👋 Hi, I'm Joe and I'm a lifelong learner. A Maths Educational Leader for over a decade. Utilising my analytical skills and continually learning to build better software products.
What drives me in Software Development?
Other things you don't know about me
I became a teacher because I loved the platform to help people with technical learning to make their lives better. I worked with large groups but was always striving to scale my support. I started by managing and training other professionals but eventually this led me to build websites and learn how to use visual media to increase my impact.
I sponsor the charity Women in Agile London. I offer my services to create their social media and video work to help bring more women into tech.
Here are the projects that I have been working on:
| Name | Description | Tech/tools |
|---|---|---|
| ZeroPercentBrews.com | Alcohol-Free beer recommendations site | MERN with authorisation |
| Find-a-Film | Movie search app | TypeScript, React, fetch API |
| Acebook | Create an MVP social app | MERN Stack - Agile Process |
| Profile Website 2021 | Wide range of mini projects from my 2021 Full Stack JS Tech Degree | JS, React, SASS, MongoDB |
| Bank Tech Test | Banking app showcasing encapsulation, CI, code quality | javascript, OOP |
On this program I built professional skillsets on top of my strong skills in web development:
- Used my management skills to connect with students across cohorts, creating Slack channels & videos to boost learning capacity for all. Elected by staff to facilitate cohort retros and stand-ups.
- Understanding the true definition of an MVP and delivering a product to POs specifications
- Utilising CI & Agile methodologies with GitHub Projects
- Enhanced team colloboration with Git for debugging & reviewing team projects.
- Ability to learn a new language; Ruby with Rspec.
- Understand and use Test Driven Development with both Rspec and Jest to build stronger apps with documentation
- Created robust apps using Object Oriented Programming, such as this banking tech test to ensure true encapsulation.
- High focus on building sites from scratch has allowed me to gain a true full stack ability to style and match a client's specs.
- 6 month Program, completing 10 graded assessments to gain proficiency in Javascript, Node.js, React, Express and SQL.
- Assessments required accessibility considerations to pass, as well as correct semantic HTML styled to be legible and impactful.
- Attention to enhancing User Experience with user feedback, subtle CSS animations & JS interactions.
- Testing responsiveness across multiple devices and browsers, using graceful degradation for older browsers.
- Self-funded to better understand the software product lifecycle and how to create better quality code.
- Now a stronger developer for understanding White vs Black box testing as well as acceptance, and functional vs non-functional testing.
With over a decade experience leading a team of 16 teachers to train and assess 300 A Level students, I am highly skilled in monitoring and ensuring a team delivers a quality product to all stakeholders. I built continuous automated systems for tracking which have allowed me to seamlessly integrate into my software development teams.
To ensure my A Level Maths department were agile to student needs, I learned all the content of the syllabi. While my specialism was in Statistics, I taught Pure, Mechanics & Decision to a Further Mathematics level. I also trained fellow teachers and created banks of resources to increase the overall team's ability to succeed. I applied this skill to software development as and when I needed it to solve problems, for example, studying higher order functions and contextAPI in React when my team were learning fundamentals and documenting my work to bring them forward too.
I was the head of a Maths department team ensuring the school successfully met government changes to A-Level teaching in 2018. Many can digest technical documents for the own use. I was proactive in questioning repurcussions of finer details with outside agencies 2 years in advance. Built testing of assessment materials in a process of continuous refinement, training experienced staff sensitively to clear knowledge blockers. In my software teams at Makers, I implemented agile practices to ensure we shared a common goal and hit MVPs that were user focussed, built from User Stories. Our products were able to have a tested release within 3 days, with further delivery points due to our meticulous adherence to the agile process.
As a Deputy Head of Maths at a leading London secondary school it was my responsiblity to support the career progression of mathematics teachers. As a line manager I observed and supported established professionals. I provided coaching for them to gain confidence and become teachers at the highest level. I worked with King's College London training two trainee teachers each year. Through peer observation and review, I successfully helped all applicants get to their next stage of training and be able to apply their technical knowledge in a professional environment.
As an experienced teacher I often took on the more challenging classes with students that struggled learning technical topics. I created environments where they felt safe to attempt work without fear of being belittled by others. I come from a working class family and I've led by example supporting people from a wide range of ethnicities and social backgrounds work together successfully for the better. I bring this experience to my software teams making sure all members are valued and their best work brought forward working in an agile manner.
This is the reason for my achievements. Before joining the Makers Academy Programme I had self-taught in software development. It's hard to be satisfied with just a surface level of knowledge and it leads me to explore and learn on both a wider and deeper level. For example, my self exploratory has led me to learn enough about the software testing lifecycle to pass the ISTQB and learn more about the wider professional responsibilities of a software developer.
📌 TidyJoeVideo (April 2021 to Current)
Videographer
- Built my company website from scratch using CI, Webpack buildtools, SASS and vanilla JS
- Mastered professional editing and animation tools FCPX and Apple Motion
- Experience turning client requirements into fully tested products for the web
📌 Lumin Limited (August 2019 to Sept 2021)
Director of Operations
- I self-trained to create the company website; design, build, deploy & maintain
- Videography, photography and editor of media content
- Responsible for general operations and financial accounts
- Our trading partners reached out from seeing our promotional video materials, leading to a new avenue of sales for the company
📌 Travel: New York City (April 2018 to August 2019)
Education
- One year in New York City for my wife's career promotion as an Agile Coach at Bloomberg
- Earned certifications in JS Algorithms and Responsive Web Dev. Over 600 hours work taking my logical and artist skills to the next level
- Began volunteering as a videographer promoting Agile Practices at Meetup Events that eventually led to companies asking me to promote them professionally
📌 Graveney School (Sept 2005 to April 2018)
Deputy Head of Mathematics
- Built my first public website that increased student engagement with video content
- Successfully wrote and tested delivery of the new Maths A-Level curriculum 2018 keeping our school among the best results in the country
- Trained 16 Maths staff in new course content from examining technical documentation ensuring staff retention and high scores on student feedback reports
- PGCE Mathematics
- Trained to teach complex technical information to 11 - 18 year olds
- Mathematics & Actuarial Studies BSc
- 2:1
- CS Adjacent Modules in Operational Research & Linear Programming
- Club level tennis player always looking to compete at the next level
- Wimbledon Boy 1996: Selected for Centre Court Men's Final - can say I worked with Pete Sampras & Tim Henman
- Turned videography passion into a professional side hustle. Clients in USA & Europe!