Rob Crowther – CV – Web Development, Web Design and System Administration

Profile

An intelligent and articulate graduate, I bring keen analytical and excellent communication skills to any environment. My experience in development, IS infrastructure and project management allow me to provide end to end support during system specification, development and implementation or to focus on a problem area.

Work Experience

5/2004 – present, Technology Manager, Service Works Ltd, London.

Leader for a team of three people doing web and other interface development plus product R&D and another team of two people providing infrastructure support for the entire company.

4/2002 – 4/2004, TCS Associate, London Southbank University & Service Works Ltd, London.

Fulfilled the roles of Web Developer & Infrastructure Manager. Oversaw development of new web products, evaluated new technology, supervised several infrastructure projects including migration to Windows 2003.

5/2001 – 4/2002, Web Developer, Short Term Contract, Service Works Ltd, London.

Helped develop web interface to existing database based product, using Visual Basic, Javascript, XML and HTML. Additional network support and system administration role, Windows 98/NT/2000.

2/2001 – 4/2001, Webmaster, Work Placement, iwant2b Ltd, Edinburgh.

Responsible for technical/code aspects of new ‘iwant2bhealthy’ website, plus some design and editing work and maintaining and updating existing iwant2b directory sites using Dreamweaver. Helped to integrate new shopping cart using ASP technology to access a SQL Server backend. Exposure to web marketing & SEO techniques and also log analysis software.

11/1998 – 12/1999, Head of Security, Subway Leisure Ltd, Edinburgh.

Duties included: Supervising on duty door staff; Making up weekly staff rota; Interviewing prospective employees; Cash handling; Dealing with the public – first point of contact for customers with questions and/or complaints; Administering first aid where appropriate; Liaising with various official bodies through their visiting representatives.

1/1998 – 11/1998, Door Steward, Prosec Guarding Ltd, Edinburgh.

Part–time door steward at various licensed premises and events in and around Edinburgh. The job involved communicating comfortably with people from a wide variety of social backgrounds and understanding and fulfilling the needs of various clients.

3/1997 – 10/1997, Administrative Assistant, Max Security (UK) Ltd, Edinburgh.

Duties included: General letter writing and clerical; Answering telephone enquiries; Administering SAGE accounting and payroll software; Writing and producing training and promotional materials.

4/1992 – 2/1995, Door Steward, Max Security (Scotland) Ltd, Edinburgh.

Part time door steward at various licensed premises around Edinburgh.

Skills

• Experience of web development using ASP & ASP.Net with SQL Server, PHP with MySQL, Ruby on Rails with MySQL
• Have written business and system applications in VB6, VB.Net and ASP.Net
• Thorough understanding of installing and configuring both IIS and Apache web servers
• Familiar with the design and development of web sites and software for hand held devices, including Symbian, iPhone, MS PocketPC and Blackberry
• Experience of using XML and XSLT for application data exchange, web site development and web services using SOAP
• Adept in the use of (X)HTML, CSS and Javascript (including AJAX) in standards based web design
• Have developed accessible web content to meet WAI / WCAG standards
• Understanding of Web Usability issues and the technical aspects of making content useable for desktop, hand held/mobile and screen reader users
• Experience of using Dreamweaver and Flash to deliver web content and manage large websites
• Good understanding of SEO and pay–per–click advertising
• Adept at using Photoshop and Illustrator to produced optimized web graphics
• Familiar with producing print ready artwork
• Experienced team leader and project manager
• Experience of managing a Windows 2003 Active Directory on a TCP/IP network with ethernet and wireless clients
• Experience with installing and managing Exchange 2003
• Thorough understanding of installing, managing and using Project Server 2003
• Experience of installing and configuring Linux servers and their integration into a primarily Windows based environment
• Experience of installing, configuring and managing Firewalls and VPN devices, IPSEC and SSL
• Experience installing, configuring and managing WebSense
• Experience with Veritas backup tools, CA Anti–Virus, VMWare and VirtualPC
• Customer service and helpdesk experience
• Wide knowledge of common office software gained from supporting up to fifty users
• Excellent general IT skills and a knowledge of programming and IS systems & protocols

Education

10/1990 – 7/1994, Honours Degree in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at Edinburgh University.

Final Year Project: Modelling Communication Systems via a Cellular Automaton Specialist Modules: Algorithms and Data Structures; Programming Methodology; Operating Systems; Computer Communications; Computer Graphics; Software for Parallel Machines; Communication and Concurrency; Distributed Computing; Knowledge Representation I & II; Computational Syntax; Computational Semantics; Machine Learning; Connectionist Computing.

8/1986 – 6/1990, Robert Smyth School, Market Harborough, Leicestershire.

A–levels: Maths; Physics; English Literature; General Studies. GCSE: Maths; English; English Literature; Science A; Science B; Humanities; Design; Commerce and Business Studies; Classical Studies;

Training

10/2007, IT'S A MASHUP - the end of Business As Usual, BCS NLB, London (informal)

Presentation at BCS NLB meeting by Andy Mulholland (CEO, Capgemini).

6/2007, In-the-Brain of Erik Doerenburg on Why Agile Teams Fail, SkillsMatter, London (informal)

In this talk Erik discussed the most common reasons a team may fail when trying to execute a project using an agile methodology. He also covered how to learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid repeating new mistakes of your own.

5/2007, Google Developer Day 2007 UK, Google, London (informal)

Attended sessions on Google Maps API, GData API, Google Gears and Developing Mobile Websites

3/2007, Introduction to Programming ArcObjects with VBA, ESRI UK, Aylesbury (certification)

Five day course providing a foundation for application development using VBA and ArcObjects for typical GIS programming tasks

2/2007, WSG London Accessibility Meetup, University of Westminster, London (informal)

"The goal of these Web Standards Group events is to promote web-standards in such a way that attendees will go away having learnt something, or be inspired to create something great using web standards, whether they are seasoned standardistas or just starting out."

2/2007, WebDD07, Microsoft Campus, Reading (informal)

Conference, I attended presentations covering Microformats, CSS, Usability Testing, Ruby on Rails and Unobtrusive Javascript

11/2006, DevelopMentor Connected Systems Roadshow, Microsoft Campus, Reading (informal)

Two day seminar covering BizTalk, WCF, SQL Service Broker, ASP.Net Security and WWF.

11/2006, In-the-Brain of Dave Crane: Design Patterns for AJAX, SkillsMatter, London (informal)

Evening seminar.

3/2006, BCS/RSI Annual Lecture ‘Software for the 21st Century’ (informal)

Lecture discussing the implications of hardware parallelization and automatic verification for software development in the next century.

11/2005, London Web Frameworks Evening, London Perl Mongers (informal)

Seminar on ‘ActiveRecord style’ web application frameworks.

7/2005, Introduction to Enterprise Project Management

Scope Education. Using Project 2003 with Project Server.

6/2005, SOA What? Perspectives on Service Oriented Architecture and what it means for the organisations that seek to embrace its promises.

Series of presentations at BCS NLB meeting.

3/2005, BCS/RSI Annual Lecture ‘Web Intelligence’

Lecture discussing the extent to which intelligent web services are evolving to cope with diverse sources of information on a global scale.

12/2004, Project Management

Custom training course, New Horizons. Project management using the PRINCE2 methodology.

12/2004, London Perl Workshop (‘Learning Perl’ track)

London Perl Mongers. Understanding the basics of using Perl for web development.

7/2004, Project Management Fundamentals

Training course, New Horizons, London.

3/2004, Querying SQL Server 2000 with T–SQL

Training Course, Systematix, Reading. Basic and Intermediate SQL programming.

2/2004, TCS Module 4, Exploring Business Opportunities (Globalisation)

Introduces Associates to auditing and benchmarking techniques which can be used to assess the strategic impact of external factors on businesses and familiarise them with the issues raised by a chosen external factor.

2/2004, Project Server 2003 Administration

Training course, ProjectLearning.Net, Leeds. Installing and Configuring Project Server.

9/2003, Art of Leadership Conference, Edinburgh

Workshops and Keynote speeches aimed at building leadership skills.

6/2003, TCS Module 3, Business Management Skills

Develops in Associates the skills and understanding needed to contribute at a senior level to the development of small, ambitious companies and business units.

7/2002, TCS Module 2, Improving Personal Skills and Teamwork

Enables Associates to work effectively in a commercial environment as individuals and team members. Associates are encouraged to take responsibility for managing their own careers and personal development.

6/2002, TCS Module 1, Developing Project Management Skills

Equips Associates with skills in planning, organising and communicating that are needed to initiate and manage their TCS projects.

9/2000 – 1/2001, Internet Technologies Course at Net Resources, Edinburgh

Covering HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Paintshop Pro.

1/2000 – 8/2000, ‘Up for Learning’

Various modules through Jewel and Esk Valley College, East Lothian. Including ‘Customer Care’, ‘Managing Change’ and various MS Office modules.

10/1998 – 12/2000, Centre for Continuing Education, Edinburgh University

Evening classes in: Introduction to Philosophy – Parts 1 and 2; Existentialism and Belief; Bakhtin: Criticism and Theory; Wittgenstein: Language and Philosophy; Friedrich Nietzsche: Transfiguring Philosophy.

3/1998, Save a Life

Edinburgh Red Cross, half–day first aid course.

Other

I have played American Football since I was fifteen. My Youth team won the national kitted championship in 1989 and I was chosen ‘Offensive Lineman of the Year’ in 1989 and 1990. Upon graduating to the senior team in 1991 I was chosen ‘Rookie of the Year’ and was also selected to represent Great Britain at the European Championships in Helsinki, winning a gold medal. After breaking my leg in 1992 I was unable to play for four years. I returned to the sport in 1996 and represented Scotland in 1997. For the London Mets I was selected ‘Offensive Lineman of the Year’ in all three seasons. I was recently involved with the Chiltern Cheetahs, we gained promotion from Division 2 of the British American Football League in 2004 and in 2005 appeared in the Division 1a final. Currently I am involved with the Farnham Knights. I also enjoy computer games and help to organise ‘LAN Events’ for up to 30 people in the North London area. As part of my involvement with these groups I am also responsible for several community websites.