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About Me | Projects | Skills | Work Experience | Hobbies
An aspirational, highly motivated and committed tech enthusiast with a strong foundation in software development and programming principles provided by Makers Academy Bootcamp. Well versed in following an Agile workflow and keeping to a clean and precise Test Driven Development process, utilising personally developed testing frameworks in addition to well known frameworks such as Jasmine and RSpec. An excellent team-member with industry standard experience of working on large-scale projects and meeting client deadlines.
Throughout my life, until the age of 24(!), I had no idea that Software Engineering was a real career choice. When I was in my early teens, being an avid gamer, I’d always mention to my parents how much I wanted to be a game designer (albeit at that point I had no idea what that would actually entail, but my imagination drew me towards the idea of designing worlds, monsters and heroes). However, my school’s curriculum failed to attractively present the world of computer science and all the wonderful metaphorical doors it can open, so I went down a more 'traditional' route of studying Geography. During my Master’s degree in Environmental Science, I was fortunate enough to work on a module that focussed on dealing with data. Here, I was introduced to Visual Basics for Applications. While it all seemed relatively alien to me at the time, it strangely, all seemed to still make sense. It was this module that opened my eyes to coding (apologies for how cliché that sounded).
This decision brought along the idea of completing a coding bootcamp to allow myself to gain a foothold in the tech industry and start building the career I’d always wanted. Makers Academy being one of the most highly regarded and selective bootcamps in the UK, I decided to submit an application. I completed a Ruby course on Codecademy, and introduced myself to Codewars. I started doing Codewars challenges every day, slowly but surely, learning more and more about programming fundamentals (I thoroughly enjoyed my time ‘grinding’ Codewars problems - maybe something to do with my gaming background or maybe I’m just addicted to seeing that green passing text - I’m not sure..). Nevertheless, I (rather proudly) managed to reach 4kuy in a matter of months and was invited to a technical interview with a Makers coach and by some stroke of luck they accepted me onto their August cohort of 2021. Fair to say that I was over the moon that my coding journey had officially began.
Have a look below for a better idea of what I've gotten up to during my time on the course and how my programming ability has developed over the last (rather intense) 3 months.
| Name | Description | Timeframe | Tech/tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kusari | Cryptocurrency wallet viewer. Draws on live prices and references them against a user's wallet to bring up-to-date portfolio values. Also tracks the current top performing cryptos. | 10 days | React, SCSS, Django, PostgreSQL, Covalent, CoinGecko, Web3, Moralis, Blockcypher, CryptoCompare |
| Acebook | Social media app inspired by Facebook. Comments and likes functionality along with personal user 'wall' (profile). | 10 days | Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Heroku |
| Notes App | Single page webapp that stores notes in browser local storage. | 5 days | HTML, CSS, Pure Javascript (no libraries/frameworks used) |
| Noughts and Crosses | Classic Noughts and Crosses game. | 1 day | HTML, CSS, JavaScript |
| Tech test: Bank | A tech test undertaken to showcase clean code that logs deposits and withdrawals from a bank account. | 1 day | JavaScript |
| Tech test: Gilded Rose | A tech test aimed to test ability to refactor legacy code, increasing its readability and ease of implementation. The code is designed to update the quality of items that exist in a shop. | 2 days | JavaScript |
- I’ve always had a keen eye for detail and it played a crucial role in my previous employment with Arad Research.
- One of our main clients was the Welsh Government so the data that I would prepare for our reports would be a weighting factor in future policy related decisions, meaning that a high level of attention to detail was absolutely essential.
- My ability to pick up on precise detail transferred excellently into programming and my journey through Makers. During my pairing sessions, I would often solve blockers by spotting innaccuracies in our code and overcoming errors, allowing us to progress further through the research materials.
- This skill also became very useful in code refactoring tasks. I'm often able to quickly identify code that is not efficient and able to streamline it accordingly while maintaining full functionality and making future implementation of features much simpler. I invite you to inspect my GildedRose tech test in the project list above where it showcases my ability to refactor inefficient legacy code.
- My competitive nature and logical mind mean that problem solving comes very naturally to me. My drive to compete and be the best that I can be, have proved to be valuable traits in my transition into the tech industry. When I realised I could train both my coding ability and problem solving ability, all while competing against others on a leaderboard, I set my mind to Codewars and have been completing challenges since February 2021.
- My previous employment gave me a lot of opportunities to problem solve. The company faced an issue where a project required multiple members of the team working simultaneously on a qualitative dataset. Using my Excel ability, I designed a spreadsheet that would allow for a vast amount of data to be imported and analysed by multiple members of the research team. The analysed data would then be quantified in sync on a different tab, allowing for a streamlined data analysis process.
- After starting at Makers, I soon realised that problem solving is the continuous theme of everything technological. Programs are built to solve a problem. To build a program, a set of problems and errors must be overcome. My enjoyment of solving these problems is one of my main drivers to continue to learn about software.
- Over the past year, I've developed a keen interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. As I delved deeper into the subject, I soon realised how complex it was for a newcomer, but my curiosity drove me to obtain a better understanding of the tech. I researched for hours in the evenings to better equip myself in my investments.
- Always had a passion to know how things work. During my time with Arad I developed my Excel and VBA skills significantly and purely of my own volition in order to better manage project data. I swiftly became the office’s ‘Excel guy’ and was often brought on to various projects that required data handling purely for my Excel/VBA ability.
- My tendency to want to figure things out became very useful during Makers. Due to the intense nature of the course, we would often only broach certain subjects briefly but my curiosity would always drive me to continue to work into the evenings and during the weekends to ensure I thoroughly understood some of the trickier concepts.
- During my employment as an LSA, building rapport with an autistic child in a school setting was a difficult yet essential part of my role. Being able to adapt information and make it accessible is a skill I’ve had to use throughout my career.
- This experience and knowledge was very beneficial during Makers, e.g. when mentoring individuals on the course, I was able to breakdown the information needed to explain a difficult concept and relay it in a more approachable manner. I was complimented many times on my ability to explain difficult concepts to my peers.
- Additionally, these skills allowed me to build rapport with other members of my engineering team when working under pressure nearing project deadlines.
- Drawing on my communication skills, I’ve always performed well working as part of a team. During my time with Arad Research, I would often be the sole data analyst for various projects. This would mean that other members of the team would rely on the data that I would prepare to be delivered on time for them to be able to continue to write research findings chapters. As a good team player, I had to ensure my work was finished on time to keep to the project schedule.
- During my time at Aberystwyth Uni, I played League of Legends competitively against other universities. The team was built from a selection of the highest ranking players on campus, so we were all strangers when we first started playing. Drawing on my communication and team work skills, we were able to pull together to win games against other universities in a very team-play oriented game.
- This ability and awareness was very useful during our group’s final project. I worked a lot with our Django backend during development, and many frontend components would often rely on various backend functionalities being operational before being able to be implemented. My past experience of team work drove me to complete these functions in a timely manner to ensure the team kept to our predetermined implementation schedule.
- My work with Arad Research required me to mediate discussions with business owners on changes and proposals issued by local councils (our client). The nature of these discussions were very complex with differing opinions rising across the board. Mediating this discussion required detailed knowledge of the proposals and its implications, in addition to strong leadership. I was able to effectively manage the discussion to ensure productive final conclusions were drawn in order for us to report back to our client.
- I was able to utilise my experience of leading during my time with Makers when we would have project standups and retros. These meetings would often require some direction and governance to ensure key points were drawn from the discussion. I would often take the lead in these meetings and guide the discussion to maintain productivity and participation by all members.
- As previously mentioned, I volunteered to take on 4 mentees during the Makers course. I was, and continue to be, the source of guidance for my mentees. I will often join a zoom call with them to discuss and resolve problems that they’re facing, both programming related and otherwise.
Administrative Officer
- Gained in-depth knowledge of MS Excel incorporating the use of VBA macros to streamline data handling and formatting.
- Conducted a multitude of interviews over the phone playing a key part in project data acquisition.
- Wrote methodology chapters and literature reviews for evaluation reports prepared for large-scale clients such as the Welsh Government.
- Constructed surveys using various software packages with intricate and complex skip logic.
- Mediated complex discussions between multiple professionals in line with a commissioned project.
Learning Support Assistant
- I was responsible for aiding autistic children in their learning in a 1:1 environment.
- It required a considerable amount of patience and creative thinking to accommodate for their learning difficulties, and further improve the child’s capacity to learn.
Guitarist for professional singer
- Toured with renowned folk musician, Sian James.
- Performances of a high quality pristine nature that required dedicated practice and commitment to maintain the standard the paying audience had come to expect.
- Performed abroad in various festivals held in exotic locations, such as Uzbekistan and Canada.
Intensive Full Stack Software Engineering Bootcamp
- Participated in consistent pair programming and team engineering projects
- Object Oriented Principles, Test Driven Development, Model View Controller, Domain Driven Development
- Methodologies: Agile/XP
- Languages: Ruby, JavaScript, Python, SQL
- Frameworks: React, Rails, Django
- Testing frameworks: RSpec, Capybara, Jasmine
MSc Environmental Change, Impact, and Adaptation
- I produced a dissertation under the tuition of Professor Mark Whitehead on psychological barriers inhibiting effective climate change mitigation.
- Two modules required in-depth use of Microsoft Excel, constructing macros on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in order to deal with extensive data sets. I found both modules exceptionally rewarding and have been using a variety of the techniques learned throughout my current employment.
BSc Geography
- The broad and expansive nature of my undergraduate modules aided me significantly in developing effective techniques in report writing, verbal presentations on MS Powerpoint, and dealing with numerical and statistical data on MS Excel, Minitab and ArcGIS. Collectively, they were an essential part of my learning and assisted me throughout my postgraduate degree.
- Guitarist (recorded a Welsh language rock album with a band and published the music to Spotify (look up Casset and have a listen!))
- CodeWars enthusiast (currently rank 4kyu and in the top 10% of CodeWars members since starting properly in February 2021)
- Competitive gamer (reached top 1% of European players on multiple games, such as League of Legends, World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six Siege, Fortnite, and TetrisFriends(!))
- Staying active by attending the gym and playing football (reached the top division of the most competitive (non-professional!) 5-a-side league in Cardiff, Wales)