Ben Clarke

Your friendly South African developer

Web Developer (Odgers Berndtson)

May 2022 – Present ()

Web Developer at Odgers Berndtson. Odgers Berndtson is a global recruitment firm that specializes in recruitment of executives. Although I was hired as a Web Developer I am often required to work on various systems, including server management and Salesforce. I have rebuilt internal systems as well as built brand-new systems to aid the company in various functions.

Stack used:
  • Salesforce
  • CSS
  • GIT
  • HTML
  • PHP
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • SQL
  • Laravel

Software Engineer (Eventogy)

March 2021 – April 2022 (1 Year 2 Months)

Software Engineer at Eventogy. Eventogy created a SaaS system for event management. I have been working on their virtual events section which uses either BlueJeans, WebEx, Zoom or YouTube integrations to provide a hybrid conferencing environment for our clients to use. I have also done some work with Flutter for our Android application.

Stack used:
  • CodeIgniter
  • CSS
  • Flutter
  • GIT
  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • PHP
  • REST API
  • SQL
  • SVN
  • XML

Junior Developer (Yonder Media)

February 2020 – March 2021 (1 Year 1 Month)

Junior developer at Yonder Media, focusing on frontend. I was responsible for assisting Senior Developers and taking lead on various projects. I developed websites and build WhatsApp bots using PHP, MySQL, jQuery, CSS, HTML, and JavaScript in the Laravel framework. After project completion, I did maintenance of the bot or website. As part of the maintenance, I would investigate and rectify any possible issues.

Stack used:
  • Composer
  • CSS
  • GIT
  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • Joomla
  • jQuery
  • Laravel
  • MariaDB
  • PHP
  • REST API
  • SQL
  • Vagrant
  • VirtualBox
  • XML

Intern Developer (Yonder Media)

January 2019 – February 2020 (1 Year 1 Month)

Intern developer at Yonder Media, focusing on frontend. I was responsible for assisting Senior Developers in the development of websites using PHP, MySQL, jQuery, CSS, HTML, and JavaScript using Laravel and Joomla as frameworks. Git was used to manage all code.

Stack used:
  • Composer
  • CSS
  • GIT
  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • Laravel
  • MariaDB
  • PHP
  • SQL
  • Vagrant
  • VirtualBox
  • XML

Lead Frontend Developer (TuksNovation)

August 2018 – February 2019 (7 Months)

Lead frontend developer for a mobile application. I coded most of the frontend and wrote a few of the API's that the application used.
The application was called Matcher and was designed as a networking app that could be used for users attending functions. I was employed by TuksNovation, they are a technology business incubator.

Stack used:
  • CSS
  • GIT
  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • React Native
  • Rest API
  • PHP
  • SQL

Systems and Business Analyst (York Timbers)

February 2018 – November 2018 (10 Months)

I was listed as the systems and business analyst. I did some of the coding but spent most of my time writing the documentation and helping the rest of the team complete their various tasks. We made a road infrastructure and fleet management geographic information system developed for York Timbers as a module through the University of Pretoria. The system supports live tracking of vehicles, permission levels, road information display on a GIS, and a permit-based road allowance.
As a group, we obtained 87% for this project. The youtube video of the system can be found here.

Stack used:
  • Bootstrap
  • CSS
  • GIT
  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • React Native
  • Rest API
  • PHP
  • SQL
  • XML

Web Developer (CharlieC Consulting)

January 2018 – Present ()

I coded a website for CharlieC Consulting that is used by multiple different companies including the RGE group. The website’s primary purpose is for companies to send documents to the Consulting firm. This requires a high level of security and traceability as most of these documents contain sensitive information. I perform continuous maintenance on this site to ensure it follows best practice and has the latest security practices.

Stack used:
  • Bootstrap
  • Composer
  • CSS
  • GIT
  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • Laravel
  • PHP
  • SQL
  • Vagrant
  • VirtualBox
  • XML

Skills

Subjects taken in University: (please note that this is a summarisation of the subjects taken)
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Business Management
  • Computer Networks and Security
  • Data mining
  • Discrete Structures
  • Financial Accounting
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Information Systems
  • Philosophy and Ethics
  • Web Development
Languages
  • Bootstrap
  • Composer
  • CSS
  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • MariaDB
  • PHP
  • REST API
  • SQL
  • XML
Frameworks
  • CodeIgniter
  • Flutter
  • Joomla
  • Laravel
  • React Native
Other technologies used
  • Blade templating
  • Composer
  • Git
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Salesforce
  • SVN
  • Vagrant
  • VirtualBox
  • Salesforce

Notable achievements

Published paper

In 2019 as part of my honor’s, I wrote a paper titled “Impact that Website Design Elements on the Users of e-Commerce Websites”, this was published in the IEEE eXplore digital journal.
The publication can be found here.

Academic Colours

In 2020 I received my academic colours from the University of Pretoria based on my academic achievements through the duration of my degree.

Golden Key

In 2019 I was invited to join the Golden Key International Honour Society based on my academic achievements.

Karate

I have my 1st dan blackbelt which I got in 2012 after 8 years of training.

Karate

In 2009 I competed for South Africa at the 11th FSKA World Championships and managed to achieve a double bronze.

University of Pretoria

Bachelors in Information Technology (B.IT) (2016 - 2019)

A four-year degree including a final year of honor’s modules combined with industry-based learning.
It consists of the core modules from Computer Science, Informatics, and Information Science. While studying my degree I was invited to and joined the Golden Key International Honour Society. I completed my degree in 2019 and graduated with distinction.

University of Pretoria

St. Albans College

Matriculated with Bachelor’s degree pass and one distinction (2011 – 2015)

I also played Rugby, Basketball, Squash, Swimming and did Boxing and Karate during my school career.

St. Albans College