Thirst for Knowledge | Graduate Spotlight

After twenty five years of technical work in Nashville area studios and concert support, Chad Clark of Full-time Web Development Cohort 47 decided to pursue a career in a different area of technology - web development! “I have gone from analog board level electronics to CMOS, to digital and beyond,” he shares, “My thirst for knowledge is unquenchable.”

Why did you choose to attend NSS?

“I had been in the technical side of the music industry for many years and over that time the industry had changed massively, studios dried up and overall it lost its luster...and then an unnamed incident occurred and the world paused. I had already been messing around with some development for music synthesis and a c++ programmable board for guitar pedals and modular synths. I decided to learn python and spent a few months, 8 hours a day learning python on my own via books and the internet. I came across NSS from a friend of my wife and checked into it. My wife encouraged me to do it because she is the best. Here I am. The learning never ends and solving problems is always the greatest way to learn.”

What was your favorite capstone project and what about it made it your favorite?

“That is a hard question. I liked both my capstones. They both were about subjects that I care about, namely music and working on recording gear. My front-end capstone MUSIC[well] taught me about using React and was styled with CSS, whereas my back-end capstone RepairTrack added the ASP.NET server functionality with ADO.NET connecting the SQL database. RepairTrack was more functional and could be extended easily for many applications and businesses. It basically allows you to track an inventory of recording equipment, creating Issue Tickets that describe problems that need rectification. Technicians can open a Repair Note as they work on a piece of equipment and keep track of parts and their status if needed. Issues can be resolved by the admin/head tech. The admin or head tech can also add, edit and delete inventory and issues. I did enjoy working on granting the two types of users different levels of access and trying to add functionality in the back-end to assist the front-end. This helped especially with date/time. Both projects are proof of concept and at this time I will continue to refine RepairTrack toward a responsive design before adding more functionality like time and repair cost tracking, scheduling and refining the style. MUSIC[well] was originally going to utilize discogs and Spotify API and that would be another great learning project that I might pursue. It basically was an app for people to find music based on the relationships between musicians, their bands and music. There are so many things to learn that interest me such as learning more about Django for back-end, Unity, other languages and frameworks as well as expanding on what I have learned so far.”

What advice would you give to current or incoming NSS Web Development students?

“Do your pre-work. Maybe twice. Try to learn from as many angles and sources as you can. Books, Tutorials, written and on YouTube, freeCodeCamp (please donate), Codecademy, Scrimba etc. Dig into the documentation. It takes some time to grok. I did well taking notes and between my own learning, the pre-work and the six months at NSS, I filled 5 notebooks totaling about 900 pages. I added indexing tabs color-coded for different subjects. Ask questions. Use your instructors and cohort members. They are going to be great people. It is going to be a great experience.”

HIRE CHAD

Since graduating, Chad has begun his search for his first job in web development! When Chad isn’t coding, he shares that he loves to “get out in nature” to refresh and renew himself!

Get to know more about Chad and his capstone projects by listening to his podcast below! Connect with Chad by visiting his LinkedIn profile.