CS Student Profile: Pony Linnell

Pony grew up in Eureka, MT, a town of about 1,000 people near the US-Canada border. A former student of Big Sky Code Academy, he is now a Junior Software Developer for Digital Impact, a Missoula-based web development company. In our conversation, Pony tells me about why he chose a bootcamp over going to college, how apprenticing under senior developers has helped him grow, and the advice he has for high school students.

Choosing Bootcamp over College

When I graduated high school, I was thinking about what I should do. I was planning on going to college for Petroleum and Engineering so I took a bunch of classes geared towards that in high school. But I didn’t get any scholarships and college is way too expensive to pay out of pocket.

My dad and brother heard about Big Sky Code Academy on the radio and they said “you should go try that.” So, I contacted them and got some pre-work stuff, then went to a coding weekend. I said to myself: “Well it’s a good profession, I could do it, might as well.” And it’s a lot cheaper than college. I was pretty much jumping in head first, just “see where this goes.”

My Current Project

My current project is learning React Native to build an app that helps a soup kitchen collect information about homeless people in the area they serve — are you a veteran, is this your first meal here, that kind of stuff. Originally, it was built on the web, and they were logging into it on a tablet. But they were running into some issues when people swiped with two fingers — on the newer tablets that takes you back a page. So, I’m rebuilding it in React Native which will help fix those issues and will be nicer.

I’ve been learning React Native for the last few days. But it’s a lot like React so I should be able to pick it up pretty quick. React’s philosophy behind it is, ‘Learn once, build everywhere’ so it’s a real easy one to pick up.

It’ll definitely be easier because I’m a lot more familiar with how programming works.

Pair Programming Sessions as the Best Way to Learn Coding

The most difficult thing is learning something new on your own. Because you can read about code all day but, even if it’s well-written, it’s still pretty confusing. It’s tough to get your head around stuff just from reading about code.

Pair programming makes it easier. We’ll just pop in and do a pair programming session. Someone shares their screen and you talk about the code. “What do you think about this, or should we do it another way?” There’s one person driving. You’re sitting there and they’re going through it and explaining what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, you can see it being written and how it works. It makes a lot more sense when you can see how the different pieces of code are written and how they interact with each other.

Kids learning to code could get a lot out of something like it with tech mentors. It’s almost like they’re right there with you. You’re still writing the code, you’re still talking to them directly, and discussing the code.

Learning on Real Projects

In July or August, I had to build the eCommerce store part of a project. It was a huge struggle because I was still so new at coding, there were times when I’d sit back, laugh a little, and say, “I have no idea what i’m doing.”. It was really difficult to get it to work between different components. I learned so much during that time but it was also frustrating to figure out how to do it, but it’s the best feeling once you get it figured out.

The only time I’ve built projects for the sake of projects was in school. Now I’ve got a job I’ve been working on real stuff for a client. I’ve been sitting in a lot with the two senior devs on the team I work with, coding through stuff, and how we should structure the code, code architecture, organization. I’ve learned so much — the way I was thinking before was so wrong. Listening to them has completely changed how I was thinking.

It’s been cool to be a part of it, just seeing how things should actually be built, and how to make things awesome.

Advice to High School Students

Do it. It’s a cushy job. You’re not out there doing construction or moving appliances, both of which I’ve done. And it pays well. If you don’t know what you want to do, for college or something, I’d say definitely do this.

It’s funny because all my counselors would tell me “you don’t have to know what you want to do — you’ve got two years to figure that out” and I’m like “no I don’t — I’m not spending $40,000 to figure out what I want to do.” So, I got in for $5,000. I learned a good bit, and I got a job after, and I’ve learned a whole bunch since then.