I graduated from Founders & Coders' full-time Software Development Apprenticeship (Level 4) as a member of cohort FAC26 in April 2023, while working part-time in Customer Service at the Barbican Centre, having previously completed the required Founders & Coders Skills Bootcamp, for which you can read a portfolio assessment of my work on the Bootcamp projects. In the meantime, here is a synopsis of what I learned on the Apprenticeship.

Since graduating, I have mentored students on FAC27 cohort. I am currently learning Python and TypeScript on Udemy, as well as continuing to make my way through freeCodeCamp.

General:

Frontend:

Backend:

Fullstack:

Testing:

Prototyping:

My background prior to learning coding and working in Customer Experience was as an Editorial Assistant at Wilmington PLC, a large publishing house (including B2B) in North London. I worked on directories of charities, pensions, finance, and global politics, including project managing the Online Donations and Goodwill Gallery services, in which members of the public could donate money and goods respectively to charities. My role there included some HTML via Dreamweaver, while working on the company website, and extensive research on global statistics while compiling some of the directories.

After leaving Wilmington PLC, I completed a Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism, wrote freelance for the Hackney Citizen, and volunteered as a Team Leader at the Southbank Centre (including helping build the Festival Village arts space). I also completed some work at The Observer newspaper and 7digital.com, a music and brands platform. For the latter, I also used HTML on the company website while there.

• I identify as autistic and have ADHD

• 🌆 Ask me about capital cities in countries - I have an encyclopaedic knowledge

• 😄 Pronouns: he/him

• ✈️ Here's some nice photos from my travels and at home in London

• 🙌 I volunteer in my spare time as Secretary for the not-for-profit organisation Sustainable Hackney, devoted to local sustainable projects; we have recently been scrutinizing Hackney Council's draft Climate Action Plan. I also agitate for electoral reform in the UK as part of Make Votes Matter. In addition, I recently managed to convince my local MP, Diane Abbott, to put her support behind Power for People's local energy scheme via attending a meeting with her in Parliament, accompanied by two members of staff from Power for People. The local electricity bill is currently making its way through Parliament.

• 🙌 From 2014-2017, I volunteered for the Arts Council-funded project A Hackney Autobiography, based at Bishopsgate Institute in east London. The project looked into the history of Centerprise, a community centre that existed in Hackney from 1971-2012. Centerprise was a local publishing project, bookshop, cafe, arts space, housing advice section, and hub for many local activist groups, who used its spare rooms. The project looked at the history of Hackney particularly during the 70s and 80s, with Centerprise at its centre, and led to a book, app, and website. Centerprise's vast plethora of literature and ephemera has been transferred to Bishopsgate's legendary archives, which is why the project was located there.

• 🎸 Here's what I've been listening to via my Last FM.

• 📚 Here's what I've been reading via GoodReads.

• 🥶 Fun fact: I've been to the most Northern-located town in the world - Longyearbyen in Svalbard, an archipelago owned by Norway, with only the Arctic and North Pole beyond. While there, I also checked out a still-active Russian mining town (leased to Russia from Norway) called Barentsburg, where I drank vodka in the Northern-most distillery in the world. Accordingly, I now hope to visit one day Ushuaia, the southern-most city in the world, in Patagonia, Argentina (and hopefully drink vodka there too).

• 📫How to reach me:
• db_simpson [at] yahoo.co.uk
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