I started my career in programming by complete accident. I had just completed my undergraduate degree in English Literature and probably partied too hard and studied too little, so I had no idea what I wanted to do in life aged 21.

I knew that I didn't want to work in a shitty pub, which is what I first did straight out of university, so I got my act together and started studying for an MSc in Computer Science at my local university. At the same time, I started my first programming job on a part time basis (thanks Mark & Ben for taking a chance on me!). It was pretty intense, but I learnt so much in those first few years, although at points I did feel like throwing in the towel.

In 2016, I moved to London and worked at various startups, ranging from tiny teams of 1 or 2 people, to large corporations such as Deliveroo. 2016 - 2020 were spent fighting my way up the ladder from mid-level to Senior engineer. At Deliveroo, I really honed my craft, and was instrumental in several projects including adding the ability to tip your delivery driver after the delivery was completed, and introducing a confirmation code system (known as Positive Handover), which would help reduce fraudulent rider and consumer side claims.

After the pandemic, I decided to move my focus to the developer tooling space, where I joined an early stage startup called Keel, where we built a programming language from the ground up, which was pretty fucking sweet. I built the lexer/parser, as well as a VSCode plugin with autocompletion and syntax highlighting. It was brilliant working with some amazing individuals there, but unfortunately things didn't work out and a few of us were let go.

So that brings me onto the here and now. In late 2023, I accepted a role as Principal Engineer at Framer, the design software for the web. I've only been here for a couple of months, but I am having an amazing time, and I am being constantly challenged, which as a lifelong learner is always a good thing.