Jenna Davis: Senior Software Engineer at Apple and Codesmith Alum On Tech Hiring Trends and Her Route Into Coding

Jenna Davis worked at several companies after graduating from Codesmith before landing at Apple, where she is now a Senior Software Engineer.

Here she explains what makes a senior software engineer, following industry trends to get ahead, and the benefits of Codesmith’s residency over CS university degrees.

“Codesmith is individualized, intense, and unique in terms of mentorship. It’s like years compressed into three months and the most time and cost-effective way to learn the fundamentals of a career in tech”

Companies Find Engineers With Skills Across The Stack Appealing

Like many in the Codesmith community, Jenna was on a completely different path when she caught the tech bug and decided to follow her instincts.

“I was studying medicine in college but after a break ended up going down the engineering path and never looked back. I have zero regrets — my transition from Codesmith was seamless.”

She explains that with her first job after graduation the company was specifically on the hunt for graduates of immersive programs, given the qualities associated with them.

“There’s a connotation that we’re hyper-focused and can work in intense environments. It’s appealing for candidates to have skills across the stack, and at Codesmith we learn backend, frontend, and are familiar with a wide breadth of engineering topics.”

Although she had a prior degree from USC, Jenna attributes her own engineering success to Codesmith with its tight-knit community, mentorship, and strong program. 

“I went to USC first, which is so big that you have to make your community and put in effort to get mentorship, going to teacher-office hours, for example.

“Whereas Codesmith is individualized, intense, and unique in terms of mentorship. It’s like years compressed into three months and the most time and cost-effective way to learn the fundamentals of a career in tech.”

She tells the story of a cohort mate of hers who skipped university altogether opting for Codesmith instead, and transitioned straight into the tech industry.

“We thought it was a really smart approach to get into tech on a shorter timeline and while avoiding expenses of a four-year college.”

“Codesmith’s curriculum is building projects from start to finish, thinking how to build them, and with which tools. That really models a Senior SWEs job”

What Makes a Senior Engineer Versus a Junior Engineer

Titles vary from company to company, so often the terms senior, mid, and junior provide little clarity. But for Jenna, an engineer’s capacities and qualities are what truly define their level, even if that isn’t always reflected in their job title.

“A senior engineer is autonomous. Instead of being mentored, they can mentor others. They can lead projects from start to finish, researching which technologies make sense for each project.

“A junior engineer is someone who might already know a lot about different technologies, but might not know how to apply them in the best way.”

While acknowledging that all the resources to learn to code are freely available online, the program also provided the right pathway for Jenna to learn and make a smooth transition into tech. But it was the aspect of actively building that prepared her most for life as a senior engineer.

“Codesmith’s curriculum is building projects from start to finish, thinking how to build them, and with which tools. That really models a Senior SWEs job.”

Codesmith's focus on building autonomy though providing just enough guardrails to support residents, but not enough to make the process easy, helped build the resilience needed in senior engineers.

“Learning to fight through the struggles on your own, figuring out how to course correct quickly, and paving the right path forward on a project, that whole process is something senior engineers go through.”

Although less dazzling, Jenna says she has even realized she has leant on logistical and managerial experience gained on the open source product portion of the program.

“Even from the product management standpoint, rather than just diving in and building things, writing out tickets, planning project stages, and planning the approach. That’s what we did at Codesmith and I still do it today.”

Codesmith alum and Apple Senior Software Engineer, Jenna Davis at her home office work setup 

“Large companies will always want engineers across the board, but you can get a pulse on what the industry is looking for and where it is headed by checking what small to mid-sized companies are looking for”

Get a Pulse On Hiring Trends By Following What Mid And Small-Sized Companies Are Looking For

The tech recession of 2022-23, followed by the rise of new AI and ML tools, changed how many people feel about moving into software engineering.

However, Jenna wants aspiring engineers to see the possibilities brought about by new tools and to find success in employment by adapting to the ever-changing shape of the tech industry.

“There will definitely be certain aspects of technology — the more tedious tasks — that will be taken over by ML. But that's not something that should deter you from getting into technology. It should excite you,” she says.

This follows the thinking of many experienced engineers who want people to understand that the only threat posed by new tools is to those who don’t learn to use and integrate them into their work, expediting low-level work and allowing engineers to take a bird’s eye view of their project.

"Certain aspects of technology — the more tedious tasks — will be taken over by ML. But that's not something that should deter you from getting into technology. It should excite you

While the rollout of new technologies is seemingly endless, Jenna says that since she graduated the stacks she has used are still largely the ones Codesmith used as a basis to prepare cohorts to teach themselves new languages after graduating.

“Throughout my career most of the tooling has been in JavaScript, Typescript and React. But it’s true that the more frameworks you play around with, even if you’re not using them extensively, the easier it becomes to pick up new ones.”

With the tech hiring market markedly changed since the tech recession of 2022-23 Jenna advises engineer’s to “get a pulse on what companies are looking for now.” 

With AI and ML undeniably piquing many companies’ interests, it’s important to “follow the industry’s trajectory, where are the trends going and where it makes sense to follow with skills to learn.”

She says residents and recents grads should do career searches for the mid to smaller sized companies to see what they are looking for, as “large companies will always want engineers across the board, but you can get a pulse on what the industry is looking for and where it is headed by checking what small to mid-sized companies are looking for.”