John Wark

John started programming professionally at age 19. After a long and multifarious career in technology, he founded NSS in 2012. He believed that Nashville's technology talent shortage would never be solved by trying to import experienced developers from other cities or by waiting for colleges and universities to start graduating enough students and/or appropriately trained students. He also had faith that Nashville had an ample supply of motivated adults with latent aptitude who, if offered a chance, would eagerly pursue a career in technology.
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Recent Posts

My How Things Have Changed | 500 In 5
Jul 6, 2017
One of the key "leaps of faith" in the initial business model for NSS was that there were an adequate number of employers in Nashville ready and willing to hire junior developers. This was definitely not self-evident back in late 2011, early 2012 when we were designing our business model. My, how things have changed over the past five years. Read More

Topics: Hiring?, Community, 10 Years | 2000 Journeys

NSS 5th Anniversary | 500 In 5
Jun 22, 2017
Five years ago this week our little experiment in non-profit vocational education launched in Nashville. Cohort 1 of the full-time Web Development Bootcamp started their first class on June 18, 2012. Fifteen students joined us that first Monday to see if we could help them learn to build websites and launch careers as software developers. So we're celebrating Cohort 1 and our fifth anniversary today at NSS with some cake before everyone goes back to slinging code. Read More

Topics: News, Community, 10 Years | 2000 Journeys

Want To Change Careers? You May Need A Mindshift.
Jun 1, 2017
Are you having trouble deciding if you want to shift to a new career? Not sure if you can learn to code? Do you believe you are bad at math or can't learn science? Maybe you are being blocked by your own mind. Maybe what you need before you can tackle anything new is a mindshift. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Learning

Sneak Peek | Data Science Bootcamp And UI/UX Designer/Front-End Developer Bootcamp Coming Soon To NSS
May 10, 2017
We all know that software technology is constantly evolving. This evolution drives change in which technologies are used in Nashville, how technologies are leveraged by employers, and what skills and knowledge are needed in new tech talent. We try to monitor those changes in Nashville’s tech talent demand. We also try to collaborate with employers and working professionals to identify opportunities to help meet changing needs through training. Based on our conversations over the past two or three years we have identified two new programs that are planned for launch later this year. Read More

Topics: Hiring?, News, Community, UI/UX, Analytics + Data Science

Can you Hear Me Now?
Jan 23, 2017
We've made some exciting new additions to the Hackery, our large co-working and event room at NSS. The additions are "functional art" (is that a real thing?) in the form of a dozen sound panels to help reduce the sound level in the room when we have an event or lots of students working together on projects. Read More

Topics: News

Why It Makes Sense To Interview NSS Graduates | Stories From The Hackery Ep. 7
Sep 7, 2016
In Episode 7 of Stories from the Hackery we catch up with Daniel Green from VitalSource Technologies at Ingram Content Group. We chat with him about the products that VitalSource develops and why he felt it made sense to interview NSS graduates for his team. And we talk more broadly about the impact of the Nashville tech community on helping NSS become successful and how, in turn, NSS grads are impacting the community. Read More

Topics: Hiring?

Nashville Software School Announces Data Science & Data Engineering Bootcamp
Aug 11, 2016
Today we're announcing our Data Analytics & Data Engineering Bootcamp, a new training program that NSS will roll out in 2017. Dramatic growth in analytics applications and the increased use of data science tools across industries, especially in Nashville's major industry of healthcare, has led to significant unmet demand for professionals trained in modern tools, techniques, and methods. Read More

Topics: News

NSS Approved To Accept GI Bill®
Jul 20, 2016
Nashville Software School (NSS) is proud to announce that our full-time Web Developer Bootcamp has been approved by the Tennessee State Approving Agency for Veterans Education and Training. We are the first coding bootcamp program in the Southeast U.S. approved to accept the GI Bill® and one of the first five in the entire country. Read More

Topics: News, Community

Melanie Hall Shares Her Journey From Design To Development | Stories From The Hackery Ep. 5
Jul 18, 2016
Melanie Hall came to Nashville in 2012 because she was passionately involved at a non-profit. She supported herself by applying her college training as a designer. Like many designers we have met, Melanie realized that her design training didn’t really prepare her to design for the web. She needed an understanding of how (at least) basic level coding worked. Melanie joined the second student cohort at NSS in January 2013 and today she is still passionate about her non-profit, still passionate about design, and she is a working full-stack software developer. Read More

Topics: Student Stories

The Evolution Of Mobile Apps, IOS, And Swift | Stories From The Hackery Ep. 4
Jun 30, 2016
iOS and Swift continue to rapidly evolve. Van Simmons previews our upcoming iOS mobile development class and discusses how the changing nature of Swift is causing us to evolve our iOS class. Van also talks about the rapid emergence of idiomatic conventions for developing apps in Swift, his experience building multiple major iOS apps in Swift, and the potential for Swift as a language for server-side development. Read More

Topics: Learning, Technology Insights