My passion is for creating useful, beautiful things. This, plus a long-standing interest in tech, has led me to study at the Makers software development bootcamp (January cohort). My background is in visual arts and like most creatives I am a self-starter, always with a project on the go.
I am looking for a role where I can continue to learn and challenge myself using the industry best practices Makers have instilled.
| Project | Description | Technologies | Deployed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hoot! | My final team project at Makers was to create a social-good app with the aim of connecting isolated elderly people and young people who want to volunteer their time. Our key team goals was to learn completely new tech and follow agile best-practices. | Java, Android Studio, Firebase (user authentication, database and storage), jUnit and Espresso for testing, Jenkins for CI. | A video demo of the app is on slide three of our project presentation. |
| Bank tech test | Sample tech test given by Makers in week ten to practice OOP and TDD. | Ruby, RSpec for testing, SimpleCov for test coverage, Rubocop for linting. | N/A - logic only |
| Acebook | A group project where we created a clone of Facebook on Ruby on Rails. We practiced agile working methods in two day sprints over the course of two weeks. | Ruby on Rails, RSpec and Capybara for testing, Rubocop, Travis CI, Code Climate, deployed on Heroku | Here! |
| Bowling scorecard | Weekend javascript project to write a ten pin bowling scorecard program. | Javascript, Jasmine for testing, ESLint for linting. | N/A - logic only |
| Thermostat | A javascript project using the openweather API to display the current weather in major capital cities. | Javascript, jQuery, Jasmine for testing, Bootstrap for styling | Here! |
I make an excellent team member, able to champion and have empathy for others. I have particularly enjoyed pair programming at Makers, finding it an extremely effective learning practice and way of quickly working through problems. I would love to be able to continue to pair in my first developer role.
In my freelance life I have pitched regularly to clients, honing both my written and verbal communication skills. I have learnt that regular, effective communication is key to delivering a successful project, keeping everyone on-track and happy.
I have spent most of my life practising art and design and therefore have a keen visual eye. I have successfully worked to brief for clients countless times and am visually precise. I specialised in architectural illustration, maps and event stationery. You can see a selection of work here:- https://www.instagram.com/brookewoolleyillo/.
Most of my creative skills are self-taught which has been a useful touchstone for learning to code as I feel that there are many parallels to the processes of creating a program as well as the need for continuous learning and maintaining a practice.
During my time at Makers I have become an adept problem solver, having developed a robust process when approaching a project brief. I am able to break down complex problems into smaller pieces using the many best-practice skills Makers teach. I am a believer in TDD, enjoy debugging and, being a visual person, love a good diagram session before implementing any code.
- Curious and passionate about code. I built my first website on Geocities in the '90s and have been dabbling ever since.
- Fast, independent learner. I find it most effective to learn by doing.
- Great collaborator. I love team work and pair programming and the feedback I have had from members of my cohort confirms I am a good listener, communicate well and have a growth mindset.
- OOP, TDD, MVC.
- Agile/XP.
- Ruby, Rails, JavaScript.
- RSpec, Jasmine, Capybara.
- Major in Sculpture (A for graduating exhibition).
- Minor in Art History.
- Had exhibitions at highly esteemed Starkwhite gallery in Auckland after graduation and have work in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery.
Freelance (2012 to November 2018)
Illustration and Design for various clients
- Adobe Creative Suite expertise: Photoshop, Illustrator.
- Both digital illustration and traditional skills (watercolour painting, line drawing, lettering).
- Design for print.
- Marketing my work and building up a client base.
- Maintaining client relationships.
Spire Healthcare (October 2008 to January 2015, part time as part of a job share until December 2018)
Assistant to General Counsel & Company Secretary
- Full secretarial support to the GC including diary management, travel, word processing and communications.
- Support to the Board including all arrangements for meetings of Board and Committees.
- Annual event arrangement for 80 - 100 staff.
- Support to legal team including compilation and analysis of data, contract mark-up and HR admin.
- Advanced user of Word, Powerpoint, Outlook and Excel.