About Me

First of all, thanks for visiting my website.

I am a passionate Guernsey-based web developer, who really enjoys coding.

If you're interested to see some of the projects I've worked on in the past, please view them here.

Background

I am a motivated and hard-working 21 year old with a positive outlook who has a strong drive to learn and create. I am a logically minded person and I'm constantly progressing myself with new projects and learning, for example, this very site you are reading on, which I have created a full project write-up about.

Education

I am very proud of my academic achievements, and was lucky to have a very supportive family, group of friends and set of teachers to help me excel in my education.

I studied at the Guernsey Grammar School for my GCSEs, where I passed them all, with the most notable achievements including, but not limited to, an 8 (A* equiv.) in Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, History and Mathematics and a 6 (B equiv.) in Further Mathematics.

I then progressed to the Grammar School's Sixth Form Centre where I studied A-Level Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics, where I was predicted an A for all of my subjects, but I excelled past these expectations and achieved A, A* and A*, respectively.

I was awarded the Certificate of Outstanding Attainment, the Special Prize for Outstanding Progress, and the W. Sharp Cup for Economics in Autumn 2022.

Career

After Sixth Form, I went straight into the world of work, after dutifully considering pursuing a higher university education, which eventually I decided against, as I didn't think it was necessary for my career aspirations, and it seemed like a win-win, as I could earn a salary and learn.

Resolution IT (August 2022 - June 2023)

In August 2022, after I left Sixth Form, I started working at Resolution IT, a managed service provider, with the intention of getting my foot in the door, showing that I was a hard worker that could take on any task, with the aim to eventually move into development.

Being at Resolution IT taught me a lot. It was very helpful in developing my problem solving skills, and critically, my communication skills, as I was on the front line speaking to clients through email and phone. It also highlighted the importance of cybersecurity to me, which has remained with me since.

Later in my tenure, I was placed on secondment at the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC), where I assisted their internal IT team. This role consisted of more face-to-face interaction, which I realised I much preferred, and the change of pace was really refreshing.

However, I still really wanted to move into development, and it became increasingly clear to me that there wasn't much opportunity within the organisation for a development role, so I left the organisation on good terms in June 2023.

TPA (July 2023 – Present)

TPA is a marketing and digital agency that operates in the Channel Islands. I joined in July 2023, taking on a Junior Developer role in the digital side of the team.

I'm very appreciative of all I've learnt so far from working at TPA, and I have come a long way skill-wise since I joined. I really like how technical the job is, and I am very pleased to have the opportunities afforded to me to work hard. The culture is very friendly, and we have close relationships with our clients, which helps us stand out as an attractive agency to work with.

What I Do

I've broken down this category into two sections, to better represent what I do in my professional career, versus what I do personally outside the workplace.

In the Office

My responsibilities at TPA are numerous, as even though I am in a junior role, our development team is relatively small and close-knit, which naturally lends itself to all members of the team having a lot on their plate as we are always very busy!

I'm glad of this, as it allows me to show my passion for my work, as there is always an opportunity to work on something interesting. Our team is talented and the senior developers are very experienced and approachable, which is a massive help for my learning.

I am lucky to be able to say that as a junior, I've had the opportunity to not just work on supporting existing sites that may run on older technologies, but also to be at the cutting-edge of new website builds, both as a part of a team and independently, which allows me to experiment with new technologies, which is something I enjoy very much.

I have realised that liaising internally between teams (such as the design team) and determining client requirements are extremely important to delivering a good product, and I am very fortunate that in my previous career at Resolution IT that I built upon a good level of communication, which has transferred over to, and been built on further, in my new role.

Beyond the Workplace

Outside the office, I like to put my coding skills to work by undertaking a lot of personal projects. I really like the feeling of self-determination that being able to code gives you, which I put towards creating things for myself and my friends.

It's for this reason that when my good friend Ben Lewis approached me to create The Shang Review website (full project write-up can be found here), I was very eager, as it can be difficult to think of a project to undertake at times. I do truly believe that the hardest part of any project, inside the office and out, are the first steps, so I am very grateful to him for a direction to concentrate my energies.

I am also very passionate about The Shang Review itself, not just the website, as it is a home for a lot of the creative works of my close friends (and even family!). I've never been great with words (my lowest grade at the GSCE level was English Literature, which was 5), so it's always amazing to see the eloquence and wit of something I feel like I can never have the raw talent for. I'm really glad I'm involved and can lend my own strengths as well.

Other Hobbies

Outside of coding, besides the aforementioned Shang Review, my hobbies include:

• Playing the guitar, although admittedly not very well
• Running and playing sports, usually Squash, Badminton and Tennis
• Reading books, typically classics or fantasy/sci-fi, although I'm open to other genres as well
• Travelling
• History
• Local culture — I love a bit of beanjar!
• Learning and trying new things! I know this is a broad hobby, but it includes philosophy on one end, all the way to something as simple as trying new food, teas or coffee

My Values

My values are very important to me as the shape the way I work, connect with others and solve problems. Here are a few below that I think are most prominent, but this is not the complete list. I might update and change this list from time to time.

Integrity

Both in and out the workplace, a strong level of integrity is very important to me as it helps me to be professional and approachable.

Being able to take on responsibility is important, but not being able to put your hand up and admit where there is a gap in your knowledge and earnestly ask for help, I think is more important, as it builds a level of trust between the people you work with.

Respect

An critical value for communication is respect. Without respect, which admittedly is required both ways, an earnest conversation can't be had.

It's especially important when working with clients to establish requirements for a project, and it leads to better satisfaction from an end product as communication between the parties involved is clearer, more well defined and feedback provided can be genuine and constructive.

Having respect for the client you are working for, and a respect for your own work, means that you are driven to deliver a quality end product.

Flexibility

Ensuring that I have a tolerance to change is key to a lot of things in life, which I believe contributes to my positive outlook.

Being able to adapt to change, which extends from something as small as a tweak in a client's requirements for a project, to something as big as the world around us is invaluable.

While I can't go so far as to say I accept every change that comes towards me - everyone is entitled to a moan every now and again - but having the mindset of adopting new things that are genuine improvements is healthy and part of a growth mindset.

This also allows me to stay up-to-date with the most modern technologies, which also can provide unique learning opportunities.