Nick Hayes

Lead Immersive Instructor, General Assembly

London

IN CONVERSATION WITH NICK:

What is your favorite technical skill to work with on your own projects and why?

I'm really excited by AI-assisted development and the potential there!

What is your favorite technical skill to teach to students and why?

I’m really enjoying teaching TypeScript, which I usually find time to include in the bootcamps I teach. It's great to learn because it has students think more deeply about what the data "really is" that they're dealing with in their programs, which leads to a deeper understanding of what's really going on.

I also really love running debugging workshops for students. There's nothing like diving into the weeds with a new framework and doing some detective work to understand all the common errors that framework throws at you.

What is most important to you about teaching technical skills at General Assembly?

I love to relate in a personal way with each students, acknowledging their own unique way of learning and way that connect ideas in their minds. There's something very satisfying about supporting someone in refining their mental model of how a tool or piece of software really works.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to learn technical skills to reach new career goals?

Especially in the age of AI, its much more important now to focus on your fundamental understanding. Focus on foundational concepts and core skills, rather than a specific framework, and try to grasp the deeper patterns.

What would you like to highlight about your experience in your technical domain outside of teaching?

I started my career at a large financial organisation, and then did a leap into the health-tech industry in London for a number of years. In that time I grew from a junior engineer to managing a frontend team. In recent years I've seen my interests transition more and more to backend and system architecture, and this has happened quite organically as I've been teaching over the years.

In parallel to teaching at GA since 2019, I've also been facilitating retreats and transformational events (think group meditation practices around deep human connection), and my sweet spot is where I can support people not just "what" they learn but "how" they learn and to bring more light and presence to their learning process itself.