Tom Taylor

I have been coding for a very long time! I first started coding in my early teens on my grandparent's old ZX Spectrum. This was an amazing home computer from the early 1980s, and the beauty of technology of that time is that they have a built in programming interface right from the main menu!

I used to make simple little text adventure games, save them to tape and play them for family later. Loading the games would take a while due to the hardware, and the sound it makes during this process is like a robot dying.

I must have looked like a huge dork... But I learned the concepts of variables, loops and state... And these are foundational to programming skill, so I do consider myself very lucky to have gotten this opportunity so early in life.

Once I graduated secondary (high) school, I turned my attention full time to programming. I went to my local college to study a BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Interactive Media. I learned so much on this course and I was proud to earn a distinction grade through my 2 years on this course.

I then went on to study Games Technology BSc at the University of the West of England. This taught me a higher level of skills with programming but unfortunately I felt that I had probably hit the ceiling in terms of my academic career. I jumped into my first professional role as soon as I could!

I have had various full time jobs in the industry.

My first was as an app developer in my hometown. I absolutely loved my time at this workplace and in this role as I had family ties to the company.

This is where I really learned what I know and do today. The concept of timelines, customer specification and teamwork became part of my repertoire. My closeness with my colleagues was amazing and I really felt like we were delivering some amazing stuff.

After a couple of years at this workplace, I decided that I had probably contributed everything I could and decided to venture outside my seaside hometime and get a job where I could advance more. I found a somewhat local company that delivered digital and technical services to the cinema industry. This is where I still work to this day.

We have hundreds of customers, across almost every continent on this planet and we manage and maintain cinema sites. We handle booking, both through POS channels and remote ones, scheduling performances, stock management... and everything in between. We have a lot of irons in the fire and a serious number of amazing products under our belt.

I am now the lead of the core software team at this company and I'm incredibly proud of the work that I, and we have done. I outline some of this in brief details in my professional portfolio.