Hi, I'm Chris, but please, call me ...

CJ

I build  |

School of Code & IBT Learning Graduate — crafting clean, modern web experiences that people actually enjoy using. Now on my AI journey with Netcom and from there onto Teaching those the skills I've learned.

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About Me

Turning ideas into reality

I'm a full-stack developer and proud School of Code graduate. Across 28 weeks of intensive training — 13 at School of Code and 15 with IBT Learning — I went from HTML basics to building full-stack applications and designing polished UX/UI experiences. I'm currently deepening my expertise further with Netcom Training's Intel AI for the Current Workforce programme.

I love the intersection of clean code and great design. Whether it's a pixel-perfect UI or a robust backend API, I care deeply about building things that work beautifully.

28+ Weeks Training
30+ Projects Built
20+ Technologies
1 Live Product
CJ
School of Code SoC Graduate
IBT Learning IBT Graduate
Netcom Training Netcom In Progress

What I Know

My Toolkit

Technologies and practices I've worked with across the stack.

Frontend

Responsive Design

Component Architecture

State Management

Web Accessibility

Performance Optimisation

Backend

REST APIs

JWT Authentication

OAuth

Database Design

Server-Side Rendering

UX / UI Design

Wireframing

Prototyping

User Research

Accessibility (WCAG)

Design Systems

Data & AI

Tableau

No-Code Tools

AI Workflows

Prompt Engineering

Data Visualisation

Dev Practices

Test-Driven Development

Agile / Scrum

CI/CD

Pair Programming

Code Review

Languages & Tools I've Worked With

What I've Built

Featured Projects

A curated selection of the work I enjoyed creating / CoCreating

🚀

NASA Explorer

An interactive space exploration app pulling live data from NASA's public APIs — Astronomy Picture of the Day, Mars Rover imagery, and near-Earth object tracking.

JavaScript NASA API Fetch API Async/Await
⚔️

SnippetSamurai

A full-stack collaborative platform for saving, tagging and sharing code snippets. Built with a team — from user research and wireframes all the way to a deployed product.

React Node.js Express PostgreSQL
1Source

1Source

A unified resource hub designed to consolidate learning materials, tools, and references into a single accessible platform for developers and students.

UX/UI Design Figma Prototyping

My Learning Path

My Journey

Three programmes. Every step documented.

Phase 1: Foundations Phase 2: Broadening Phase 3: Full-Stack Capstone
Week 1 Foundations

HTML, CSS & JavaScript 101

Dived into the building blocks of the web — variables, loops, functions, DOM manipulation, and version control with Git.

HTML CSS JavaScript Git
🌱
🌐
Week 2 Foundations

DOM & Fetch API

Mastered async JavaScript — Promises, async/await, and the Fetch API. Built dynamic pages that react to real-time data.

DOM API Async JS Promises Fetch
Week 3 Broadening

UI/UX Design Thinking

Learnt user-centred design, wireframing and prototyping in Figma. Discovered that great software starts with great empathy.

Figma Wireframing UX Research
🎨
⚙️
Week 4 Broadening

Node.js & Express

Flipped to the server side — built REST APIs with Express, handled routing, middleware, and environment config.

Node.js Express REST Middleware
Week 5 Broadening

Databases & PostgreSQL

Designed relational schemas, wrote SQL queries, and connected a live database to an Express backend end-to-end.

PostgreSQL SQL Schema Design
🗄️
🧪
Week 6 Broadening

Testing & TDD

Embraced Test-Driven Development — writing unit and integration tests with Jest before touching implementation code.

Jest TDD Unit Tests Integration
Week 7 Full-Stack

React Fundamentals

Learnt the React mental model — components, JSX, props, state, and the virtual DOM. Built interactive UIs declaratively.

React JSX State Props
⚛️
🪝
Week 8 Full-Stack

Advanced React

Deep-dived into hooks — useState, useEffect, useContext — custom hooks and managing side effects elegantly.

Hooks useEffect Context API
Week 9 Full-Stack

Group Project — SnippetSamurai

First team project — built a code snippet platform from scratch. Agile sprints, code review, and real collaborative Git workflows.

React Express PostgreSQL Agile
🗡️
🔐
Week 10 Full-Stack

Authentication & Security

Implemented JWT auth, OAuth2 flows, and bcrypt password hashing. Learnt about common web vulnerabilities and how to defend against them.

JWT OAuth bcrypt Security
Week 11 Full-Stack

Deployment & DevOps

Shipped to the cloud. Set up CI/CD pipelines, environment configs, and learnt the joy (and occasional pain) of production deploys.

CI/CD Cloud Deploy Monitoring
🚀
Week 12 Full-Stack

SnippetSamurai — Refined

Polish sprint — performance improvements, features from user feedback, hardened security model, presented to an industry panel.

Performance UX Polish Code Review
Week 13 Capstone

Capstone & Graduation

Final showcase. Presented work to employers and industry professionals. Graduated as a full-stack developer ready to build real things in the real world.

Full-Stack Showcase Graduate 🎓
🎓
Module 1–2: Foundations Module 3: Research Module 4–5: Design Module 6: Graduation
Module 1 Foundations

The Basics of UX & UI

Explored the what and why of UX/UI — the roles, the people, the process, and the tools. Built a familiarity with the design world before touching a single pixel.

UX Principles Design Roles Process
🧭
🤝
Module 2 Foundations

Approaching Projects

Learnt how to read a brief, define project scope, and collaborate effectively in teams. First hands-on time with Miro for ideation and Figma for design.

Briefs & Scope Miro Figma Teamwork
Module 3 Research

Research Methods

Conducted desk research, comparative analyses, and design audits. Applied heuristic evaluation and platform guidelines (HIG / Material Design). Built personas from user interviews and surveys, then synthesised findings into actionable insights.

User Interviews Personas Heuristics Surveys
🔍
🗺️
Module 4 UX Design

UX Design

Learnt to design with empathy and applied the Laws of UX. Mapped out information architecture, journey maps, user flows, and feature lists — then progressed from rough sketches to lo-fi and hi-fi wireframes.

Wireframes User Flows IA Laws of UX
Module 5 UI Design

Visual & UI Design

Dived into the craft of visual design — colour theory and psychology, typography, iconography, and illustration. Turned UX wireframes into polished, UI-ready screens.

Colour Theory Typography Iconography Figma
🎨
Module 6 Graduation

Graduation Project

Applied everything across all six modules to a self-directed final project — full research, UX flows, and a polished UI prototype showcased as a portfolio piece.

Figma User Research Prototyping Graduate 🎓
🎓
Level 100: Foundations Level 200: Technical Level 300: Venture
L100 · 1–2 Foundations

AI in Business & Project Initialisation

Explored how AI is reshaping industries and learned how to frame, scope, and kick off an AI project from a business perspective.

AI Strategy Project Scoping
🤖
📊
L100 · 3–5 Foundations

Data Analysis, ML & Deep Learning

Introduction to data analysis pipelines, the fundamentals of machine learning models, and how deep neural networks learn from data.

Data Analysis Machine Learning Deep Learning
L100 · 6–7 Foundations

Generative AI & Prompt Engineering

Learned how generative models work and how to craft effective prompts to get reliable, high-quality outputs from AI systems.

Generative AI Prompt Engineering LLMs
📈
L100 · 8–10 Foundations

AI Project Building, Data Visualisation & Business Proposal

Built an end-to-end AI project, visualised results for business stakeholders, and produced a formal AI Business Project Proposal.

AI Projects Data Viz Business Case
L200 · PF 1–4 Technical

Programming Fundamentals 1–4

Covered core programming concepts applied to AI workflows — variables, data structures, control flow, and functions in Python.

Python Programming Data Structures
🐍
📍
← Currently Here
L200 · PF 5 Technical

Programming Fundamentals 5

Advanced programming patterns and techniques — working towards completing the full programming fundamentals series.

Python In Progress
L200 · CV 1–6 Technical

Computer Vision 1–6

Six-part series covering image recognition, object detection, and building CV models for real-world applications.

Computer Vision Image Recognition Pending
👁️
💬
L200 · NLP 1–7 Technical

Natural Language Processing 1–7

Seven-part series exploring text analysis, sentiment analysis, language models, and building NLP-powered applications.

NLP Text Analysis Pending
L200 · IoT 1–2 Technical

Internet of Things 1–2

Connecting AI to the physical world — sensors, devices, and integrating IoT data into AI-driven systems.

IoT Sensors Pending
📡
💡
L300 · 1–2 Venture

Generating AI Business Ideas & Customer Discovery

Ideate viable AI ventures and validate them by listening to prospective customers to understand real problems worth solving.

Ideation Customer Discovery Pending
L300 · 3–4 Venture

MVP Testing & Business Model

Test a Minimal Viable Product with real users and build out a sustainable business model around the AI venture.

MVP Business Model Pending
🧪
🚀
L300 · 5–6 Venture

Venture Funding & Pitching

Explore funding options and financing strategies, then deliver a compelling pitch for the AI venture to investors and stakeholders.

Fundraising Pitching Pending

Get In Touch

Let's build something together

I'm open to new opportunities — full-time roles, freelance projects, or just a good conversation. Drop me a message.