OVERVIEW

Highly motivated Computer Science graduate, specialising in 'everything relating to the web'. Very keen to learn new things and to keep up-to-date with new developments within the industry (such as the burgeoning social media scene). Current interests are in the fields of database optimisation, modular programming methodologies and the development of 'Rich Internet Applications' (RIAs).

  • Date of Birth 28th December 1983
  • Residence Lichfield, Staffordshire
  • Contact
  • Notes Non-smoker

Experience

  • Creative Insight Senior Developer
    March 2010 - Present

    I am currently employed by the fine folks at Creative Insight, a creative agency based in Sutton Coldfield.

  • Kaweb Ltd Web Developer
    November 2006 - March 2010

    Joined after graduation in 2006. I joined a tight, flexible programming team working on a multitude of projects. The highlights have included authoring the company's bespoke e-commerce software (which is now quite mature and is currently utilised by several clients) and co-authoring a modular car insurance quote engine; The engine ended up delivering over one million quotes per month via an XML API for our client (a factor in the UK insurance market), to big household names such as “Confused”, “GoCompare” and “Money Supermarket”. As part of the project, I also helped maintain the company's co-located servers at the data centre, based in London.

    During my employment at Kaweb Ltd, I became a Zend Certified Engineer in PHP5.

  • Studio 2 Online Web Developer
    September 2004 –- September 2005

    Entered into a team of programmers developing a suite of rich intranet-based tools for managing the important, but quotidian aspects of common business practice (including content management, customer relationship management, billing, etc). I helped to engineer the project over several design meetings and wrote a large proportion of code.

    During my time at the company, I authored an object-orientated script for automating the companys domain registration process, utilising PGP-signed emails. I entered the script into a competition and won a lifetime licence for the official Zend IDE, Zend Studio.

  • Gaijindesign Web Developer
    July 2002 - September 2004

    Worked as the lead programmer for a flash-heavy design company in Leicester. Notable clients: Atomic Kitten (Sony Music), worked upon a dancing game with high-score table to promote a new single release; British Red Cross, developed a highly accessible website for children with learning difficulties. It conformed to all known accessibility standards. The site featured a 'cutesy' flash-based chat room using the Electrotank socket server. OCB Medical, engineered an online mediarich e-learning 'examination portal' for medical students studying 'Nebulisation'. Leicestershire County Council, made a content-management system for a children's website about wildlife in Leicestershire, and recycling.

Education

  • University of Leicester 2:1 BSc Computer Science (Hons).
    September 2002 - July 2006

    Sat a diverse BCS-accredited course encompassing all aspects of modern Computer Science, including Logic Programming, Database Theory, Algorithms and Data Structures, Object Orientation in C++ and Web Technologies; For the dissertation segment of my grade, I produced an Object-Orientated Social Networking platform based around the concept of 'material collections', mining its data from Amazon 's web services. The project was given a 'first' classification by my supervisor.

  • Bishop Veseys Grammar School 12 GCSEs & 4 A-Levels
    September 1995 - July 2002

     

    • 4 A-Levels (period between 2000—2002)
      • A — English Literature & Language
      • A — General Studies
      • C — Biology
      • C — Geography
    • 12 GCSEs (period between 1995—2000)
      • A* — English Literature
      • A — English Language, Design & Technology, Geography
      • B — Art, Mathematics, I.T, Chemistry, Biology
      • C — Physics, French, Religious Studies

    I recieved the school's accolade for English Literature & Language, presented to me at the leaving ceremony. I was a Registrar at the school, and also a 'Greenhouse Technician' during my A-Levels in the Biology department. I also occasionally played for the schools field hockey team.

Proficiency

I have a relatively wide range of talents that branch across the entire spectrum of Computer Science and programming in general. This list focuses primarily on my area of expertise, which is development for the web. If you require something else of me, I'd be more than happy to let you know more detail about my proficiencies in that area.

  • PHP — 8+ years experience, 6+ commercial.
    • Avid supporter of standards. Code is cleanly written and documented with *doc style comments
    • Skilled with several popular frameworks (CodeIgniter most notably, CakePHP, and Zend)
  • MySQL — 7+ years experience.
    • Vast understanding of MySQL 4.x/5.x (and other rdbms' such as postgres, mssql and sqlite)
    • Excellent knowledge of SQL and Transact-SQL
    • Good with ORM patterns, experience with ADODB and PDO
    • Sphinx integration, indexing and search-engine development
  • Design Elements (HTML, CSS & Javascript) — 11+ years experience.
    • Vast knowledge of HTML and derivatives (notably: XHTML 1.1 strict, HTML 5)
    • Mark-up is always clean, semantic and passes validation - my mark-up is optimised for search engines by default
    • Knowledgeable about W3C WAI and other accessability guidelines
    • Encyclopaedic knowledge of CSS2.x and aware of CSS3.x changes. Good at cross-browser testing and
    • Well versed in javascript and EMCAscript. jQuery experience.
    • Good working knowledge of Photoshop CS3/CS4.
  • Operating Systems
    • Comfortable with Windows, Mac OS and Linux/UNIX/BSD.
    • Extensive server maintenance experience across all platforms. Most comfortable with Linux/BSD.
    • Thorough understanding of DNS, email (SPF, RBLs), networking, and anything LAMP
    • Knowledgeable about computer hardware & architecture, building machines, performance tuning, repairs
  • Miscellaneous
    • Excellent problem solver with a "can do" attitude. If I don't know how, I'll find out how
    • Advocate of Issue & Version Control (such as subversion/git/mercurial) and Test-Driven Development
    • Happy to implement Software Engineering principles. Good understanding of SCRUM/XP/Agile methodologies
    • Comfortable with modelling systems in UML & ERDs
    • Personable manner, polite. I tend to get along with clients! Excellent telephone manner.
    • Active member (MBCS) of the British Computer Society (since 2008)

Other skills (omitted to keep the list succinct): ASP and ASP.NET, C, C++, Java, Tomcat/JSP.

Contact

Written references may be available on request.

Enquiries: