Welcome to my portfolio. This is my attempt at deploying a static page using everything I’ve learned so far as a junior software developer. This is built using a custom theme on Github integrating Jekyll as a framework… we’ll see how it goes!
But anyway, who am I? My name is Richard Hanrahan and until recently I worked as a freelance Graphic Designer and Videographer. Following a short career in academia, I am now trained and geared for work as a full stack software developer.
New Directions
One of the key reasons I chose to retool, was because I wanted work that had meaning, and ultimately, to make a difference in the world as part of my career. Thinking about my experience with learning to program, coding is a means to communicate human needs with the machine - raw, thoughtless computing power that can be effective and dependable when wound up right and unleashed in any given direction. This potential, I’ve discovered, is near endless, but it’s worth remembering that it is still thinky fleshy humans behind it all.
Anyway, weird tangent!
Back to my career - I have a number of skills and experiences from my past which can make me an excellent part of your team - from high level academic research that gives me a good chance of understanding, to a history of performance and writing in comedy which mean I can fit in well with most teams, and know how to communicate effectively with different personalities. I also am a confident public speaker, quick to explain complex code when necessary, an excellent mediator between shy developers and less tech savvy management teams. Funnily enough, of all the professional growth I’ve made with CodeClan, learning three languages (Ruby, Javascript and Java) it is the development of people skills - learning agile methodologies, working in teams, delineating work - that have most developed through my experience with CodeClan and which will benefit me most.
Also I have a dog! And a wife who is very talented. Actually the dog is very talented too, but he didn’t win one of the Scottish Book Trusts 2020 New Writer Awards, he just has mad tennis ball skillz. If you want to get to know here, take a look at a little blog she runs reviewing Edinburgh’s mochas and in deeply philosophising about the pitfalls of life.