The Iron Yard academy teaches intensive, three month courses that are churning out junior-level programmers into the Atlanta tech talent pool. Meet one of their recent graduates, Jeremy Butler to hear about his experience at The Iron yard and what he is looking to do next.
What program did you just complete?
I just finished up the intensive 12-week Mobile Engineering course at The Iron Yard, focusing on iOS Development.
What past tech projects have you worked on?
The Mobile Engineering course at The Iron Yard was a bit of a career change for me, so my my tech projects are just getting started. However, in the time that I have been developing for the iOS platform I have worked on a few projects:
- Wilma- working on a team as part of a weekend-long hackathon, I designed and developed an entire iOS app in 3 days intended to serve as a quick alert to family when the user finds themselves in an emergency situation. This mobile app won 1st place for the hackathon.
- Route List- this iOS app offers users the ability to create a playlist of songs that are assigned to an exact latitude and longitude. Once the user reaches those particular coordinates while driving, running, biking, etc. the song automatically starts playing for the user.
- Unnamed Project- working on a small team of fellow iOS Developers, this project is still very much in the works. I can’t say much, but let’s just say that you might have trouble putting your phone down for a while.
What are your best technical or creative skills?
I am a big fan of a less is more mentality and pride myself in finding ways to offer an amazing experience to a user without including unnecessary clutter. I’ve used some incredible and intricately made apps, but found myself deleting them because it was just too much to fit into the mobile platform. I like to think my strong points stem from recognizing those dislikes and learning from them to make an effective and efficient iOS application.
What’s next on your list to learn?
There’s always something new to learn, and there are so many things to choose from. I’d say one of the things I’m most excited to start learning about is the Apple Watch SDK when it ends up being released. The possibilities are endlessly intriguing when it comes to a wearable that is an extension of the most popular mobile device in the world.
What’s your ideal internship/job?
My ideal job is making iOS applications that are genuinely making a noticeable impact. I want to work on a team that is just as passionate about building and learning as I am and has a desire to make a difference. As long as those things are clicking, I’m happy. Oh, and I’m pretty into industrial type buildings, so that wouldn’t hurt either.
Interested in startups?
To be honest, I wasn’t too interested in startups initially. The concept of creating one or working for one sounded too risky for me. All I could think about was my desire for stability with a wife and kids at home to provide for. It wasn’t until a read an article a few weeks back in an attempt to define exactly what a startup was when the CEO of Homejoy gave an explanation that just made sense. He said, “It’s when people join your company and are still making the explicit decision to forgo stability in exchange for the promise of tremendous growth and the excitement of making immediate impact.”
The words toward the end resonated and made me realize just how influential the startup environment can be in an attempt to make an impact. That reason alone was reason for intrigue and interest to grow.
Post graduation plans?
My post graduate plans are to continue learning and growing in my craft while working on submitting a utility based app to the App Store. During that time I’ll be applying to positions and looking for opportunities in hopes to land that ideal job I described above.
See more of Jeremy’s work:
Portfolio: http://www.jeremybutler.co/
Github: https://github.com/jeremycbutler
