Jules Roadknight

Background | Experience | Skills | Education | Interests

Background

I'm Jules, a generalist software developer upholding the ethos of 'Software as a Craft'.

Learning and improving are my drives, so the ever-changing tech industry suits me right down to the ground, along with the teamwork, planning, and problem-solving that comes with it.

I know from broad experience teaching, working with musicians, and pair-programming that I work best when I've got others to bounce ideas off of, but also appreciate having the odd bit of time to work alone.

Experience

8th Light (January 2020 - Present) Crafter

• Consulted for Ticketmaster (Summer 2023-present)
• Consulted for Fidelity Life Assurance (Summer 2021-Winter 2022)
• Developed internal application (React, Next, TS, Rails)
• Completed 6-month Apprenticeship program
• Interviewed and mentored later Apprentices

Cordant Group (June 2019 - October 2019) Junior Developer

• Automated onboarding process with Node, and AWS Textract and S3, estimated to save two days/employee/week
• Migrated application from Angular 2 to 5, added NgRx, and swapped-out Materialize for Material
• Created full-stack app to survey 2000 employees/month and present results to management

Skills

Collaborator

When it comes to working with others, I'm always malleable to the goals of the team, while extracting personal value as it comes.

• As a consultant at 8th Light, collaborating with colleagues and client developers is important for knowledge sharing, upskilling, and achieving meaningful goals
• During my time at Makers, I pair-programmed every day, and I know that two programmers collaborating always result in better output

Communicator

My specialty is making things easy to understand.

I took advantage of the many opportunities presented at university to develop my skills for my previous job as an ESL English teacher. Being a committee member and conductor of the Brunel Film Orchestra & Choir Society provided vital practise in managing large groups, and working with small, goal-oriented groups.

Having played in orchestras from a young age, I've also developed a strong sense of the oft neglected part of communication, which is being receptive to what others try to communicate. This capacity proved vital when teaching English to students from a huge range of ages and abilities, as there's a much greater degree of projecting ideas when unsure of the exact terminology.

Accessibility is key, and before I brought foreign cultures and abstract concepts to students in a second language, I worked with native English speakers, breaking down my understanding of topics to help students with learning difficulties.

Education

Makers Academy (January 2019 - April 2019)

• Primarily worked in Ruby and JavaScript, also used Python and Java in projects.

• Tried various pair-programming styles, and found that having someone else to bounce ideas off in real time has a strong positive impact on my code.

• Complete convert to TDD and Agile.

• OOP, TDD, MVC, DDD

• Agile/XP

• Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, Python

• RSpec, Capybara, Jasmine, Pytest

Brunel University London (September 2012 - July 2015)

• Achieved a 2:1 with Honours in Music Composition (BMus)
• Treasurer, Arranger, and Conductor of Brunel's Film Orchestra & Choir Society
• Conducted, played, and sang at a range of concerts with a range of groups.

Interests

My goal every day is to be just a bit better than I was yesterday; I crave that feeling of something that I didn't understand 'clicking', and knowing that I've pushed myself. Or to play some frankly weird computer games.

• Olympic Weightlifting
• A slow-burning interest in poker
• Games, particularly Resource Management, Dystopian, and those with fun narratives
• Home brewing beer and wine