Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Corbin Fonville worked in hiring and acquisition for the tech industry. Regardless of experience or skillsets, it surprised Fonville how uncommon it was for applicants to have a portfolio or even examples of their work. Whether they didn’t have career-relevant projects in school, or didn’t have a way to display them, Fonville decided to help provide a solution for both needs.
He started by founding Skillquest, an e-learning platform designed to teach users valuable career skills through coding camps, tutorials and one-on-one tutoring. His approach was partially designed with gamers in mind. In fact, it was through MNCS, a Minnesota-based gaming championship series, where Fonville first met the intern he would hire to help develop his next endeavor.
How to add value
Ben Nylund is studying computer science at the University of Minnesota. As a web application engineering intern at Skillquest, Nylund was tasked with building out 1Portfolio, a subscription-based website designed to showcase personal and professional coding projects. Drawing from his desktop and web development experience in school, Nylund then used Bubble, a visual programming language, to further build and customize the site.
“Ben took us from where we were, which was basically just a functioning product, to a fully-fledged platform,” Fonville said proudly. “He has been really vital in the realization of 1Portfolio.”
While working on this project, Nylund was given the autonomy to make his own decisions, while also receiving regular encouragement and support from Fonville and the Skillquest team whenever he needed it. Fonville recalled the mundane busywork he received as an intern and wanted an internship at his company to be different.
“If you’re asking someone to spend time working with you, you should have a need for that person and you should be asking them to add value,” he said.
Show your work
That level of trust and opportunity turned out to be a recipe for success. The 1Portfolio platform that Nylund created is now live and open to the public.
Tech professionals can sign up and build out their online portfolio, highlighting their coding, programming, web/ app designs and so much more, all in one place. As an added bonus, SciTech users and program partners can use the code scitech10 at checkout to receive 10 percent off a one-year subscription!
Inside and out
Nylund has a year left of school before he graduates. He’s going back this fall with a more robust understanding of web development, and a completed project to add to his portfolio.
“I’ve learned a lot,” Nylund said. “Normally I’m in the code but now I’m outside of it too, looking at it from a different perspective. Getting to know the code like that is a great experience to have.”
Get involved!
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