Gaining Experience at Thomas College Web Director | May 11, 2016

Zak Kennedy ’16 didn’t expect to have many work opportunities at Thomas College while studying for his Computer Science degree.

Kennedy worked at the service desk, for IT services, as a computer and science tutor and in the web department.

“I had the chance to meet every single person at the college through my work,” he said.

Without this experience, Kennedy is not sure if he would have been offered such a high-paying job right out of college.

On June 6, Kennedy will start his career as an Associate Software Developer for Tyler Technologies at their Falmouth branch. The company creates for a wide-range of public sector entities such as the State, schools and hospitals; Kennedy will be working on developing those softwares.

“Employers were very impressed that I was a part of building the Thomas College website,” he said. “I could show them [the site] as an example of my development skills.”

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Kennedy, from a small town called Springfield, ME, ended up choosing Thomas because of a substantial academic scholarship, and because of Thomas’s close knit community and the professors’ open-door policy.

Kennedy said that through a mix of his computer classes and his jobs on campus, he was able to learn a lot of the stuff he will be using for his new job. He has learned everything from programming and coding to software development and data structures and patterns.

“The opportunities that I have been given here would have been completely different at any other college.”

Kennedy said in addition to work opportunities, he found a lot of value in the knowledge of his professors.

He said each of his professors have added something different to his education.

“My advisor, Professor Grady, has been a very big help to get me to the point where I am hirable and feel confident about my knowledge,” he said. “Professor Wilkins was great because he had so much experience with the development field. And Professor Appunn was really interesting to hear on the business side, instead of the development side.”

Kennedy said he was hoping to be at this point at the end of his time at Thomas College, but he never expected to have gotten such a nice offer.

“The job that I ended up getting has way more benefits than I expected. I had expected a standard, low-paying job out of college, but I got something that was really great – and I have Thomas College to thank in part for that.”