Episode 36 - The Bootcamp Experience: Landing the Job with Jonathan Edwards

In this episode we talk to Jonathan Edwards about final bootcamp projects and presentations, job interviews, and landing your first developer job!

Jonathan is a recent graduate of NSS cohort 27. Previously, he received his BS in Communication Advertising from UT Knoxville and moved to Nashville four years ago to pursue music. He developed an interest in web development while working in digital marketing, after which he decided to enroll in NSS’s full stack software bootcamp. He’s a new employee at naviHealth, and we’re talking to him today about what the post-NSS job hunt was like and the process of landing the job.
“Sharpening the Tools”

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“‘Sharpening the Tools’ is the section of the show where we discuss what tools we’re using, concepts we’re learning, and generally how we are continuing our learning in software development.”
Erin:
JavaScript Objects refresher tutorial. And dreaming about JavaScript Objects?
Dave:
Meet-up presentation on Impostor Syndrome – working toward my 2019 goal of submitting a talk to a tech conference.
Jonathan:
Angular tutorials, and finishing a React app
 
*Shoutouts*
We’d like to give a shoutout to Brandon, our newest patron on Patreon. Thanks so much for your support!
 
“Opening the Toolbox”
Episode Outline

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* Tell us a little bit about your background.

* From Knoxville, TN. Studied Advertising at UT. Moved to Nashville for music


* How did you get interested in web/software development?

* Always had an interest in learning how to code, but kept coming up with reasons as to why I couldn’t do it
* Was looking for ways to grow digital marketing skill-set when I came across web development and web design.
* Took some online classes to teach myself some basics and fell in love with it.
* Decided this is where I belonged and decided to attend NSS to make sure I was learning the right material in the right way


* Can you describe your overall NSS experience? Do you feel adequately prepared for a junior level developer position?

* Absolutely, attending NSS was the best decision I’ve ever made.
* The second half of the course is spent working on teams doing weeklong sprints with planning, standups, retros, etc
* The biggest thing was learning how to learn, because there will always be something new to learn in this field.
* Another big plus of NSS is all of the extra help they give us outside of the classroom, with resume writing, interview prep, etc


* Were there other paths in development that you considered?

* Originally wanted to do more front-end focused work, but after going through the back-end of the course and getting experience with C# .NET, SQL, etc., doing full-stack work is where I see myself longterm. I like different parts about both front-end and back-end development and look forward to using both in my career


* Can you tell us about your capstone projects? What languages/technologies did you learn?

* Front-end capstone written in React using Bloomer and Bulma for styling

* App called progressions, goal is to help beginning guitar players write better-sounding chord progressions
* Users select the key they want to write their song in and are show the 7 different major and minor chords that make up that key
* Users can press keys 1-7 on their keyboard to hear audio of each chord and write a chord progression that will sound good without ever having to pick up an instrument or even know how to play a guitar
* Users then select their 4 chords they want to use to write a song and are shown a chord chart of how to play it on a real guitar.