Projects | Experience | Education | Skills | Hobbies and Interests
Passionate skier/scrabble player/sudoku solver/soccer player/surfer/alliterator. In 2013, I became a ski instructor to see the world and since lived in 4 countries and rose to a position as trainer and coach for other instructors and junior wintersports athletes. In the last 3 years, in search of mental stimulation and a more sustainable career path, I helped start a digital marketing agency before I discovered Code Academy and everything changed.
Getting paid to solve logic puzzles all day notwithstanding, a career in as a software developer presents an opportunity to create solutions to problems that effect real people and the world around us. News outlets and social media like to remind us on a daily basis that the future is bleak and we're all doomed, but within the world of Tech I see and hear nothing but optimism and positivity; which dictates my drive to be part of it, and makes it feel closer to being a ski instructor than one might think.
| Name | Description | Tech/tools |
|---|---|---|
| Acebook | A clone of Facebook | React, MongoDB, Express, Node, Jest |
| Bank | A Node app operated from the REPL | JS, Node, Jest, HTML, CSS |
| MakersBnB | A clone for AirBnB | Ruby, Rspec PostgresSQL, HTML, CSS |
Account Manager, &BAM; Remote, B.C / UK (November 2020 - February 2022)
Account management appealed as it gave me the opportunity to manage a team, in addition to working directly with clients. My success in this role depends on the specific goals of each client, but highlights include doubling overall marketing revenue for 3 different brands; successfully rebranding a $1million/month male-targeted activewear company to appeal to the female market (female customers increased by 15% to date); and leading the company in revenue generated from upselling clients to bigger packages.
Another large part of my role has been developing my knowledge of the industry. In order to upsell clients, I have had to constantly teach myself how to use new apps and software so that I can understand which USPs will appeal to which clients. I have also taught myself basic graphic design and web development skills so that I can help out my own creative team when necessary; helping remove stress and allowing them freedom to produce their best work. This also enabled the team to take holidays, which had not happened in 3 years prior to my arrival at the company.
Account Director, RoylesMedia; Remote, B.C. (September 2018 - May 2020)
As Account Director, I was responsible for all communication and creating every individual marketing campaign for 20+ clients, mostly small business owners, over the course of 18 months.
With no formal training, I taught myself to build successful Facebook advertising campaigns, from a combination of Youtube videos and online forums, earning clients up to $100k in sales within the first 30 days of launch. I worked to continually develop our product to maximize efficiency and stay on top of industry marketing trends. I was also responsible for learning then synchronizing a wide range of apps and online platforms in order to automate necessary processes, while taking care to maintain privacy and manage personal data securely.
Ski Instructor, Worldwide (November 2013 - March 2020)
Over the last 6 years, I have taught skiing in 4 different countries to over 40 different nationalities. I have taught successful lessons in French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin and German, despite not speaking any second language fluently. I had not skied before the age of 23 and by 26, had progressed to a level where I was teaching other instructors how to improve their own skiing. In my final 3 winters I was a coaching in an Athlete Development Program at Whistler Blackcomb, where I was preparing athletes for competitions in race, freestyle, freeride and moguls.
- Motivated to learn
- Adaptable and team player
- Curious about people and problems
- Ruby, Rspec, Sinatra, Capybara
- JavaScript, Jest, Node.js, Express, React
- HTML, CSS, Handlebars
- SQL, Postgres, TablePlus, MongoDB, MongoDB Compass, Mongoose
- Command Line, Git, GitHub
- Travis CI
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As an account manager for a marketing agency, I noticed my team was becoming stressed and overworked. I was able to analyse the workflow and identify areas in which it could be improved to the benefit of everyone in the company. So, I took ownership of our workflow and was able to reorganise tasks so that each person's workload became clear and manageable. As a result, we were able to produce the same amount of work, in significantly less time, which restored the work/life balance of the team, subsequently improving the quality of their work.
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As a ski instructor, I regularly had situations where people froze with fear and felt like they couldn't progress. Through communicating with them I was able to restore calm and understand exactly what aspect of the situation was creating the mental block. From this I was able to work out exactly what they needed to hear from me in order to make a breakthrough.
- Full-Stack web development.
- Frequently used paring in order to problemsolve effeciently, requiring teamwork and communication.
- Object oriented programming & software design & XP
- Civil Engineering
- 2:2
All sports! Skiing, biking, football, surfing, golf etc.
I'm also a ruthless Catan player and a former competitive Scrabble player.