We recently had Jay Blanchard, Senior Principal Software Engineer for Newfold Digital speak to our West Virginia Coding Club students.
Jay's first exposure to Coding was after he won the Louisiana State Science Fair in Mathematics and was going to the International Science & Engineering Fair. Thanks to professors at Nicholls State University, Jay was able to use a University Computer with Fortran using Punch Cards to enhance his project. This was Jay's first exposure to coding.
Once in college, Jay actually majored in and earned a degree in Animal Science. During college, with friends, they built an Altair 8880, with no graphical interface, and used University computers during college.
After college, Jay joined the Air Force. Jay and his friends continued in computer programming, Point of Sale (POS) systems with Jay's first job at Datapoint Corporation. During that time they would read Byte magazine - which had various programs written in it and on the weekends he and his friends spent typing in and debugging the programs.
In 1990, Jay worked on a mobile touch screen device to develop a maintenance program for a military marine application.
Around that time the World Wide Web (WWW) was starting. Jay learned scripting languages Cold Fusion and PERL.
Jay also worked with Fugro (a worldwide provider of geo-data) - teaming up with others on OARS (Office Assisted Remote Services). They have the largest database of seafloor assets in several locations around the world. Survey info of the assets overlays on a map from satellite data. IoT (Internet of Things) devices on boats transfer the info to a satellite allowing a surveyor working remotely to accurately place a vessel within inches of location on the sea floor. One surveyor could guide multiple ships that have the IoT devices using tools available in a command center on land. Reduced cost and improved accuracy!
Jay now works with Newfold Digital as Senior Principle Engineer and leads a multi-team project, whose focus DEVOPS (Developers and Operations), to move critical billing applications from an on-premises data center to a cloud-based (AWS) environment, taking advantage of the services offered to enhance scalability and availability. Jay has conducted training of all engineers across all teams on subjects such as Docker, DEVOPS, and other technologies.
Jay has authored books on “Applied jQuery” and “jQuery & jQueryUI Visual QuickStart Guide”
Jay shared about when looking for employees they look for:
Aptitude, can a person solve a problem.
Attitude - excited to do what they do. Small focus on languages.
People who have programmed in multiple languages are more likely to have the aptitude and have solved the same problem in multiple ways.
Whiteboarding / Problem Solving versus programming tests.
Self Starter, able to work from home.
Agile Environment - did yesterday, plan to do today, any blockers (barrier or something waiting on) Two-week sprints, items on a list to complete for the two weeks.
95% of companies are using the Agile process versus Waterfall for working on projects.
Jay has been working from home since March 13, 2020, due to Covid, but now as a new business model. Remote work is more productive at home allowing for flexible schedules, minimizing juggling life with work, and making things less stressful.
Advice:
Richard Feynman - from What Do You Care What Other People Think, "Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all."
If you’re in High School and of age, there are some companies that will take on 16 & 17-year-olds as interns, more available with remote work options. Big Companies are going to have more room for interns, Microsoft, Dell, Constant Contact, etc. Look at Linkedin, Indeed, and similar sources for intern and work opportunities. Some companies will pay tuition. Start a resume.
"Jay's insights into how to prepare for coding career opportunities and his diverse experience as coding has developed over the years was a great benefit to our West Virginia Coding Club students. Thank you Jay for your time and valuable information!", shared Dan McElroy, President of the WV Coding Club.
Keep Coding!