John Knowles landed a full-time position in software development after an internship with Stoke member company, Team of Defenders. He works as a level one software developer and shared some of his experience with us, including ideal results of attending a tech job fair here at Stoke!
Can you tell us a little bit about Team of Defenders and what you do for them?
We are an IOT company that provides personalized 24/7 asset monitoring with no infrastructure requirements. Basically, we have software that allows our users to monitor motion/environmental sensors that are capable of running for years off batteries without any maintenance, and that don’t require wifi/internet connectivity to work.
Currently I am working as a full stack web developer, meaning I have designed and implemented both our back end systems and our web based front end. Put in different terms, I am in charge of getting the data from the units, storing it, generating text alerts based on it, and displaying it on our front end.
How did you begin working with Team of Defenders?
I was hired on by Nathan, our CTO, after meeting him at a career fair being hosted at Stoke!
What is a memorable project that you’ve been involved with and are most proud of?
Recently we deployed our first set of units to several partnered storage facilities! I am extremely proud that we have managed to ship our product.
What is your day-to-day like at work?
Most days I come into Stoke at or near 10 AM. I figure out what set task/set of tasks I need to work on and start writing code. What that specifically entails varies wildly based on what feature/task I am working on. Occasionally we will have meetings in which we discuss feature sets, technical requirements, refinements to our current systems and so on. I’ll typically take an hour for lunch around 2-3 in the afternoon and I’ll leave around 7pm most days.
What was your path into your business/doing the work that you do? Do you work in your field of study?
Well, I've known since I was in high school that I wanted to be a software developer. Ever since I was first introduced to programming I’ve had a passion for solving problems with code. I decided to study Information Technology at UNT in 2014 and got really into robotics / IOT programming after joining the robotics club there. I spent more time working with IOT platforms at UNT when I took a job in their maker space ‘The Factory’ in the fall of 2016. During my last semester of college I landed an internship with Team of Defenders, and signed on with the. full time after I graduated in December of 2018. So yes, I work in the field I studied!
How do you feel about the coworking environment at Stoke and what it’s like to be a member here?
I really enjoy working at Stoke. It has a very laid back atmosphere and people here are generally very friendly and easy to get along with.
How would you define success? What are your measures of success?
For me, success is doing worthwhile work, adding value to the organization that I work for and in a larger sense to the society that I live in. The measurement of that added value, for me at least, is revenue. That may seem shallow, but consider that if people are willing to pay for a service that means that there was demand for that service out there in the world. Meeting that demand means that we are improving people’s lives, even if in very small ways. I feel good about that.
What's your definition of an entrepreneur? How would you describe one?
An entrepreneur is anyone who takes financial risks on new business ventures. In my experience, entrepreneurs are highly motivated, positive, energetic, and brave individuals who do not shy away from taking massive risks.
Do you have any advice or insight that you would offer to someone starting out in your field, or recent graduates from your program?
My advice to anyone studying programming in general, and in specific anyone graduating from the IT program at UNT, is to work a lot on side projects. Build some web applications that do interesting things, makes use of some type of popular framework, and interacts with an API. Your classroom work is good experience, and teaches a lot about the underlying theory behind programming, but it does not prepare you for basically any job. You have to convert the skills that your degree provides you into a marketable skill set, most likely in application or web development, or you will have a very difficult time finding a job.
What are you looking forward to in the future for your career?
I’m really looking forward to working with a larger team and learning the specifics of streamlining the development and deployment process in a professional.
Thanks for your responses John!
Stay tuned if you want to hear from the whole Team of Defenders crew, which just might be in the works.