Nathan Brown recently graduated from Vermont Technical College with a degree in Computer Science and joined C2 full time as an Associate Software Developer. We are excited to congratulate Nathan on becoming a full-fledged developer in the eBusiness Practice after working as an intern last summer and throughout the school year.

Our interview addresses this transition and hits on different aspects of full time employment.

Having just graduated, how did you feel knowing you already had the start of your career lined up?
Knowing I would have a career in my field of study right out of college gave me a feeling of success, and it made that final sprint of school much less stressful for me. To spend so much time, money and energy on getting a degree and learning a multitude of skills is not a small undertaking, and not one that always sees immediate rewards. Seeing all that work be validated through starting a career was such a special milestone for me, and made me feel very fortunate.

What is it like knowing that at the end of the day you have no more homework or school requirements?
Beyond the feeling of accomplishment, not having any homework or projects to worry about at the end of the day just made the deal that much sweeter. Sure, work has due dates and projects as well, but to be able to leave it all behind when I go home is a really nice feeling.

What are you doing with this new position?
Right now I’m working on a project building a software system and it’s interesting, challenging and very rewarding. It feels great to be able to contribute my skills to something, and more importantly learn a whole bunch of new stuff in the process.

What is your role in the project?
I’m a new addition on the team so I’m just learning at this point, sitting in on scrum meetings, working on bugs here and there, making a few changes and slowly getting ramped up to work on bigger tasks.

Do you feel the skills you learned from the internship helped starting your career?
Definitely – the biggest thing that I learned through the internship is working on a project from start to finish. I just did stuff at school like assignments and little chunks of things here and there. Before I started at C2, I’d never done a big project like the robot that we created. We really had nothing in the beginning and didn’t really know where we wanted to go with it. With no instructions we started from the ground up – Aaron and I made the robot come to fruition throughout the summer, so it was interesting to be a part of the process of an entire project from A to B. We were really able to experience all of the transitions and see how a project can change over time.

So you learned things at C2 that you hadn’t learned in class?
Yeah definitely! I think it was really important to be out in a real world environment working for someone like C2 because they are a small company. When I started as an intern I didn’t feel like I was coming in on the ground floor in terms of who I should talk to and the level of projects I’d be working on. Because it’s such a small company, I feel like I gained responsibility early and was able to learn a lot more.

What transferable skills have you acquired?
Working on projects with other people in a workplace setting is the skill that stands out the most to me, because being able to talk with people and make sure everyone is on the same page is something that is transferable to any job or environment. Obviously, there are a lot of technical skills I’ve acquired. I’ve learned a lot about ASP.NET, various content management systems and all of the development tools we use here. I would have to say the biggest transferable skills I’ve learned are really communication, teamwork and an understanding of how the industry works and how to be efficient in it.

How is being full-time different than interning?
There is definitely more expected of me and it feels nice to be able to work on projects and contribute to them significantly. While interning is more for learning the environment and new skills, I now have more responsibility and a higher level of communication is expected of me. It’s great to be here and feel a part of something in such a way that you wouldn’t get at a bigger company. At C2 you’re put in on things earlier than you would somewhere else and you end up learning a lot more because of it.

Congratulations Nathan, and welcome to the team!