CURRICULUM VITAE 

Date Of Birth                                        03/11/1961 

Marital Status                                      Married – 2 Children 

Driver’s License                                   Full license held 

Nationality                                           British 

Previous Position                                 Developer, [snip] (up to 29/08/2003)

Current Position                                   Freelance, working from home.

(Available for work immediately). 

Previous Salary                                   £31,596 pa 

Educational Qualifications 

The Grange School

Bradford, West Yorkshire            (Attended from Sept 1975 to June 1980) 

 Further Education 

Studied Chemistry at Manchester University (1980 – 1983) but did not obtain a degree.

Career History 

Since moving to Scotland last September I have been occupied with freelance projects working from home. I have written a system for a Press Agency based in Manchester, using VB6 with an Access database to allow journalists to input news stories and submit them to publications and broadcasters. The system incorporates OLE automation of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook, and prints reports using web pages and XML. It also has a comprehensive help facility written using Microsoft’s HTML Help authoring tool. It should be fully functioning and installed by the end of this month. 

I have also re-designed and implemented the web site of a Runcorn based company called [snip] and have just completed a VB6 front end which should greatly streamline the use of their Microsoft Access fault reporting database. Furthermore, I am currently working on a fault tracking web site for [snip], which will use data uploaded from the [snip] MSAccess database onto a web server MYSQL database, accessed using PHP pages. I have made extensive use of Macromedia products including Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash whilst developing the above web sites. 

At the moment, I am particularly interested in continuing to work from home although I will also consider “on site work” if necessary. On my own PC I have Visual Basic 6, MS Office, Microsoft Visual Studio 6, Dreamweaver etc and also FTP software. I can therefore create a wide variety of applications or web sites without the need to move from my own home-office. 

I am particularly interested in web site design and development, as I can produce a quality product whilst liasing with users solely by phone or email. 

Prior to moving to Scotland I worked as a programmer for [snip] in Leicester from July 1988 until the end of August 2003. 

I have worked with PCs running Microsoft Windows since 1994. 

At the moment my development work is based around Windows XP and Windows 2000 machines. 

At the [snip]  I worked mainly with Windows NT version 4, client and server. I was part of a small team developing, maintaining and supporting software used mainly in branches and call centres, as well as a variety of other software including part of [snip] Internet Banking system. 

I get on well with other people, and enjoy working in a team environment. I see myself staying very much on the technical side for the foreseeable future rather than branching off into any sort of project management roll, as that is what I enjoy and where my expertise lies. The following is a list of the projects in which I have been involved during my time with [snip]. 

Prior to working with PCs I also did two years Unisys COBOL programming (1988 – 1990) and four years Tandem programming (1990 – 1994). 

[snip] Projects 

Transfer of [snip] credit card portfolio to [snip] (2002 – 2003)

This was a very fast project (started October 2002, implemented January 2003) but very important  and quite large. It’s aim was to redirect credit card application data from [snip] systems through to [snip] after [snip] took over the [snip] credit card portfolio. 

I designed and built [snip] side of the system, which consisted mainly of VB applications which picked up data from a SQL Server 7 database and posted it as XML through to [snip]. The posting applications were coded to be multi- threaded, in that a controlling executable could create as many “xml posting” executables as necessary to cope with changing volumes of incoming credit card applications. 

It was also necessary to handle XML posted back from [snip] to an asp page on our server, which would then write data back to our database. 

[snip] (1997 – 2003) 

System used in [snip] branches to take in cash from the customer, identify sales triggers (eg. Customer has no credit card and so a sales opportunity exists) and perform full customer fact finds and product sales. Designed to be customer facing, and so made to be visually attractive - initially a joint effort between [snip] and [snip]. 

A Visual Basic front end was built to interface to a business process object created using an Olivetti proprietary development tool. The front end incorporated web pages used for data input, and web pages were also used for producing printed application forms. The whole system used a SQL Server database. There was also a diary system (using Schedule+) allowing branch staff to book appointments for customers. 

This is the project in which I have been most heavily involved over the past few years. There was a constant need to talk to users about add-ons and improvements, and get such updates implemented within budget to tight schedules. I  have designed, built, tested and released many parts of the system as well as being in on the development from the start. Software releasing to branches used SMS releasing software to distribute packages to all servers and workstations across the branch network. 

[snip] (2000 – 2003) 

This system (a joint venture between [snip] and [snip]) was implemented in call centres and allowed users to book appointments for customers at any [snip] branch. 

A VB front end was used in conjunction with Olivetti Proprietary tool business logic and a SQL Server database. The system incorporated Quick Address software to locate the nearest branches for particular addresses. 

[snip] (1999 – 2003) 

It was often necessary to provide sales or other types of statistics to the management. I have built and worked on systems where HTML/ASP pages were used to provide a browser based system for statistical reports, so that managers could log on at any computer, type in the URL and see what they needed. These would get the data from SQL Server databases. 

I have also written systems which were purely SQL query or stored procedure based, perhaps run as scheduled tasks to produce simple text files of information for users. Often such systems would need to connect to every branch on the network to read the local branch database, pulling data back centrally to be reported out.

Current Skills Matrix (Skill level from 5 = expert to 1 = novice) 

Visual Basic (1994 – Now)        level 5 

My main skill – I now have a wealth of experience writing all types of applications (executables, dlls, ocxs, services etc) with VB5 and VB6. 

Most of the applications which I design, write and maintain incorporate aspects of database and web page integration, as well as interfacing to different platforms such as Tandem and Unisys, or across networks - often using XML. 

SQL Server (1996 – Now)         level 4 

I have considerable experience of working with both 6.5 and 7, and this includes a variety of administrative tasks as well as writing queries, stored procedures, triggers etc. and writing applications which mainly use Microsoft Activex Data Objects (ADO) for database access. 

Web Development (1997 – Now)          level 5 

Most of my web development work at [snip] was done using Microsoft Visual Interdev, writing raw HTML with VB Script and some Java Script. I have Dreamweaver installed on my home computer, which I now use to design and build web sites on a commercial basis. 

At  the [snip] I worked mainly on web pages hosted by Visual basic applications, and also on browser based management information systems which used asp pages to retrieve/format data from central servers to display to any management user with browser access. I also have experience of writing browser based applications which communicate over networks using XML, and of building web pages from XML using style sheets, plus some exposure to SOAP. 

[snip] AB2 (1997 – Now)         level 5 

Development tool having a flowchart type interface, generating C code when compiled. 

C++ (1999 – Now)         level 1 

I know enough C/C++ to be able to find my way around, maintain and debug existing programs, and to write very basic programs of my own. I have used other peoples course notes and also teach yourself books to get a grounding, but I seldom get chance to practice. 

However, I am confident that if a project required C++, I would have no trouble gaining the necessary skill level to be productive using that language. 

IBM Websphere MQ (2003)       level 1 

I have recently gained some experience writing Visual Basic applications interfacing to IBM Websphere Message Queuing software. 

Oracle (1994 – 1996)     level 1 

Experience of writing SQL queries. 

Microsoft .NET level 0 

Exposure so far limited to a one day seminar, but keen to learn more.

Live Support 

As well as writing and developing software I have also had to provide ongoing support for end users. This involves speaking to branch and call centre staff in order to assess/investigate the situation and identify solutions. Sometimes problems can be resolved immediately over the network, or software fix may be needed which may take some time to analyse, code and implement. I have also been happy to provide on call cover for certain applications. 

I am proficient in questioning users to discover the symptoms/causes of faults, and also at using various network tools (Eg remote control software) to help with diagnostics. 

Interests 

I am a keen gardener, and enjoy walks in the country (although nothing too strenuous). At home I like to read, and more recently have begun to spend a lot of time painting battle games figures and modelling scenery for my eight year old son, in support of his growing interest in the hobby.

References 

On Request