I'm Sam Jon Smith
Full Stack Freelance Web Developer

I'm Sam, a 30-odd year old full stack freelance web developer, working from my home studio in Leicester. This is a brief and transparent history of my career in the industry and why I think I'd be a good fit for you.

I left school at 16 with ambitions of becoming a games developer - I dropped out of college within a month after learning we wouldn't code HTML until year 3 (I'd been doing it since age 12). I landed my first job as a junior web developer at Easy Internet. I learned a lot and became a key member of the team.

When I hit 21 I had a bit of a confidence crisis, came out as gay, and went back to college to become a designer. After doing one year of graphic design at uni I found out I couldn't draw and quit. I went back to what I was good at and started a degree in computer science whilst also kicking off my first stint freelancing.

At 25 I graduated with a first class degree from the University of Lincoln, achieved the joint highest grade in the course for my dissertation and was awarded the Longhurst Award - which to this day I still have no idea what it is, but I ran with it as I was now an 'award winning developer'.

Freelancing was going great - then life took me back to Leicester and a job at an agency called Eazy Tiger (different 'easy' this time).

That job was the bump in the road that led me to effect where I started as a full stack developer, quickly became lead developer and then ultimately became head of development. Whilst I was working at effect it became an award winning agency and I worked on amazing projects with a really talented group of people.

I gained a ton of confidence, levelled up my skills, bought a house and - eek - had the itch to freelance again. I quit (but gave loads and loads of notice don't worry), got a dog and started freelancing again - and that brings us to now and hopefully your next project.

If you made it this far you'll know I'm a straight to the point, real human developer, that you can trust to work on your next project or join your team (large or small).

Whether you're a marketing team missing someone techy, a digital agency in need of extra capacity, a creative studio looking to add digital to your capabilities, a fellow freelancer or a budding start-up - I'd love to work with you on your project.