JAKE FLYNT
Software Engineer & Music Producer
I grew up in a prototypical suburban neighborhood just a few miles south of historic Saratoga Springs, NY. As a kid, I was always fascinated with creating things, and I expressed my creativity through drawing as well as building with Legos and K'Nex.
As I got older, I got into creating things on the computer, like editing videos that I had shot with my brothers, and later, creating music with digital audio workstations like FL Studio.
In high school, I took a few technology classes where I tried some rudimentary web development and game creation. I got accepted off of the wait list into my dream school, the University of Notre Dame, but wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to study. But when it came time to decide on a major, I figured my interest in learning about how computer programs worked was enough reason to at least consider computer science. I ended up sticking with it even though there were times I thought it was too much to handle. When I graduated in 2014, I started work as an Application Developer at JPMorgan Chase in downtown Manhattan.
For the past six years, I've lived in Hoboken, NJ across the Hudson River from Manhattan. It's convenient to get into the city for work and meeting up with friends, while giving me more space for my the inevitably steep rent. While I do want to live in the city at some point, I've got no regrets in choosing Hoboken, and I've been able to have a great experience while saving a little more money.
My full résumé can be found here
My career started at JPMorgan Chase in 2014. I was hired as an Application Developer, having completed a summer internship the year prior. During my time at JPMC, I worked for various teams in the Consumer & Community Banking line of business. Some of my early work there was actually in a project manager role, working with development managers to identify and fix issues in their applications that broke our internal IT policies for security or performance. While this wasn't exactly the type of work I expected to do, it helped give me a clearer view of the organization and the shear number of applications that were needed to keep things running properly. I was able to meet several senior developers and managers, and I built a network that allowed me to transition to a more solidified role as a developer about six months after I started.
I worked on an internal home-grown customer relationship management platform known as Chase Connect. Connect was a web application was used by Business Bankers to manage their customers and prospects and make sales. During my time on this project, I wrote several components in AngularJS and HTML. About three years into that project, we were tasked with transitioning the rapidly-aging custom CRM platform to the industry standard Salesforce.
I began learning the platform and getting certified, spending more than a year rolling out the first phase of the brand new Salesforce org. I was able to be a key part of the architect and design discussions, drawing on my new but quickly growing skill set. After a bit more time there, I realized that there were plenty of opportunities elsewhere to improve my skills and take on a new challenge. Salesforce was growing and the need for engineers who were knowledgeable of the intracacies of working with it was too.
In July of 2019, I ended up at WeWork. There, I've been able to further improve my Salesforce development abilities, working on several of the newest style UI components, Light Web Components. I've also continued to learn about automated processes and have written many complex triggers in an already robust org. While my time at WeWork has been encompassed in the instability of the future of the company and the coworking industry as a whole, I enjoy the role, and being able to constantly learn new things to help me take the next step in my career.
After a little over a year at WeWork, I found myself needing another change for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was to find a new challenge while continuing to expand my skillset. In a fairly big move for me, I decided to dive into consulting in September 2020, joining a small Salesforce-focused consultancy called Copilot. At Copilot, I am taking on a role as a Technical Architect, overseeing the design and implementation of a variety of projects for venture capital and financial services clients.
A comprehensive EPK can be found here
Music has always been an important part of my life. Starting in elementary school choir, I discovered the impact that music can have on people and the love that I had for it. When I entered high school and discovered digital audio workstations like FL Studio, I knew I wanted to produce.
My history of production involves many different genres, as I've mostly taken influence from artists I've been into at a given time. My earliest experiments in high school were directly influenced by Basshunter. When I attended the University of Notre Dame, I was introduced to dubstep by a friend and fellow producer, and I tried my hand at that genre for a few years, but never quite got the hang of the right sound.
After graduating in 2014, I began working in New York City as a software engineer, but kept production as a hobby for nights and weekends. I soon found the influence of the Tropical House wave of 2015, emulating Kygo and Matoma. Soon after the trend died down, I got more into hip-hop, working on tracks inspired by Wiz Khalifa tracks that were produced by Id Labs.
Most recently, I've been focused on creating lo-fi hip-hop beats and chilled out jazz-influenced instrumentals, drawing on my constant stream of artists like Philanthrope, SwuM, and Blue Wednesday during my day job writing software. In the future, I hope to keep learning and growing as an artist, continuing to experiment with new genres while remembering my roots.
My music is available anywhere you stream or purchase music. Any and all support in spreading my work and growing my fanbase is greatly appreciated.
