I’m a seasoned, passionate software developer from the heart of England and, if you’re reading this, you want to know more about me (that’s me in the image above!) This page is therefore dedicated to me – Andy Heathershaw – and is broken down into smaller sections detailing different parts of my life.
Note to recruiters: I appreciate all the contacts I get from recruiters, however I would ask you to please respect that I am not currently on the job market. You can connect with me on LinkedIn and I will update my network as and when I become available.
Commercial Software Developer
I’ve been working with the Microsoft .NET framework in commercial environments since it was released as version 1.0 in 2002, and every version since. I work with the full stack of Microsoft technology: Visual Studio, SQL Server, Team Foundation Server, Windows Server and IIS, and have experience of development across the 3 main computing platforms: desktop, web and mobile.
I’m a certified Microsoft Technical Specialist (MCTS) in .NET applications for Windows (WinForms and WPF) and a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP.)
Open-Source Software Developer
I understand that Microsoft .NET is not always the answer to every problem, so I am also experienced with the full open-source stack of technologies: PHP, MySQL / MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Linux, Nginx and Apache.
The very page you’re reading now was served from the open-source OctoberCMS content management system running off a LEMP (Linux – Ubuntu Server, Nginx, MariaDB, PHP) stack.
Mickey
When we moved to our new house in Tamworth in 2014, we weren’t alone. We brought along an 8-week old Labrador puppy who we called Mickey (after our love of all things Disney – it was either Mickey, Pluto or Goofy!)
Since then, we’ve learnt to adapt our lives around this little guy and have trained him to be a (somewhat) obedient dog, although he’s still extremely playful and excitable – in his mind, he’s still a young puppy and he doesn’t understand that he has a large body to go with it!
He’s taught us to love taking long walks in the countryside and to explore our local area, and our lives just wouldn’t be the same without him.
Children
My husband and I applied to become adopters in 2017 and were approved in January 2018.
A few weeks later, we were matched with two little boys who moved into our home later that year.
The boys are now settled (it’s like they’ve always been with us) and are enjoying life at primary school. They both enjoy our holidays and can’t wait to go back to “Mickey Mouse land”!