I graduated in 2009 from Queen’s University where I studied for an honours degree in Computer Science.
I worked through Uni writing code, mainly in Java and .NET. I graduated with 3 years experience which helped me hit the ground running as a full time engineer.
I currently work on a trading platform offered by a big commodities exchange. I also get to work on R&D projects from time to time, nice work if you can get it. I’ve done some fairly interesting engineering with CEP Engines and fancy algorithms for Market Analysis.
I previously developed medical systems using a polyglot of technologies. Mainly C# .NET but also Ruby with a sprinkle of Python for good measure. Whilst in this company, for just over a year I worked exclusively on mobile development, where I designed and developed a mobile app for iOS and Android. I also did some work on some ancient Windows Mobile devices.
Earlier in my career I worked quite a bit on high performance financial systems for a small private trading firm. It was a lot of fun, got to flex some architectural muscle on a few greenfield projects. I worked remotely for the majority of the time and learned how to do it effectively.
For a few years I helped run the Northern Ireland Microsoft Technology User Group, which was the first local user group I came across. A little sick with the lack of open multi-technology events, with a friend I put together a 24 hour hack-a-thon event called Super Happy Dev Castle. This brought together a lot of great local technologists who hacked into the wee hours. This was a good while ago now, but I look back on it fondly as I got to meet lots of interesting folks who I wouldn’t have otherwise.
I pretty much goto any tech meet-ups I can these days. I like talking about software almost as much as I like building it.
Developing software is not just my 9 to 5 job but is something I’m passionate about. I care a great deal about it, maybe too much… I dunno… maybe…
I love working on open source, but am limited in what I am able to do these days due to contractual mumbo jumbo. A side project or two is fairly standard for me, half the time I build things to give me an excuse to play & become familiar with some new tech.
Early in my software career, after graduating, I decided to contract and did a number of development gigs and later some consultancy on specific technologies I’d became particularly knowledgable about. This was great, I got exposure to various domains and technologies, and at times was lucky enough to work with some brilliant folks who taught me so much.
I enjoy the creativity that software development entails and working with teams to create something beautiful. I simply love what I do (hope you do too).