My site, aims & ideals..
I am from the North Manchester area, and seeking Web Development opportunities within an established company. Ideally I'd love to work for a large software firm working on a variety of initially, client side applications and projects. I have quite an extensive skills of study which I am following within the CIW program but I intend later, to continue studies and learn more programming and server side scripting skills (PHP). Ruby & (ROR) also interests me from what I have read online. Another interest would be some further input on media development despite my course being more development orientated overall in nature. Although I dabble in Photoshop now from time to time, as a hobby and learn from networking and being self taught from books I've purchased and some good online tutorials. Flash and Paintshop anyway are part of my skillset, so I think overall I will have the ability to have a hand in many roles.
Here I have created a very simple site (requiring no plugins). I prefer to hand code and I'm a seasoned PC user using Windows as apposed to the equally popular, Apple Mac. I'm versed equally in XP & Vista. There isn't anything a Mac will do that a PC won't. I have really enjoyed and importantly, learned competently how to 'hash code' together. I am very comfortable working with (X)HTML. I will continue to hand code as it's the best way to control semantics, learn code, script and a fast way to debug. I have started this site as a starting block, through entirely hand coding all the pages with no use of any WYSIWYG software, in order to learn the variety of fundamental coding skills such as HTML/XHTML, CCS (2) and Javascript. I try with some difficulty at times to ensure I comply with the W3C standards, although like a lot of Designers and developers, I have to check this is the case often, validating pages (click here to demonstrate this page validates), my css and also ensuring that all my pages render in all user agents. All my pages are to my knowledge, cross browser compliant as I use them all for testing purposes often. I do use predominately, Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla FireFox with the Developer toolbar add on. I also quite like the cross platform Safari browser from Apple and most other technologies they have developed in recent years.
On a Part time basis, I am working towards accredited qualifications through Prosoft, namely the 'CIW Website Design Managers Certification' and the second certification of the course, Javascript due to be taken soon. I passed the first cert, that of the CIW Associate in January 2009 - this has given me Associate status. I believe this exam was the successor to the I-NET Plus exam although I have heard rumours it is still active and is simply an alternative and that, some people have actually studied both. I will update the site with my certs once I obtain them. I have funded the course entirely whilst working full time. I am working hard to finish my studies, whilst maintaining the day job.
I believe if I were to be successful within an Entry Level role I would complete my course far quicker and become a very productive employee as I would be applying my skills daily twinned with keeping upto date more progressively. Unfortunately, I have no experience in a commercial sense, which I realise is desired in order to get employed. I do not think however this would be a problem as I am quick to grasp new and dynamic concepts as they're of interest to me anyway and soon, I will compile a portfolio. I also enjoy the experience of learning new skills leading to the ability to actually create something functional. I am also hoping at some point to take on some work in order to build a portfolio to display on my site. I am a very passionate and capable individual given appropriate opportunities for development and training. I am open and eager to embrace new training opportunities whatever and whenever they might be. With the right employer, I feel my expectations will be met eventually leading to me becoming a very valued, efficient and commited member of any web development team. I have a CV, presently limited, to download here as a .pdf file. I am currently working on Section 2 part A of my course, Javascript.
