Hi, I'm Rick. I'm a full stack junior web developer.
I'm looking for a role where I can use my energy and intelligence to deliver exceptional software constructed with clean, tested and extendable code. I'd love to work in a team where I can continue to develop my software craftsmanship, taking my knowledge and expertise to the next level.
Over the past few months I have undergone a transformation from an enthusiastic amateur coder to an enthusiastic, confident and capable developer. I've graduated from the Makers Academy, an experience that I can only describe as having poured rocket fuel on my learning! It's been the most remarkable experience of my life and I am excited to now be taking the next steps on my journey.
I come to the software development profession having previously had a career as a business analyst, during which time I have worked on and led a range of technology projects. It was by forming close relationships with my software development colleagues that I first became curious about code - I'm very glad I did :)
All of my code is available on my Github profile. Here are some projects that I am particularly proud of:
| Project | Description | Demo | Technologies |
|---|---|---|---|
| FT News Watch | A server-rendered app that allows the user to search for articles from the Financial Times via the FT Headline API. I worked on the project as an individual, and was able to use it as an exercise to learn more about performance optimisation on the web. Using minification, browser caching, server caching and gzip compression I was able to achieve Google PageSpeed Insights ratings of 91/100 for mobile and 97/100 for desktop. | Heroku | Express, Node.js, Origami, Gulp, Sass, Mocha, Chai, Sinon, WebdriverIO |
| Steami | Universal Javascript app that allows to user to authenticate via Steam, and then summarises their profile, games and achievements by use of the Steam Web API. I was the project owner having pitched the idea at the Makers Academy. I introduced my team mates to Node, Express and MongoDB, having previously taught myself the basics over a single weekend. We then learnt and implemented React from scratch together, as well as the associated testing and build technologies. This was all achieved in one week. | Heroku | MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js, Passport, Webpack, Bootstrap, Sass, Mocha, Chai, Enzyme |
| Pixos | A multiplayer card battling game constructed using the MERN stack. I pitched this project for the two week final project challenge at the Makers Academy as I wanted to take the new universal Javascript approach I learnt on the Steami project to the next level. The project scope was ambitious and it required a herculean effort to learn brand new technologies such as Redux and Socket-io and successfully apply them to create a fully functional game. Since I led my teammates into using these technologies I took responsibility for planning the technical architecture and walking the rest of the group through my design. Despite some concern that we were biting off more than we could chew, the team trusted in my ability to get the project over the line. I'm very proud of the successful outcome, achieved through sheer resilience and hard work! | Heroku | MongoDB, Express, React, Redux, Node.js, Socket-io, Passport, Webpack, Bootstrap, Sass, Material UI, Mocha, Chai, Enzyme |
| Instaflash | Built in two days as an individual weekend challenge at the Makers Academy, this is a clone of Instagram that I constructed using Rails. This project gave me a chance to get my teeth into AJAX, which I used to handle user comments and likes. | Heroku | Rails, Devise, HAML, Postgresql, Paperclip, Bootstrap, Sass, RSpec, Capybara, Poltergeist |
Fast Learner - I have always had an ability to absorb information and grasp new concepts quickly, following them through to high quality delivery. At the Makers Academy I successfully pitched a project idea to build a universal Javascript app using React - a technology neither I nor my team members had any experience with. I was able to quickly research the framework and guide my team members on its implementation - we completed a fully functional app called Steami in five days. I wrote this blog post about the experience.
Analytical Thinker - During my previous role as a business analyst, I had the opportunity to lead a project to create a web app for calculating the expected costs associated with certain types of legal claim. This required me to communicate complex business logic to the software team. I used my initiative to construct an interactive wireframe model that linked the front end UI to logic trees describing the underlying calculations. I had very positive feedback from the development team as my model enabled a quick and straightforward build process.
Explainer - My ability to break down complex concepts and explain them in a logical, step-by-step manner has resulted in me becoming the 'go-to' person for fellow students at the Makers Academy in need of help and technical assistance. I've received wonderful feedback from the members of my cohort for my patience and willingness to help. I've also taught many the basics of technologies not covered on the course, such as Bootstrap, Sass, Express and MongoDB. It was a great feeling to watch them put their new knowledge into practice.
A highly selective and intensive three month software engineering course, focusing on:
- Test driven development and behaviour driven development
- Pair programming
- Agile methodologies and XP values
- Object-oriented design
- Full stack web development
Including modules: Business Analysis Practice, Requirements Engineering, Commercial Awareness and Modelling Business Processes.
DSDM AgilePM
University of St Andrews
Greenhead College
Holmfirth High School
Enterprise Business Analyst ~ May 2016 - Dec 2016
- I was invited to join the 'Design Team', a special, cross-functional unit tasked with designing a blueprint for the future of the organisation. This role focused on business architecture modelling, strategic planning and R&D.
Business Analysis & Intelligence Team Manager ~ Jan 2015 - May 2016
- Management of enterprise BI service, including management of work pipeline and staff
- Leading business analysis team, establishing best practice and scoping team's engagement with projects
Business Analyst/MI Operations Manager ~ Sept 2013 - Jan 2015
- Lead analyst on "Smart MI" project to enhance capability of the firm's case management system and deliver a new client-facing web application "rpcreserve.com", which was nominated for various industry awards.
Business Analyst ~ Nov 2011 - Sept 2013
- Led projects and analysis initiatives focused on requirements gathering, full lifecycle software delivery (waterfall and Agile) and process modelling/improvement.
Case Systems Analyst ~ July 2010 - Nov 2011
- A role focused on designing, developing and deploying a range of new workflows and features in Visualfiles - a legal case management system with its own scripting language.
- Music - I play electric blues and acoustic folk guitar.
- Photography
- Gaming - I've been a gamer from a young age and have been fortunate to make many life-long friends through the hobby. I enjoy building gaming PCs (wallet permitting!).
- Hackathons - I was part of the winning team for the "Law for Good" Hackathon 2016. I handled the front-end design and development using Bootstrap and Sass, with a co-developer knitting it together into a Rails app which we named Atticus.
- Learning to code - of course :)