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matthew john consultancy limited

I'm not really a great fan of the Curriculum Vitae, so what I thought was I'd write a little description of what I've done since school. If you would like to see a briefer, more traditional version of my Curriculum Vitae then go ahead.

I never planned to work with computers. I left school at 16 and went to Aberdare College of Further Education (1989-1991), to study Mechanical Engineering. Within the first week I realised that this was not the course for me, and moved to study Electrical Engineering. After two days, I knew this was an even bigger mistake and was about to drop out and get a job in a local shop, when my mum reminded me about the ZX Spectrum I had been using for the last couple of years. I had an interview and enrolled on the Computer Studies course, it wasn't long before I realised that I had an affinity with computers. Two years later I graduated with a distinction.

Now eager to learn more about computers I got myself a place on a newly created course at De Montford University (1991-1995) called Software Engineering. The course was for four years and had been set up specifically for students to gain excellent software engineering skills; year three of the course was a placement year.

My placement year was in the HMIS department at the Welsh Health Common Services Authority (1993-1994) in Cardiff where the year was spilt into two parts. The first part of the placement was directed towards importing archive NHS patient data from flat files stored on the old VMS system, into the new Ingres Relational Database System running on UNIX. Once all the data had been transferred the remaining time at HMIS was used to help setup a Windows NT 3.5.1 Server to run the internal MS Mail system. Little did I know what advantage working with NT at this time would have on my career.

I graduated from the Software Engineering Course with 2:2 Honours in 1995. Luckily at this time, not a lot of people had got experience working with Windows NT, so I managed to get myself a job quite quickly. Apex Systems (1995-1998) were a Value Added Reseller (VAR) selling Tetra's Chameleon manufacturing software. My job as one of the engineers was to build the server from hardware components, install the operating system, install the Chameleon software, take the server to site, commission any communications equipment and connect any PCs / Terminals to the new server. Although not directly using the skills I learnt from my Degree, I did manage to develop a methodical problem solving mind set. Probably something to do with the years of looking for the missing semicolon when writing code.

During my time at Apex Systems I was put onto the Microsoft's MCSE program and passed Microsoft Exams in:-

I managed to work my way up the team at Apex Systems until I was responsible for working with the project managers scheduling the work for all of the installation engineers, including myself.

Although happy at Apex Systems, I thought that I couldn't go any further with my career unless I left and started my own company. Matthew John Consultancy Limited (not the most original of names I must admit) was born in October of 1998 and my first client was Marstons Brewery based in Burton-on-Trent.

My job at Marstons was to help the existing IT staff move over from their fully functioning Novell system to an inferior NT based file sharing system, and integrate their old mainframe and UNIX systems. After six months everything was beginning to run smoothly, when Wolverhampton and Dudley (WND) Brewers took over Marstons and made everyone redundant. My contract was terminated shortly after helping WND with the integration of their computer systems with Marstons.

From here I got a contract with the Post Office as a Systems Architect. I was responsible for gathering information regarding Post Office projects, speaking to all personnel involved, and to design complete systems that met Post Offices standards.

After finishing at the Post Office I started working as a sub contractor for Network Essentials and Servo. Work was varied including designing an auction web site for Mike Burton (unfortunately it got shelved), and upgrading Transworld Books computer systems from Novell to NT and their email system to Exchange.

Then I took some time out to go back to college. As I said earlier I never really meant to work with computers, so I though I would try my hand at a foundation in art and design at Leicester College. I thought from here I could go back to University to study something like furniture design, but then I realized that I would graduate after 4 years with no money, and really old computer skills. So I decided to carry on working and do the things I liked doing as a hobby, rather than as a student. This proved to be a very sensible idea as I then started working with Hager UK on their web site. You can read about the work that we did on the Hager web site in the gallery section.

So here I am at the present day. I wouldn't call myself a web designer, but a web developer. Developing web sites means that you have to know how the web works, and not just simply having a copy of Dreamweaver to bang out web pages.