Najaf Ali's Home Page

About me

1985~ - I was born in London, UK. Growing up I lived in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and various parts of the UK including Hounslow and West Sussex.
2003~ - I read Computer Science at University College London, where I also founded UCL Kendo Club, graduating in 2006.
2006~ - I moved to Japan on the JET Programme, where I was placed in Miyako, Iwate for a year. I also taught English conversation at Berlitz Ochanomizu branch for about a year after that.
2008~ - Not seeing a future in English teaching, I then moved back to the UK and became a web developer. Over ten years I worked at a bunch of different software engineering companies, and also started and ran my own Ruby on Rails consultancy: Happy Bear Software.
2018~ - I moved back to Sendai in 2018, HBS wound up, and I became a freelancer again, eventually getting a perm role as an engineering manager in 2023.
~now - I am engineering managering full time at a IT-related company in Tokyo, and doing bits and pieces of other work, including a bit of Rails development and being a tour guide around Sendai at night.