Well...

My Name is Trent Nixon, i was born in 1979 in a small New Zealand city called Napier which lies on the east coast of the North Island. Was Raised and Schooled in Napier before re locating with my mother and sister to Manchester England in 1996 at age 16. I have always had a huge passion for music and music performance, my father had taught me guitar at a very early age and is something I am eternally grateful for so at age 17 i looked to develop this talent more and attended the largest performing arts college in the north of England and began my musical education. Over the coming years i played in numerous band (cover and original), and performed in many musical theatre shows as a pit musician, at the time playing guitar, which i found immensely rewarding and a huge contributor to my initial development as a musician. In 2000 i was taken on at Salford university and begun my degree in music. Pushing my education to the next level has easily the most important and gratifying part of my development, not only musically, but also personally and professionally. During this time i took up a second instrument (bass) which i played live on a weekly basis up until i left England in 2007.

My Web development path started more out of necessity than conscious thought due to cost cutting measures by a company i was working for at the time. i found that the more i looked into web development (html, css, javascript) and the more i was surrounded by it the more it developed into second nature and the more enjoyable it become. It was around this time that someone very special to me suggested that i should look at enrolling in a night course to build up my skill set, it turned out to be an inspired move and set me up really well for my sudden change of career. Just 1 week after finishing the course i had my first freelance client and shortly after that was taken on in as a junior in for one of Manchester’s leading digital design companies (mediachrome). Working for Mediachrome helped push my skill set from college graduate to professional web developer and opened the door for me to invest time and energy into other more dynamic scripting languages such as PHP (my base for all website), Mysql, jQuery etc. As well as learning the importance of semantic code and accessibility issues.

In the summer of 2007 with backpack and laptop in hand i left the UK to travel South East Asia and Australasia for 12 months with my partner at the time. After 6 amazing months in the sun i found myself back we it all began , Napier New Zealand, here I set up shop for a period and took on a short term contract with a small web company based in Hastings (Cre@ive). Although my time with cre@ive was only brief i managed to add to my skill set immensely with the introduction of the open source CMS MODx, something that i work with a lot to this day.

In August of that year i found myself working and living in Melbourne, Australia, a city i have no problem referring as one of my top five cities in the world ( anyone who has lived in Melbourne will know what I mean). During my time in Melbourne i was taken on for a initial 12 week front end development project (chic management, chic celebrity, Scoop management). The project proved to be one of the more demanding projects of my career so far and is easily the one I’m most proud of.

Well as i have said I am a web developer with 4 years commercial experience in Britain, New Zealand and Australia. I hand code all of my sites and believe in clean design and clean (table less) source code based around the W3C Standards, accessibility and browser compatibility.

I have solid knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP and MYSQL and been working with these languages for many years and work almost exclusively with dynamically driven PHP sites. i have a firm understand of how to establish large site file structures and how to construct sites from the clients initial concept through to fully functional optimised sites for both the client and the user. I have a good practical understanding of javascript, jQuery and xml languages and look to learn more about these technologies through project based applications in the future.

I am Photoshop savvy and have no issues with being handed .PSD site designs and constructing full sites around that initial design, as well as designing basic header, email and adverts.

I believe I have a credible knowledge of professional and commercial practises in web development and have a good understanding of how the industry works and should be conducted. I am currently looking for freelance/contract/perminate work as a Mid-level PHP developer and really looking for something to sink my teeth into and learn as much as i possibly can from every site i get involved with as well as providing a professional service and outcome for all involved with the concept and construction of a project.

• • LANGUAGES

  • Xhtml
  • Dhtml
  • Css
  • Php
  • Flash
  • Javascript

• • PROGRAMS

  • Dreamweaver (Windows)
  • CODA (Mac OS)
  • Photoshop
  • SWISH(flash)

• • OPEN SOURCE

  • MYSQL
  • PhpMyAdmin
  • MODx
  • Mootools
  • Prestashop
  • jQuery

• • Freelance web developer

    2008 – 2008 Frontier Active Melbourne
  • August to December 2008 I worked freelance for frontier active in Melbourne. Originally I was contracted to work with one client for a period of 12 weeks, constructing 3 sites. (http://www.chicmanagement.com.au/, http://www.chiccelebrity.com.au/celebrity/, http://www.scoopmanagement.com.au/scoop/ ) Site work was front end, PHP based, to the clients design and unique specifications. After the initial project was completed I was kept on to help complete other company projects to deadline.

• • Web Developer

    2008 – 2008 Cre@ive New Zealand
  • During March - May of 2008 I had 3 month contract with a Hastings based advertising company called cre@ive as a supportive web developer. During this period I was involved with a handful of minor projects (site updates, adding additional pages, creation of banner adverts) and three full sites for major clients (including a re-design of the Cre@ive site http://thecreativeshow.co.nz/) using the companies open source CMS of choice (MODx).

• • Web Developer

    2005 -2007 Mediachrome Manchester
  • I worked as a freelance web developer for Mediachrome for 2 years. I started out as a junior compiling basic xhtml pages for new and existing sites, before extending my role to full structure compositions of sites, basic PHP development and full PHP based projects. By the end of my employment with Mediachrome I communicated with clients on a regular basis and organized projects from the outset through to completion.

• • Director

    2003- 2005 DNA Creative Media Ltd Manchester
  • I worked for two years as a director for DNA creative media. In this time I had a vast range of roles including. Financial Director, Web design manager, marketing manager, theater technician, performing arts teacher and producer

• • Part- time teacher

    2004 City College Manchester
  • I worked part time as a teacher at city college Manchester for a period of six months teaching on the First diploma Performing arts course. The course consisted of twenty teenagers aged between sixteen and eighteen.
    • My main responsibility in this job was to create and administer learning out comes based around the syllabus set for the course. As the course was based around the adaptation, creativity and delivery of performance most of these out comes revolved around the etiquette of performance. • Other responsibilities included general class administration and marking of course work.

• • Bar Supervisor – Assistant Manager

    2001 – 2004 Bar Ten Dean’s gate –Manchester
  • I started work at Bar Ten in the summer of 2001 as a bar supervisor and was promoted to assistant manager shortly after. My main responsibilities were broken into two sections: daily duties and weekly duties.
    • Daily duties included responsibility of staff, customers, cleanliness of the bar and pub, delegation of jobs, management of cellar and stock rooms, management of tills. Float, cashing up and safe checks.
    • Weekly duties involved ordering and/or receiving of stock delivery’s, banking and organization of promotional material.

• • 2005
  • City and Guilds Web Design and Development
    (level 2 and Level 3)
    City College
    Manchester
  • Distinction
• • 2000 – 2003
  • BA Hons Popular Music and Recording
    University Of Salford
    Manchester
  • 2.1
• • 1998 – 2000
  • BTEC National Diploma Popular Music
    Shena Simon College
    (Now City College Manchester)
  • Distinction
• • 1996 – 1998
  • A level
    - Psychology
    - Physical Education
    North Area College
    Stockport
    Manchester
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