Paul Springett

Skills

Expert in creating semantic, accessible & standards based HTML & CSS. Expertise in developing interactive UIs using jQuery & jQuery UI. Passionate about progressively enhancing sites using the latest HTML5 & CSS3 features.

Expert in object–orientated Ruby & the Rails framework, as well as a solid background in object–orientated PHP. Expertise in relational database design using MySQL and MongoDB. Comfortable writing complex SQL queries. Advocate of TDD using Ruby libraries such as Test::Unit and Cucumber.

Experience of developing mobile web apps using CSS media queries & frameworks like jQuery mobile & jQTouch.

Confident using SVN at the command line & some experience using Git.

Solid experience of deploying web applications on Linux–based operating systems, Apache configuration & Capistrano.

Awards

Silver Award for Best Technical Innovation at the Radio 1 Student Radio Awards 2008

Outstanding Contribution to Cardiff Student Media at the Cardiff University Student Media Awards 2008

Runner Up for Best Website – NUS / Press Association National Student Journalism Awards 2006, as a member of the gair rhydd web team

Education

Cardiff University

September 2005 – June 2008

BSc Hons Computer Science with Distributed & Mobile Systems [2:2]

Plymouth College of Further Education

September 2004 – June 2005

AS-level in Computing

Monkton Combe School

September 1998 – June 2003

A-levels in Business Studies & Physics
AS-levels in Maths & Design Technology
GCSEs – 2 A grades, 3 B grades, 5 C grades (including Maths & English)

Further Information

Any further details, including references are available on request

Employment

Web Developer at Simpleweb

July 2011 – Present

Web Developer at Focus New Media

February 2009 – July 2011

Working at Focus has given me the opportunity to work on a wide range of complex projects. This has improved my skills in team work, problem solving, BDD, user interface design and accessibility.

Freelance Web Developer

September 2008 – February 2009

During this freelance period I worked on a number of projects including user interface design consultancy and e–commerce sites.

Web Developer at Cardiff University Students' Union

June 2008 – September 2008

This job involved a mix of user interface design and server–side programming, working on a variety of Rails projects in a two person team. These projects included development of a large scale, custom built e–commerce system alongside a secure centralised user management system to handle authentication, access privileges and personal user data. During this 4 month contract period I gained significant experience in Rails and collaborative software development.

Freelance Web Developer

May 2005 – June 2008

During three years of freelancing I have worked with a wide range of clients including record labels, PR companies, magazines, charities, musicians and e-commerce start ups. The work requested by these organisations was often complex and diverse, and needed to be delivered to a tight deadline.

Student Media Positions

October 2005 – June 2008

Whilst studying for my degree I was actively involved with the award winning student media societies at Cardiff University. As well as developing new websites I was responsible for running a team of people to keep content up to date and regularly add new features. My positions were:

  • Online Editor, gair rhydd
  • Head on Online Media, Xpress Radio
  • Web Developer, CUTV: Cardiff Union TV

Volunteer at Morning Star Trust

September 2003 – September 2004

After leaving school I took a year out to work as a volunteer for a sail training organisation in Chatham, Kent. This job involved spending a lot of time at sea with groups of young people – teaching sailing skills and teamwork, as well as a four month refit period of the two sailing vessels. This led to the achievement of my MCA Coastal Skipper certificate (commercial).