Background | Projects | Skills | Experience | Education | Interests
My love of technology began as an enthusiastic 6 year old watching my grandfather build computers for friends and family in his shed. I’ve built on this passion with 10 years of experience in the IT industry and training at the highly selective Makers Academy coding bootcamp.
Working in IT systems and management I took every opportunity to automate repetitive tasks, such as scripts for user account creation and bulk updating user records. These minor forays into coding showed me how satisfying and exciting it is to build a thing and then see it actually work!
Having fully embraced Agile development and XP values like TDD, Pair Programming and CI/CD, I would love to bring my enery for problem solving and fast learning to an organisation where the work I do has a purpose.
| Title | Description | Development Timeframe | Technologies Used | Test Suites/CIs/CDs Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Synesthesia Beatz | Final project at Makers, a full front end multitrack looping station with savable and sharable songs | 2 weeks | Full SPA built in React | Travis CI, Jest/Enzyme for Unit Testing, Cypress for E2E / Feature testing, ESLint for linting |
| Acebook by Winkyface API / Front end | Two weeks to clone a popular social network with strict client requirements that were subject to change. With 5 days to go we were asked to convert the app into a SPA, against all odds we came up with this. | 2 weeks | Rails API backend, React front end, Postgres database | Travis CI, RSpec for Ruby testing, Rubocop for ruby linting, Cypress for E2E / Feature testing, ESLint for Javascript linting |
| Kevstagram | Kevstagram was made for the last weekend challenge at Makers - clone a popular social network. The previous week had us working with CI and Heroku, so I chose to use these technologies to help me build this project. This was also my first foray into the world of React - which ended up being great fun! | A Weekeend | Rails API backend, React front end, Postgres database | Travis CI, Heroku PaaS, RSpec for Ruby testing, Rubocop for ruby linting, Cypress for E2E / Feature testing, ESLint for Javascript linting |
I have 10 years of IT systems administration and support under my belt, which has helped me create mental models of systems and their interactions, allowing me to quickly formulate troubleshooting steps and testing processes. I have found these skills invaluable when TDDing and debugging software.
I've also found I actually thoroughly enjoy problem solving and debugging because of this skill set - a bug isn't an annoyance, it's an opportunity to get to know more about a system!
In my past roles I've been heavily involved in large scale technology projects. Deploying new software to large user groups is something I've done quite a few times, so I have a honed skillset for developing build/test/deployment plans as well as dealing with unexpected issues and delays.
My background in user support has given me a strong drive to 'do right by the customer'. Timliness, communication and regular updates are my mantra when dealing with stakeholders, and I'm constantly thinking about how my actions will affect those who are using products I manage.
I've been using ticketing systems to keep track of work as I progress through it my whole life, which means I have a knack for documentation, issue tracking, problem management and keeping stakeholders in the loop.
- OOP, TDD, MVC, DDD
- Agile/XP
- Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, React
- RSpec, Jasmine, Cypress.io, Jest
- Git, Github
– Agile, XP (extreme programming) values, MVP, Pair Programming, Mobbing, Growth mindset
- ITIL Foundations V4: Managing and Supporting the IT Service Lifecycle
- Microsoft Certified IT Professional
Mishcon De Reya (July 2019 to Sep 2019) temporary contract Support analyst
- Automated several support tasks using Powershell, such as:
- User Creation
- Out of Office Messages
- Mailbox Permission Assignment
- Worked with new technologies, coming up to speed and becoming a valuable team member within days of starting.
Pitcher Partners (July 2016 to Dec 2018) Technology Officer
- Managed projects such as:
- deploy new workstations to all staff and upgrade to Windows 10 firmwide
- Firm Office Move - managed the move of Workstations, Servers, Storage, Network and Internet.
- Migrate 1.5 million documents to a new Document Managment System
- Oversee maintenance of IT Infrastructure, including software updates, backups and lifecycle
- work with C level and firm partnership to develop and implement IT strategy
- I've played in bands since I was 17, so I love anything and everything music. This includes recording and producing my bands music - I've spent many hours learning how to make audio sound good.
- Snowboarding, when funds permit
- I used to brew beer, but haven't found room to do it here in London so I've had to settle for trying every craft brew I can get my hands on.