I'm a mechanical engineer turned software developer currently based in Aberdeen, Scotland. I originally studied at the University of Loughborough, which led to a career in the Oil and Gas Industry. A newfound interest in software development triggered a career break, to experience something completely different.
Originally from Hull, I moved to Aberdeen several years ago when my former boss asked if I'd be interested in moving to the "Oil and Gas Capital". I relocated, bought my first property and started a new chapter in my life.
I'm still based in Aberdeen but would consider working in another city elsewhere in the country. That said, I am comfortable working from home. I have prior experience of managing remote teams (offshore) and recent experience working remotely, collaborating with teams in different time zones from around the world.
After graduating from university I was fortunate enough to be offered employment by Lloyd's Register, a prestigious company to which I remained faithful for 10 years. I was then approached by Oceaneering, another prestigious company, who made me an offer I could not refuse. I resigned my position at Lloyd’s served Oceaneering for about 7 years.
I started my career at Lloyd’s Register Integrity Services (Oil and Gas) at BP's main gas terminal in Dimlington, Hull. Forming part of a small team at the BP offices overlooking the process plant, I got my first experience of engineering.
Our team was responsible for integrity management of the onshore terminal and the 18 platforms which fed into it. The majority of my time was spent supporting offshore operations.
Over time, I was given more responsibility and projects of my own, with frequent flights to the installations to carry out the work myself.
Due to BP restructuring, separating the onshore and offshore operations, I was offered the opportunity to relocate to Aberdeen and work at the head office, with all the other teams. I thought "why not?" so I packed my bags and 4 weeks later I was living over 400 miles away.
Loss of the BP contract later on resulted in a brief secondment to another department where I acted as "Independent Competent Person", doing Safety Case verification. I found this to be quite a lonely existence and wanted to be part of a team again.
Back in integrity services, I spent some time supporting various teams before finding a home looking after the Triton FPSO, where I saw out the rest of my time with Lloyd’s
My move to Oceaneering was less eventful. After a brief stint working for a department that was soon closed, I was back working Integrity Services at head office. For 6 years I worked on the EnQuest project looking after the Kittiwake Oil Platform.
To move from engineering into tech seems like an unusual decision to my family and friends. However, this industry didn't really exist when I was younger, so it was never an option. I enjoy coding and solving problems (there's clearly an engineer in me). I get a buzz when the code runs and these short term wins were missing from my previous line of work.
The oil industry can be an interesting and sometimes exciting place to work, with opportunities to work all over the world (although my children saw to it that I didn't take advantage of that!). Throughout my career, it provided me with a range of different roles and responsibilities and I was fortunate enough to experience a variety of engineering processes in remote and extreme environments.
One of my responsibilities was to manage the project to convert our client's monthly powerpoint presentation into a dynamic website with live data, available in real time. I oversaw the construction of the site and enjoyed getting involved in writing code. We delivered a well presented product that contained all the data our client was hoping for. I found this particularly rewarding.
The logical and technical challenges faced during development were at times difficult, but this made completing the project even more satisfying. This was the driver for the change. It was time to adopt new challenges and turn my hand to web-development.
Working on client-side code is rewarding, with text and images rendering on screen but I also love working server-side and dealing with the network requests and database queries.
Fate, it seems, has a strange way of handing out life changing opportunities. It was said to me "don't look at what you can't do, look at what you couldn't do three months ago". I definitely understand my current limitations but I am loving this journey of learning.
My software development journey started back in 2017 when I supervised a project to convert the monthly powerpoint presentation into an online web portal for the client. I became fascinated with how HTML and CSS link together to create web pages but also confused and frustrated at how changing one thing would affect another in an unexpected way.
Not wanting to be defeated by something that at face value, seemed very straight forward, I began playing and experimenting with basic web pages. I was soon hooked. When the opportunity for an online boot camp presented itself, I jumped at the chance.
My experience of Lambda school is a mixed one. It is without doubt the hardest I have ever had to work for a sustained period of time. It was intense, difficult, frustrating and relentless in its endeavour to teach us. I have also made some good friends that no doubt I will remain in contact with in the future.
I thought I was enjoying HTML and CSS until I was introduced to JavaScript, this is where the magic is! Functions calling functions? What do you mean "state", state of what?
Now I believe the time has come to start a new chapter in my life and a new career path.
Most of my hobbies these days revolve around my boys and their interests. They keep me young by asking me to join in and due to them I am reliving some of my own childhood. I enjoy outdoor activities but I'm also happy inside cooking, listening to music and of course, coding!
I have three awesome boys that I love dearly. I enjoy spending time with them, be it swimming, ice skating, bike rides, skimming stones or even turning the living room into a "cinema"!
Mountain biking: This was my all time favourite activity as a teenager, and although I don't get out on my bike as much as I would like, I still enjoy flying down the tracks. All three of my boys enjoy it now too, especially if it's wet and muddy, deliberately choosing the dirtiest route! Ollie is the oldest and is almost capable of maintaining his bike completely, Ben is a steady rider and just gets on with it, while Sam enjoys the hills, providing it’s not up!
Remote Controls: Compared to the toys that were available when I was a child, these things are incredible. We have a couple of vehicles that we take hillwalking and they are more capable than I am! Ollie has his own that he built himself from a kit, Sam and Ben might get one this year from Santa.
Music: For as long as I can remember, I've loved listening to music and really enjoy my stereo. As much as I can sit down and enjoy watching a blockbuster movie, I can also sit for hours and listen to album after album.
Motorbike: I loved it. Passing my bike test ranks as one of my best moments to date. Out of respect for my parents I did not get a bike while living at home but once I had my own place, a Ducati Monster was all mine. I loved this machine, brilliant fun. However, children came along so the bike went in order to preserve their father.
Experiences: I have tried skydiving (15 solo jumps), scuba diving and bungee jumping. I've also been shooting (rifle range and shotgun), tried offroad driving, go-karting, archery and in my previous life, I've had flying lessons and done my own loop the loop!
