Bernd Wechner
A Professional Résumé

6 Montagu Street, Mount Stuart 7000, Australia
bernd(at)RemoveThisSpamguardPrefixToMailBerndwechner.info
+61-3-62788012

[http://bernd.wechner.info/Professional also on GitHub, DEV, StackOverflow LinkedIn, Seek]

[Headline] [Skills] [Career] [Experience] [Publications] [Education] [Personal Details] [Other Interests] [Referees]

Headline

A multifaceted professional with experience across a range of industries (steel production, telephone systems, fisheries science, software production), a broad range of skills (math and science, telecommunication, communication, management, IT project management, training, sales, marketing) and a persistent yen for learning, creation, positive contributions and making the world a better place.

Skills

  • Math and Physics
  • Software Engineering
  • Programming
  • Project management
  • Team management
  • Technical writing
  • Training course design, preparation and delivery
  • Quality assurance
  • Process automation
  • Learning - I love learning and discovering new things.
    • particularly in the engineering, science, mathematics and communication areas (personal and information technology)
  • Communication - I love expressing myself and hearing from others.
    • I'm active in writing and on media, and have considerable experience in public speaking and course presentation, and a modest dev.to prescence. I also speak the following world languages:
      • German (native),
      • Esperanto (fluent),
      • French (conversational),
      • Spanish (low level)
  • Creation - I love making things.
    • am actively working on projects spanning software and hardware and have a modest GitHub presence
    • I maintain a small server farm at home and a LAN with a commercial switch.
    • I have reconstructed a garden shed (on AirBnB), built a cubby complex and playground for my children and bike workshop
  • Reverse Engineering - I love pulling things apart to see how they work
    • from the youthful endeavor/misadventure or disassembling and removing copy protection for games, through to data files and network protocols when needed, and household applicances as needed, reverse engineering is expensive though!
  • Most current:
    • Python,
    • JavaScript,
    • Bash,
    • PHP,
    • HTML,
    • CSS,
    • SQL,
    • C#,
    • Markdown
  • Historically:
    • Matlab,
    • VBA,
    • Perl,
    • Visual Basic,
    • C,
    • C++,
    • ADA,
    • Pascal,
    • FORTRAN,
    • Intel Assembly and 8088/6 Machine Code
  • *n*x (Linux Debian/Ubuntu/Mint, OpenWRT, Sun-OS, Xenix, HP-UX),
  • MS-Windows (from Windows 3 through to 11),
  • QTS (QNAP), DSM (Synology)
  • VAX/VMS,
  • RSX,
  • MS-DOS, PC-DOS, CP/M
  • TCP/IP (LAN based, WAN based)
  • router configuration,
  • NAT (Reverse Proxy), DNS, DDNS and DHCP configurations,
  • Webserver configuration (apache, lightttpd),
  • SSL certification (letsencrypt)
  • GSM networks
  • All manner desktop PCs and laptops,
  • Ubuntu in Redhat servers,
  • NAS (QNAP, Synology),
  • Raspberry Pi's and Arduinos
  • Legacy mini-computers: Sun workstations, MicroVax, HP9000

Career

Period Role
2019 — 2024 Quality Assurance Engineer, Echoview Software Pty. Ltd.
2015 — 2019 Global Partner Manager, Echoview Software Pty. Ltd.
2011 — 2015 Global Sales and Marketing Manager, Echoview Software Pty. Ltd.
2010 — 2011 Sales Support (Infrastructure and Asia/Pacific), Echoview Software Pty. Ltd.
2006 — 2010 Project Manager, Myriax Software Pty. Ltd.
2003 — 2010 Manager of Quality Assurance and Documentation, SonarData Pty. Ltd.
2002 — 2003 Manager of User Support and Training, SonarData Pty. Ltd.
2002 Test Engineer, Dytech Solutions Pty. Ltd.
2000 — 2002 Software Engineer, Larrisun Pty. Ltd.
1998 — 2000 Customer Support Engineer, Landis and Gyr Communications
2000 — 2001 Traveller Australia
1997 — 2010 Company Director, Larrisun Pty. Ltd.
1997 Technical Consultant, BHP Research
1995 — 1996 Telecommunications Engineer, Swiss Telecom PTT
1995 — 2003 Contributing Editor, Suite101.com
1993 — 1995  Traveller Asia and Europe
1992 — 1993 Research Engineer/Liaison Officer, BHP Sheet and Coil Products Division
1991 — 1992 Traveller Europe
1986 — 1991 Research Engineer, BHP Sheet and Coil Products Division
1983 — 1986 Mechanical Engineering Trainee, BHP Coated Products Division
1979 — 1980 Newspaper delivery, Northwest Star

Experience

The SonarData/Echoview Years

Quality Assurance Engineer, Echoview Pty. Ltd. 2019-2024

Global Partner Manager, Echoview, Echoview Pty. Ltd. 2015-2019

Global Sales and Marketing Manager, Echoview, Echoview Pty. Ltd. 2011-2015

Sales Support (Infrastructure and Asia/Pacific), Echoview, Echoview Pty. Ltd. 2010-2011

Project Manager, Eonfusion, Myriax Pty. Ltd. 2006-2011

Manager of Support, Quality Assurance and Documentation, SonarData Pty. Ltd. 2003-2011

Manager of User Support and Training, SonarData Pty. Ltd. 2002-2003

The Telcommunications Years

Customer Support Engineer, Landis and Gyr Communications 1998-2000

Telecommunications Engineer, Swiss Telecom 1995-1996.

On the Move

Test Engineer, Dytech Solutions Pty. Ltd. 2002

Software Engineer, Larrisun Pty. Ltd. 2000-2002

Contributing Editor, Suite101.com 1995-2003

Independent Traveller, 1991-2001

The Steel Years

Technical Consultant, BHP Research 1997.
Company Director, Larrisun Pty. Ltd. 1997-2010

Research Engineer, BHP Sheet and Coil Products Division 1986-1993.

Mechanical Engineering Trainee, BHP Coated Products Division 1983-1986.

The Beginnings...

Newspaper delivery boy, Northwest Star 1979-1980.

Publications

A modest body of developer oriented essays at dev.to.

Moderately active on the Stack Overflow group of sites. As at 2024 I'm the 6th most active Tasmanian user in fact, which a Stack Exchange query can reveal.

A modest collection of Python packages published to PyPi.

Moderately active on GitHub.

Extensive publication of end user documentation including Echoview help, Eonfusion Help and AQ1 documentation.

An entire series of 82 research essays published at Suite 101 in the 1990s.

Many internal and confidential research reports have been published as well as design documentation, user guides, course material and travel articles (on-line and in zines) as well Wikipedia contributions ( many more anonymously than credited).

The following co-authored papers:

Education

Master of Engineering (Information Technologies and Telecommunications), Flinders University of South Australia 1995-96
Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical), Honours class II, University of Wollongong 1983-86
Higher School Certificate, Physics prize, Engadine High School 1981-82 
Junior School Certificate, German prize, Mount Isa State High School 1978-80

Selected training courses

Robotic Vision MOOC, Queensland University of Technology, 2015
No nonsense web intelligence, Online Impressions, 2010
People in Projects, The Training Consortium, 2008
High Performance Communication, High Performance, 2005
High Performance Sales, High Performance, 2005
Practical Project Estimation, SEA Education services, 2004
Project Management Advanced, SEA Education services, 2003
The Landmark Forum, Landmark Education, 2003 (corporate sponsored management program)
CMMI-SE/SW for Senior Managers, European Software Institute, 2003 (part of the SoftwareMark program)
Steel Group Management Course, BHP Steel (now Bluescope steel), 1992 (in-house program)
Priority Manager training, Priority Management, 1992 (personal time management skills)
Bronze Medallion, Surf Life Saving Australia 1992 (rescue and first-aid skills)
Classic Challenge Course, Outward Bound Australia 1991 (a world famous personal development course)

Personal Details

Date of Birth: November 12, 1965
Place of Birth: Kempten, Bavaria, Germany.
Nationality: Australian, Swiss
Marital Status: Married (de facto) with three children (2003, 2013, 2017)

Other Interests

I am a keen creator on-line, working extensively with Python, JavaScript, PostgreSQL, Celery, run a home LAN with a good many servers (router, firewall, web, NAS, HTPC, Nextcloud and more, and a handful of registered domain names pointing to my basement IT sector).

I am also an environmentalist, a cyclist, a swimmer, an in-line skater, a gamer, and enjoy small team sports though lost all time to indulge in them since children arrived.

I've held a long lasting passion for travel, social and cultural exchanges, international contacts, language, and philosophy all on the back burner while raising children.

I founded the Hobart Games Society (HoGS) in 2004, which we incorporated in 2009 and I presided over for 2 years before focusing on special interest subgroup of Competitive Gamers (CoGs). I have been treasurer for the Hobart Bike Kitchen since 2017. Treasurer for HoGS between 2021 and 2023, and presently Public Officer.

Have participated in two Tasmanian Men's Gatherings (2006 and 2008) and participated in and hosted a men's group from 2009 to 2013 (that is a weekly gathering of men in a safe confidential context encouraging all to speak openly about their lives and learn sharing and listening skills). I have been sitting at a Men's Table since November 2022.

I have yet to start a Youtube channel (one of my boys wants to be a Youtuber when grows up).

Referees

Provided on demand. Most former employers available for comment (the further back in time the harder that gets, but can be done as I've always held warm ongoing relations with my colleagues and employers and let's face it LinkedIn is pretty good even if I've never quite fully invested in it).