent capacity of synthesis concerning wide and highly complex issues. Communication of benefits and operations of products and systems. Clear and convincing written communication of ideas and concepts.

Experience writing proposals for the Canadian federal and other levels of government. Experience writing copy for, and creating written text for, corporate profiles, promotional material, and marketing collateral, as well as corporate external and internal communication pieces.

Documentation

Hardware and software documentation, instruction manuals (user’s manuals, installation guides, troubleshooting guides), scientific articles, application notes (technical notes), data sheets, technical white papers, patent applications, translations, sales and marketing literature. Schematics and Drawings: Block diagrams, schematic capture (electrical, electronic, mechanical).

Can research topics, write documentation plans and outlines. Interview experts of subject matter; write new content; update and edit existing content so as to maintain product manuals and technical documents; evaluate and introduce new tools and technologies to improve user’s documents.

Ability to write and edit documentation in accordance with an internal style guide. Production of software documentation according to IEEE standards. Production of documentation for innovative software products. Planning, research, and writing of software manuals for an audience of programmers and IT professionals, in both print and online formats. Can expand and adapt Web site content.

Languages

English, French, Spanish, Portuguese. Strong knowledge of language’s subtle intricacies. Excellent reading, writing, and editing skills, including comprehension, articulation, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.

Technical Literacy

High degree of technical literacy, allowing for rapid acquisition and comprehension of new computing and high technology concepts. Can combine technical knowledge with creative writing skills in order to produce clear, concise, and technically accurate materials using words, graphics and code samples.

Information Technology: Computers, Software Tools and Software Development

PC Platforms: Experience with IBM PC/AT and compatibles, DOS, Windows, UNIX, and LINUX.

Software:

Imaging: PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro, Acrobat Distiller, VISIO, CorelDraw, etc.

Word and Text Processing: FrameMaker, RoboHelp, MS-Word, WordPerfect, PowerPoint, etc.

Software Development: Borland’s Assembler, Pascal, C, C++, C++Builder, etc.

Design and Engineering: ORCAD, VIEWlogic, PADS, Protel, Hyperlynx, Electronics Workbench,

Siemens’ Ferrite Magnetic Design Tool, etc.

Relational Databases: Excel, Quattro Pro, Origin. Access, etc.

Developed a method that enables most people to learn new software typically in less than 10% the amount of time that is normally required to do so. Excellent desktop publishing and word processing skills.

Excellent programming skills (including concepts behind object-oriented programming), and solid understanding of Web-based technologies and languages (XML/SGML, HTML, JSP, ASP, C/C++). Experience with programming languages such as Assembler (expert level), Pascal, C/C++ Builder.

Can reverse engineer software using only its source code so as to produce software documentation (including block diagrams and flow charts).

Team Work

Excellent interpersonal skills, both written and oral. Team player with initiative and ability to work independently and/or with a team. Commitment to excellence and ability to work with other teams that strive for success. Worked with teams in R&D, Engineering, and Product Management, in order to define requirements and interpret their specialized knowledge into clear, well-written technical project documents. Administrated Software Control & Documentation release management process. Experience with coordination of report generation for production application support; maintenance and update of production support documentation; and integration of required documentation.

Management

Ability to prioritize, work effectively, coordinate multiple project schedules and manage time accordingly, and meet deadlines. Self-motivated and ability to work on multiple projects under tight time constraints, and accept responsibility for deliverables, and deliver on promises. Able to multitask in a demanding environment. Can handle new, cutting-edge products, in a fast-paced environment. I have a lot of initiative.

Clients and Customers Support

Customer driven. High degree of professionalism. Steep learning skills. Ability to deliver quality technical documentation on time. Can maintain and streamline processes for creation, approval, access and distribution of client’s customer documentation. Can write documentation for developers who use client’s products. Can write tutorials and sample applications.

Curriculum Vitae

My Curriculum Vitae - HTML, in English - PDF (133 KB), in French - PDF (133 KB)