I decided to change careers and become a developer to be part of a team building something new, shaping a product that ultimately makes a genuine difference to peoples' lives.
I recently completed a three month Makers Bootcamp where I taught myself Ruby, JavaScript and Swift by building a range of applications and websites. In my previous roles, I always pushed myself to learn more and to take ownership in as many areas as possible. I want to bring this attitude and my experience from Makers to my next role, building an outstanding product with clean, well-tested code, whilst continuing to develop my own engineering skills.
| Name | Description | Tech/tools |
|---|---|---|
| Tzetzes: MP News Search | A big step forward in transparency for MPs, this website allows users to search through MPs' local news articles, press releases etc. | Ruby on Rails, JavasScript, SCSS, RSpec. This project also uses a proprietary Python script to gather data. |
| Signposts AR | An iOS app for placing and viewing entities in Augmented Reality, linking their GeoLocation to a map. A demo video can be found here. | Swift, ARKit, RealityKit, Xcode, XCTest |
| Acebook | A clone of popular social networking site, incorporating user authentication, likes, profile pages and comments per post. | Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, SCSS, RSpec |
| colsondesign | My personal website, built to showcase my projects and give some more colour to my CV. | Vue.js, Vuetify |
| react-catan | A Settlers of Catan map generator, built to generate entirely random boards. | React.js, HTML, CSS |
I have always enjoyed working as part of a diverse team to achieve a shared objective. During my time as a freelancer working for a crowdfunding start-up, a key goal was joining up the non-technical founder with the development team, ensuring that his requests were translated properly into functional requirements, and that the engineers working on the site were building it in a way that allowed us to scale quickly. Bringing these two sides of the business together to work as one team meant that the finished product fulfils all of the specifications that we began the business with, and has serviced thousands of users in the short time it has been live.
I am always looking for new ways of working and how best to improve a business's offering. At the CBI, I:
- Developed a new stakeholder database to ensure meetings and engagement across a large, multi-region organisation was kept in check.
- Used readership and click-through metrics to inform changes being made to communications products.
- Evolved the organisation's communication with membership by increasing the use of data, translating complicated ideas into straightforward messages.
During my time at Makers, I considerably improved my problem solving skills. One example of this is my ability to trace errors in code, looking diligently through logs and error messages to find the issue. Employing a strategy of getting visibility and making the loop and smaller as I problem solve also enables me to track down niche and difficult bugs, understanding the program as a whole, rather than just an individual piece. I put this into practice on all of my projects, but particularly those that rely on reaching out to databases or APIs, where external data can sometimes cause unforeseen issues.
Freelance Consultant (March 2020 - Present)
- Consulting on the development of a start-up from both a political and technical viewpoint.
- Writing user stories, advising on website UI / UX and .
- Working alongside firms to develop their public affairs strategies.
Hilton (May 2019 - March 2020)
Government Affairs Manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
- Building coalitions with trade associations in the UK and across EMEA on issues including immigration, copyright, and the implementation of PSD2.
- Developing advice for the European Commission and others on upcoming legislation covering AI and the use of data.
- Distilling complex information into straightforward presentations and briefings.
Confederation of British Industry (CBI) (July 2018 - May 2019)
Senior Campaigns Adviser
- Leading on the development and implementation of a stakeholder management database.
- Providing political intelligence and insight for both CBI staff and for member businesses.
I was headhunted by Hilton after six months at the CBI.
Grayling (August 2016 - July 2018)
Account Executive
- Monitoring parliament and the media for developments across a wide range of sectors, including technology, hospitality, and transport.
- Initiating and developing a new internship programme. My work covered the recruitment process as well as line management of interns.
- Winner of the 2017 Grayling ‘Creating Advantage’ award, a global internal competition assessing who has best delivered for clients in the business.
Makers Academy is a coding bootcamp, designed to support career switchers with some prior knowledge of programming to become job-ready junior developers.
- OOP, TDD, MVC, DDD
- Agile/XP
- Git
- Ruby, Rails, JavaScript
- RSpec, Jasmine
- Swift
- Politics and International Relations: BSc(Hons)
- 2.1 degree awarded.
- At the University of Bath, I focussed my studies on the British political system. For my dissertation, I used SPSS to quantitatively analyse the 2015 election.
- A-Levels: Politics (A), Economics (B), Classical Civilizations (B)
- GCSEs: 6 x As (including Maths and English), 4 x Bs.
- Open Water Diver: PADI certified.
- I use Logic Pro to produce music (none of which is particularly listenable!) and have done since my early teens.
- I love to cook and am using the rolling lockdown periods to improve my knowledge by buying far too many recipe books.
- I run regularly and have previously competed in a half marathon to raise funds for Parkinson's UK.