I believe communication is key to effective collaboration and to a healthy, respectful and fun workplace. I took pride in building a loyal and diverse community of customers during my time at Maison Du Velo, which meant engaging and building relationships with people who approached cycling from completely different perspectives, from complete beginners to dedicated enthusiasts. Being able to communicate the needs of our customers and our business priorities was also essential in maintaining good relations with a wide range of product distributors in order to simultaneously secure the best possible prices and maintain purchasing flexibility.

Having worked on various projects since starting Makers I’ve been delighted to discover just how collaborative the process of software development can be. Pairing has been the most enjoyable part of my work and, for me, it’s also one of the best routes towards good code, good problem solving and good learning. Communication is once again key and I’ve found that articulating my thinking as a driver and asking questions as a navigator, whether about problems or solutions, is one of the most effective and rewarding ways of learning.

Working with a small core team and a wider cast of part-time staff means that clear and open communication is vital. At Maison Du Velo we didn't necessarily have the number of people necessary to have specialised roles for things like event management, online sales and social media communications so I instituted and lead short daily task settings and weekly 'lessons learnt' meetings. This helped us to prioritise, kept everyone accountable, made efficient use of our time and ensured that no customers or projects were neglected.

I found this experience transferred very well into the Agile processes we used during our project work at Makers. By the halfway mark of our final project it had become clear to me that our team had lost our way and were not on track to deliver a product matching the brief we had set ourselves. I organised and led an emergency meeting and planning session during which we talked honestly, without blame, about where we had gone wrong. We agreed to streamline our product and broke it down into small, achievable goals, arranged into two, two-day sprints. We met our brief and delivered a product we were all proud of.

I joined one of Surrey's premier cycling retailers in 2014 and climbed the ranks to join the three-strong management team by 2017. Throughout my time there I took pride in building and expanding a loyal and diverse customer base, to the extent that a very inclusive sense of community came to surround the business.

• Management Team (2017 - 2020)
  • Oversaw the overhaul of our buying and marketing strategies for the cycling side of the business. By increasing our focus on services and streamlining our brand portfolio we reduced our stockholding by 20% in 2018 and by 10 % again in 2019, contributing to profit increases of at least 10% each year
  • Researched and introduced new retail management software (Citrus-Lime) in 2019 and even taught everyone how to use it! It resulted in quicker reporting, easier stock management and better website integration
  • Managed, motivated and coordinated a staff of up to 15
  • Managed payroll
  • Ran regular cycling holidays and training camps abroad for customers
  • Devised, publicised and organised events to promote the business and increase customer engagement. Weekly rides and social evenings were mainstays of our calendar but I also arranged book launches, product demos, yoga classes and race evenings!
• Cafe Manager (2015 - 2017)
  • Managed the hiring, scheduling, performance and happiness of a team of 6, expanded to 10 in 2017
  • Managed the installation and set up of a second cafe at a second site in 2017
• Sales Assistant (2014/5)
  • Delivered sales by quickly building rapport with customers, using skilful questioning and expert knowledge to ensure a high conversion rate

Walton on the Hill, Surrey, UK/Tabagon, Galicia, Spain

• A 16 week intensive coding bootcamp, relying primarily on self-led learning
• Strong focus on Object-Orientated Programming and Test Driven Development
• Group work conducted using Agile processes with an emphasis on XP values
• Pair programming almost every day
• All pairing and group work was remote due to Covid-19

• International Relations - Certificate of completion, Part I - Political Theory, Intl History, and Spanish language

• A-levels in History (A), Sociology (A), Spanish (B), Maths (B)
• GCSEs: 7 A* grades (including Maths, triple Science, Spanish and French) and 4 A grades)

• Regularly attend tech meetups such as Codebar and volunteer at CodeYourFuture
• British Cycling Cat 3 racer, club chairman and race organiser
• Lockdown has turned me into a keen walker at a much earlier stage in life than I'd planned
• Avid podcast listener - currently binge-listening to Gimlet's Reply All back catalogue
• Currently plotting my participation in a Patagonian adventure race in early 2022