Why this Blog?
This site was created primarily as a way for me to note down my knowledge so I can look back and jog my memory, store code snippets and assess how much I am growing in my skill. It also provides a great way for future employers to evaluate my understanding, sample my code and my programming philosophy (I’m not currently looking however).
If my blog provides insight or knowledge to anyone who finds my blog then great! I’m Glad it’s helped!
Whats my experience?
Gidday, I’m Nick Mason. I am a backend web developer currently based in Hamilton, New Zealand. I started my web career back in 2007 when I was in partnership with two friends as a videographer. Our customers were often asking if I could make them websites. With not enough video work at the time and my business partners past web experience, I started learning HTML / CSS and we started designing customer websites. After a short time jobs became more complex and website development overtook my video work. I started learning Ruby using the Ruby on Rails framework and Javascript / jQuery.
By the end of 2009 my business partner and I decided to shut shop. A client our company serviced employed me full time as a Ruby on Rails developer. While with this company I maintained and extended a search directory with hundreds of thousands of listings. In this time I kept on learning, experimenting with new technologies and extending my knowledge.
In late 2011 I was hired as a server side PHP developer by a production house. I was hired as a senior programmer – and was developing several projects at any one time. The bulk of logic for each project was created from scratch each time with only a basic framework that I had created. Projects were tightly budgeted (mostly e-commerce) with short deadlines – I quickly learned to work efficiently while improving the quality of my work – errors cost precious time and money. In the time I worked for this company I created some neat projects. I took over their hosting servers extending my knowledge in server management, Linux, and cloud virtual servers. I wrote desktop applications in C# and started to learn the Microsoft .net framework.
Fast forward to late 2015 – today, I now work from my home office remotely. I primarily develop using PHP and Javascript running a LAMP stack. As the senior developer I am responsible for managing a critical web platform that processes hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of orders each week. Tools are both used for internal staff as well as front end customer websites with multiple integrations.
About Nick
I am currently 29 years of age living with my wife, the beautiful Steph with our two kids, Lexi – age 3 and Ben age 1, in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Before my career in Web I was a videographer (Mostly weddings and small corporate videos) and am qualified in Film & Television.
I enjoy photography (now mostly family snaps) and occasionally getting into the kitchen and cooking up something from Jamie Oliver.
