Jake Howard
My job spans both system administrator work and development of client applications. This wealth of knowledge allows me to take a holistic approach to projects.
I've recently worked closely with clients such as Samaritans, Action for Children and Marine Conservation Society, as well as several more from a sysadmin perspective.
Being able to design software, understanding precisely where and how it will run in production, allows me to develop fast and scalable applications. Equally, being able to design deployment environments and infrastructure, knowing precisely how the application will behave and what resources it needs, allows me to fit a production environment perfectly to its application.
I enjoy simplicity and elegance. By finding a simple solution to a problem, it not only makes it simpler to maintain in the future, but means anyone else interacting with it for the first time will pick up on it quicker.
Outside of work, I like to give back to the wider tech community. I help run Student Robotics, a charity which inspires college students into STEM through a competitive autonomous robotics competition. This involves development of our custom robotics kit and mentoring students. Alongside this, I write my own technical blog, and am active in a number of technology enthusiast communities and support groups.