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CHAPTER 6
That’s when I reflected, what is it that I really want to do? This was the early 90s, and computers were just starting to take off. I’d taken computers at Ryer- son, and they were, by today’s standards, very rudimentary, but I was fascinated by them. I remember in high school deliberately taking a typing course using typewriters, because I knew I’d have to use a computer keyboard someday.
After my fiasco with the printing industry, I realized I wanted to be in com- puters. I ended up getting a job for a small charity, managing their databases, tax receipts, and documents. The pay was low, but I loved it because it per- fectly matches my personality and skills. I was organizing a company’s data, information, and processes and giving them an order and structure that they never had. I didn’t realize at the time that these skills would be the common thread throughout my career.
I had discovered my niche, which was to help companies get organized. I worked there for a few years and then got a job working in technical support at Symantec. This is where my feet were put to the fire because I was dealing with customers who would call in about Winfax, which was software that allowed people to send faxes from their computer, a cutting-edge thing at the time. This was a time that when you called for tech support, you spoke to someone in North America. Now, of course, it’s all been offshored.
I learned a lot about technology and customer service at Symantec. At one point, a recruiter contacted me and asked if I thought about being a technical writer. I asked, “What’s a technical writer?” So she explained it to me. I realized I’ve been doing that because I’d been writing knowledge-based solution docu- ments, which are documents that people read if they have a problem with the software. I was also in the support newsgroup, where I wrote detailed tech- nical answers to questions. These answers involved having users complete certain tasks or steps to solve a problem, which is the essence of technical writing. Later, I became the president of the local technical writing chapter, the Toronto STC.
After Symantec, I worked at several software companies over the years. I finally ended up at a company that was acquired by Oracle. I worked there for a while.
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