Andrew Stanton

MEng
Computer Science

work@andrewstanton.tech

linkedin.com/in/andrew-stanton-tech/

Basingstoke, Hampshire

Worked with an enterprise level content management system in a content-focused marketing web team.

Using my degree and technical skills to support my colleagues. Scripting solutions to process and prepare information.

Seeking a career in web and cloud development.

Skills

Through my studies and employment, I've gained experience with web technologies and am enthusiastic to learn more.

  • HTML5
  • JavaScript
  • VueJS
  • CSS3
  • Tailwind CSS
  • PHP
  • Git
  • Docker
  • Amazon Web Services
  • Google Tag Manager

Current Employment

- Present
Web technical assistant University of Portsmouth

I support my colleagues with my technical knowledge, and by helping with regular entry tasks.

Since the summer of 2022, I have worked with a Quality Assurance colleague to perform manual User Acceptance Testing on the new university website. This has given me experience of Behaviour Driven Development. Knowledge I wish to grow as either a tester or developer.

Recent Employment

-
Web Development Officer University of Portsmouth

Returned to previous team to optimise my Disaster Recovery solution.

Disaster Recovery

  • Migrated to AWS Fargate: Removed idling EC2s (93% less hours). Used scheduled tasks to mirror the content.
  • Reduced Compute costs by 31%: Liaised with team head to purchase Reserved Instances. Balancing overall savings against current budget.
  • Expanded DR coverage
    • Added a second sub-domain. 3 websites protected.
    • Implemented a redirect tool and paginated lists.
  • Increased security
    • Automated Continuous Delivery with AWS Code Pipeline.
    • Used AWS Secret Manager to store sensitive data.
    • Activated automatic upgrade schedule on the Elastic Beanstalk instances.

Modernisation and branding

  • Converted deprecated HTML to a modern layout.
  • Collaborated with colleagues to brand a communication consent form.

Information management

  • Reviewed cookie usage: Selected and demoed a service to audit external scripts, user consent and GDPR compliance.
  • Fixing broken links: Continued using Screaming Frog to find invalid links. Wrote guidelines and a dashboard to support colleagues taking over this task.

-
Web Transformation Officer University of Portsmouth

Started this role in a data entry capacity and moved to development tasks.

Development

  • Disaster Recovery System: Designed and developed a Disaster Recovery system for the university website. Fetching and preparing the data with bash and NodeJS scripts. Using Docker and Amazon Web Services to produce a robust and scalable solution.
  • VueJS Web apps: Building calculators, to help potential students with their decision to apply. A budget calculator styled with the Bulma CSS framework. Using Tailwind CSS for a tuition fee discount calculator and a UCAS points calculator. Prototyped a CSV sorter to tidy up the output of an exported file.
  • Google Tag Manager: Adding tawk.to chat with analytics to monitor user interaction. Adding links on Academic staff profiles to their research outputs. Embedding the VueJS calculators onto relevant pages. Fixing a widget displaying data from a third party.
  • NodeJS: Creating scripts to transform data and check that links are live.
  • Automating data generation with Bash scripts: Using terminal tools to bulk download, convert and compress images to improve the website’s performance.

System administration

  • Managing WordPress: Setting up redirects and designing an on-brand and accessible notification panel. Modifying a PHP template to show a message to people viewing a particular tag.
  • IT Support: Keeping hardware records up to date and supporting colleagues with office moves.
  • Working with Information Services: Creating and testing HTACCESS redirects. Diagnosing issues with server migrations.

Content and quality

  • Content migration: Working with the Sitecore Content Management System to create and update hundreds of pages. Sourcing information from GatherContent. Checking for factual and mark-up issues. Collaborating with colleagues, working quickly to meet the site launch deadline while maintaining a high level of quality.
  • Quality Assurance: Validating metadata and link issues with the Screaming Frog Web Crawler.
  • Analytics: Setting up Google Analytics Accounts and producing RegExp filters to produce consistent output. Adding hotjar to generate heatmaps and discover how visitors interact with the site.
  • Fault diagnosis and User Acceptance Testing: Investigating issues to refer to the agency or to fix myself. Confirming bug fixes and feature requests supplied by our agency work as expected.

Relevant Qualification

University of Portsmouth ( - )
Post-Graduate Merit

Masters of Engineering degree in Computer Science.

Web Development

  • Covered semantic HTML5 and CSS3. Developed a web app using Vanilla JavaScript, PHP and SQL database.
  • Participated in group projects, developed for the Amazon Alexa and worked with public APIs.
  • Used JavaScript with a Mongo database to create a transclusive text editor.
  • Gained experience with the Model View Controller (MVC) approach through Java EE.

Programming

  • Coded in Python and experienced Object Oriented Programming in Java.
  • Learnt about functional programming with Haskell and have used this approach in JavaScript.

Group Industrial Project

Worked with another student to create a game in Node-RED hosted on the IBM Cloud.

Previous Employment

-
Front line tech support University of Portsmouth

  • Assisted students with general and subject-specific software.
  • Helped with printer issues (mechanical and via the print server)
  • Performed data recovery through the Windows File Explorer and Microsoft Office file recovery.

This role improved my general IT knowledge and communication skills. It was essential to get accurate information from the affected student to fix the problems on short deadlines.

-
Industrial Placement: Student Software Developer Smoothwall

  • Developed a C# Windows service proxy using the SOCKS protocol to connect off-site devices to web filtering systems.

  • Worked independently to produce a repository search tool in Perl. Keeping colleagues informed through regular demonstrations.

  • Created and networking virtual machines for testing. Tested on hardware. Installed software and checking for issues when connecting to user devices.

  • Took part in team stand-ups with colleagues in different roles with varying skill sets.

  • Planned sprints with the team, prioritising tasks based on urgency and time to implement.

Volunteering

Treasurer First Aid Society ( - )

  • Produced equipment recommendations with the storekeeper. Discussed these options during committee planning meetings.
  • Supported other committee members with financial documents.

British Heart Foundation ( - )

  • Checked items for defects and prepared them for sale.
  • Developed workflows to ensure stock is prepared to a high standard.
  • Trained new volunteers. Worked with them and answered their questions.
  • Interacted regularly with shoppers and donors. Answered stock questions and accepted donations.

Other Qualifications

Mental Health Awareness Level 1

Awarded

Queen Mary’s College ( - )

Grade Subject
B Computing
B Electronics
C Physics
A Computing Extended Project Qualification

The Vyne School ( - )

9 GCSEs grades A-C including English and Maths.

Other interests

Blogging

I've started blogging as a way to improve my writing skills. I want to develop the habit to record and reflect on my experiences.

Investing

I'm interested in the stock market. I've started using an investing app and will develop my understanding of the field.

Birdwatching

I enjoy watching wildlife. It's rejuvenating and an excellent reason to go outside. This is a good opportunity for photography.