I have been working in the IT department of my local University College for the last 11 1/2years. I started off my IT career as a Database Administrator, working within a team of people, supporting all of the University's corporate databases. The job quickly evolved as we started building more custom databases in-house and my job title was changed to Programmer/Analyst to reflect this. At about the same time, I started a part time MSc course in Information Technology at Portsmouth University. I completed this qualification (with distinction) in November 1999 - the same day that my first child arrived on the scene!
Over the last 7 years, my job has become more and more web orientated as technology (and student expectations) moves at a rapid rate. I now spend most of my time creating web applications to allow both students and staff access to the data within the college databases. Examples of such applications include; a student portal which allows an individual student to view and amend their own data and re-enrol for a course; a staff portal which gives selected staff access to data which is relevant to them within the Student Records database, a helpdesk database with web interface so that IT staff can log and administer IT support requests, a selection of booking forms for potential students to use so they can book onto appropriate open day and taster sessions...etc.
Over the 2 years, I have been building up a new set of skills to allow me to apply my existing knowledge of database and web programming to the area of small business. This has been a relatively easy transition and my website design service is proving to be much in demand. Some of my recent work includes; an eBay style website where all the items are free, a church website with a content managment system so it can be managed internally, a car and van leasing website with facilities for companies to list their own deals, a gallery website for a photographer, a hotel website including online booking, an online store, a promotional website for a rental villa and a website for a catering company.
As well as working on sites independantly, I also work with other web professionals, such as graphic designers, to enhance the package of skills they can offer to their clients. This benefits my clients too as I can arrange a graphic design service should clients graphical requirements prove above and beyond what I can offer myself.
I continue to work part time for the university and so I am only able to work on one or two websites at a time, but I am hoping to expand this venture to enable me to take on more work, in the near future.
Please take a look at the websites I have designed on my portfolio page and feel free to contact me if you wish to.
Web Programming Languages: HTML, CSS, PHP, Coldfusion, Javascript
Databases supported: MySQL, Sql Server, Microsoft Access .
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