The Metamorphosis of a Web Developer | Web Development Graduate Spotlight

MEET KAYLA

The students at Nashville Software School (NSS) come from a lot of different professional backgrounds prior to pursuing a career in tech. Kayla was working in print as a graphic designer and pre-press technician. “After college, I got a job in print design and began teaching myself to code in my free time,” she explains. “I chose to attend NSS on a friend's recommendation because I wanted to delve deeper into learning code, build friendships in the community, and expand my skills as a designer and developer.”

THE NSS EXPERIENCE

During her time in Part-time Web Development Cohort Evening 11, Kayla enjoyed learning how to work with a group of developers with different methods and perspectives and how to communicate with them as teammates on group projects. 

Kayla shares that her biggest challenge during the course was adapting to a remote work environment. “It was rewarding in its own way, but it also has some major challenges, like feeling isolated, and having trouble sharing coding problems with classmates and instructors,” she recalls. “[However,] I am grateful for the learning opportunities that learning remotely brought.” 

It can be easy to start overthinking when faced with obstacles during your learning journey. One thing that helped get Kayla through the challenges she faced during the 12 month bootcamp was being intentional and making time to meditate. “I would recommend a regular meditation practice for current and future students,” she smiles. “10 minutes a day makes a huge difference.” 

CAPSTONE PROJECTS

Kayla’s front-end capstone is a butterfly tracking application called Butterfly-Codex. Users can log in to the application to view facts and photos of different butterflies and log their own sightings. They can also see where other users have spotted butterflies across the U.S. Kayla used a JSON-object based database, React, and Leaflet to create Butterfly Codex. 

LibraryAtHome is Kayla’s back-end capstone that allows users to easily keep track of the physical books they own, and which ones they have loaned to friends. “Users add books to their library from a catalog, create borrowers associated with their library, and create loans in order to allow friends or relatives to borrow books from them,” she explains. Kayla created LibraryAtHome using React, C#, and SQL. 

HIRE KAYLA

Now a graduate of NSS, Kayla is working to update Butterfly-Codex and adding features to LibraryAtHome by “learning some advanced React skills and refactoring where needed.” She’s interested in front-end development positions that will allow her to use her web development and graphic design skills.  

Learn more about Kayla by visiting her website or listening to her podcast! 

Check out all the recent grads at Web Development Cohort Evening 11's class website and hear the graduates share their experience at NSS and capstone projects in their podcasts below.