From Ballet Slippers to Life Jacket
Growing up in Massachusetts, Robin Coles’ original career plan was to be a ballerina. She loved 
dancing, especially in front of hundreds of people. Her biggest audience was at an Amway rally in front of 3000+ people. The music was “The Impossible Dream”. In her senior year of high school she received a letter from the Royal Ballet of England to audition. Unfortunately, she injured her knee and was told she’d never dance again. Twelve years later she did go back to ballet where her two boys got to see her dance.
Computers became the backup plan, much to her 8th grade math teacher’s dismay. Robin received degrees in both computer technology and management information systems (MIS) graduating from Northeastern University.
During Robin’s Northeastern days, she was a single mom raising two young boys, worked full-time at Honeywell and a part-time job at McDonald’s. Her roles at Honeywell included data entry, microfiche, computer operations, and System Software Support.
Another Giant Leap! Robin Coles Goes Out On Her Own.
In 1990 after working ten years at Honeywell, Robin started freelancing and her computer skills took off. She picked up database and web development, technical writing and training to name a few. While working in various positions in computers she wrote a lot of documentation including user guides for small businesses that bought software off the shelf and had no idea how to use it for their purpose.
As a hands-on specialist throughout the full Software Development Life cycle (SDLC), Robin is one of those rare birds who feels good documentation is essential, especially in today’s world. So, every database she created or maintained, she always wrote the documentation inside the code. This was especially important for the next developer that came along. Not only did it help them understand the logic, but also saved the company time and money with a shorter learning curve or maintenance. With those skills, she became a sought-after database developer. She had five developers that she would follow before the dot-com bust. Once they left a company she received a call to “fix” the databases.
Transitioning to Published Author and Technical Writer
Robin continued her education by taking several writing courses, studied internet marketing and learned to sail. Those courses opened the world to a more enjoyable life: working as a freelance writer and published author for more than 10 years.
Fast forward to today. Robin attends various trade shows to keep up with new technology to bring back to her clients. Primarily she helps companies with their documentation needs. This includes strategizing, creating, replacing and updating technical and marketing content. Some refer to Robin Coles as a documentation janitor.
Industries include: tech (software and bio), healthcare, telecommunications, financial, hospitality, maritime and nonprofits.
Writing Practice Journal for Technical Writers!.
100-pages of writing exercises to help anyone starting out as a technical writer or those looking to improve their skills, learn to think like a technical writer and have fun doing it. To learn more about this check out my press release.
Only “Safe” Desserts!
50 delicious “safe” dessert recipes cookbook for Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Soy, Nuts, and
Sorghum Flour Free
Robin Coles’ Passion
Robin is a passionate marine enthusiast and sailor who has interviewed countless industry experts as well as visited, interviewed personnel at, written about, photographed and video taped hundreds of marine ports in the US and abroad.
The ocean both scares and exhilarates her, as it should any boater – one minute it is as calm and smooth as glass; the next a stark raving maniac, as crazy as life itself.
Robin’s authored a newspaper column, a variety of articles, newsletters, case studies, reports, and technical documents about boating and non-boating topics.
In her spare time she loves to walk the beach, photograph a variety of subjects, read good detective stories, business books, travel, cook, crochet shawls for four-to-six-year olds in cancer wards, write, and sail Boston Harbor.
To learn more about working with Robin Coles, click here.