Following various roles that involved working with developers, I've decided to become one myself! A product of the Makers Academy bootcamp, I've become skilled at test-driven, object-oriented development. I'm now working as part of TES Global's modern, agile development team.
I have proved myself to be a valuable member of the team in a number of different fields.
- A fast learner: in my previous role at GroupM, WPP's media buying operation, I became an operational expert on the group's shared Metis media buying system.
- A very strong written communicator, as well as verbally: I have blogged on tech topics and written marketing copy for Investis, a corporate website company, and, separately, acted as an ambassador for the Metis system at various GroupM agencies. These endeavours both required the ability to communicate concisely about technical topics.
- Experience within an agile environment: I worked alongside an agile development team, liaising with developers and a product manager about system bugs and new features.
Started using it at Makers Academy and now can't get enough.
- Confident with and competent at using the language within a web application context, as well as on its own. Familiar with frameworks like AngularJS, NodeJS and testing resources like Jasmine (example), Protractor (example) and Karma (example).
- Worked on a number of different team and solo projects with a Javascript focus.
Highly familiar with Ruby and the best practices associated with it. I learned the Makers Academy Way™, an assurance of quality.
- Experience with using server-side Ruby to craft web applications with MVC structure
- Familiar with and observant of key object-oriented programming principles
- Place an emphasis on test-driven development
- High Codewars score, largely based upon Ruby code challenges
| Project Name | Description | Technologies and languages worked with |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Website | A single page website about myself. Features a parallax effect on the main image and uses Github's API to pull in my most recent repositories. Code here. | AngularJS, NodeJS, Express. Tested with Karma. Deployed to Heroku |
| SofAR | An Android app that uses Augmented Reality to help you visualise potential furniture purchases in your home. | Javascript, Java, HTML, CSS, Android Studio, Wikitude |
| Capriccioso | A web app designed to help music students hone their musical ear. Code here. | AngularJS, NodeJS, Express. Tested with Karma |
| Clothes Retailer | An online store that sells an array of different clothes. Code here. | AngularJS, NodeJS, Express. Tested with Karma and Protractor |
| Etsy API Call | A research tool based on data from Etsy - displays custom JSON data on Etsy's latest 25 listings at various routes. | NodeJS, Express, Request, Bluebird. Tested with Jasmine-Node |
| To-Do-List | A single page to-do list application to help people remember and check off tasks. | AngularJS, NodeJS, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap. Fully tested with Protractor and Karma |
| Bowling | A JavaScript bowling score calculator. | Javascript. Fully tested with Jasmine |
| Airport Challenge | Early on in our Ruby learning we created a REPL-based airport traffic control app, allowing you to take off and land planes within an airport. I recreated this using Python as part of my efforts to become familiar with the language. | Python |
| Chitter | A Ruby-based take on Twitter: users can add their own 'peeps' and view all existing messages in a stream. Developed in a fully test-driven manner. | Ruby, Sinatra. DataMapper PostgreSQL database used for data persistence. Fully tested with RSpec and Capybara |
- Thorough grounding in Object-Oriented Programming, with emphasis on SOLID principles
- A very strong emphasis was placed on test-driven coding
- Surrounded myself with code seven days a week, focussing on new topics each week
- Brought to completion a number of web applications and one mobile application
- Learned to work as part of a software development team as well as solo
- Learned to use Github branching for collaborative development
- Bachelor of Arts, Ancient History
- Graduated with 2:1 degree classification
GroupM (Feburary 2014 to October 2015)
Service Analyst
GroupM comprises WPP's media investment management agencies. This was an operational role working with the group's widely-used internal media buying software. While this was not a coding role, it required detailed operational expertise, and utilised my technical ability and problem-solving skills. I worked closely with the software's development team, raising bugs, communicating feature requests and testing the system.
Investis (March 2012 to September 2013)
Research, Analysis & Content Consultant
A varied role encompassing content creation, site analytics work and social media management. Investis is a digital investor relations agency that develops corporate websites and apps and handles the digital release of annual company results.
Ofcom (October 2011 to January 2012)
Standards Executive
A stint in Ofcom's television and radio standards department.
I am an active musician. I play the violin in the Camden Symphony Orchestra, and can also play the piano and guitar.
I volunteer at the St. Andrews Homeless Project on Saturday mornings, washing dishes, serving food and cooking occasionally.