KEY PROJECTS | WORK EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS | EDUCATION | REFERENCES | CODE REVIEWS | LINKS
- Full-Stack Developer at Mumsnet (Laravel, Tailwind CSS, Alpine.js, Livewire, MySQL and phpunit)
- Experience with JavaScript, React, Next.js, HTML, and CSS and have also used Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Node, Express, Sinatra, Capybara, Jest, Jasmine, React Testing Library, RSpec, and data structures and algorithms.
- Recent graduate from Makers coding bootcamp.
- Former Advertising Creative/Copywriter.
- Performed stand-up comedy across the UK and in Europe to audiences of up to 400 people.
- Graduated with a degree in Physics with Astrophysics.
| Name | Description | Tech/tools |
|---|---|---|
| Hulu Clone | A light clone of streaming site, Hulu. | Next.js, the TMDB (The Movie Database) API and Tailwind CSS. |
| Recipe App | App where users can search for recipes, select from particular cuisines and see the instructions and ingredients needed to make a dish. | React Hooks, the Spoonacular API and styled components. |
| Key-J | A web app to help DJs, musicians and music enthusiasts find information about songs and compare them. | React, Node, Express, Jest, React Testing Library, Puppeteer and Spotify API. |
| Breakout | A fun game from my childhood that involves bouncing a ball off a paddle against bricks to make them disappear. | HTML, CSS and JavaScript, but this was mostly about HTML Canvas. |
- Mumsnet is the UK’s largest network for parents, with around 8 million unique visitors per month clocking up over 100 million page views.
- First developer role, involving a tech stack that was completely new to me: Laravel, Tailwind CSS, Alpine.js, Livewire and MySQL.
- The initial few months mostly involved learning the stack and pair-programming.
- Since then, a typical day involves picking up tickets from the backlog on Trello, liaising with Product Managers and doing the work solo where I can, but asking for help or pairing when I need guidance.
- Working on new features, fixing bugs and optimisations to the code base, both front-end and back-end.
- Problem-solving was integral to being a successful advertising creative. It was my job to find creative solutions to business problems, looking for unusual connections to grab attention and resonate with consumers.
- Adaptability has also been a key feature, due to the breadth and depth of my career. I’ve had both permanent and freelance roles at big London advertising agencies, design studios, branding agencies, fundraising agencies and in-house creative teams. I have experience in TV, posters, press, digital, documentary film, T-shirts, leaflets, events, letters, radio and video. I’ve also worked with clients ranging in size from individuals to large multinationals, such as Nokia and Honda.
- Collaboration has been a core ingredient to producing the best work possible. I’ve worked closely with creative directors, designers, typographers, photographers, illustrators, animators, film directors, account handlers, project managers and clients.
- Communication has played a central role in my advertising career. I've engaged with, presented to, and sold in ideas to clients. And as is the nature of the business, I've had to think long and hard about the language and tone of voice I use, based on the audience and product or service. When I worked at Macmillan Cancer Support, I presented workshops on copywriting and co-presented workshops on branding, consistently receiving excellent feedback.
- Resilience has been important to the success I've had. In 2017 I was a semi-finalist in the BBC New Comedy Awards (You can see the set I did in the heats on my stand-up site). And in 2016 I won the Bath Comedy Festival’s New Act of the Year Competition. But I've also performed to near silence, and have even had people walk off. My successes are mostly down to not being afraid to try something that might fail, dusting myself off, learning lessons, then trying again.
- Public speaking wasn't always a strong point. But I’ve gigged across the UK and in Europe to audiences of up to 400 people. And I've also played to small and hostile crowds too so, by comparison, it's difficult to get nervous about public speaking!
- Creativity is at the heart of great stand-up. I look at familiar things and situations from a fresh angle, find unusual and surprising connections, and constantly have to think on my feet.
- 16-week coding bootcamp that has trained over 1700 people and have alumni in London's top technology companies (Deliveroo, British Gas, Starling Bank, Financial Times, Compare The Market.com, Tesco, amongst others).
- The course creates flexible and responsive engineers who can adapt and pick up new tech quickly.
- Extensive use of both pair and mob-programming, and Agile to solve problems and complete projects.
- Grounding in principles of OOP, SOLID, TDD and MVC.
- JavaScript, React, Node, Express, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS, SQL, Sinatra, Jest, Jasmine, React Testing Library, RSpec and Capybara.
- Mentoring two students from a later cohort.
- PGDip Art-Direction/Copywriting (2005 - 2006)
- Known as the 'Watford' course within adland, this exclusive course has been taught by the same inimitable tutor for the last 30 years and has had its alumni in the creative departments of most of London's top ad agencies for the last few decades.
- Physics with Astrophysics MSci
Character reference
“I have known Pav for over 25 years, and he has always impressed with his analytical mind & sense of humour. He is creative, a great problem solver and communicator, all of which are ideal attributes for a software developer.”
Jonathan del Strother, Audioboom CTO
Professional references from my career as an advertising creative/copywriter
“Working with Pav was fantastic - we are only a small charity and the pro-bono help that he has given us has been wonderful. He listened to our thoughts and creatively incorporated them into his suggestions. He has also stayed with us, volunteering his time, throughout a daunting process of taking the creatives through to reality. Thanks Pav!”
Julia Lalla-Maharajh OBE, Founder of Orchid Project
“I've worked with many writers over the years, few are as good as Pav. He combines razor sharp ideas, with a work ethic that many senior people could learn a great deal from. He's a rare talent. I couldn't recommend him highly enough.”
Peter Henshaw, Managing Director/ Digital Technologist / Cannes Lions Judge
“Pav is one of those creatives who you beg the creative director to put on your brief. He's charming to be around and full of great ideas. He has a solution to any obstacle you throw at him, no matter how ridiculous (and they can be crazy requests) but Pav always takes feedback in stride and works with you to develop the best work possible. I would 100% recommend Pav, he is a real asset to any team.”
Chiya Louie, Client Services Director, Head of Sport at Bright Partnership
“Pav is smart, ideas-oriented and easy to work with. He has a calmness about him that I have really valued, especially when things are busy. He's interested in the world around him, which makes a difference in a copywriter, works hard and is a gracious team member.”
Karin Weatherup, Supporter insight digger and creative director - fundraising
Makers partners with CoGrammar to provide independent, external code reviews. The following feedback was given after being set a tech test and having my process observed for 45 mins.
Click here to view
On following TDD:
"You have based your tests on behaviours in order to keep your code properly decoupled from the tests and this also meant that the tests were client-oriented with the acceptance criteria properly encoded in the algorithm."
"Your test progression made logical sense and you used it in order to make incremental transformations to the code so that with each specific test, the solution becomes more general."
On programming fluently:
"You are very fluent with Ruby and RSpec syntax and language constructs. You are also aware of built-in methods in Ruby and how to use them correctly."
On debugging:
"You have read failing test messages carefully and used the information from RSpec’s failing tests well to determine what could be causing problems and this helped you to make well-informed changes to fix bugs."
"You allowed yourself to look up documentation quickly when you were not sure of syntax which allowed you to make efficient use of your resources."
On modelling:
"You chose to model your solution as a single method in a class. This was a simple enough place to start and this allowed for enough functionality to handle the entire problem, without over-engineering the solution. This meant that you could extract methods as and when needed to adhere to the single-responsibility principle."
"Your algorithm made logical sense and you were making great progress through the exercise."
On having a methodical approach to solving problems:
"You adhered to the red-green-refactor cycle by maintaining a behaviour-first approach. You also prioritised the core and simpler cases over the edge cases and more complex scenarios, allowing you to provide the client with immediate value. Your tests also progressed logically, giving your development cycle a sensible direction."
"You used research really well in your development process so that you were able to avoid adding unnecessary bugs to the code."
On using an agile development process:
You have clarified well what the requirements are for the system and asked good questions about the main requirements and some common edge cases."
On writing code that's easy to change:
"You are once again using Git commits regularly when tests pass which ensures that you take advantage of having previous working versions to fall back on."
"Your tests are again sufficiently decoupled from the code by making use of tests based on the overall behaviours as were discussed by the client."
On justifying the way I work:
"You vocalised yourself quite well. Your comments were audible and you provided valid justifications for your steps. You gave a really good insight as to what your thought process was as you were making decisions."