Rebecca Firestone – Resume

Business Writing, Corporate Training and Communications

Summary: Currently working through Expert Support, Inc., a small Mountain View-based agency specializing in developer documentation. Currently working with Mark English Architects on The Architects’ Take, a design blog.

Mark English Architects, 2009 – 2011 and 2016 – Present

Marketing, Operations, and Energy Consulting

At this design-oriented residential architectural firm based in San Francisco, I provided California energy compliance analysis services, researched and wrote articles for our two SEO-featured WordPress blogs, including over 90 full-length articles and features. I also participated in active business outreach with professional organizations and other design firms.

Zep Solar|SolarCity, 2012-2016

Senior Technical Writer

Created award-winning, full-length mechanical installation manuals for innovative solar rooftop mounting solutions using Adobe Framemaker, Adobe InDesign, SolidWorks Composer, and other graphical tools. Worked with my team to recruit and train new hires for Tech Pubs. Responsible for document scoping and scheduling, an inexact science. Featured presenter at the Society for Technical Communication, as well as participating in juried competitions as both entrant and judge (not of my own work, of course).

BRU Architects, 2006 – 2009

Business Manager/Operations

At BRU, I provided all of the office’s legal and business writing, including contracts and design proposals, managed invoicing and payables, assisted in marketing and client relations, and designed and produced full-scale company brochures showing the firm’s project portfolio. I also represented the firm at the AIA-SF Small Firms Committee.

Expert Support, Inc., 1998 – 2006

Senior Technical Writer

Projects for numerous Bay Area software companies included documentation suites, online help systems, tutorials, training courses, technical articles and white papers. Companies included Clarify (now Nortel), Excite@Home, Hewlett-Packard’s Strategic Planning and Modeling Group, Liquid Systems (now Zimbra), and VocalPoint Technologies. Applications included CRM, cable and Internet provisioning, supply-chain optimization, tax optimization, and a voice-activated browser server and development platform.

Kenan Systems Corporation, 1990-1997

Trainer/Course Developer, 1995-1997

Developed and delivered a suite of training courses for Arbor/BP, an emerging convergence billing platform. The client training programs were designed to support very aggressive implementation deadlines, while meeting detailed customization requirements in limited development windows. Subsequently delivered courses to channel partners and internal consultants as part of a train-the-trainer program, and collaborated closely with project teams during client training to deliver a consistent message.

Senior Technical Writer, 1993-1995

Worked with a small documentation team to create and maintain multiple customized documentation suites for the Arbor/BP telecom billing platform. Managed FrameMaker document templates, created several new book titles, and maintained over 600 pages of existing documentation.

Documentation/Presentation Specialist, 1990-1993

Consultants for Management Decisions, later to become Kenan Systems Corporation, was a management consulting firm providing specialized Operations Research simulation and modeling services to the United States Postal Service as it sought to determine the optimal equipment investments for all U.S. mail operations. I supported software documentation for the custom-built analysis tools, and also storyboarded and designed presentations made to upper management in support of the analysis methodology and our subsequent recommendations.

Software Packages: FrameMaker, WebWorks, RoboHelp, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, SolidWorks, SolidWorks Composer, WordPress, ArchiOffice, Micropas energy modeler, and the usual Microsoft Office Suite. Operating systems working knowledge: Mac OS, Windows, UNIX.

Education: B.A., East Asian Studies, Oberlin College, 1986

Contact me either by email at rfirestone | at | expertsupport | dot | com or phone at 408-590-7599.

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