Here’s how Hackbright grad, J Fairbrother, leveraged their Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and hands-on experience at Hackbright Academy to become a sound design engineer.
What were you doing before Hackbright?
Prior to Hackbright, I graduated with a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute focusing on Art & Technology during 2020. While attending college, I took a number of courses focusing on art and hardware-oriented languages such as Processing, Max MSP/Jitter, Javascript, and Arduino. Immediately following graduation, I worked as a Sound Design Engineer for two upcoming mobile games. In this position, I navigated remote collaboration while producing and implementing the mobile apps UX/SFX.
Why’d you decide to join a coding bootcamp and what was your experience like?
I joined Hackbright’s Full-time Software Engineering Program in order to further my technical background around data structures and engineering in hopes to combine my art and technical practices in a future position. My experience was only positive. The Hackbright instructors made sure no one fell behind by constantly checking in and making sure we were receiving the adequate support we needed. I’m very appreciative of my time with all of the wonderful staff, instructors, and fellow alums.
How’d you land your new role and do you have any tips?
I was reached out to by a recruiter through LinkedIn. I stayed in good communication with them and even though the first position they put me in fell through, they thought of me for the next job and I landed the interview! Some tips I have are to update your LinkedIn, stay consistent, stay positive, and keep active. Even if you haven’t landed the position you want, it is important to keep creating work and learning new tools to incorporate into your set of skills.
What’s your advice for current and future software engineering students?
First of all, congratulations on starting your course at Hackbright! 🙂 It is intimidating learning code but being surrounded by others working through problems and instructors offering their help makes the whole process a little less daunting. My only advice is to stay curious. Don’t be shy to ask questions! This is your time to learn and absorb as much information as you can. It’s always important to remember you’re just starting out, there’s no pressure to be perfect! Take your time and digest the material.
Want to learn more?
Are you interested in investing in yourself? Learn more about Hackbright Academy’s Full-time Software Engineering course today.