About
I am an aspiring full stack developer, who recently made the decision to change my career. I made the choice to pursue something that i have a genuine interest in, something that will enable me to utilise my natural creativity, and in an exciting and growing industry.
Full stack Software & Web Developer.
- Birthday: 27 October 1989
- City: Liverpool
- Age: 31
- Website: www.benpenny.co.uk
I’m an experienced Learning & Development trainer, and have worked in this area for over 7 years, however I have now decided to take on a new challenge and change my life for the better. I got to a point with my career where I didnt want to just go to work beacuse I had to, I wanted to work in a field that truly engaged me.
Most importantly though, I want to work in a field where I can use my skills and strengths, such as on the spot problem solving and creativity, on a more regular basis. I believe Web/software development will provide just that.
I have always harboured an interest in various forms of software design, and have engaged in it’s commercial/rudimentary forms from a young age. Whether it be designing my own maps/quests on various games, or simply adding a funky font on myspace, I have always enjoyed it.
I work incredibly well as part of a rounded team, but am equally comfortable working alone, with my excellent written and verbal communication skills enabling me to do this well, and setting me apart from most. Having spent my time in lockdown completing a full stack course, I feel I’m ready to seize a chance at a new challenge, and am extremely optimistic about my future and the opportunities to learn and grow that this industry can provide.
Developer Skills
Having completed the full stack developer course I have a good understanding, and have completed a number of projects with a selection of languages, which include:
Other Skills
As i have been in work for over a decade, albeit in other fields, I have a wide range of other skills as well, such as:
Both written and verbal. Where I excel is being able to convey a message effectively to different types of people so everyone understands.
I was also put in charge of all written communications to be distributed via the intranet of an office of over 450 people.
I have personally designed and restructured multiple different training programs for national clients such as NHS Digital, the NBrown group, and the governments Department for education to name a few.
I am an excellent task/group leader. I have lead groups of people nearly every day for the past 6 years so can safely say I thrive in these situations. I very good at ensuring a task is completed and everyone has contributed. I also find I get the best out of people, and am excellent at encouraging people to give their all to a task. I was trusted to travel to Cape town South Africa myself, to help start up a new training program for a client. I was running large groups each day, and ensuring things went smoothly from a training point of view, and relaying this directly back to the VP of the company.
I am a very efficient worker, and will always ensure things are done correctly, and I the best time frame.
I worked my way up from part time call handler to senior trainer for my previous company and remained there since 2013, demonstrating my commitment to developing myself within a company, and commitment to the company itself.
CV
Sumary
Ben Penny
Enthusiastic and passionate full stack developer, recentlty completed a course and achieved an MTA certification enabling me to change my career and take it in a positive dierection.
Education
MTA microsoft 98-383 certification
2020
IT Career Switch
Achieved a pass of above 85%
A-Levels
'06 - '08
The Castle School Sixth Form, South Glous.
Biology - B
English Lit - B
Media Studies - C
GCSE's
2006
The Castle School
10 GCSE's A* - C including:
Maths - A*
Science - AA
English - A
Professional Experience
Full stack developer course from IT Career Switch, including MTA microsoft 98-383 certification
2020 - 2021
Online course/Examination
- Completed a full stack developer online course as part of the program from IT career switch, course by codecademy
- Comprehansive modules on several languages including: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, PHP, Python, SQL and C#
- Passed a 'Microsoft MTA 98-383 intro to programming' exam
- Completed several multi language projects, including the two show in the portfolio section
Senior Learning & Development Trainer
2015 - 2019
Learning & Development Coach
2013 - 2015
Teleperformance UK, Manchester
- As a senior trainer I was responsible for the majority of delivery through a contact centre of 450+ people. I delivered induction training, specialised subject area training, management training, and delivered both hard skills needed for the role e.g systems both old and new, E-Learning, and a multitude of soft skills as well.
- As mentioned above I was in charge of all communications sent out via our intranet to all staff members, and this entailed creating eye catching and engaging bits of text and posters, designed to get out all messages and bits of info required for all members of staff.
- I designed content as a key part of my role. Producing training modules and entire courses for the majority of the clients we delivered training for on site.
- I kept contact and helped with the groups of learners that I'dd set up in Cape town, to ensure the continued success of the program over there.
Portfolio
Shown below are two examples of projects I have completed, demonstrating my developer abilities. The first is a company directory designed with CRUD capabilities. The second, a Gazetteer app with information for holidaymakers in mind.
- All
- App
- Web
This directory with full CRUD functionality presented a unique challenge to myself; how to create something ive seen in many forms over the years, ensure it has full functionality, is simple for any user to pick up quickly, and has a smooth feel to it's use.
I started by listing the things I wanted it to do, then decided on using individual cards for each employee for the design. I felt this would make it more aesthetically pleasing for the user seeing each emplyee laid out, and then to be able to select information for that employee.
I found it genuinely fun to work on, as creating all the functionality while making sure it fit the brief and design was like putting together a puzzle, piece by piece. If one piece didn't match and I found an error, then I had to step back, look at the whole puzzle and try and see which piece didnt fit correctly.
There were things that took me a while to work out, but I kept at the front of my mind exactly how it was supposed to function, and this helped to ensure the piece fit the brief and functioned as required.
The Gazetteer app was my first proper foray into the world of developing alone and from a brief. I struggled initially to know where to begin, it being a large piece of work and something i had not done before. It took lots of research into the concepts and several discussions with my personal tutor to ensure I fully understood what was expected of me.
However I found myself learning a huge amount through that process, and developed further skills in taking it upon myself to learn new concepts from a realitively low base level.
It was one of the harder things I've done, but I remained resiliant throughout and stuck to it, managing to produce a fully functioning, cross-device app in the process.