Rob Davis - Web design and development

Where I am now

Project manager / product owner for a software development company specialising in brand management.

My goal

Continue to develop my career in software development management.

Outside work

During my own time I am interested in aviation, flying and volunteer with the Royal Air Force Air Cadets.

Whats my favorite...?

Website - www.google.co.uk.

Web design author - Dan Cederholm.

Book - Starter for Ten by David Nicholls.

Aircraft - P-51 Mustang.

Music genre - Rock / Alternative.

Games console - Xbox 360!

I started to venture into the area of information technology when I took an A-level in IT. If I am honest I found the subject dry and limited. Therefore, in order to experience a wider variety within the area of IT I chose to study computer science. I have enjoyed the course immensely, mainly due to the opportunities and experiences that have been opened up to me.

One of these opportunities was during my third year where I took part in an industrial placement year with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in their IT department's Human Computer Interaction (HCI) team. It was here that my interest and enjoyment in interaction design grew, which opened a potential career for me to develop.

On completing my degree I started to pursue a career in web development and took a position as an XML Template Developer, producing automated artwork. This involved writing XML structures and applying styles to match a provided design. When viewed online these provided an interface for users to edit areas of text and imagery then save their personal adaptation of the master artwork. The work required high attention to detail to ensure the end product was on brand and as close to pixel perfect as possible when compared to the original design.

As the team grew I expressed an interest to move into the software development side of the business. I

knew my programming skills where not at the level required to take a position as a developer. However, I had proven my ability to manage the automated artwork team and therefore took a position as a project manager / product owner.

In this position I was able to gain experience in defining functional requirements and agreeing these with our clients. I have an ability to communicate not only at a client level but also with developers. This allows me to have an active input into our development solutions. Being able to question and input at a technical level enables the team to build a better solution for our customers.