I build the tech that in turn helps build the beer. OMFG I get to write code that helps to brew beer. Who'd a thunk it?!

You still haven't filled in your last role at 8i, have you James ;)

My role here at Xero was varied. It swung between days of building cool shit for interesting problems and days of mentoring, interviewing, and providing guidance to others. I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to learn and grow as a leader within the organisation and also utilise the power of the Xero brand to talk at conferences and meetups.Development wise, this role was where I really learnt how to do things well. When you're dealing with code that is going to run on… Show more My role here at Xero was varied. It swung between days of building cool shit for interesting problems and days of mentoring, interviewing, and providing guidance to others. I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to learn and grow as a leader within the organisation and also utilise the power of the Xero brand to talk at conferences and meetups.Development wise, this role was where I really learnt how to do things well. When you're dealing with code that is going to run on hundreds of thousands of user's browsers, a slightly different approach has to be taken. There needs to be more care in regards to edge cases, browser quirks have to be taken extremely seriously (a small percentage of a large number is still a large number), and building out tooling is more of a concern. Couple that with working alongside a large team of developers and you find that in order to do well you really have to step up. For some, stepping up might be less desirable. But I have a mindset of wanting to continually better myself so this environment was a blessing. There were so many opportunities to learn, grow, and lead. I took those opportunities and are better off because of it. I was given the chance early on at Xero to move from a primarily development focused role to a dev role combined with people management. I helped grow people who reported to me, those in my team, and those who needed coaching in the skills that I was more proficient in. Hiring people at the scale that Xero needed to was never going to be an easy task, but I helped out here where I could. This meant numerous things - from helping with graduate days, to interviewing loads of people, to hosting community events at Xero.It was also in this role that I was able to level in public speaking. I spoke at many meetups (both in Wellington and Auckland) and was able to speak at local conferences like WDCNZ and the 2016 Wellington CodeCamp. Show less

My role at Redvespa was wide reaching and varied - from development on Redvespa's web app The BA Kit, to designing new internal HTML email templates, to gleaning useful data from our Google Analytics details.My main focus was on the development of The BA Kit, a solution for Business Analysis Practices and individual BAs. There are two versions of this app; the enterprise version which I have been involved with further development and enhancements, and the personal version which I not only… Show more My role at Redvespa was wide reaching and varied - from development on Redvespa's web app The BA Kit, to designing new internal HTML email templates, to gleaning useful data from our Google Analytics details.My main focus was on the development of The BA Kit, a solution for Business Analysis Practices and individual BAs. There are two versions of this app; the enterprise version which I have been involved with further development and enhancements, and the personal version which I not only designed, but was the sole front end developer and helped with some of the back end code. Both of these systems were built on top of Microsoft's MVC framework and used jQuery as a toolkit to get things done quickly.I also was the sole developer for Redvespa's public website www.redvespa.com. I took the design from some lovely Photoshop mockups and cut it up all nice and accurate for the web. It was built deeply on top of Wordpress as a custom theme. It was on this project that I learnt how to utilize the awesomeness of Sass to generate the site's CSS file. If you visit the site on a mobile device you'll also see the mobile version I created too.For both the site and The BA Kit I volunteered to be the mind behind analysing the Google Analytics stats. Creating custom reports, advanced segments, and generally showing everyone else how amazing things are were just some of the outcomes from looking at the Analytics data. And seeing just how people are using the stuff that I've hand a hand in creating is simply fascinating. Show less

Here I worked across a range of customer facing websites, making changes to content and design layout in a manner that is consistant with company standards and policies.The sites I worked with were diverse, in content, design, and technology.The majority of these were what's known as small change - changes that are small yet numerous, but still are vital to keeping the RBS internet presence first class. The majority of the technologies I was working with were XHTML, XML, XSL, and CSS but… Show more Here I worked across a range of customer facing websites, making changes to content and design layout in a manner that is consistant with company standards and policies.The sites I worked with were diverse, in content, design, and technology.The majority of these were what's known as small change - changes that are small yet numerous, but still are vital to keeping the RBS internet presence first class. The majority of the technologies I was working with were XHTML, XML, XSL, and CSS but sometimes I may be required to make a change to an ASP page or use Photoshop to fix up an image.With the responsibility of working on such large websites, I now have a working knowledge of the importance of accessibility. This goes hand in hand with usability, but is vital to any successful website in it's own right. Always learning - that's a good skill to have. Show less

Here I contributed to the content maintnenance of the RBS intranet. I worked with a range of business staff and stakeholders and provided a service that could be relied on day in, day out.With a keen eye for detail I was responsible for making updates and additions to existing content (mainly using HTML), whilst also adding new pages where necessary. On the odd occasion I photshopped (yes, I know you're not meant to use the word photoshopped but I will anyway) images to a professional… Show more Here I contributed to the content maintnenance of the RBS intranet. I worked with a range of business staff and stakeholders and provided a service that could be relied on day in, day out.With a keen eye for detail I was responsible for making updates and additions to existing content (mainly using HTML), whilst also adding new pages where necessary. On the odd occasion I photshopped (yes, I know you're not meant to use the word photoshopped but I will anyway) images to a professional standard for use on the intranet. Not only did I ensure that the content was maintained to an acceptable level, but also made sure that design standards were kept constant - a very important usability and accessibility factor. Show less

Developing IT had a few clients that needed either new websites, or an update to their existing online presence. Working under Developing IT I helped them create websites with the look and features their clients wanted.All websites were created using the CMS Dot Net Nuke. All code was writtem in HTML, CSS, ASP and JavaScript, whilst all design was done using Photoshop. All the final products not only look good, but most importantly provide an online presence that the clients wanted.

When Dobbies went live with their new website earlier this year there was a lot of content that had to be moved over from their old site. That's where I came in.Using HTML, CSS and the CMS epiServer, I moved well over 100 (literally) pages to the new site, often coding the given content from scratch - and on occasion I had to gather this content from PDF files. I was given the chance to design the content myself (of which I think I did a nice job) provided it fit within the Dobbies.com… Show more When Dobbies went live with their new website earlier this year there was a lot of content that had to be moved over from their old site. That's where I came in.Using HTML, CSS and the CMS epiServer, I moved well over 100 (literally) pages to the new site, often coding the given content from scratch - and on occasion I had to gather this content from PDF files. I was given the chance to design the content myself (of which I think I did a nice job) provided it fit within the Dobbies.com look. I enjoy gardening almost as much as I enjoy creating websites - this role was a perfect fit. A shameless plug here, but if you're in the UK and haven't visited your local Dobbies center (or website) in a while then please do. Those guys are tops. Show less

When UWHNZ needed an upgrade to their current website, they came to me with a few ideas about what they wanted. I turned these ideas into a reality, turning their old website into a new feature and content rich portal for all things underwater hockey.I was responsible for creating the design and also developing the site onto a Joomla! backend. How-to documents were written up so that in the future the committee would not need to rely on anyone else but themselves to make changes to the… Show more When UWHNZ needed an upgrade to their current website, they came to me with a few ideas about what they wanted. I turned these ideas into a reality, turning their old website into a new feature and content rich portal for all things underwater hockey.I was responsible for creating the design and also developing the site onto a Joomla! backend. How-to documents were written up so that in the future the committee would not need to rely on anyone else but themselves to make changes to the content.For my first role as a freelancer, this site turned out really nice. Show less

Credit Consultants run in house software to look after certain aspects of their clients finances, but as the software was developed many moons ago they decided it was time for an upgrade. I was hired near fresh out of my studies to help them with this. The software was written on top of Microsoft .NET and SQL Server 2008 architecture and coded in VB .NET. I helped design the database structure and also had a hand in coding a large part of the software itself. We added a multitude of new… Show more Credit Consultants run in house software to look after certain aspects of their clients finances, but as the software was developed many moons ago they decided it was time for an upgrade. I was hired near fresh out of my studies to help them with this. The software was written on top of Microsoft .NET and SQL Server 2008 architecture and coded in VB .NET. I helped design the database structure and also had a hand in coding a large part of the software itself. We added a multitude of new functionality, all based off business needs that has evolved since the first implementation of the software. Show less