Leveraging resourcefulness and determination to become a developer

Behind the scenes of a Full Stack Engineer who teaches at Nucamp

“I find so much fulfillment with instructing. It gives me that good feeling helping people and being surrounded by code." -Kevin Gay, Nucamp Instructor

Kevin Gay is a top-rated instructor who has been teaching at Nucamp since 2020.

He first got into tech after realizing he needed a better work-life balance than his job in logistics management could afford.

Kevin was missing precious time with his family and decided to pursue an Information Technology degree.

He began freelancing as an IT installation tech and started teaching himself to code after playing with the settings on his browser led him to discover the mysterious lines of code within Developer Tools.

Kevin was inspired to teach others and was hired to teach an open curriculum middle school computer course.

Kevin taught 6-8th grade the fundamentals of web development and even had lessons that inspired entrepreneurial mindsets through the creation and pitching SAS products.

He taught himself enough HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to have the confidence to take on freelance web development projects.

Kevin’s approach to continue to push himself into applying what he has learned along the way has improved his skills tenfold.

He also focused a lot of his energy on networking within the industry to build a support network and create opportunities for himself.

Most recently Kevin has taken on a new role at Apollidon Learning as a Full Stack Engineer.

Within Nucamp, Kevin has an impressive average student rating of 4.78/5 and has taught 12 courses and counting.

“When learning to code you are going to get to points where you are going to want to give up, but if you can stick with it, it’s worth it. I tell my students that coding is the quickest thing to pick up and put down. Meaning it's the quickest thing you can learn by just going online, but it is very difficult.”

What is your advice on how to expedite learning or study more effectively?

“You can’t rush the process. There is no cheat code or cookie cutter way to handle it, other than when you’re starting off to roll your sleeves up and continue to practice... repetition, repetition, repetition. To study more effectively you need a productive study environment, plenty of rest, water, and exercise. You need those things because 30 mins on the computer quickly turns into 3 hours and that will lead to brain-drain if you don’t take care of yourself. A great strategy that I live by is: “Learn. Do.” Don’t get caught up in learning, that can lead to being caught in tutorial hell. Make sure to apply what you’ve learned to truly understand it.”

What tips do you have for managing workload and productivity as a remote worker?

“Using a project management tool is huge (e.g. Monday.com or Tello.com). Pay attention to when you work best and what you have done in the past to complete tasks. Jot down your processes and do everything you can to set yourself up for success and repeat those processes.

What is one piece of advice you would give bootcamp students (future or current)?

“Almost every day I experience imposter syndrome, but I’ve learned how to manage it. I make sure not to get wrapped up in how everything continues changes. Go with the flow and take it on bit by bit. You cannot conquer the whole thing at once. You are not going to know it all, so focus on how to research effectively.”

Watch Kevin’s live Campfire interview with Nucamp’s CEO, Ludo, here.