Hi! I’m Rob. I’m a polyglot software engineer who has been writing software professionally since 2016. I have most experience writing Ruby, Javascript, Python and Clojure in product teams, building applications for the web. I’m currently learning Rust and using it on projects.

I’ve been fascinated by computers and the internet from a young age - I wrote simple websites as a teenager for the online gaming teams I was a part of and ran servers for us to play on. The first code I wrote was in scripts to automate some of the mundane tasks in Ultima Online, a game I played while studying at secondary school. I loved writing these scripts but at the time I didn’t realise writing code for a job was possible or that it would end up becoming my main passion.

That came much later, after I was 4 years into an accountancy career and struggling to find the passion required for the long hours that were necessary. The most interesting part of the job was working with complex Excel formulas in financial models but again, I didn’t realise that this was a basic form of coding. It wasn’t until I started working on an Android app that I realised writing software was my calling.

I had an obsession with mountain biking at the time and would often go on solo rides at night out in the woods. A big worry was falling off, knocking myself out and lying in a ditch for hours with no help arriving. I wanted an app which would message an emergency contact with my location in this scenario. I couldn’t find an existing app, so thought I’d build one myself.

For the next couple of months I spent every spare second coding, watching Stanford 101 lectures and reading programming books - whilst eating breakfast, on the train to and from work, on every lunch break and every evening. This wasn’t sustainable, so I decided to pursue a career change. I considered the self-taught route, but needed guidance on what to learn and wanted to reassure family and friends who thought I was mad. I took the Makers Academy course, finishing in Feb 2016.

Changing careers was the best decision I’ve made and my passion and enthusiasm has only grown since. Working in software gives an endless supply of things to learn, challenges to tackle and opportunities to give back by helping others. I’m always keen to talk about my journey in case it helps someone else find their passion too.

At the moment I am dedicating myself to exploring lower level languages, learning Rust and using it on several projects. You can read about my learning journey and project progress on my public journal. Right now I’m working on completing Advent of Code in Rust, but after that I’ll be back working on my MMORPG server implementation and Huffman compression crate. I’m also looking for a new role, if you’re reading this and think I could be a good fit for your team please get in touch.