Who is Jaden Banson?
Hi, my name is Jaden I’m a 19-year-old software developer, CS student (aspiring to make POSt) and aspiring entrepreneur. Also a lover of dogs, good food and hip-hop music.
Back Story.
While I might have a few interests, I would say my largest and primary interest that plays quite a large roll in who I am, and who I hope to become is software development/computer science.
I’ve always had an innate interest for finding out how things work, but initially, my methods of expressing this interest, weren’t exactly eloquent, frequently breaking toys to T.V remotes and old computers as a kid, just to discover what was inside. But these methods finally changed, when I turned 11-years-old and picked up an interest in video games. And over time I began wondering how they worked too, and since software can’t be forcefully physically pried open, this forced me into a frenzy of Google searches, where I eventually found out about coding. This eventually lead to me learning how to jailbreak my iPod touch, which then lead to me learning how to modify XML packages to get free games, etc. And while this sounds a bit silly, looking back, the fact that coding was a means to an end for me initially allowed me to learn a lot about coding, and computer science fundamentals without feeling like I was learning, this also enabled me to greatly improve my self-teaching/learning abilities.
Current Interests.
I’m currently pursuing my interest in computer science, by developing my skills in software development at an industry level. More specifically through software engineering internships at companies like Microsoft & Shopify, I’ve also received offers from companies like Facebook & Google. But aside from working I also like building things, which eventually encouraged me to start working on my first startup, that I’m not ready to talk about too much yet.
Working at Microsoft this summer was a truly amazing experience that allowed me to learn even more about software development at an industry level. More specifically, working on a distributed services team, working with technologies like Azure and Redis, and getting to work with these tools using a language I hadn’t really had too much experience with before, C#. But aside from the technical learning, getting work with some really talented engineers on challenging problems helped me learn more about critical thinking, good communication skills, and writing production-level code.
I landed my first software engineering internship at Shopify during 11th grade. It was my introduction to the industry and my first time learning about how tech companies actually work and what it actually meant to work on a product with a team, write production-level code, and ship it. I actually enjoyed my internship experience at Shopify so much, that I accepted my return offer for the following summer.
My goals.
This summer, I had picked up an interest in learning about startups, and the culture around them and decided to pivot a project that I was working on just for fun into a potential startup. So for the immediate future, my goals include working on my startup and in the process learn more about startups, how they work, and what it takes to make one succeed. And I’ve been actively working towards this goal by reading, listening to podcasts and watching lectures from startup founders/partners more specifically I’ve been focusing on consuming a lot of content from YCombinator a program I hope to apply to in the very near future. Recently I actually was invited to the University of Waterloo’s startup accelerator, Velocity, and had the chance to speak with Eric Migicovsky, the founder of Pebble about my startup idea.
Academically speaking, my goals for the upcoming school year include building better study habits, seeking help when it is required, and building stronger connections between the concepts learned in academia and what I’m working on outside of school. More specifically I hope to utilize the networking, email, project management and technical document skills learned in CSC290 to further not only my career in software development, but apply a lot of these skills to my startup efforts.
What I have to offer.
While I might appear quiet, awkward and heavily introverted (which I guess I am most of the time), I think getting to know me will reveal that I’m not actually too bad and potentially have some value to offer. More specifically, I think I might have some insight on networking in the tech industry, landing technical internships, technical interviews, and a little bit of knowledge on startups. Overall I’m excited to meet my peers, learn the content and extract as much value as I can from CSC290.
