Jack McCarthy - CV

Projects | Tech Experience | Professional Experience | Skills | Education | Additional Information | Personal Website | LinkedIn

Hi! My name is Jack McCarthy and I am currently multiclassing as a programmer. I am a logical and organised thinker who is experienced at managing projects, good at working under pressure and a great team player. After 8 years in the energy industry as a procurement professional negotiating goods and services contracts, I am now looking to put my time and effort into creating programs which are fun and easy to use (especially after having to use industry standard procurement programs!).

My programming journey started in 2020 with freecodecamp and codecademy courses, before deciding to take the plunge in 2021 when I left my job and signed up to the Makers Academy Bootcamp. My experience at the Academy has been a fantastic and intense experience where I have built awesome projects with various technologies including Ruby-on-Rails and React.js. Four of these have been group projects where we used Agile working practices, delivering fully functioning programs in short timeframes, often while learning new technologies.

My time at Makers has left me feeling ready to learn any tech stack and take on any challenge. I am looking forward to becoming a full-fledged software engineer and continue my learning journey. Please check out some of my work below.

Projects

Name	Links	Description	Technology
Final Makers Group Project - Reclaim	Frontend Repo; Backend Repo; Live Site; Demo	Worked in a group of 4 to develop a Loyalty Stamp Card Application which comprised of a separate React frontend and Rails backend API. My first experience with React.	React.js, Node.js, Ruby on Rails, Jest, RSPEC, Heroku
Facebook Clone Group Project - Knitter	Repo; Live Site; Demo	A 2 week group engineering project working in a group of eight using Agile practices, a great project which demonstrated the power of large teams working well together. My first experience with Ruby on Rails.	Ruby on Rails, Postgresql, JS, HTML, CSS, RSPEC, Heroku
Twitter Clone Solo Project - Shouter	Repo; Demo	Weekend Challenge to build a twitter clone in Ruby. I put my own spin on the app, allowing you to shout your thoughts into the void!	Ruby, Sinatra, RSPEC, Capybara, Rubocop
Notes Web app Group Project - Ducking Notes	Repo; Live Site; Demo	A 2-day group engineering project to develop a web based notes app. I wrote the bespoke testing scripts.	Vanilla JS, HTML, CSS, Bespoke Testing Script
Gilded Rose Tech Test	Repo	My attempt at a classic tech test. Developed in 1 day, with an IRB based interface.	Ruby, RSPEC
Bank Tech Test	Repo	Practice bank tech test, developed over 1 day with an IRB based interface. Sought to apply OOP and SOLID principles during development.	Ruby, RSPEC
AirBnB Clone Group Project - Hammocks N' Drinks	Repo; Demo	First group project at Makers, worked with a team of 4 to develop this Ruby and Sinatra Web App. It was developed over the course of a week. We had a great concept which really helped motivate the team and we managed to build out several features.	Ruby, Sinatra, PostgreSQL, RSPEC, Capybara
Personal Portfolio Website	Repo; Live Site	Personal Website and Javascript Playground - check out the dark mode switch	HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Github Pages

Please check out my Github Profile.

Tech Experience

Makers Academy | February to May 2021

• 16-week intensive coding bootcamp. Course covered fundamentals of coding and key soft skills, including group projects and agile working. Delivered 4 group projects, 8 weekend challenges and 2 tech tests.
• Key Achievements and Challenges Overcome:
  • Quick Study: Learned new languages and technologies in short timeframes (e.g. Javascript, Ruby on Rails, React.js)
  • From Start to Finish: Used a tech stack that I was unfamiliar with (React) going into the final project, I delivered a well rounded functioning front end application. I worked on all parts of the project from initial designs and domain modelling to putting the app into production, solving numerous bugs, learning a new technology and doing it all in two weeks.
  • Debugging: Debugged key production issues on final project - while putting our backend API into production, we had an issue where the auth tokens stopped working when we hosted the app on Heroku, eventually I solved this issue, through using the debugging loop, by identifying it as a change in the location of the secret key.
  • Teamwork & Agile Working: Part of a group project involving eight new programmers (including myself), we delivered a well rounded, fully tested, facebook clone in two weeks using agile working practices and a trello board to manage our work.
  • Object Orientated Programming (OOP) and SOLID Principles: Over the 12 week course became familiar with OOP and SOLID. In my practice bank tech test I demonstrated application of this through splitting out the program into multiple classes and modules to ensure a single responsibility for each class. As well as applying encapsulation through limiting access to the inner workings through private variables and methods.
  • BDD and Asynchronous functions: Developed a twitter clone frontend via BDD with detailed feature and unit tests. I used asynchronous functions for the first time, which was difficult to understand initially. After reading around the subject and trying a few test solutions, I successfully implemented and tested them with Jasmine (and Jest on a later project) and fully mocked them in the tests.
  • Improved TDD cycle: Improved my Red Green Refactor development cycle. In part through learning how to refactor earlier on in the development process, this arose out of facing complex refactoring requirements if I waited until too late in the development.
  • Solving issues with outdated Technologies: Solved issues with incompatible programs. Initially on using the Shotgun gem was not working with the latest version of Ruby, eventually I figured out that it had not been updated and would only work with an older version of Ruby.
  • Remote Working: Completed entire course and worked succesfully on multiple group projects while working remotely.

Professional Experience

BP Plc. | International Energy Company | 2012 - 2020

Procurement Professional | Over eight years of procurement experience at BP in a variety of roles.

• Procurement Lead | Tortue Offshore LNG Project - Mauritania and Senegal | Sep 2019 - Dec 2020

  • Developed the supply chain strategy for phase 2 of the Tortue Project a multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas project in Mauritania and Senegal, mapping out the route to placing over 10 major supply chain contracts.
  • Negotiated Coronavirus impact claims on the build of floating hotel in China, obtained an extension at no additional cost.
  • Procurement Software Development: Acted as an expert business user in development of a salesforce procurement planning application.

• Category Specialist | Eastern Hemisphere Drilling Rigs Team | Jun 2017 - Sep 2019

  • Led multiple drilling rig sourcing projects across Azerbaijan and the North Sea. Including dealing with US Iran trade sanctions and handling complex negotiations with national contractors.
  • BP Catalyst Program: Completed an in-house consultancy project on building growth based careers. Worked remotely with a global team and presented results to senior company executives.

• Strategy Analyst | BP Global Drilling Rig Fleet | Oct 2014 to May 2017

  • Created excel based market intelligence and strategy tools to analyse and predict the price of drilling rigs and influence drilling rig procurement strategy.
  • During time in role improved the quality and time to produce the report and incorporated data analysis of the industry fleet structure and utilisation for the first time.
  • Completed BP's graduate program.

• Category Specialist | Logistics & Subsea - North Sea | Sep 2013 - Oct 2014

  • Executed major sourcing project (~USD$100M spend) for supply base, warehousing and waste management services including leading contract and commercial negotiations.

• Procurement Analyst | Contracts and Compliance - North Sea | Sep 2012 - Sep 2013

  • Delivered 100% anti-corruption due diligence compliance across the North Sea Business Unit.

Skills

Teamwork

Significant experience leading and participating in cross-functional teams. I am very action-orientated and look to drive work to completion, as well as providing a fun environment to work in. At Makers, I have leveraged my team working skills in four separate group projects, often helping to set the initial ground work and get the ball rolling. Key Achievements:

• Worked with a team of eight at Makers to develop a facebook clone in two weeks, I helped drive the team to set an initial MVP and get it completed in the first few days.
• Part of an internal consultancy project, working with BP staff across the globe (from Australia to Chicago). We worked completely remotely, managing multiple time zones. We completed the project on time, delivering a bespoke analysis on skills based career development and presented to the group head of finance.
• Led a negotiation team that worked over a short time frame (one week) to agree key negotiation priorities, got senior level agreement and then successfully negotiated with a national contractor and provided the leverage to maintain our key licences.

Communication and Presentation

Experienced communicator and presenter, ranging from writing reports for and agreeing requirements with senior stakeholders, negotiating with third parties, to coaching and mentoring junior members of staff. In my time at Makers, used this skill to clearly communicate technical requirements, understand how certain sections of code worked and for presenting our group projects. Key Achievements:

• Wrote rig market reports that were well received by company executives, who used the report data to make key fleet decisions.
• Persuaded a senior stakeholder to preserve out contracting options in order to allow us flexibility in our procurement process, rather than closing down the options too soon.

Project Management and Leadership

Multiple years of leading and managing end to end procurement projects. Projects typically involved developing contracts to meet business requirements, ensuring stakeholders requirements were met and managing their expectations along with constant communication. Consistently worked to deadlines and secured contracts to meet budgets. Also involved heavy interaction and negotiation with external parties. Key Achievements:

• Secured a rig contract while under US Iran Sanctions, involved getting the right experts on board to analyses the sanctions and the requirements we could work under.
• Led team which developed the procurement strategy for a multi-billion dollar LNG project in West Africa, which was approved first time.
• Managed project to secure new rig types for Azerbaijan.

Quick Study

Able to learn new technologies and practices quickly. During my time at BP I was often asked to support projects at short notice, and was able to pick up key issues and develop solutions quickly. At Makers, I took on two projects where I had to learn new technologies for each project and deliver a working product in a short time frame. Key Achievements:

• Delivered a react.js frontend application for final Makers Group project, had to learn and start using react in a week.
• Developed a contract strategy for a multi-billion dollar LNG project in West Africa, within one month of taking on the role, for procurement categories I did not have prior experience in.

Analysis and Problem Solving

Able to quickly review and analyse material including contracts, market data, and reports to understand what is going on and produce plans and suggestions on the way to progress. In my time at Makers I have used this skill to develop a good debugging methodology, utilising the debugging loop (get visibility, tighten the loop, fix the one issue, repeat), which has helped me solve key problems in our group projects. Key Achievements:

• Debugged a production bug in our hosted API for our final group project, allowing us to fully implement JWT authentication tokens.
• Produced market intelligence and strategy reports on the Drilling Rigs market for C-level executives.
• Developed fleet management strategies for stranded assets, mitigating significant losses.

Agile

Over the past 2 years have been working in an agile working environment, working in project development scrums and using kanban boards. Also leveraged Agile working skills during Makers group projects. Key Achievements:

• Produced an MVP of a facebook clone in the first three days of the project, we agreed key features at the beginning and then held daily stand-ups to ensure we were on track. We used a Trello board to track our progress.
• Set up a kanban board for the rigs procurement team and ran daily stand-ups. One key outcome was increased collaboration between the team when negotiating with one supplier on two separate issues.
• Worked in the Tortue Phase 2 project optimisation scrum, where I set up a strategic supplier engagement sessions from start to finish in one month compared to a usual timeframe of 3+ months.

Other Key Skills - Negotiation, Contract Reviewing and Drafting, Strategic Sourcing, Coaching & Mentoring, Remote Working, Working with Global Teams.

Education

Makers Academy

• 16-week intensive coding bootcamp - see Tech Experience above for more details.

London School of Economics and Political Science

• Philosophy and Economics
• 2.1 - BSc (hons)
• Took courses in Formal Logic, Philosophy of Science, Maths and Statistics

Harvard Business School Online

• Certificate in Negotiation Mastery

Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply

• Chartered Member
• MCIPS Qualification

Additional Information and Hobbies

• Veni iOS App (2015-17): Worked with university peers to develop and design a mobile app. Supported business development, administration and user testing the application.
• Volunteering:
  • Career Ready Mentor - supported sixth form pupils with getting an insight into work life, helped with CVs, and research into future careers.
  • Team London Ambassador - volunteered over a summer at tourist sites to help provide a warm welcome and help (directions, advice, recommendations) to tourists.