Hi, I'm Ash! 👩🏽‍💻 I'm a developer and a 2025 graduate of Dev Academy Aotearoa's Applied Software Development programme. I learned to build fullstack applications using JavaScript, TypeScript, React, REST APIs, HTML, CSS and Git, while working in Agile teams and learning how important communication, feedback and collaboration are when building software.

My path into tech wasn't a traditional one. I've been curious about technology since high school and have always enjoyed figuring out how things work. I started tinkering with phones; opening up iPhones and teaching myself to replace screens, batteries, charging ports and other components, something I still do today. Back then, I didn't think that curiosity would shape my future career. I just genuinely enjoyed understanding the technology I used.

My career took me into hospitality, where I spent six years working with people and progressed into Duty Manager roles. During that time, I also studied automotive engineering because I've always loved cars. Learning about their mechanical side gave me another way to understand how different parts work together, diagnose problems and fix them. Looking back, there's been a common thread across my interests: I like understanding how things work, finding what's wrong and figuring out how to fix it.

Eventually, I realised I wanted a career where I could use that curiosity while continuously learning and challenging myself. That led me to software development and Dev Academy. Coding gave me a completely different kind of problem to solve, and I discovered how much I enjoyed taking an idea, breaking it down and turning it into something that worked. Looking back, moving into software doesn't feel as random as I once thought.

My hospitality background is something I genuinely value in tech. It taught me how to communicate with different people, listen, resolve conflict, support others and stay calm when things don't go to plan. Dev Academy built on those skills and showed me the importance of the human side of software development.

Since graduating, I've continued strengthening my JavaScript, React and TypeScript foundations through FreeCodeCamp, AWS learning and revisiting my Dev Academy material. I've also stayed involved in Auckland's tech community through meetups, workshops and Summer of Tech. I still have plenty to learn, but that's one reason I chose this field. I enjoy learning, I take feedback seriously, and when I don't understand something, I'm willing to keep working at it until I do.

Languages: JavaScript, TypeScript

Frontend: React, Tailwind CSS, UI/UX principles, Tailwind CSS

Backend: REST APIs, Node.js, Express, Knex, SQLite

Tools: Git, GitHub, Vite, Vitest

Ways Of Working: Team collaboration, agile practices, people first development

I loved and enjoyed my time at Dev Academy; not just for the technical growth but for learning how to collaborate, communicate effectively and build software as part of a supportive team.

MoneyTrail is a personal finance web application I'm currently building to track where my money goes and understand my spending habits over time. The idea grew from the personal finance spreadsheet I use to track my spending, account balances and savings, and my interest in turning that system into a fullstack application of my own. I'm building MoneyTrail using React, TypeScript, Node.js, Express, SQL and Knex.js as a way to strengthen and apply the fullstack development skills I learned at Dev Academy. As the project develops, I plan to test it with real users and iterate on the features and user experience based on their feedback.

HardwareHub is a marketplace PC trading platform built as part of my final group project. This allows users to create profiles, list hardware items, place bids, create bids, manage their accounts and more. My contributions to the group project; focusing on user profile management using both frontend and backend framework.

LoopedIn is a fullstack social media style web application built as a group project. This app allows users to view and create posts, explore groups, view other user profiles, edit their own profile and upload images; simulating the core features of modern social platform.

React Arcade is a small web based arcade built as my very first group project while learning about React and TypeScript. Our goal was simple; to build something fun, creative and achievable while still getting hands on experience with modern frontend tools. The arcade features three mini games, each with its own personality and mechanics. I proposed combining our individual games into one arcade, giving each team member ownership of their own game while contributing to a shared project.

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