Sean Krauth, a professional percussionist who learned programming as a hobby, discovered that the software-writing process was similar to the music-writing process.
He knew that he could earn more money by writing software. So, he made the career change.
He found the resources he needed at the Gainesville Dev Academy. Here, he could learn how to turn his hobby into his career, and Krauth graduated as part of the academy's inaugural class last Tuesday.
The program teaches software development and code-writing to turn beginners into developers. Part of the vision of the founders, Duncan Kabinu and Josh Greenberg, was training and retaining good talent, said Kevin Robertson, marketing director for the Gainesville Dev Academy. Greenberg, who passed away in July, was the co-founder of Grooveshark.
There are more than 50 available information technology jobs in Alachua County, according to EmployFlorida. Employment for web developers is predicted to grow 20 percent between 2012 and 2022, which is faster than average across all other occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Robertson said most people leave Gainesville after they graduate from Santa Fe College or the University of Florida. However, he said, there’s a lot going on in Gainesville, as the city attracts more and more tech companies. To entice more businesses to the area, the academy is committed to training employees for these companies.
Robertson said the academy helps to provide opportunities to people who haven’t had them, didn’t know they existed or discovered college wasn’t for them.
“It’s just a good thing to see people gain some very, very powerful and sought-after skills,” Robertson said. “You can see it by talking with them, that they’re just more confident. They have a better idea of what they want to do and where they want to go in life.”
Krauth said the class was not a traditional learning environment, as most of the time students received a small amount of information and then had to figure out how to accomplish what they wanted to do.
“It was definitely one of the things we were encouraged to do: How to figure things out on our own, how to learn on our own and how to build our skill set, which is especially important,” Krauth said.
Krauth has been working as a web developer at Onward Development, a small local startup, for about two weeks. One of the founders sent over Krauth's résumé, and the company contacted him and offered a position.
The academy also gathers representatives from major tech companies in the region to talk about the company's needs and the kind of talent they're looking for, so the academy can then give their students those skills.
Susan Davenport, president and CEO of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, said this will help to scale up the companies already in the region and those coming in. The academy also complements the opportunities for students at Santa Fe College and UF.
“It will also give an opportunity to people who have a proclivity to learn software and IT training so that will bring a great addition to our offerings here in this area,” she said. “It’s a great boost for economic development opportunities.”
Dave Stanton, the delivery center manager at Mobiquity, a local firm focused on mobile engagement, oversees the hiring process for developers in his company. He said that having structure and professionals validating what one is learning is one of the benefits to a program like the academy compared to learning on one's own.
He has also acted as an adviser to the academy's curriculum and said guest lecturers speak and fill in some of the gaps in the curriculum, such as soft skills that don't include coding.
Having a program like the academy, where people can learn a lot in a short period of time, helps the argument to hire people who have changed careers, Stanton said, because it shows the students are motivated and passionate.
“The stuff they had learned and the things they had accomplished in Gainesville Dev Academy gave me very high confidence that they’d be successful on development teams right away,” he said.