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I am a driven and ambitious Full Stack Developer.

Having just completed an intensive software development bootcamp with Makers Academy I’m now looking for a role where I can challenge myself and further improve my skills while contributing to the success of a wider team. Before starting at Makers, I graduated from Newcastle University with a degree in music and spent four years working as a special educational needs teaching assistant and freelance composer and piano teacher. In the last two years I’ve focused exclusively on composition and teaching, writing music for several successful touring comedy plays.

Throughout my 16-week Makers Academy course, I maintained my piano teaching in the evenings which put me under a considerable amount of pressure. It was difficult to balance the intensity of the course alongside a part time job but I put in the hours and adapted to my new schedule. I remained dedicated to furthering my skills and during the course was able to accomplish many of my coding related goals, including creating several apps from scratch (these can be viewed on my GitHub.

Furthermore, in order to take up my place at Newcastle University I completed ABRSM Grade 8 Piano with a distinction and ABRSM Grade 8 Music Theory with a merit. This is an accomplishment which would ordinarily take eight years or more, but I completed it only three years after beginning to play piano. Whilst studying for my Grade 8 exams, I also composed a score for and performed a full-length musical, raising more than £600 for charity.

My enthusiastic attitude to developing new skills doesn’t end with music – my course at Makers Academy necessitated learning several coding languages to a proficient level, including Ruby and Javascript in just 16 weeks. Over the years I’ve also succeeded in teaching myself various computer programmes from scratch; these include Pro Tools, Sibelius, Adobe Premiere Pro and Opentoonz.

Despite not having a traditional software development background, when I enrolled at Makers I was determined – not only to get the most I could from the course, but to give the most back and complete my work to the highest standard. During the final two weeks at Makers, I was tasked with developing my own unique app in a group of 6. Much of the functionality of my app could have been implemented using Ruby, HTML and CSS. However, this would not have delivered the vision that my group was aiming for, so instead we decided to use JavaScript and React, the latter being a framework that we were not as familiar with at the time. Using these tools allowed us to create a far more ambitious, dynamic and interesting web page, while also providing a solid opportunity for me to challenge myself beyond the Makers curriculum.

When the first UK Covid-19 lockdown was implemented in March 2020, my main source of income was in-person piano lessons which were immediately disallowed under evolving Covid-19 regulations. I thought on my feet and within a week had successfully moved all all of my teaching online. Since then, I have tutored three students through their ABRSM piano exams, including one student at ABRSM Grade 7. Having worked solo for several years, the teamwork involved in Makers Academy provided me with another chance to adapt. Not only did I engage in pair-programming sessions with a new person each day, when working in groups we decided to rotate the role of project lead daily. Acting as group leader involved decision-making, delegation and being able to project manage effectively. I really enjoyed taking on the role and guiding my group, and was pleased to be able to work in a team; an occurrence that was less regular prior to my career switch.

• Applying industry-standard practices:
  • OOP, TDD, BDD, MVC, with testing frameworks including RSpec and Jasmine
  • developing the skills required to become language agnostic using: Ruby, Rails, Javascript, Node.js, React, JQuery, HTML/CSS
  • User Stories and Domain Modelling
  • Agile and group work: Trello, MVP, pair programming, 2-day sprints, stand-ups, check-ins and retros
  • Linting, code quality, test coverage with rubocop, and simplecov
  • CI/CD pipeline with TravisCI, CircleCI and Heroku
  • API handling

• BA (Hons) in Music(2:1)
• Composed a piece of music that was performed by The Royal Northern Sinfonia

• BTEC National Diploma in Music (Triple Distinction)

• Distinction in Grade 8 piano
• Merit in Grade 8 music theory

Self Employed / (Sep '18 - Present)
Musician

For the last two years, I have been a self-employed composer and piano teacher. For the former, I have composed music for award-winning theatre troupes Police Cops, and Willis & Vere, and had my work performed in world famous music venues by reputable musical ensembles. In my role as a teacher I provide piano training to students – I’ve taught all ages, from three-year-olds to retirees!

St Mary & St Michael Catholic Primary School / (Oct '16 - Jul '18)
Special Educational Needs Teaching Assistant

I worked as a teaching assistant with a student who had special educational needs. My responsibilities involved helping the student I worked with on a one-to-one basis, and being adaptable to aid other students and to suit the school's wider needs. One of my proudest achievements was preparing the student I worked with for his year 6 SATs. The role could be challenging, as it involved managing volatile young people, but I was trusted to guide the students under my care and help them to flourish.

• The previously mentioned Acknowledge app
• Building my own website using Ruby on Rails, JavaScript and React
• Developing my OOP and TDD skills daily using Ruby and RSpec to solve coding problems
• Learning to develop games with Unity and C#
• Creating a TwitterBot

• Software development: I really enjoy learning new languages and creating exciting projects.
• Piano: I regularly push myself to learn new pieces of music and maintain my piano skills. I’ve recently become passionate about learning jazz improvisation!
• Composition I enjoy writing music for friends and clients in an array of styles including classical, jazz, pop and musical theatre. Composition bears many similarities with coding. Both are highly technical skills that require dedication and strong problem solving skills. I am also grateful that I have found new interests to compliment the skills I already have.
• Animation I love 2D animation and over the past couple of years have been teaching myself 2D animation techniques and software, which I use to create music videos and animated shorts.
• Football When I'm not creating things, I enjoy watching and playing football – it’s my favourite way to stay fit!
• Reading  I’m a huge fan of historical literature, particularly relating to events of the 20th Century and I read whenever I can find the time.