I have many interests - playing football, socialising, music - but it is creatively using technology that is probably my favourite pastime, so I was always very well suited for a career in technology.
The below page goes much deeper into details about my experience and career and how I am where I am today.
My Beginnings in Programming 👨🏻💻
I’ve been curious about computers since childhood - clicking through every corner of Microsoft Office just to see what I could uncover. My real passion for programming sparked during my first role at RLE International, where I began writing VBA scripts to automate Excel workflows for engineers. That early taste of automation - turning spreadsheets into smart tools with extended functionality - hooked me.
Outside work, I joined a Saturday football team and built a stat-tracking system in Excel, generating weekly match reports via VBA. What started as a PDF in a WhatsApp group soon evolved into a full website, pushing me to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in my spare time in early 2021. I launched the Dorkinians Website and haven’t stopped building since - exploring frameworks, refining my skills, and creating increasingly complex web apps.
Organisation has always been my thing, but software took it further. My digital life runs on structured systems and daily automations—from finance summaries and commute updates to mobile shortcuts that log health data to the cloud. I’m driven by efficiency, creativity, and the thrill of turning ideas into tools.
My Career Path Explained 🗃️
My career started in Automotive Engineering, which I studied at Loughborough University due to an interest in cars and desire to learn engineering principles. My first role out of university was with RLE International as Project Support, which initially involved tracking engineering work rather than actioning it as I shadowed and learned the engineering processes involved in the industry. The role allowed me a glimpse of programming, automating tracking documentation through coding, but after that my companies’ needs necessitated that I moved to the customers office location and take up a Body Panels & Closures Project Engineer role instead.
Over five years, I gained experience across multiple OEMs including McLaren Automotive, Ford and Dyson, writing technical specifications, DVPs, and DFMEAs, and using tools like MATLAB, Teamcenter, SAP, NX, and Catia. Eventually, I joined an internal software team, collaborating with mathematicians to build tools like SDP and a new DVP Tool that streamlined automotive data workflows.
This evolved into a DevOps role, where I helped develop company-wide tools using Microsoft’s suite to track project progress and finances across global teams in the Azure DevOps environment.
In early 2024, I made the decision to break from work and travel the world with my wife and was given a sabbatical for a year to head off and explore from August 2024 to September 2025. It was a simply unforgettable experience, travelling over 82,000 kilometers and visiting 19 countries across 9 months following the route shown.
On my return, my desire to transition into the software industry was evermore apparent, leading me to build this site and begin exploring opportunities in tech.
Building This Site 🧱
My first Portfolio Site was built with vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, using hardcoded CSV and JS files to store skill data and manually written project details. It worked, but updating it was tedious.
Since I already used Obsidian for personal notes, I decided to make it my data source - defining a schema for projects, companies, and references, and mapping their relationships. I reused my Neo4j setup from a previous project (Travel Website), creating a backend server to store both travel and portfolio data, extracted via a Python script from my vault.
Initially, I built the new site in Astro using GraphQL to fetch data from the server. But I soon realised this approach undercut Astro’s strengths. So I pivoted - processing the Markdown files directly into Astro’s content collection, removing the backend dependency and dramatically improving site speed and maintainability.
Side Projects 💻
My wife once told me I need a side project to stay happy - and she’s absolutely right. I’ve always got something on the go, not just to sharpen my skills, but to stay curious, connected, and creatively fulfilled.
It started with a playful site - ranking my mates across sports and skills - fuelled by our competitive nature. That evolved into a stats website for my amateur football club, Dorkinians FC, where players could track their minutes, goals, assists, and more.
> Dev | Building a Stats Website for a Sports Club
Since then, I’ve built multiple football-related sites, two stag party websites, and most recently a Travel Journal site to log holiday memories and tally who I’ve travelled with most. Each project reflects a slice of my life, built with tools ranging from React SPAs and Flask backends to multi-page Next.js apps.
You can explore them all on my Projects page - each one a snapshot of where I was technically and personally at the time.
What’s Next… 🚀
I don’t regret starting out in Automotive - it offered thrilling roles, global opportunities, and invaluable engineering experience that still informs how I solve problems today. But my focus has shifted. I’m now seeking a software role that challenges me, fosters creativity, and allows me to grow both technically and professionally.
I’m a fast learner with a curious mindset, driven to understand systems deeply and apply logic to solve complex problems efficiently. I thrive in collaborative environments, whether leading or supporting, and I’m committed to fostering team cohesion, listening actively, and motivating others toward shared success.