Biography
Hello! I'm an Englishman living in Mikkeli, Finland. 31-years-old, I'm friendly, light-hearted, and find no shortage of interesting things to do!
In this bio I'll cover: my coding experience, my education, work & hobbies, and my life in Finland and hopes for the future . I hope you enjoy.
Read time: less than 5 minutes.
Coding experience
"In February 2021 in the midst of a pandemic my wife suggested I try coding. I'd recently finished working on an album, had some free time, and thought why not? I enrolled in Harvard Universities CS50x introduction to computer science course and started working my way through the Free Code Camp curriculum. I quickly realised I was enjoying learning to use various programming languages and was particularly interested in web development. I decided to commit more of my resources to the coding journey and enrolled in the 2021 Online Web Developers Boot-camp by Colt Steele. Since then I have obtained various certifications (see below), gained experience using a range of technologies programming languages, developed numerous projects, and learnt a lot!
Specifically I have skills using: Javascript, HTML, CSS, EJS, Node.js, Express, MONGODB, terminal, linux & Wordpress. I have some experience with: Python, C, NPM, SQL, Flask. I believe I would be able to carry out a front-end junior developers role.
Certifications:
- CS50x Introduction to computer science 2021- Harvard University- complete 08/2021
- Free Code Camp- responsive web design (300 hour course)- complete 03/2021
- Free Code Camp- Javascript algorithms and data structures (300 hour course)- complete 05/2021
- 2021 Web Developers Bootcamp with Colt Steele- ongoing
My Background- work, education & hobbies
"I'm 31, which means I've done some stuff... I was born in London but grew up in "God's own country", that's Yorkshire, in the UK. In 2011 I graduated with a 2.1 Bsc in psychology from York university. I then started a career in the brewing industry which lasted for 10 years as I progressed from a brewery tour guide, to packaging assistant, technical brewer and finally a shift lead brewer.
Hobbies are a huge part of my life and I have a proactive persuasion. I play guitar, bass, piano and sing. In England I played and performed with a number of bands of various genres, I also taught guitar professionally for several years as a self-employed teacher. I've written several hundred thousand words of fiction, engaged in a serious (but not too serious) meditation practice for over 10 years, and taken up running in recent years. Most importantly during this time I met my future Finnish wife. We moved to Finland together in 2020 to be closer to her family and so I could go to sauna more often!"
↓ Me singing a song! ↓
Life in Finland and the future
"Sauna, lake swimming, forest walks, skiing, avanto, and learning the notorious Finnish language. Moving to Finland has been an overwhelmingly positive experience although it has come with its own challenges and surprises along the way. Along with self-studying web dev, I'm engaged in the Finnish language integration course- my Finnish language is currently graded A2.1-2 and I hope to reach B1.1 in the spring. I also work part time at a local brewery. I enjoy spending time with my extended Finnish family. My wife and I completed a half marathon for our anniversary last year and are training for a marathon for the next one!
Over the years I've developed an excellent work ethic and organisational skills that I'm proud of. I was able to put these to use after moving to Finland and make the most of the opportunity to self-study web development while I was looking for work. I'm enthusiastic about how much I have learnt in this time and am proud of the projects I've produced. I look forward to learning more on the next one!
I hope to take my studies further either through formal education or in the workplace."