Guest Speaker: Aaron Silber, Full Stack Developer, WV Department of Education
The West Virginia Coding Club was fortunate to have Aaron Silber speak and share insights with our students at a recent meeting.
Aaron grew up in Clendenin, West Virginia, attending Middle School and High School (Herbert Hoover HS) there. The electronic landscape was different when he was growing up compared to today. There were no smart phones yet and most families had only one Personal Computer (PC - Desktop).
Aaron grew up with an immense curiosity and liked taking things apart and putting them back together to better understand how things worked. Once he had access to a computer he wanted to know how it worked and what it could do. His family got access to the internet shortly after getting the computer, so a whole new world opened up for Aaron.
Aaron's first program he created was in 2000, C++, writing a hangman game.
When he was a teenager, his younger brother accidentally threw his Gameboy in the toilet. It was mixed feelings as his Gameboy was destroyed, but he got to take it apart and see how it was made.
Aaron had a teacher named Danny Harris who had previously worked for NASA and was a programmer. From what Mr. Harris shared with students, he worked in a secure vault because his work was top secret, Mr. Harris set a high bar for achievement with his students and Aaron. Under Mr. Harris, Aaron learned how to build very basic web sites. During his Senior Year - Web Development 4, the curriculum was fairly open and had students build websites for local businesses. This set Aaron on a path to realize he could make money from this type of work
Once Aaron reached the end of High School, he was unsure of where to go next, as colleges had computer science degrees, but did not have the coding development programs that he wanted so he could be able to make more websites quickly.
Aaron decided to go to West Virginia State University on scholarship and majored in Business and Marketing.
He got a job with a major brand company and got promoted in a job he did not like. Aaron saved money, was a newlywed, and decided if he didn’t pursue the developer role opportunity, he never would. He left retail with no backup plan (not recommended). Aaron took clients and worked like a crazy person. Inexperienced at that point, but his business education and experience working with stakeholders and businesses in different agencies and roles benefited his hard work. In 2008 there were difficult financial times, making it harder to find and keep clients.
Then he joined the West Virginia State Department of Education as a Full Stack Developer, someone who works with both Front End and Back End of the website(s). Professionally , he has been a developer since 2010 - 14 years. With Full Stack development, the approach is an architectural perspective to connect both Front End and Back End. With Front End - developers use HTML, CSS, Javascript (Browser)
With Back End - It Stores information - access - DB (Server Technology)
Developers now can actually use a lot of javascript on Backend.
With Websites you can view source code. Open it so you can see the code, He learned a tremendous amount by looking at other people’s code.
The vast majority of browsers are run by the same engine - Chromium. In working with web sites, the capabilities of the devices that need to access your website impact the user experience. The vast majority of web sites are now accessed by smart phones. It is important to understand who our audience is? Desktop versus mobile experience can be a dangerous trap. Ultimately you have to pick a couple device types to focus on. It is expensive to tune applications to devices. Each browser has different capabilities and can change how the web site looks and works.
Aaron is also a woodworker designing and building wood projects. He had to repair the jointer, taking it apart and replacing and then put it back together and. . . it worked! He gets a lot of satisfaction from building and solving challenges.
What can students do for a living in technology?
Aaron says there are many adjacent positions that work with and support developers. UX/UI - design, design research, so many specialized pieces.
A valuable development with web sites is accessibility, helping people with disabilities to have special ways to interact with websites. There are certain guidelines / standards to meet to help them access sites. This work has been important to Aaron for a long time. In the case of someone who is blind, but can hear, they can hear the title and chapters to select different paths. If it doesn't work correctly, it is easy for someone to get lost pretty quickly. There are tools that can audit websites as those tools are being developed.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a valuable tool for a developer. When trying to learn a new language or new framework, AI assistant in code editor, Github Co-Pilot. Someone can suggest functions for code or ask how to improve a section of code. AI is still developing and can be incorrect. When AI has an error - it is called a "Hallucination". AI tools can help with detecting security issues.
Going forward it is important that you provide more value than AI.
Advice from Aaron:
1. Stay Curious! Continue to learn!
2. In preparing for your first job, it is important to show proof of your ability.
3. Find learning opportunities - get involved in Open Source Technologies, coding or adding documentation. So many ways to connect with projects.
4. When you are young, you have time, but not money. Invest your time - best thing to invest in is your education.
5. Prioritize your learning through other people. Ask questions! Find those people.
6. Every day in coding you are creating / understanding / repairing, embrace it.
7. There is a GitHub Student Pack that is FREE, check it out!
8. Some Resources: Codepin.io, Console.log Console.table, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Node.js
Dan McElroy, President of the WV Coding Club shared, "Aaron has given amazing perspectives and insights for our WV Coding Club students. Thank you Aaron for investing time and valuable information!"
Keep Coding!