Student Success Story

Aaron Billings

Software Engineer

What were you doing before Treehouse?

I was working as a Support Manager for a Sass company. I had been a technical support agent before that. I enjoyed helping customers but I really wanted to solve problems using code.

Any tips for succeeding in the FSJS TD?

There are several tips that I always recommend when starting your coding journey, especially going into a TechDegree.

1.) Stay Engaged During Videos

I used to take notes during the videos so I can really understand the material I was learning and I would look up all the extra information provided.

2.) Reach out to others

I really enjoyed being a part of the Slack FSJS group. I could ask questions, answer questions and make new friends. Take full advantage of that.

3.) Take the peer reviews seriously

I can’t tell you how much the peer reviews helped me in the real world. 90% of my job is reading and reviewing code. The other 10% is writing code. The better you can get at reviewing code when you’re in the program the better you’ll do when you get into a job.

4.) Practice, Practice, Practice

Even though there are projects after each section, I would create another project just to solidify what I learned. This helped me to really understand the material before moving to the next section. Plus it helps you to beef up your github profile.

What are you doing now professionally?

I work as a Software Engineer at a Health Care company. Currently, we are in the process of moving legacy applications from Flex Flash and Angular 1 into React. So most of my day is spent reading code so I understand how to implement the application in React. Also, I’ll write tests to ensure my code is working correctly and have some code reviews as well.

Where can we see samples of your work?

Most of my work is on my GitHub profile. However, I also write articles too, which you can find on Medium.