Before he was a member of Full-time Web Development Cohort 50, Trey Shanks was living in Seattle, WA where he was working as a bartender. “When the pandemic hit, I had time to think about things a little more and while I realized I liked bartending and the people I met in that community, there wasn’t a whole lot of growth potential,” he shares in his podcast. This realization led Trey back home to Tennessee where he discovered NSS and decided tech would be the new career path for him!

What was your favorite part of your NSS experience?

“My favorite part of the NSS experience was bonding with my classmates. The work was hard and the days were long, but being supported by my classmates and offering them support and all the laughs we shared made it so much fun.” 

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

“My favorite was my full-stack project, called Librogram, because I really enjoyed the flexibility of being able to manipulate data in the server and in the React components, and it also allowed me to combine my lifelong love of books with my new passion for programming. Another reason why I enjoyed this capstone so much is how much I learned building it. There were some new ideas I wanted to try, and I ended up having to teach myself some new React tricks to get it done. It was a struggle at first, and I had to do a lot of refactoring once I discovered these new techniques, and I'm not proud to admit that I was still refactoring right up until the wee hours before demo day. But I got it done and everything worked, and demo day ended up being a huge success for me. Even though I was quite sleep-deprived, I was excited and full of energy to be showing off my hard work, and I made some really great connections with experienced developers and recruiters.” 

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

“Use the resources that NSS provides! The instructors are extremely knowledgeable and exceedingly patient and generous with their time, so ask as many questions as you can think of. Also, share ideas with your classmates and listen to their ideas. I learned a lot by merely exchanging ideas and new techniques with classmates. Lastly and quite possibly most importantly, do everything the career development team asks of you. Ashley, Zap and Marla are great at what they do, and they will get you hired if you follow their advice.” 

HIRED

Since graduating from NSS Trey has found his first job in web development - congratulations Trey! We can’t wait to see your new career flourish! Connect with Trey on LinkedIn and listen to his podcast below to learn more about his NSS experience! 

Meet more of the graduates from Web Development Cohort 50 by visiting their class website!