Name:

Colin Pinkney

Current status:

Working as the Lead Developer at National Grid Wireless

My Objectives

For the final year project on my degree I carried out a distributed Java XML project for which I obtained a 1^st (A). I would ideally like to continue work in the general field of web technologies as IT systems become more and more network orientated. Ultimately, I want to learn new skills, face new challenges and earn even more responsibility within projects.

Summary of education

Current Position

My current role is as the Lead Developer in the Information Systems & Services division at the National Grid Wireless HQ in Warwick. This role currently includes or has included:

• Working with a small team that develops and supports all of the company's in-house, business critical websites and applications, which are mainly written in classic ASP, VB 6 and ASP.Net/VB.Net 2.0 and use Oracle for the database backend.
• Liaising with business analysts to develop requirements, coordinating the rest of development in a 'waterfall' process, architecting systems, and writing technical documentation including UML.
• Designed and developed an ASP.Net framework that allows us to quickly and reliably create enterprise websites, publish from Dev to QA to Production environments and manage user security using a series of utility web applications. These extra utility web applications were developed by a team of contractors whose work I supervised.
• Using the framework above we have implemented several non-trivial, high profile business applications on time and to specification under my technical direction and involvement.
• Recently I have been promoted to the Lead Developer role in recognition of undertaking more senior tasks such as standing in for the team leader, interviewing permanent and contract candidates for new roles on the team, training other developers, and directing and reviewing code, which I have been doing for over a year.

Previous Position

A Software Engineer in the Core Software Team within the Marconi New Product Introduction group, which dealt with global manufacturing processes. Work included:

• Development of MS VB programs and ASP scripts that interface with MS SQL Server for product testing, automated manufacture, data manipulation and reporting applications.
• Development of product test drivers and example test programs in MS Visual C++
• Full development lifecycle process for most projects with reviewed documentation (includes analysis, design & implementation, testing, trials, user documentation, and sign off)
• General factory PC, network and database administration tasks.
• Last project was to design and implement a global traceability solution, using SAP R3, for warranty and recall purposes, to save Marconi over £1 million per year.

Work Experience Summary

Special Skills/Knowledge

Programming Languages

• Microsoft ASP.Net/VB.Net - 2 years+ - Business critical enterprise website/application development using Oracle databases.
• Microsoft Visual Basic - 6 years+ - SQL Server/Oracle interfacing, product flash programming and label printing
• SQL - 6 years+ - MS SQL Server (4 years) and Oracle (2 years)
• ASP - 4 years - SQL Server & Oracle interfacing
• Javascript, VB Script - 4 years
• Microsoft Visual C++ - 3 years - Working on product drivers and SQL Server interfacing
• UNIX Shell Scripting - 3 years+ - General scripting (mainly in Bash)
• Java - 2 years - Mainly distributed XML system development
• ANSI C/C++ (Using QT libraries) - 1 year - Embedded Linux development
• Borland Delphi - 1 year - Writing MS Windows utilities
• AWK, Standard Pascal, Synchronised Resources, Moscow ML, Prolog, BASIC, 68008 Assembler - <1 year

Other Computer Skills/Knowledge

• HTML (+CSS), SGML, & XML - 6 years - Commercial documentation, web design, & web services
• Sourcesafe - 6 years - Administration & development
• Microsoft Windows & Linux - 4 years - PC & network administration
• ActiveX/COM - 5 years - Various applications
• Microsoft SQL Server - 4 years - Database development & some administration
• Oracle - 2 years - Database development, including Packages/Stored Procedures, triggers, schema creation, etc.
• Subversion (Sourcecode control) - 1 year - Administration & development
• Clearcase (Sourcecode control) - <1 year - Administration

Courses attended while in employment

Conferences Attended

Personal Interests & Activities

My Christian faith is very important to me, so I am often involved with activities at my church and have been responsible for their website and e-mail and currently operate some of the church's audio/visual equipment and help run the youth group. I enjoy playing tennis and badminton, and like to swim and go inline roller skating as well as regularly going to a golf driving range. I also like to write my own programs, design websites, and have been heavily involved with getting various Bluetooth Compact Flash cards working with the Sharp Zaurus line of Linux PDAs.

General Skills

Very quick to learn - Can work in a team or on own - Good communication
Can work with tight deadlines - Can work equally well with rapid turnover of projects or long-term projects.

Other Academic Achievements

At college in my final year I was entered into the Senior Mathematical Challenge along with all the other Further Mathematics students. Out of all those students at my college I was the only one to obtain the highest award, the gold certificate. Only the top 5% in the country are awarded the gold certificate.

Other Past Achievements

I used to be a member of the Scouts, during which time I gained many badges and awards. I reached the highest rank in the scouts, which is Senior Patrol Leader that involves overseeing the work that other scouts are undertaking such as projects and their badge schemes. Overall I gained 10 proficiency badges, including First Aid (Making me a qualified first aider) and World Conservation badges. I obtained the highest Scout award badge as well.

Full List of Qualifications

Higher Education Qualifications

Further Education Qualifications

Secondary Education Qualifications