You are who you are by virtue of the company you keep - T. B. Joshua
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best - Epictetus
On this, my last day of work in the UK before my family and I move to Vancouver, Canada, I want to thank those friends and colleagues who have supported and guided me professionally on my Ruby journey. Over the last 11 years I have grown in experience and skill as a Ruby developer thanks to the example and shared knowledge of these folks.
It was Andrew Threlfall who introduced me to Ruby on Rails in 2006 when I worked for his company LiquidBronze. We got Paul Robinson in to show us the ropes and my steep learning curve from PHP began! Ian Moss joined the company as I left and since then I have worked on various Ruby projects with each of them as I went freelance. We even ran a co-working co-operative in Manchester City Center called FlyThe.Coop together.
As a freelancer, my early days were spent mainly on PHP projects, but I started dabbling with OpenData and through a retainer with Chris Jelley's company, BeSupported, I was able to work on some meaty Rails projects. It was while working for Chris that I had my moment of enlightenment about writing tests for my code, I still remember that moment vividly!
From 2012 I worked from Tekin Suleyman's office with 3 other Ruby developers, Ric Roberts, Graham Ashton and Ed Forshaw. Working in the same space with such great developers provided me with a great input of best-practice, new approaches and confidence. During that time we started the Bootstrapped Startup Group since we all had side-projects we hoped would make it big.
I then joined Volcanic as CTO to build a platform for Recruitment Company websites. As the Technical Co-founder and a Ruby developer, Rob Wilde challenged and pushed me with his innovative thinking and focus on efficiency. I reconnected with an old skateboarding friend, Carpet, who was already at Volcanic and enjoyed the challenges and camaraderie of building the product and team, specifically working closely with Matt Whiteley after we moved to London.
I also want to thank the Ruby and Rails community. I have built a career on the open source tools created by these dedicated and intelligent people who have created a uniquely supportive community which was expressed to me locally through the folks at the North West Ruby User Group.
As I leave the UK for Canada (through a new Job with Chimp thanks to my Ruby skill and experience), I feel sincerely grateful to these guys who have helped guide, shape and challenge me professionally - Thank you!
Top comments (2)
To all who meet Ben in Canada, keep in touch with this guy. He's always been a pleasure to both work with, and just generally chat to. The UK's loss is Canada's gain. I wish you and your family well and lots of exciting times exploring new places - and some snow boarding :)
Good luck with your move to Canada. You have tonnes of experience to leverage and help other people around you.