João Abbott-Gribben
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About me

I'm an artist and writer turned full stack developer. A graduate from Makers Academy, I went on to work at Infinity Works, where I am currently a Senior Consultant. I value clean code, agile working practices and continual learning. I love learning new technologies, pairing, solving puzzles and writing well-designed and test-driven code.

Before re-training at Makers I split my time between writing, my art practice and administrative work. The administration was enjoyably systematic and efficient but it didn't offer the intellectual and creative challenges of art and writing, so I started to look for something new. After working on The Odin Project and Codecademy for a few months, I knew I'd found it.

Skills

Writing clean & well-crafted code

Makers and Infinity Works have cultivated my language-agnostic approach to a range of industry best practices for multiple stages of the software cycle. I’ve learnt and become a huge advocate for agile product development, particularly XP values and rules (TDD, pair programming, version control, CI), and clean code designed with SOLID, DRY, KISS + Sandi Metz's TRUE in mind.

Collaboration & communication

The collaborating and communicating skills I’ve honed as an artist and writer were further developed by the pair programming and agile practices of Makers and Infinity Works. Open, regular and constructive communication is hugely important to me and I always take steps to do what I can to ensure this happens in the teams I work in. I’ve consistently found that the most productive teams are those where everyone feels valued and heard and difficult conversations are approached with a no-blame solution-orientated approach. These are also the happiest teams!

Diligence & attention to detail

Whether it’s writing clean code or keeping on top of office administration, I take pleasure in doing things well and learning how they can be done better. For me attention to detail starts at the code I’ve written and keeps expanding from there: I’m passionate about details and consistency at all stages and environments of software development projects. I take as much pride in my code craftsmanship as I do in considerate communication, keeping the task board up-to-date or uniform commit messages (semantic commits, absolutely love them).

High motivation & independence

Solving problems, independent learning and working through adversity are hugely rewarding and motivating processes to me. As an artist I’m used to persevering through endless iterations of something ‘not working’ until I get the skills or knowledge required for a breakthrough. At Makers and Infinity Works I've cultivated and practiced a conscious and methodical processes to solving problems and learning new skills quickly. So when times are dark and I find I’ve made an incorrect assumption, or if there’s a nasty bug (or both, as it often goes) I know that I have the processes and motivation to succeed.

Previous work & education

Education

Nov 2018 - Mar 2019: Makers Academy
2008-2013: University of Edinburgh: MA Fine Art, Honours History of Art. 2:1 (Distinction in History of Art), Huntly MacDonald Sinclair Travelling Scholarship
2007-2008: Cambridge Regional College: Art Foundation.
2005-2007: Hills Road Sixth Form: A-levels. AAA (Art, PE and Philosophy)

Exhibitions & Publications

Overview of my writing, editing, design and exhibition history here

Photographic documentation and exhibition texts of my most recent exhibitions here (navigate around the rest of the site to see more paintings and drawings)

Software engineering roles

Infinity Works (Jun 2019 - Oct 2020)
Associate Consultant
Infinity Works (Oct 2020 - Nov 2022)
Consultant
Infinity Works (Nov 2022 - Present)
Senior Consultant