jvanderschee

Quick Bio - I am a full time student at Algonquin College pursuing the Technical Writing Graduate Certificate. I started out an education degree program in University but then ended up with a B.Arts in Art History. I wanted to combine my love of art and design with my education background and become an art educator. I ended up hanging out with a bunch of Nortel co-op students which re-kindled my interest in technology and ended up falling into the technology industry in an IT company. I worked in support for a bit, but because of my education background, I ended up working on training projects for my help desk colleagues. I was hired at Nortel (my dream employer) and developed a standardized new-hire training program for the Spectrum product. But all good things must come to an end, and the glorious high-tech bubble burst just as I was getting ready to go on maternity leave. I struggled to find my place in the workforce again and did some work in training. I was the education manager for a non-profit cycling advocacy group, but it wasn't the right place for me. I did some contracts in government and almost got a job as the editor of the CEPA Annual Review but lost out to a permanent employee. I worked in financial services for the next few years but was secretly drawn to the communications field. I lived out west for three years and when I came back to Ottawa, my friend inspired me to go back to school to go after my dream. I've always had a knack for finding spelling and grammatical errors; I get that from my dad. I've always enjoyed research and writing and did well when these tasks were part of my job. I think I am really going to enjoy technical writing. I'm not particularly good at prose, but I can write a heck of a set of instructions!