I have been a SharePoint developer for the past 13 months, primarily developing tailored MOSS 2007 solutions in C# for the public education sector. Prior to that I was an ASP developer for 8 year working for ntl:, and then IBM, developing Call Centre solutions. I am proficient with C#, .net, ASP, Javascript, CSS, XSLT, and have done a fair bit of design with SharePoint designer also.
My aim is to progress from Public Sector in Private Sector SharePoint development to gain a better exposure to a variety of projects.
The Microsoft C# 2.0 Programming Language. Provided by QA-IQ, January 2009.
Developing Microsoft SharePoint 2007 solutions for the education sector.
After seeking an opportunity for real progression from IBM I accepted a position with the City and County of Swansea, to work on an authority wide portal solution (intranet / extranet) to provide access to information for parents, teachers and students.
My main roles fall into three key areas, Development, Design, and Management.
Using SharePoint Designer I have created new Master Files, Templates and CSS to create a site that is as greatly removed from the standard SharePoint look as possible. The files are heavily tailored to provide the functionality required by the authority.
My development work involves writing SharePoint Web Parts in C#. The highlights of the applications I've produced are:
The news, cms and forum applications were developed because of the shortfalls in the built in solutions.
The news tool was too linear, we wanted something that could send news to 200 different areas of the SharePoint site, depending on user selections. The CMS was created to provide simple step-by-step page creation with rich content editing. The forum was created to provide a robust but intuitive forum system that resembled other popular forum systems such as VBulletin.
One of the areas I have been able to develop is our own web 2.0 tools as well as integrating with other online services. I created a Social Bookmarking tool for our collaboration area. This tool allowed users to add and tag URL's and filter through bookmarks using tags. In the background to tool captured the linked sites title and icon to provide a highly polished look to the tool. I also integrated our news tool with Twitter, using their API.
My SharePoint management role includes large amounts of database work, working exclusively with MSSQL. This is great because I've been working with MSSQL for over 8 years and have a lot of experience in this area. I also configure and manage Shared Services, create Site Collections, and manage the Search Scopes.
Recently, I've been focusing on SharePoint webparts that automate functionality, such as comparing webpart properties accross multiple sites, automatic page creation, and application deployment.
In Sept. 2004 I Joined IBM as a Software Developer, directly serving our client, ntl:. With IBM I am able to continue developing call centre applications with increasing functionality, speed and comprehensiveness. IBM has been a fantastic skill development platform, allowing me to produce applications that are more user friendly, and do more for the users than ever before. In the last 2 years I have designed the first method for measuring customer satisfaction the client has ever had, accompanied with a detailed reporting and management suite. At IBM I have been able to expand outside my role, taking on a position of Professional Development co-ordinator, which involves co-ordinating the skills development of over 100 IBMers. I recently came second place, out of dozens of applicants, in a prestigious quarterly IBM competition for innovation, for the Process Management solution I designed and built.
When I began the role of software developer, I had a miniscule amount of ASP experience, yet within 4 months I was up to speed and already developing some excellent applications, one of which saved ntl £800,000 per year by reducing the average time the agent spent on a call by 2 minutes. In January 2003 our organisational structure changed and my job title changed to software developer. This carried added responsibilities of mentoring the junior software developers, and providing training to other teams within ntl, in sql and asp usage.
As someone who went straight into the jobs market after 6th Form, I didn’t go through higher education as such, choosing to teach myself programming skills with C and ASP. This set me on my way and secured a position as an ASP developer which I held for 8 years. During this time I developed into one of the top developers in the team, and became a leader and evangelist for web 2.0 technologies before they were given a buzzword, I led professional development for IBM in South Wales, and worked as trainee manager for the department in addition to my day-to-day role for 10 months.
Amman Valley Comprehensive School 1992 - 1997
GCSE's: Maths, English, Welsh, Science, Geography, History, Design & Technology.
GNVQ: Leisure & Tourism (Distinction)
Date of birth: 5th August 1981
Driving License: Full UK
Marital Status: Married
Interests: Blogging (SharePoint, Programming, Politics, and General Life), Rugby, Computer Gaming
References: Available on request