Erik Ruthruff Email & Phone Number

TekkiGurus published business and technical articles and videos for the Microsoft 365 Community, plus offered free and sponsored webinars. A great group of writers (over 70) and great people to work with.

Telecommute

I was pleased to be part of the year-old start up, IT Unity, an online community site for Office 365 and SharePoint professionals specializing in articles, news, newsletters, online events, live conferences, producing shows for online channels, building community sites and much more to come. Prior to joining as an employee, I worked as a contractor for 7 months. I work as an editor, producer, writer, project manager, team leader and partner with professionals I've known from the SharePoint community for years. If you're a professional who uses SharePoint in your work, there are some great things happening at IT Unity. Sadly, total page views and webinar attendance was low, so they cut the production staff in mid-2016.

Telecommute

I lead a company-wide project to build a new process for documentation development because there was a mandate to stop using a system that was no longer supported by the original software manufacturer. Prior to my arrival, the support teams who were writing the documentation had no style guide standards, little training to be technical writers and very few good examples to follow. After editing some documentation as a contractor for the months prior to joining the company and running customer surveys to find out how customers use their documentation (as well as how they would prefer to use it), I worked with the support teams to build an internal style guide, develop templates and formalize a writing cycle that involved proper outlines, peer SME review, and an editorial cycle that involved professional copy editing. I also created and taught a full-day workshop on how to write better documentation. At the same time, I worked with an internal team to build a customer software delivery platform to replace the unsupported system that the company wanted to retire. Our software development team used agile software development processes including weekly stand-up meetings, kanban boards (Trello). We use GitHub to manage individual Help articles and copy editing of those articles.

A23 Consulting (my self-employed company) edits articles, manages white paper development, writes and manages content and conference/training speakers for software professionals who use Microsoft development tools including Visual Studio, SQL Server, SharePoint and Microsoft Office. I also work with IT professionals who write content about SharePoint, SQL Server, Windows, Office 365 and security and certification.As an independent contractor, I worked as the technical editor for CODE Magazine and their online newsletters from 2002 - 2013. I also managed the development of white papers for Microsoft on topics that include Microsoft Office development, Visual Studio development, and Microsoft SQL Server. I have managed the development of over 100 technical white papers for Microsoft since 2003 for their developer marketing teams. Over the past few years I've also done contract work for AppDev (previous employer) to recruit subject matter experts as new instructors, edit training manuals, do Q&A of computer-based training and online learning courses, write self-assessment questions based on new software training courses and I used Adobe Captivate to build end user computer-based training.

Telecommute

As an independent contractor, I wrote and edited marketing content, managed scheduling, logistics, managed conference speakers and created ads, brochures and email marketing assets for the Connections-branded software training conferences. At its high point, I managed 175 speakers teaching sessions in 27 concurrent rooms over 6-day conferences for almost 5000 attendees.

Managed content, speakers, and staff for developer conferences featuring Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft ASP.NET. Produced shows in Orlando, Sydney, and Palm Springs. Also managed the development of 49 white papers developed for Microsoft for the launch of Visual Studio .NET 1.0.

Managed development of all instructor-led training courses and video training products that increased company's annual revenue from $2 million in 1993 to $14 million in 2000.Recruited and managed over 50 instructors conducting 300+ instructor-led classes per year in seven programming courses in over 50 cities in the USA and Canada. Developed direct mail brochures, space advertising, and website content.Edited training courseware.Conducted employee training for new sales recruits.Managed a department of six employees. Conducted regular staff reviews, managed interdepartmental meetings, and participated in all budgeting and strategic planning meetings for the company's core business. Reported to the company president.Participated in all levels of contract negotiation for training, courseware authoring, video development, and royalties.Edited and produced over 45 instructor-led course manuals over seven years, including developing instructor manuals and hands-on labs.Managed the filming, testing, packaging and marketing of 25 computer-based self-study training titles.Managed the development of seven "Seminar-in-a-Box" courses for Microsoft Corporation over a three-year period, and edited all courses.

Certified Professional Project Manager

Education record

B.A.

B.A.