I have been working in London as a Structural Engineer since graduating from university in 2015. Having reached several personal milestones in that field, I have taken the decision to carve a new path for myself in tech, where I am confident that my methodical and technical approach to problem solving will find a natural home.
It has been ten months since I logged my first 'Hello, World!' to the console when starting the online Harvard CS50 module and now I find myself using TDD and OOP principles to write full MERN stack applications.
| Languages | Technologies | Testing Frameworks | Concepts |
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| Name | Description | Tech/tools |
|---|---|---|
| Estuary English Freelance Project | (In progress) Project blog for graphic design company | Django, Python, React |
| BrainsOnBrioche | Recipe Generator | Jest, Cypress, Javascript, node, express.js, Mongoose, React, 3rd Party APIs |
| Makebook | Mock of Facebook | Jest, Cypress, Javascript, node, express.js, Mongoose, Handlebars |
| frontend-api-challenge | Mock of Twitter | Jest, Javascript, DOM, APIs |
| MakersBnB | Mock of AirBnB | Ruby, RSpec, sinatra, capybara, erb, SQL |
| bank-tech-test | Simple Bank App | Ruby, RSpec, SQL |
Capgemini (October 2022 to Present) Backend Java Developer
- 6 weeks of intensive Java training for the role, including project work using:
- SpringBoot framework.
- JUnit testing with Mockito.
- Concurrency, Threads and Asynchronous programming syntax.
HTS + (July 2022 to October 2022) Support Software Developer
- Experience in refactoring legacy Python code across several company-wide tools.
- Contributing to the back-end Django server for the company Database.
- Writing React code for the company website.
Heyne Tillett Steel (April 2019 to Present)
Senior Structural Engineer
- Independently running engineering projects from conception to construction.
- Managing workload across several projects simultaneously.
- Delegating work packages to team members with clear goals, methodology and timelines and providing support as required.
- Mentoring junior engineers.
- Attending and running project meetings.
- Managing project finances against resources.
Elliott Wood (August 2015 to November 2018)
Structural Engineer
- The tasks listed below are also applicable to my role at HTS:
- Complex analysis and calculation processes to design structural elements.
- Manipulation and rationalisation of large amounts of analytical data into a useable format.
- Working on discrete calculation or design packages to feed into the wider project.
- Collaboration with numerous and diverse disciplines external to my company to deliver my projects.
- Developing automated calculations to streamline project work.
- One of the country’s leading software development boot-camps.
- Skills to become a Full Stack Software Developer are taught over an intense four-month period.
- Skills are taught by Pair-Programming through a series of projects of increasing complexity.
- Projects progressed from writing simple algorithms in Ruby, to creating complex Full-Stack web applications in Ruby and JavaScript.
- Learnt to build out my projects using a Test Driven Development methodology which employs a Red-Green-Refactor loop for all tasks.
- Learnt to Implement good OOP principles: SRP, APIE and SOLID.
- Completed several team projects using Agile working practices: Stand-ups, Retros, Sprints.
- Developed the ability to code in new or unfamiliar languages by focusing on the fundamental principles of writing clean code. Since completing the course I've been applying these principles to Python.
- Architectural Engineering (MEng)
- 2:1
- My degree ultimately qualified me for the discipline of structural engineering, but it was taught through the lens of collaboration and integration between different bodies: structural engineering, architecture, building services engineering and practical construction. The ability to view a problem holistically, through the perspective of multiple disciplines, is something that I've applied successfully throughout my career to date.
Chartership with the Institute of Structural Engineers (MIStructE) - 2021. Obtaining professional chartership with the IStructE requires a portfolio submission, technical interview with two members and passing an eight hour exam. This qualification is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work across numerous evenings and weekends on top of the hours I spent at my job. As well as being a personal milestone, I believe it is indicative of my hard work ethic and dedication.
It's not possible to learn everything you'll ever need to know in Engineering, so at various stages in each project you will encounter something that you do not understand. In such situations I've always been able to efficiently and thoroughly learn what is needed to complete the task at hand. A summary of the materials that I have learnt in my four months at Makers can be found in my tech skills.
A good recent example of my ability to learn was during BrainsOnBrioche, where I had to learn how React and Redux worked, without ever having used them before. After researching them both, I was able to diagram how they worked and explain it to the rest of my team.
My learning progression at Makers is documented through my Github repositories. They show how my ability to write and structure code has progressed week on week. Below are some choice projects in chronological order.
- hello-world - Feb 1st - Precourse
- mastery-quizzes - April 5th - Precourse
- student-directory - April 13th - Precourse
- airport_challenge - April 27th - Week 1
- takeaway-challenge - May 2nd - Week 2
- makersBnB - May 20th - Week 5
- chitter-challenge - May 22nd - Week 5
- frontend-api-challenge - June 6th - Week 7
- acebook-Makebook - June 18th - Week 9
- BrainsOnBrioche - July 10th - Week 12
For the past seven years I have built a successful career in the construction industry which requires, above all things, collaboration. I easily spent half of my time coordinating with members of my own team as well as Architects, M&E Engineers and Contractors.
My time at Makers has shown me that software development requires a huge amount of coordination and collaboration to keep projects running harmoniously. Several of the projects I've completed on the course have been in teams of five or six people. I have really enjoyed these projects because of the opportunity to plan and implement a project from within a team again.
Please see MakersBnB, Makebook and BrainsOnBrioche in the links above to see the result of these collaborative projects.
My role at HTS primarily comprised being a project manager. Typically I would have ownership of three to six projects of various sizes and at various stages of completion. I would need to manage the delivery of work packages at key stages in the project, manage the resources we would spend against the project fee, coordinate the design as well as interact with the Client. My technical engineering ability and skill at efficiently running projects earned me promotion to Senior Engineer at HTS.
My time at Makers introduced me to new management concepts, such as the Agile methodology, which was applied in our team projects to great effect.
My previous two companies were engineering consultancies which would win project work based on, amongst other things, delivering work packages to an agreed deadline. My years of experience has taught me that you can never have all your projects perfectly paced to deliver the work on time - last minute changes may be sent over at the 11th hour or a team member is indisposed on the day of issue. In these moments I've found that I can keep a calm head, prioritise the necessary items and manage expectations as required.
I found this skill particularly useful during Makebook, where I had to implement a Friend Request ticket with less than a day before our deadline. I was able to quickly break down the task into manageable segments and methodically dispatch each one to deliver the feature on time.
I have always been able to motivate myself towards achieving a specific goal. The greatest example of this was achieving my Chartered Membership status with the Institute of Structural Engineers. Please see more details of this in Other Qualifications.
I'm drawn to disciplines which require problem solving. I love the thought process, the iterations, the creativity, the research and ultimately the satisfaction of solving a problem. I generally attribute my problem solving prowess to my ability to mentally visualise scenarios, whether it's a physical structure or a collection of theoretical objects and processes.
At Makers, I've learnt to formalise my problem solving by using TDD to write my code. The process of writing a test before solving the problem allows you to clarify in your mind exactly what the problem is before solving it. Once you have the test written, you can easily know if you were successful in solving your problem.
🍳 Cooking: My ideal weekend is one where I spend 12 hours cooking for 12 minutes of eating.
🏝 Travelling: Admittedly this hasn't been much of a hobby in the last few years 🦠
🎹 Live Music: Loving all the venues opening up again. Idles, LCD Soundsystem and Wolf Alice so far this year!
🏔 Climbing: Love to go bouldering and will be joining/creating a group where ever I'm at.
🍿 Film/TV: I mean, who doesn't like film and TV...
🥾 Walking/Hiking: I don't know if walking round flat bits of Kent counts as hiking, but it sounds more impressive than walking.