Junior Full Stack Developer

I began my studies at Makers Academy after a distinguished career in the Probation Service. I succeeded in various roles, gaining experience of business support, data extraction and analysis and software training.

My last role as a trainer gave me a great insight into how users interact with applications; I enjoyed seeing the value that new features would bring to my colleagues. This sparked my curiosity as to how software is developed - I wanted to create these features and led me to choose a career as a developer. Moving forward I am excited about learning, growing and building applications that add real value to users as part of a supportive and ambitious team.

As an IT Trainer I supported a team who worked with people convicted of sexual offences when a new application was released to manage their work. I began by learning the application's functionality and day to day team processes. This ensured the team could use the application effectively for their needs.

Whilst studying at Makers, I picked up the ability to learn new languages and technologies. For my final team project I used Unity, C# and Visual Studio, with no prior experience, to bring the Dragon Pirates game to life. Since finishing the course I have learnt Python and its Unittest testing framework from scratch to write a 'Fizzbuzz' programme.

I collaborated with my IT trainer counterparts to produce a national curriculum. I was a new trainer at the time so it was a great opportunity to learn from more experienced colleagues and offer my fresh ideas. I co-wrote lesson plans and supporting documents, feeding back on work done by others. The result was a set of materials which could be used by new and experienced trainers alike to ensure consistent training across the country. I enjoyed seeing how working together, with our varying knowledge and experience, produced a great outcome.

I have strong communication skills, demonstrated during the Makers Facebook clone project. I researched continuous integration technology options to use in our project, playing an integral role in the decision made with a clear explanation of my findings and positive engagement in the team discussion. I led stand-ups and retros during the project, sharing my thoughts and encouraging everyone to contribute. I wrote clear commit messages such as ‘feat: restrict password length to max 10 characters’ and used a clear name for a feature branch: ‘likes-on-comments’. My efforts ensured the team collaborated effectively and produced a good Ruby on Rails product at the end of the two weeks.

I have enjoyed the coaching experience gained as a trainer and at Makers. To compliment my love of learning, I am enthusiastic about sharing my knowledge and experience with others. I regularly attended process workshops at Makers which involved observing a fellow student tackle a problem, providing feedback on their process at the end. I paired with a variety of students, some further through the course than myself, others less so. It was great to support fellow students, regardless of their position in relation to mine. It provided a great opportunity to reflect and further my own understanding too.

With study of:

• OOP, TDD, MVC
• Agile methodologies
• Pair programming
• XP Values - simplicity, communication, feedback, respect and courage
• Ruby, Rails, JavaScript
• RSpec, Jasmine

• Politics and International Relations BA 2:1
• Included study of landmark dates in history, contemporary social issues, ideologies, European Political Integration, Politics of the UK/US, politics between countries (the 'anarchical system') and politics in the Middle East.
• Dissertation assessed the contribution of General Elections to democracy in the UK.

• 3 A Levels in Politics, History and Geography
• 10 GCSEs

National Probation Service || ICT Training Specialist || September 2014 to April 2019

• Sole responsibility for training over 1,000 London users
• Viewed first hand how users interact with software/applications
• Consistently delivered high quality training sessions using multiple delivery methods
• Colloborated on design and production of national ICT training curriculum for around 8,000 staff

National Probation Service || Business Support Manager || March 2013 to September 2014

• Influential in the development of a new specialist team for gang related offending
• Crucial role in strategy and operation by providing data analysis and business support
• Nurtured relationships with critical partners such as the Metropolitan Police and the London Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime

London Probation Trust || Performance and Quality Analyst || May 2010 to March 2013

• Instrumental in high performance of multiple boroughs through provision of data analysis
• Complex bespoke data queries and reports produced for strategic and operational priorities

London Probation Trust || Legal Proceedings Administrator || September 2009 to May 2010 ||

• Eessential role supporting legal professional by extracting case information related to non-compliance with Probation supervision

• Reading - non-fiction, particularly topics such as productivity, personal development, personal finance, psychology. Two of my favourite books are 'Deep Work' and 'Digital Minimalism' by Cal Newport.

• Football - attended matches and followed the ups and downs of Charlton Athletic for over 20 years with my dad

• Crime documentaries - 'Making a Murderer' is one of my favourites