Finishing a bootcamp at Nashville Software School (NSS) is no small feat. Students give up their income for six months or work full-time and go to class part-time for twelve months. It takes hard work and perseverance to retrain your brain to think like a developer. As a result, our graduates value what it means when they say they graduated from NSS. In fact, they’ve built a community around their common bond.
Occasionally we’ll hear about an individual who is trying to pass as a graduate of one of our programs. They may have attended one of our introductory courses, but not a bootcamp. Or maybe they did not successfully complete a bootcamp. Or they may simply be using the name in hopes you don’t verify that they attended and graduated. The truth is, it’s not so uncommon for individuals to misrepresent their education, even at the executive level.
An applicant listing themselves as an NSS graduate on their resume means more than knowing how to code. It means they understand how they learn new languages and frameworks best. It means they've worked with people from varying backgrounds and experiences on projects. It means they completed both group and individual projects and have satisfactorily demonstrated their understanding of the concepts in our curriculum.
So what are some things you can look for to know that a candidate you are interviewing has successfully completed an NSS bootcamp?
All of our bootcamp graduates complete two capstone projects. One half-way through the course and the other at the end of the course. You can find these projects on their Github profiles and they should be able to talk about how they built them.
We host a demo day for every graduating class. This is a great way to meet new junior tech talent who have successfully completed our bootcamps. RSVP for our next demo day.
Do they list any instructors or classmates as references? Graduates have spent six months to a year with these individuals. They know each other as developers and teammates.
All of our graduates receive a certificate of completion. We tell them to keep it in a safe place in case a mortgage company needs to know where they were for six months, but the reality is employers can request to see this certificate as well. With a certificate in hand, they can say they are a graduate of NSS.
Have concerns about an applicant? Call or email us. We’ll gladly confirm those that graduated from NSS.