Post Codeup Update: Steven Starnes

Less than a month ago, we graduated our first cohort of budding web developers and had them show off their web applications to a venue full of potential employers. We have been keeping in touch with our students and have been helping them in any way that we can. Half of the class has already found employment, working for companies like ParLevel Systems, Digett, and Wickley Interactive.Steven Starnes, a photographer turned web developer, thought it would be a good idea to do an internship for a non-profit to learn different technologies, hone his skills, and give back to his community.We sent him an email recently and asked him some questions about his post-Codeup life. Here are his answers:

Where are you working now?

I am interning for Haven for Hope.

What are you working on?

I am building applications solving internal and external problems including database issues and website maintenance.

What new technologies will you be exposed to?

I'm working with enterprise level code using the .NET framework, MS SQL, and C#/Razor. I'm using Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server for source control. I am honing my skills with some JavaScript libraries, such as Angular.js, moment.js, and jQuery.

Why are you excited about it?

I am coding in a completely different environment than what was taught at Codeup. The concepts and foundation that Codeup provided is allowing me to rapidly pick up the new environment with ease.

Where do you see yourself next?

I would like to work for a large company, such as Rackspace (applied), SACU, Whataburger, etc. This will be a tougher challenge as their requirements are a lot steeper than most smaller companies or startups. However, I have applied to several smaller companies/startups with no response yet.

What advice would you give other students or potential applicants to Codeup?

Keep your head in the game. If you don't understand something or you are just getting by, grab an instructor, attend study hall, get to where you understand it. The lessons you learn during the day, when you get home at night, re-type them until you understand them.

Best of luck to Steven Starnes on his journey as a web developer! If you want to keep up with Steven, visit his LinkedIn page here.