Meet John - Our Teaching Assistant
John likens his work as a Teaching Assistant at Developers Institute to herding cats, but we’re sure that’s because cats rule the internet, right? Jokes aside, John’s own learning journey has given him an almost spooky ability to preempt students’ questions, so he can answer them with ease, and help students on his course progress with confidence. He has a Level 5 Diploma in Web Development, and specialises in app development, plus he’s also studied engineering and environmental management.
John moved to Whangarei from College Station, near Houston, Texas in 2009, so he speaks perfect American and very passable Kiwi, although he admits his Spanish is still a bit rusty. He’s also fluent in HTML, Javascript, Typescript, Express and C#.
Before joining Developers Institute
Working for Parasol and Northpower prior to joining Developers Institute, John worked on the development of Northpower apps Workbench and Gadget App, which allow inspectors to provide Northpower with the required information to start and finalise a job.
Every day is a school day for John, who says he’s always learning on the job, because you never know everything. In his previous roles he says he learned how to work in a group, and he also had to learn a new stack (C#), which he says was stressful, but a lot easier because he already knew Javascript and Express.
There’s more to John than answering students’ questions
When he isn’t working, John enjoys playing games, both board and video. He is a connoisseur of the medium of animation and musical scores of films and tv shows. John is also a big fan of pub quizzes. Being a self-proclaimed dog whisperer, he has two chihuahuas that he loves, and can often be seen walking or playing with them.
Although John reckons dogs are the best, he’s still happy to talk to people too, so have a chat with him about gaming, film, or animation. Or dogs of course.