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Matt Eva

Software Engineer and Technical Writer

Hi there! I’m Matt. I’m a career changer from editing and content writing to software engineering and technical writing.

Throughout my life, I’ve straddled the bridge between “left-brain” and “right-brain” pursuits and career aspirations. I started my college journey as a Physics major, but graduated with a B.A. in English Literature.

After dedicating my early twenties to my dream of writing fiction, I found myself missing the satisfaction of concrete problem solving and analytical thinking. I started teaching myself to code, motivated by the desire to build my own websites and applications, and found programming to be the perfect synthesis of creative system design and analytical problem solving.

At that time, I was working as a marketing copywriter, content writer, and editor for various tech companies located in the San Francisco Bay Area. After discovering my love for programming, I realized I wanted a deeper understanding of how the tech tools I was writing about were built! At that point, I decided to make a full career transition into programming, and enrolled in Flatiron School’s Full Stack Software Engineering program.

Toward the end of the program, my instructor suggested I apply for a teaching position at Flatiron School itself, after noticing how I engaged with my peers on our journey together through the program. I had always wanted to try teaching, and wanted to continue my own programming education, so I applied and was hired immediately after I graduated.

As it turns out, I absolutely loved teaching! It gave me an opportunity to meet so many different people from so many walks of life, and was both humbling and inspiring. Few experiences in life have been as rewarding as seeing students I taught go on to succeed in the industry and work as software engineers.

While teaching was deeply rewarding, I knew I wanted to move into an engineering or technical writing role where I could continue deepening my knowledge and skills. My teaching role was great for honing foundational programming principles, but there was only so much I was able to learn on the job. I spent many hours outside of work studying, researching, and coming up with supplemental content to teach to students, but I was and still am excited to do more hands-on learning.

When I was laid off from Flatiron School, I saw it as a great opportunity to improve my own skills, build projects that I’m passionate about, and move on to the next step in my career and my life. I’ve learned a ton over the last few months, and am excited to continue my growth in my next role!

Outside of work and programming, I still like to write fiction and read. I also love playing music, staying fit and active, meditating, and exploring new hobbies, activities, and topics. There is so much to do and so many things to learn! I still plan on writing my own novels, and am currently working on building my own suite of online platforms, which I hope to someday run as my own businesses. But in the meantime, I’m just excited to keep coding, learning, and trying new things!

  • I work hard, learn fast, and am highly adaptable.
  • I am diligent, conscientious, and a clear, effective communicator.
  • I have an immense desire to learn and grow.
  • I am patient and compassionate, and supportive of my peers and colleagues.
  • I take initiative, ask questions, and like having things to do and projects to work on.
  • I value differences in perspective, opinion, and experience.
  • I enjoy working both independently and in collaborative environments.
  • I like writing technical documentation and am passionate about good documentation. (Yes, really!)
  • I have big goals and aspirations that fuel my passion for programming and my hunger for learning and growth.
  • I'm friendly and I like people :). Don't be afraid to reach out or say hi, even if you don't have a job for me!

student names have been kept anonymous to respect their privacy

"Matt Eva is the best possible Instructor I could have worked with in phase 1. He is an excellent teacher. He always started at ground zero with the material, which was crucial for our learning process.""

"I loved working with Matt. He does an amazing job breaking down and explaining tricky concepts and I have no doubt that he is crucial to the ongoing success of our cohort."

"Matt is amazing. He is such a solid coach, and is very good at teaching."

"A day without Matt's Study Hall is like a day without sunshine. Fantastic teacher, can't put a high enough score on that. Matt is a top performer, A plus with distinction!"

"Matt is a great technical coach and a great person. He has a knack for simplifying and breaking down complex concepts and I have no doubt that he was crucial to my success in this phase."

"Really enjoy how approachable Matt is and how easy it is to contact him!"

"Matt fostered a safe space for me to learn and ask questions, and does a really great job of asking questions to encourage us to think critically by guiding us to the answer instead of giving us the answer."

"Really loved getting Matt's insight and found the 1 on 1s and study halls very helpful!"

"Matt does amazing work with clarifying concepts and ideas that helps us understand our code a lot more easier and readable as well. He is super helpful and patience regarding my concerns and situations."

"I appreciate Matt's patience and flexibility. He's been a big help."

"Matt moved slowly and ensured that questions were addressed and students were respected. He made space for even the most introverted of us."

"Matt is FANTASTIC! He consistently does a great job breaking down the concepts in simple to comprehend language and provide encouragement along the way."

"very resourceful and patient."

"I really enjoyed all instructional time with Matt. He was very informative and willing to take the time to explain concepts with as much depth as needed. Matt is really detail-oriented."

"Matt is great. He does a great job at helping you think logically through the problem you are faced with and not just giving you the answers. He listens to what you are trying to accomplish and then helps guide you to the best answer."

"Everyone has been great but I have to specifically point out that Matt has been beyond incredible to learn from. He never gives me the full answer but always perfectly helps lead me in the direction I need to go, he is extremely patient and understanding, I couldn't have imagined a better fit for his role."

"Matt has been awesome. He's gone out of his way to help and has been a great resource up to this point."

"Matt has always been so helpful, both in terms of helping us with problems that we bring to him, and also introducing new ideas that can improve our programs for next time. His commitment to the Socratic method means that we have more of a sense of ownership over what we have done. "

"Matt is amazing and helped me learn so much. especially Matts study hall sessions and the way he breaks things down."

"Matt was a phenomenal resource! His study-halls and 1:1 meetings were extremely helpful with solidifying my learning. I felt more comfortable asking questions in the smaller group setting compared to during lectures. "

"Study halls are extremely helpful and Matt does a great job explaining and listening to what people are struggling with, while teaching with patience. "

"I attended every study hall/demo put on by Matt. He was outstanding as a teacher, having an excellent pace of speech while still taking time to check for understanding. He was always willing to answer questions and encouraged us as students to ask them. The first 2 weeks of Phase 1 were incredibly challenging for me, and I can honestly say that I would not have been able to continue with the program without the help of Matt."

Tools and Technologies

Programming Languages

JavaScript / TypeScript, Python, Ruby.

Frontend Tools and Frameworks

HTML, CSS, React, Redux, React-Router

Backend Tools and Frameworks

Nodejs, Express, Flask, Ruby on Rails

Databases

Relational Databases (SQL), Neo4j (Cypher), MongoDB, Cassandra

Developer Tools

Git / GitHub

Learning

Docker, Java, Go

Topics of Interest

System Architecture and Design, Scalability, Distributed Systems, Databases, Database Modeling and Design, Database Sharding, Database Clustering, Horizontal Scaling.

Recent Work Experience

Associate Instructor, Software Engineering

  • Taught Front End and Full Stack Web Development to Amazon Career Choice software engineering students.
  • Taught JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React, Python, Flask, SQL, and SQLAlchemy.
  • Helped organize and architect the program, including coordinating communication with over 500 students, setting up assignment scheduling and lecture pacing, and contributing toward communication and educational pedagogy for our team.
  • Regularly met with students in one-on-one and group environments to answer questions, instill programming best practices, and teach essential developer skills, like debugging, time management, and research.
  • Researched and authored a rewrite of Flatiron School's material on React Router and client-side routing to transition from React Router v5 to the latest version of React Router v6.
  • Contributed to ongoing efforts of curriculum maintenance by raising, reviewing, and implementing changes for issues and pull requests on GitHub.

Technical Coach, Software Engineering

  • Worked closely with Flatiron School students in one-on-one and group environments to cover fundamental programming concepts in an approachable and in-depth manner.
  • Taught JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React, Ruby, SQL, Sinatra, and Ruby on Rails.
  • Led review sessions covering foundational programming concepts such as OOP, Relational Databases, MVC architecture, REST APIs, and SPAs, as well as additional topics such as responsive, mobile-first design, user authorization and authentication, and client-side routing.
  • Independently wrote and developed supplemental readings and lectures on topics including CSS Flexbox, Grid, and Media Queries as well as React application structure and state management with tools like useContext, Recoil, and Redux Toolkit.
  • Helped design and organize the pacing and structure of Flatiron's Live Remote assignment schedule and contributed to Flatiron's pedagogy, teaching model, and course philosophy.

Projects

Main

Connect:

GitHub Website
  • Connect is a social media application for finding and forming connections, chatting, and sharing posts.
  • It was built with TypeScript, Express, Nodejs, React, React-Router, Redux-Toolkit, Socket.io, CSS, Express-Session, Redis, Neo4j, MongoDB, and Cassandra.
  • It's currently deployed on Render.
  • It's set up as a Progressive Web App. It's installable, and has notifications enabled.

Sandbox

FreeCreate (Beta):

GitHub
  • FreeCreate is a content sharing platform for all forms of media.
  • This version is a prototype built with Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, React, React-Router, Redux-Toolkit, Bootstrap, CSS, and Cloudinary.
  • The future version of FreeCreate will focus primarily on hosting writing first, and is being designed with scalability as a top priority. It's currently under development!

Blogs

Coming soon!