Ed Marsh: technical communicator, content strategist, podcaster, mentor

I’m a proud New Jersey native, and I’m passionate about:

• Proper punctuation (especially the em dash —, semicolon, and ellipsis…).
• The Oxford comma.
• Craft beer (former homebrewer).
• Making restaurant-quality food at home with local ingredients.
• IndyCar racing.

Career journey

My career started in New York City’s software industry at Information Builders (now part of Tibco) in 1994. I learned how to be a technical writer as part of a large documentation team.

My web journey started in the mid-1990s with my first website (archived link).

After a stint as a solo technical writer for a financial services SaaS provider — where I spent time on a trading floor and in data centers — I progressed to Goldman Sachs. Over 13 years, I worked in two divisions on Wall Street, creating both user- and developer-facing content. Working in small, medium, and enterprise environments taught me crucial lessons about:

• Cross-functional collaboration.
• Risk management.
• Governance.
• Content strategy at scale.
• Managing projects and subject matter experts.

Here’s how I’ve continually evolved throughout my adult life:

• Learning how to be a technical communicator.
• Learning how to teach music to middle- and high-school students.
• Learning how to write music.
• Developing content strategy.
• Implementing governance.
• Managing projects.
• Public speaking.
• Creating my own podcast.

A love of learning and teaching

As a former high school drumline instructor, my goal was to get young drummers playing and sounding like one through teamwork and structure — which helps me bring a structured approach to content.

I’ve mentored dozens of people:

• Former students.
• Colleagues.
• Children of former colleagues.
• Numerous people on the ADPlist platform.

My band leadership experience includes:

• Teaching high school marching band part-time (with a full-time job) for 14 years, including six as director.
• Representing the state of New Jersey in Washington DC’s National July 4th Parade.
• Co-founding a percussion ensemble called Cacophony, writing original scores.
• Creating and maintaining the band’s website starting in 1996 — which led to the band performing in an Ikea advertisement.
• Receiving recognition from School Band and Orchestra magazine as one of “50 Directors Who Make a Difference”, representing New Jersey in 2006.