Click here to view and download my CV!

Reasons to hire me

To keep it very brief: I do not believe you will find another developer who has more passion for the role - both for actively writing code and for learning new technologies. And I can learn - by both study and by doing - as fast as anyone else. Less than 3 years ago, at the start of 2017, I had never written any code at all, and knew nothing of any language. Since then I have created - for my own fun and education - all the projects you can see in my Portfolio, as well as working professionally as a developer since February 2018.

Much of my professional experience so far has been with PHP, as well as Javascript and CSS - but I long to work with other technologies I enjoy more, such as Python and modern Javascript frameworks.

I am also passionate about writing good quality code that is maintainable, and following best practices such as automated testing.

Recently I have grown particularly fond of pure Functional languages, such as Haskell and Elm, and would especially love to work professionally with such a language. But even if not I believe learning pure functional programming helps me to become a better developer, even in other languages and paradigms.

If you are looking for a developer anywhere in the North East of England, I would love to hear from you! Please get in touch via the contact details which you can find in my CV

A little about me

This isn't a blog or anything, but just to make me seem a little more human :)

I'm in my mid-30s, married with 2 young children. My main background is in mathematics - I harboured ambitions of becoming a professional mathematician before realising, while studying for my PhD, that much as I enjoyed the abstractions of pure mathematics, research-level pure mathematics was not something I was going to make a career of. Nonetheless I did complete my PhD, as evidenced here.

After that I just tried to get any kind of regular job - and eventually I did. But, as I realised after a few years, it was not one which offered any real hope of career progression, and I eventually did not find it enjoyable any more. So in December 2016 I made the decision to seriously learn to code, with a view to completely changing career. Switching to a career as a web/software developer became my #1 ambition - because having fallen in love with coding while studying, I knew that doing so professionally would keep me happy for my whole working life. Indeed I would have kept on teaching myself new technologies, and practising via creating new projects for fun, even if I had failed to make the career change - because coding, especially for the web, had become my main hobby.

And I was fortunate in January 2018 to land my first job as a developer. I have had others since, but am always on the lookout for further opportunities which will develop my skills further

As is probably apparent from a glance at some of my projects, one of my biggest other interests is board games - I am a regular on BoardGameGeek, my main interests being "Eurogames" and some card games. My favourite games include Terra Mystica, Dominion, Hanabi and The 7th Continent

I also love listening to music - although by music I exclusively mean what is known as "classical" music. (I detest this term, but sadly there is no better one.) I have a very wide-ranging and even eclectic taste, although more concentrated on 20th-century composers (I try in vain to keep up with contemporary music as well). My favourite composers are probably Shostakovich, Mahler and Wagner - and among lesser-known composers I particularly love the mustic of the late-20th-century Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke.

Most importantly though - as above, I am always on the lookout for the next step to take in my career as a developer. Please take a look around my site, look at my CV, and get in touch if you have a role for me!

Robin Zigmond,

November 2019