Cleared For Takeoff | Graduate Spotlight
Nov 1, 2017
Cohort 19 students Willie Pruitt and Azim Sodikov were already learning software development before they attended NSS. Azim was teaching himself basic skills and Willie was pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Both wanted to increase their pace of learning and were ready to takeoff on their bootcamp adventure. Hear about their journeys. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

Cohort 19 Graduates 27 Students On Demo Day
Sep 25, 2017
On Friday we graduated 27 junior developers from Cohort 19. To showcase all that they’ve learned at NSS, the graduates presented their front-end and back-end capstones to prospective employers one-on-one. During their six months with NSS, Cohort 19 learned front-end development using HTML/CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, AngularJS and server-side development with C#/>NET. Get to know our newest graduates. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

Evolving Demo Day | 500 In 5
Sep 21, 2017
Tomorrow is Demo Day for Cohort 19 at NSS. Demo Day is a big deal here - it marks the graduation of another cohort of students and it marks the formal kick-off of most grads’ job searches. It also gives us a chance to showcase to the community our newest grads, what they’ve learned, and what they can do with those skills. However, today’s Demo Day was not the way we originally released our grads into the wild. It’s something that evolved out of experience and trying other things. In that sense it’s like so much of what we do - it’s driven by experience, by feedback, and by trial and error. In other words, it’s driven by learning. Which seems somehow appropriate, right? Read More

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

Investing In Your Analytics & Data Science Capability
Sep 12, 2017
So, employers, how is your company planning to build its data engineering and data science capability? Planning on finding a data science unicorn to do it all? Good luck with that. What about the possibility of taking people already in your organization, people that know your business, people that you know fit into your culture, and invest in their future. Read More

Topics: Hiring?, Analytics + Data Science

Hiring Junior Developers And Going From Bootcamp Skeptic To Advocate | Stories From The Hackery Ep. 6
Aug 8, 2017
In Episode 6 of Stories from The Hackery, Jim Siegienski, CTO at Groups360, speaks in depth with John Wark on the availability of junior and more senior software developers in Nashville, sparking a conversation on where Nashville is now, how we can improve it, and the way to create a new mindset for companies willing to hire developers based on their problem-solving skills rather than knowing any specific programming language. Read More

Topics: Hiring?

Practical Applications | Graduate Spotlight
Aug 7, 2017
When it comes time for students to decide what they are going to build for their capstone projects, we encourage them to build something useful that relates to their personal or professional experiences. Helana Nosrat and Jessica Younker from Cohort 18 leveraged the knowledge they built in their prior careers to build apps that would be useful on the job. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

It’s All About The Opportunities | 500 In 5
Aug 3, 2017
I still remember like it was yesterday. Four years plus ago one of our recent grads came up to me at a local tech event and said, “Thank you for NSS - you’ve changed my life”. My first reaction was shock that someone had credited me and the school I had founded with something as profound as changing their life. The second reaction was some combination of happiness for them - that they had found something in terms of career and satisfaction from the investment they had made in learning - and some mix of pride and ego that I and my little experiment in vocational education had changed someone’s life. And quickly that second part of the reaction made me uncomfortable. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?, 10 Years | 2000 Journeys

Coding Confidential | Graduate Spotlight
Aug 1, 2017
Software development is a collaborative profession. This week we hear from two graduates that come from professions known for confidentiality, but enjoy the collaborative, open-source environment of development. Jordan Nelson was in information security for a major corporation and Josh Kilgore is an attorney. Both were interested in technology before pursuing bootcamp. After going through bootcamp, they have some pretty good advice for students. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

Moms Who Code | Graduate Spotlight
Jul 24, 2017
A lot of parents come through both our full-time and part-time web developer bootcamps. This week we talk with two moms with young children who graduated with cohort Evening 4. While balancing a day job, bootcamp, and family is never easy, Debra Gordon and Sarah Ward relied on their families and fellow classmates to stay focused on their goal of becoming software developers. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

Why A Six Month Curriculum? | 500 In 5
Jul 20, 2017
Why, from the very beginning, in 2012 did NSS make a contrarian decision to have a six-month full-time bootcamp? When all the schools in all the cool, tech hot spot cities were launching with 9, and 10 and 12 week programs, were we just out of the loop down here in Nashville, or did we know/believe something they didn't? And why today do we continue, along with a handful of other programs across the country, to feature a significantly longer full-time residential program than the majority of bootcamps? Read More

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