Tell us a bit about yourself
I’ve been a programmer commercially for around 5 years and learning for the last 8. I’ve worked across a number of different platforms, including; health and wellbeing, the financial sector and freelance web development. I went to Huddersfield University Where I gained a First-Class Degree and an award for Best Overall Performance on A Final Year Project.
What made you want to become a developer?
I love technology! Everything about it interests me and I love to see how things are built. I made the decision when I was 16 that computing was going to be my career choice and I never looked back, I naturally fell into web development as it encompassed several areas that interested me.
What is your strongest skill?
My overly analytical approach to everything, both work related and not, would be my strongest skill. Having the ability to analyse a situation and take the correct course of action is essential for any programmer to have.
What are you currently fascinated by and how is it feeding into your work?
Dependency Injection and SOLID principles, having only recently been introduced to this way of working, it has opened my eyes to a whole new way of writing efficient and clean code.
Tell us five websites you like to visit
http://pinkbike.com – My longest standing hobby that has been with me throughout the best and worst times of my life. This site allows me to keep up to date with all the latest trends and news.
http://stackoverflow.com – This site is an absolute gem and has saved me (and probably many others) from many a web issue. This is my number one go to when I have a code issue that I can’t crack.
https://developer.xamarin.com/api/ – I absolutely love coding native mobile applications and the challenges that come with cross-platform development. This site is a gold mine of available code that I can use when developing.
https://github.com/ – I love browsing this site for inspiration from other developers around the world, coding is great when shared amongst others and this site allows that to happen easily.
http://www.dreamincode.net/ – A fantastic site that covers all aspects of programming and a great source of inspiration.
What are you most passionate about besides work?
Mountain biking and family are the two biggest things in my life apart from programming. Having mountain biked from a young age, it has opened many doors to me and allowed me to explore places and meet people that I wouldn’t have thought possible. Aside from that, I try to put a huge emphasis on being a strong family man and hoping to raise my children in a way that they and my partner would be proud of me.
