My background is fairly diverse, with equal parts of technology, publishing, and management. The following sections boil down my experience into skillset categories so prospective employers can best see what benefit I can bring to their organization(s).

Management

I posess excellent management skills, having managed people, projects, products, and entire companies. I've always been a “working manager,” able to chip in and get my hands dirty (and/or keep them dirty) when and where required. Specifically, I have:

• Always stepped up into leadership roles when required
• Think “outside of the box,” routinely finding creative solutions to problems
• Managed multiple product lines in various media markets (books, software, online)
• Performed as the team leader on many projects, both internal and for external clients and partners
• Managed multiple budgets and performed the role of Chief Financial Officer
• Managed a business focus change and financial turnaround of a software and services company during the tech crash of the late 90s, early 2000.
• Managed a services company in a steady-state environment, providing critical services to outside vendors and partners

I'd make an excellent director, department head, mid-level manager, or team leader. Note that I have held C-level titles--in small, Midwestern companies. I'm not looking to reprise those positions, but am quite capable of performing at an executive level if required.

Authoring/Documentation

I have authored more than 15 publications, several online articles, and documentation for a variety of other projects. I excel at taking complex, technical information and boiling it down for any audience, technical or not. My technical documenation skills aid me in relating to others even in non-written methods. My authoring bibliography is available here.

Publishing

I have managed several publishing plans across several markets and am very familiar with the activities required to publish media, from acquiring content to working with vendors to produce, build, and assemble final products.

• Books
  I worked for Macmillan Computer Publishing (now Pearson Education) for many years and managed publishing plans for several different computer technical areas (applications, Internet, and hardware)
• Online
  I managed three technology segments for the online content aggregator Earthweb.com (now part of Jupitermedia.com):
  • Hardware
  • Networking
  • Open Source
• Software
  I managed the gaming and Linux publishing plans for Macmillan Digital and published Progeny Debian.

I'd make an excellent publishing director, acquisitions manager, or media product manager. I'm able to juggle multiple priorities across several product lines and can manage a publishing program from soup to nuts.

Technology

I have a broad, mostly PC-based, technology background. This can be broken down as follows:

• Programming
  I am able to program in many languages, including:
  • BASIC (various forms)
  • Assembly (8088 and related)
  • Pascal
  • Fortran
  • C
  • Perl
  • Python
  • Java
  • JavaScript
  • PHP
  • Various macro languages
• Networking
  I have strong networking skills and have managed small and medium sized networks including:
  • Microsoft server technologies
  • Linux
  • Macintosh
  • Novell
• Web Technologies
  I am fluent in various Web technologies, including the latest versions of:
  • HTML
  • XHMTL
  • CSS
  • Various Web programming languages (see Programming, above)
• Hardware
  I posess excellent troubleshooting skills and am able to setup, deploy, maintain, troubleshoot, and repair many types of computer hardware.

I'm a generalist when it comes to technology, knowing a fair bit across a wide variety of topics. I can program, but wouldn't make the best programmer. I can manage web sites, but would not be the best choice for a web master or web programmer. However, I'd make an excellent technical director when my technology skills are paired with my management skills.