I enjoy working in agile technological environments, especially liaising between clients and developers to ensure that optimal, technically feasible solutions can be realised. My focus on user centred development allows for expressive, exciting and active communities. This would involve continuing to work in and strengthen my expertise in PHP, CSS and MySQL, and the overall LAMP stack, and to develop in Ruby, Java and other web-oriented languages.
Training new staff, and responsible for general upkeep of the bars Also menu design and stock choice, reviewing the success of the bars and bringing in business through promotions. While managing the Cwtch bar, recieved good reviews in national magazines, including the BBC Food Magazine, Olive, where one of my recipes was also reprinted.
Bringing the university experience to schools and pupils, via guided tours, talks in schools. Preparing sessions for larger groups of children seeing a university for the first time. Also liaising with teachers for their expectations and feedback. As part of my Student Trainer role I have been involved in the training of new mentors and ambassadors. Notably, I was involved in a project with Swindon young people to produce a leaflet detailing ASBOs to their peers. 40,000 copies of the leaflet were produced for schools in the area.
Assessing retail and customer-focused businesses on a range of criteria, while remaining unknown to staff.
Responsible for pastoral care and activity instruction of children in groups of up to 48. I instructed activities such as fencing, archery, surfing, team-work, kayaking, sailing and motor-sports. I was also involved in management and teamwork training for companies including Marconi and Rover.
I enjoy downhill skateboarding, surfing and rock-climbing as often as possible. I also cycle regularly, both commuting and off road.
I directed and played the lead role in Dario Fo’s ‘The Accidental Death of An Anarchist’ at Bath’s Ustinov Studio. This was very well reviewed in the press and was the most successful student play to be staged in Bath’s professional theatre for over 20 years.
My academic background in psychology has left me with a strong grounding in the principles of usability, user centred design and community formation. Coupled with my ability to work with CSS, PHP and XHTML especially, I have been able to produce a number of very successful and stable websites under Drupal, Wordpress and Mediawiki. I have also been involved in the development of several widgets, both for openDemocracy and the Open Rights Group, which have give me a strong insight into using XML as a data storage and exchange medium. As part of my work with CSS, I have developed strong skills in using Photoshop and the GIMP.
Experienced with office applications, on both Windows, Linux and Apple systems and touch typing at 50+ WPM Able to program in C (receiving a 2:1 classification for the module 'UNIX and C programming'), as well as being proficient in PHP, MySQL and able to read most languages effectively.
I am responsible for the tendering, maintenance and upkeep of openDemocracy's web server, which runs Drupal under the LAMP stack.
As the main presenter for the Bath Campus TV station during ‘Freshers’ week for 4 years. In addition to this I was the Features Editor for Impact, the award winning SU paper, in 2005/6, and was personally responsible for producing between 3 and 5 pages of content, some of which I wrote, including a regular cocktail column.
Since leaving university I have worked at openDemocracy in managerial capacity. I have successfully managed several large projects, including a highly successful migration of our CMS and hosting, with a saving of £32,000 on server costs. I organised and managed a successful office move. I have managed empoyees directly both externally and internally on a number of projects including;
I gained extensive experience of effective meetings at university, including chairing the Ethical and Environmental committee, sitting alongside the SU President and Vice-Chancellor on high-level liaison committees and disciplinary panel process, and I worked hard to see that my ideas were discussed fairly and implemented effectively, leading to my being awarded Union Councillor of the Year ’03/’04 and receiving an award for Outstanding Contribution to the Union in both ’04/’05 and ’05/’06. I was elected representative of my SU at NUS National Conference in Blackpool in 2004. In my capacity as a student trainer in 2005/6, I gave sessions ranging from Critical thinking to Etiquette, and was awarded the Student Trainer of The Year as a result.
My proudest accomplishment was organising the SU Food Co-op, providing cheap, local produce to students and supporting local farmers has enabled me to realise my ambition of making a real, positive difference to people.
Through spending 5 years working with children from 4-18yrs, I increased my competence in a number of activities, become better able to lead groups, and more aware of the needs of individuals and teams.
References available on request