Tech Talent: How This Junior Programmer Successfully Turned 'Spoiled Veggies' Into A Career Journey

London Baker's take on the site Rotten Tomatoes — Spoiled Veggies — is sure to make you chuckle, but also impress you. The code bootcamp student employed his new hard-earned skills in Full-Stack and embedded Javascript to build this capstone project. Baker followed his curiosity for all things tech after acquiring a degree in Finance from Jackson State University, enrolling in Thinkful’s Flexible Web Development Bootcamp.

Now, Baker is ready to dive deeper into front-end frameworks, learn more about Vue.js, and take a position at a stable, but exciting company. Find out more about this motivated junior developer below.

Why the interest in the technology field?

I would definitely describe myself as a tech enthusiast. I’ve always had a deep interest in technology. Whether it be hardware design language on mobile phones or UI design of certain products, there has always been an interest for me. It’s just now I’ve decided to take on learning how to create the things that I’ve long admired.

What tech projects have you worked on?

During my time with Thinkful, I developed 3 capstone projects. The first of these is a single-page educational application called GeoWiki; it uses Wikipedia’s API and location service to return relevant articles based on the user’s location. My second project was a movie review blog called Spoiled Veggies. Obviously the name is a pun on the popular movie review site, Rotten Tomatoes. This was a Full-Stack project and used EJS (embedded Javascript) as a template engine on the front-end in addition to Node.js on the back-end. I also incorporated MongoDB as a data store.

My final project will be a photo sharing application. It will incorporate React.js on the front-end in addition to Node.js and MongoDB as a data store.

What tech tools are essential to you as a developer?

I’d have to say that developer tools in Google Chrome are essential to positioning and styling on the front-end. Sketch is also great to use for wire-framing in order to visualize my ideas for design. I also use Trello to keep track and organize current and future improvements for each of my projects.

How do you stay informed and on top of emerging trends?

Medium is definitely a good place to gain interesting perspectives and hear from others in the tech community. I also subscribe to several tech-related podcasts, which feature industry professionals. Podcasts are great to listen to while driving or working out. Some of the guests are pretty candid in regards to their views of emerging tech and they can be very funny also.

What are your best technical or creative skills?

I’d have to point to my ability to make engaging designs on the front-end as a main creative skill. As it relates to technical skills, I’ve been able to become resourceful in finding the right solution for each project that I work on.

What’s next on your list to learn?

I’d like to dive deeper into front-end frameworks. I recently completed a project using Vue.js and I’d like to explore it a bit further. I also heard great things about GraphQL so I’ve put that on my list also.

Are you interested in working for a startup, mid-sized company, or a corporate giant?

I don’t have a particular preference in this regard. While I like the idea of a startup with an exciting culture and new ideas, I also would find it very rewarding to work at an organization that has a long track record of stability.

You can see more of London Baker’s credentials on his portfolio, Github and LinkedIn.