It’s the new year and it’s hiring season, so hey, here I am looking for a new gig. I’m job-hunting. Good gigs are hard to find, so allow me if you will to pimp my own kool-aid for just a moment.

Who should hire me?

Perhaps a web development agency might be interested in taking me on to work on web application development projects. I have management and team leadership experience, and have worked in an agency environment for the majority of my career.

I’m very sharp at devising technical solutions to the vast range of different problems that agency work brings with it, as well as a solid history of creating sustainable, reusable products and code libraries to maximise profitability on the not-so-unusual jobs.

A start-up company may be interested in me as a rock-solid, forward thinking developer to take new ideas and make them a reality. Perhaps those ideas aren’t fully formed yet, and a technical architect is needed to take a business concept and turn it into something that will work on the web.

Perhaps a software company developing web based software, or looking to take new or existing software online would be interested in recruiting me as not only a developer fluent in web development, but as a developer who understands how to deliver web-based software. A good web application has to start from a thorough understanding of the web and delivering a good web user experience. That’s something I’m good at.

Or perhaps something I haven’t thought of. Hit me, baby.

What I can do

I have a wealth of experience in all sorts of back-end web development with everything from e-commerce stores and custom CMS solutions right through to full blown web based software applications. I’ve done mobile commerce with micro-payments, B2B financial apps, large scale business process automation, digital marketing web apps and even games sites for kids.

I have many years experience working with Microsoft technologies like ASP and SQL Server, and in recent years open source technologies like PHP and MySQL. I tend to favour the latter. I’m pretty handy with XML and XSLT, SOAP and XML-RPC and a whole bunch of other useful acronyms. In the dim and distant past I did a lot of work in Perl, but we try not to talk about that.

Client-side I’m thoroughly versed in XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and the DOM. I follow web standards by default.

I am also a technical author with a number of published books and articles to my name. From time to time I debug other author’s books as a technical editor. I’m kinda picky, so that role comes naturally. I also write here on my personal site on a regular basis, and occasionally at the Web Standards Project, where I sit on the steering committee.

I like to work on the edge and am frequently updating my skills. Right now I’m learning Ruby with the aim of doing some work using the Rails framework in the near future. Learning new things opens your mind to possibilities, and more possibilities lead to better solutions.

The nitty-gritty

I’m based in the UK, just west of London, so I’m looking for opportunities in and around the Thames Valley and London itself. Major relocation isn’t on the cards at the moment. Besides, the UK is really buzzing right now.

I’m fun to work with, and all I require is a pleasant working environment, equipment that enables me to work efficiently and a good salary. You’ll need to score highly on Joel Test, or be open to me helping you fix that pretty quickly. I take no prisoners :)

Contacting me

If you know of an opportunity that might be a good match or would like to see a more formal CV, my contact details are in the sidebar.