My name is Mayur Jobanputra. I’m a Vancouver, Canada based IT Professional with 25+ years of experience working in the IT Industry. My early career started in Quality Assurance and later moved on to Technical Writing, Web Development, Systems Support, and eventually into Release Management.
I have done a lot of interesting work for employers, from ghostwriting a TCP/IP patent in 1998 for John Sokol, to flying to Mexico as the Chief Release Installer for Fincentric’s Online Banking platform in 2001. You can see my full CV here.
I was displaced from work as a Release Engineer in 2008 due to the financial crisis. This layoff turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I ended up taking an extended break from work to help my family. I spent the next 8 years as a primary caregiver for my dad after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He passed away peacefully in 2016.
Outside of my Freelance work as a Web and Graphic Designer for Makeup Artists, I’m pursuing a career as a Technical Writer within a medium to large organization. Have a look at my CV here.
My writing career work hasn’t been my only interest. From a very young age, I have had an interest in helping Small Business Owners. Since 1992, I have been helping Entrepreneurs with Web and Business Strategy, Branding, and Web Development. I gained my first client in 1994, a University Professor who wanted to set up a website for his wife’s baked goods business while studying for my Business Degree from SFU.
After graduating in 1996, I started working full time in the IT industry. Despite working full time, I still received a lot of inquiries to perform design work for small business owners. For the past 20+ years, I have worked with more than 100 clients to design websites, logos, business cards, banner ads, advertising graphics and much more. You can see some of that work in my gallery here.
Web design and development has been especially interesting to me. In those early years, I learned HTML and was coding websites by hand. I later moved HTML editors, and then in 2007 started building with WordPress.
I first discovered WordPress in 2001 while trying to build my own CMS in ASP Classic. Inspired by my initial experience with WordPress, and it’s poor user experience early on, I successfully launched my CMS with a handful of clients. My first site license was in 2007 with danskhardwood.com.
That installation of my ASP Classic-based CMS ran for 10+ years without issue on Dansk Hardwood’s in-house Windows servers. In 2014, the client finally moved on to WordPress, and so I made my CMS open source on github.
Although I have built a few projects in Magento, Joomla, and other, now-defunct, CMS platforms, for the past 12 years my CMS of choice has been WordPress. You can learn more about my WordPress expertise here.
My primary market for Web design and development these days are Makeup Artists. Currently, I’m Teaching Makeup Artists the Business of Makeup, Brand & Marketing Strategy, and Storytelling through makeuptalent.com.
I’m a lifelong learner. If I’m not working on client projects, or blogging about snooker, I’m learning from Entrepreneurs, reading a book, or taking courses in Entrepreneurship and Design. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Business and am MCSE certified.
As you can see, I have a wide range of skills and experience to draw upon. If you would like to get in touch, say hello@mayur.ca. I look forward to connecting with you.
My focused work
I’m currently building MakeupTalent.com, a Business Strategy Consultancy for Makeup Artists.
visit makeuptalent.com to learn more about it.
My Expertise as a Writer
I’m a Vancouver, Canada based IT Professional with 25+ years of experience working in the IT Industry. My early career started in Quality Assurance and Web Development and later moved on to Technical Writing, Production, and Systems Support, and Release Engineering. With my work experience, I'm uniquely positioned for a Technical Writer position in a Technology-driven organization.
- Experience working directly with Engineers, QA, and other Technical SMEs.
- Experience managing content projects for SMB clients and employers, including coordinating with other teams.
- Experience with multiple languages - HTML, XML, CSS, PHP, ASP Classic, CMD, nAnt and more.
- Strong bias for action and able to prioritize and meet deadlines.
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Certificate in Technology, MCSE certified
- Have experience developing, creating, and supporting content for Developers, QA, Product and Project Managers, and Production Administrators.
- Able to research, develop, write, and edit effective content with a focus on the intended audience.
- Able to write content that clearly communicates complex technical topics to customers.
- Able to write or edit code samples to support documentation.
Strong Technology Background
With my lengthy Technology industry background, I'm able to quickly learn new Hardware and Software systems quickly:
- Release Engineer and Technical Writer for Intrawest’s Online Commerce platform
- A significant contributor to transforming Intrawest e-Commerce Lab and Production release and deployment into a model for other Development teams
- Developing a first of its kind Release document which provided Production with detailed installation instructions for installing and updating software on a regular Production cycle
- Champion of detailed Software Installation guides, Support documentation
- Providing support and deployment services to Development, QA and Production EIT including managing 40+ Windows servers in a VM ESX Environment for a QA lab (release n, n-1, release y, y-1, UAT, R&D, and Production mirror)
- Release Engineer and Technical Writer at Fincentric on their web banking portal
- Writing Release notes and Maintenance Guides for their Online Banking portal customers
- Was a key support person for the installation of a multi-million dollar project for Mexico’s largest
bank. I was required to be in Mexico city for 2 weeks to install an important piece of our software
- Web Developer for Ericsson Professional Services on medbroadcast.com
- Custom designed an ASP and SQL database driven document management system for tracking
web page approval process and workflow. Gained valuable knowledge with ASP, Oracle and
WebCrossing
- Custom designed an ASP and SQL database driven document management system for tracking
- Web Developer as a Macmillan Bloedel
- Queried all levels of the organization to gather and sort all types of internal IS related documents
- Designed and implemented an Intranet site to handle all the documents collected (>2000)
- Wrote a detailed business case for a document management system for another department. Help desk workload was reduced by 50% as a result of this project
- Technical Writer and Web Developer for Digital Video Broadcast Systems
- Wrote several patent applications for Internet video streaming, TCP/IP stack improvements,
Video and Web server technologies, Caching servers for broadband video - Designed and published brochures, news releases, business cards, and more.
- Wrote several patent applications for Internet video streaming, TCP/IP stack improvements,
Technical Writing Skills
I have created Documentation of every variety and scope:
- End-user Software training documents and guides, Technical whitepapers for complex SAAS and in-house applications, TCP/IP patent applications, Programming guides, Release notes, Installation notes for Production-level Systems Support, Bug reports, and much more.
- As a Freelance designer, Web site copy, Digital and Traditional Advertising, Brochures, Blog content and much more.
- I have used many applications relevant in the Technical Writing industry including Adobe Pagemaker, Framemaker, Photoshop, and Illustrator, RoboHelp, and much more.
Soft Skills
- Ability to collaborate with Development teams, Quality Assurance and other Technical Professional, Product and Project Managers, Business Analysts and end Customers.
- Dedication to creating perfect Documentation, Manuals, and Guides that are error-free
- Unique ability to distill complex Technical issues and ideas to end users
Customer Facing Skills
Having owned a Graphic and Web Design freelancing business for over 20 years, I have experience with every facet of Web and Graphic Design and Web Development - hosting, firewalls, Inbound and Outbound Marketing, CSS, HTML, Photoshop, JavaScript, 3rd party APIs and much more.
This business also has honed my skills in speaking with Customers, building Marketing programs, filling Sales pipelines, and much more.
I possess a very diverse range of Business, Technology and Writing skills to meet the demands of any environment. I'm a Canadian citizen and am willing to travel throughout North America. I require a VISA to work in the USA.
View my detailed CV here.