Brett Stoudt of Web Development Cohort 41 was living in Colorado where he worked in the brewery industry for 8 years. “While in the brewery industry I took the time to better understand spreadsheet functionality, then used that to handcraft many tools for areas such as inventory & distribution management,” he explains. “As it turns out, I really enjoy designing solutions and working through a problem.”
In searching for a new career path that would allow him to solve problems, Brett leaned into his passion for technology and found that software development would satisfy his “desire to craft solutions and extend boundaries.”
Open to relocation, Brett set out to find the right fit in a coding bootcamp and discovered Nashville Software School (NSS). With his wife’s family living nearby, NSS was the perfect choice for him.
While remote learning did “hinder some watercooler-talk,” Brett shares that his favorite part of his NSS experience was earning how to effectively work with a development team remotely.
“My time at NSS was unforgettable and overwhelmingly positive. I couldn’t say enough about the people I met in this organization,” he smiles. “They are heartfelt and genuine people.”
When asked what he would pass along to future and current NSS students, Brett said, “One - your support system is very important. Two - walkthrough your code with your peers and instructor team, this is a must. And Three - comment your code.”
BrewMore, Brett’s front-end capstone, gives breweries an efficient way to order materials and store brand-recipes, reducing time required to order ingredients and increasing the accuracy of ingredients for recipes. “Since beer usually includes multiple grain types, I added a button for the brewer to add multiple grain varieties,” he explains. “A grain type is then selected from the drop-down list and weight is specified by the brewer. Those features are built using React Hooks and the grain type relationships are stored in a join-table.” Brett also built what he calls the “brewhouse” feature, allowing users to calculate how much grain they need to brew several beers they plan to make by choosing from their list of brands, adding them to potential brew lists, and adjusting the counter of how many batches they plan to brew. “This list can easily be handed off to a grain provider for processing,” he shares.
For his back-end capstone project, Brett took inspiration from his wife, who is a photographer, and built PhotoBase. This application helps professional photographers expand their reach by reducing time spent on advertising and sharing their photos. Users can share images with the world by choosing to donate the photo to PhotoBase’s free-use program. “The free use image provider generates a random photo that has been made available for public use / free use by any of the photographers on PhotoBase. The free use image link with customizable dimensions can be found on the home page,” he explains. Photographers can also store their portfolios with custom galleries, images, and multiple view specifications with custom sizing. Brett built PhotoBase using ASP.NET, Firebase, and React Bootstrap.
Brett really enjoys logistics, problem-solving, and working in teams and is looking for a server-side development role. “I’m open to learning new technologies and taking a deeper dive into SQL,” he shares.
Learn more about Brett by visiting his website or listening to his podcast!
Check out all the recent grads at Web Development Cohort 41's class website and hear the graduates share their experience at NSS and capstone projects in their podcasts below.