I'm Stephen Mitchell. I was born and raised in Sunderland, and recently graduated with a 2:1 in Computer Science from the University of Northumbria in Newcastle.
I've always been interested in computers. Some of my earliest memories are of playing simple games on my Dad's BBC Micro and in Windows 3.1 on his first IBM compatible PC, a Gateway bought around 1994. In recent years, I've built my own computer from scratch, installed a wireless network and re-built several computers from spares. I also regularly help friends and family with their computer problems.
My interest in computers, and my excellent results at GCSE and 'A'-level (A* and A respectively) led me to study Computer Science at Northumbria University. I chose Computer Science because it allowed me to study a wide range of areas related to computing, including embedded systems, programming, systems analysis and design including UML and relational databases. I particularly enjoyed the programming element of the course and achieved high marks in many of the programming related modules, including 100% in JAVA Programming 2 and 76% in Advanced Programming for Computer Games.
The third year of my course consisted of a year long industrial placement which I spent with Echostar Europe, a company specialising in the production of digital television equipment. During this time I was responsible for maintaining a large program written in C running on modified satellite set top boxes and the multi-threaded Python script used to control them. I also worked with a colleague to port the software to a new platform.
I'm now looking for work, either within commuting distance of Sunderland or in the Leeds/West Yorkshire area. I'm ideally looking for a development-based role, as this is the area I have most experience in (I have a working knowledge of C, C++, Python, Java and C#.net as well as markup languages including HTML, CSS and LaTeX). However, I feel that the wide range of knowleedge I gained during my degree course combined with the technical and transferrable skills gained during my work placement would make me a good candidate for many roles within the IT industry.