Several years ago, Richard McConnell learned computer-assisted drafting to create mechanical parts and architectural drawings. He was intrigued by the software’s functionality and the algorithms working behind the scenes that allowed him to create his drawings. A few years later, he learned about software development from a family member and began to explore it as a career option. Richard knew software development was the career for him after he learned more about the problem-solving nature of programming and the sense of reward when overcoming obstacles to solve the problem. He was also drawn to the impact software applications can have on the lives of their users.

NSS Experience

He ultimately chose NSS for its reputation in the Nashville tech community. “I knew that if I wanted to be a successful developer, this would be the best place to start,” he shared.

As a part of Cohort 32, Richard loved working on project sprints in groups. “Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there,” he encouraged. “Everyone in the NSS building, whether it's students or staff, wants to see you succeed. You just have to understand that and ask as many questions as you can. Everyone is there to help.”

Capstone Projects

For his front-end application, he created a pet adoption app called Furever Friends that connects users with adoptable dogs in Nashville. Users can log in, search for dogs they are interested in, and save them to a list. They can then find their list of pets on the Interested Pets tab and add notes about the pets. 

“The login and landing page [were built] using ReactJS [with] Material UI for styling,” Richard explained. “There is some custom styling to perfect the look of Furever Friends. Material UI allowed me to create cards for each pet and icons are in place in lieu of traditional buttons. The Available Pets tab is fetching from an external API from Pet Finder.” The Interested Pets tab presents users with pets they are interested in by joining the data from the API with the currently logged in user's data.

Richard’s back-end capstone helps culinary creatives keep track of recipes they create on the fly to help them answer the common question, “how did you make this?” Users of The Perfect Batch can create their own recipes and add images or search for recipes created by other users.

He explained how he built his app:
“Identity Framework handles authentication, while ASP.NET Entity Framework creates an MVC application to allows the user to create, edit, and delete recipes that have added to the application.”

Hire Richard!

Richard would love to find a job where he can keep growing with C#. “I am passionate about technology, working in a team, and very eager to continue to grow as a developer to allow ideas to come to life,” he shared. “I am excited [about] where this career path will take me and to become a big part of the technology community.” 

While he’s on the hunt, he is going deeper on some of the skills and tools he was exposed to during bootcamp. You can learn more Richard and his capstones by listening to his podcast.

Check out all the recent grads on Cohort 32’s class website and hear the graduates share their journey into development and their experience at NSS in their podcasts below.