About Me

I was born in 1968 in Rotherham, but have spent most of my younger years at Barrow-in-Furness, moving to Manchester mid 30s

I gained 3 A Levels at Barrow 6th Form College. I hold three degrees, the first of which was a BSc in Geochemistry obtained at the Victoria University of Manchester in the early nineties. Soon after graduating I studied for a City and Guilds in Computing and gained a good grounding in programming with languages like COBOL and C. I have worked at what was Vickers Ship Building yard (Barrow-in-Furness) in their IT dept but is now renamed BAE systems; and also for the Deloitte Touche Group in their benefits dept. When the internet started to grow and gain popularity in the late nineties I decided to take a slightly different direction by going into web programming and studied for another BSc through the Open University (Milton Keynes) where modules on the curriculum included all the core skills needed for all round web development including client and server side languages with database design principles.

In 2004 I moved to the Manchester area where I have had various short-term admin and IT contracts. Recent years have seen me running my own digital business: 'Dernier Cri Web Solutions' and also playing the occasional booking as a solo guitar/vocal artiste. I remain as passionate as ever about web development diligently updating my php skillset to full stack Node, focusing on MERN application software engineering. This has been achieved through courses on line via the official MongoDB site, Udemy and numerous Youtube tutorials. Various certificates have been gained through this.

2020 saw me being approved as a start up with my dropshipping store blazingbargains.co.uk which has quickly gained 6000 follows on Instagram and I continue to gain new webskills and have taken my wordpress skills to a high level too. Examples can be found here of custom themes, plugins and templates for my web freelancing business derniercriweb.solutions.  Wordpress examples

Currently developing with Swift for IOS and fast taking this to an advanced level - right now would be keen for any entry mobile application development role prepared to relocate too. A few Mobile app examples of my work Could also demonstrate on iphone at interview either online or in office for anybody interested in my skills.

My skillset is listed below along with the types of application I've done. The top navigation bar gives links to portfolio screenshots of selected websites & web apps (all my own work), my social media pages on linkedin, twitter and facebook, and a contact form for IT recruitment professionals who may be interested in my cv.