Building Relationships Is Key | Eric Denton - Cohort 14

We’re catching up with some of our alumni and they’re sharing advice for our students and recent graduates.

Eric Denton graduated with Cohort 14 in November 2016. His journey with Nashville Software School (NSS) actually started with the UI & UX for Digital Product Design course. Prior to NSS, he was a photo editor and retouched photos for magazines and catalogs. The industry was increasingly sending work overseas. And while there was plenty of work at his company, he didn’t like the direction it was headed. As a part of his job, Eric had been automating image tracking by writing scripts in Google Docs. It was something he enjoyed so he decided to learn more about web development.

Eric is now a UX Designer / Junior Developer and uses the skills he learned in the full stack bootcamp and part-time UI & UX for Digital Product Design course.

The part-time UI & UX class helped Eric think about things differently. He realized that he doesn’t always have the answer and that you should always talk to the product user.

He encouraged fellow developers and UX designers to keep learning. And don’t let imposter syndrome be a roadblock. “Everyone needs help at some point,” he explained.

Find areas of development where you feel curious and want to know more and go hard on that stuff.”

He also shared that building relationships is important throughout your career. He cautioned job seekers not to focus solely on finding a job when building relationships, but build a friendship and ask how you can help them without expecting anything in return.

Two years after graduation, Eric is still attending meetups and building new relationships. When you start thinking about that second job...or maybe even before you’re thinking about it, he advised, “Tell people what you're interested in or projects you're working on and that second job will probably present itself.”