One Up Internship Leads to Full-Time Coding Job for Pike Countian Nathaniel Smith

In the fall of 2021 Nathaniel Smith was looking to leverage his training in software development into steady employment, and he hoped to begin his career without having to leave his native Pike County. He knew it wasn’t going to be an easy search at first, but thanks to a new internship program called One Up, he was able to accomplish both of his goals.

Nathaniel Smith at his work station at the Bit Source office in Pikeville, Ky.

“There’s a lot of IT jobs around here if you want to do security or networking, but I had never heard of many sort of software development or programming companies here,” Smith said, adding that he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to remain in Pike County and land a coding job. 

But starting his career close to home was important to him, and when Smith graduated from Big Sandy Community and Technical College (BSCTC) he was ready to put his degree in information technology (IT) to use. He had coding skills and was eager to begin using them to earn a living, so when he learned that a software development firm called Bit Source was in business in nearby Pikeville, he quickly contacted the company to inquire about job openings. Formed in 2014, Bit Source develops websites and mobile applications from scratch, and also offers products including complex database solutions.

Smith received an invitation to meet with the company’s team in Pikeville, and it was during this meeting that he also learned about a new paid internship opportunity called One Up that could allow him to begin development work and possibly lead to a job.

The One Up internship program is an initiative of Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP) available to college students and recent graduates within EKCEP’s 23-county service area. One Up provides real-world learning opportunities on the job site that could transition to full-time employment. The program considers participants’ career interests and actively works to pair them with host employers in their career field of choice. 

Following his meeting at Bit Source, Smith filled out an online application for One Up, and it wasn’t long before he was working with Joey Osborne with the Big Sandy Area Kentucky Career Center JobSight to confirm his eligibility for the program and to formally connect him with the internship. 

A partner in the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, Big Sandy provides Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) services in Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin, Martin, and Pike counties under contract with EKCEP. Those services include programs for adults, dislocated workers, and youth between the ages of 16 and 24.

“It was an easy process,” Smith said, adding that he would meet with Osborne every two weeks to go over his progress. “They got back with me fairly quickly and worked with me every step of the way,”

In just a couple of weeks Smith was at the Bit Source office in Pikeville, first working on small computer coding projects but becoming increasingly busy as he progressed during the six-month internship period.

“As we went on they gave me more responsibilities, and days and weeks went by and it ended up culminating with me doing sort of app development, mobile development for phones, and I ended up doing administrative website development as well,” Smith said. 

Because the internship was a paid position and covered by funding from One Up, Smith said it took some pressure off and he was more able to concentrate on the work, knowing that he was making enough money to cover the cost of his drive into the office and then some. And the length of the internship—six months—gave him plenty of time to show the management what he could do as a coder. 

“It was a very generous time to be in an internship,” he said. “I would say that was one of the key factors that helped me get my position, because it allowed me to show my skills over a longer period of time. It was not just a flash in the pan, one project and you’re out. It was project after project, and they were constantly seeing, not only can he do Python, but also C#, networking, and had computer skills.” 

Smith’s time as an intern at Bit Source was not only valuable in allowing him the opportunity to use his training and show his skills as a coder, but it helped him transition from an intern to a full-time employee when he was offered a junior coder position at the firm in the spring of 2022. Smith said he’s not only happy to be able to work in his career field of choice, but to do so in his native Eastern Kentucky. 

“I wanted to definitely start my career here if I could, but you don’t hear about software development here, so I was thinking, what’s next, Lexington or Louisville, or even Tennessee or Ohio?” he recalled, adding that when he received the offer for full-time employment, it was an easy decision to accept it.

Today, Smith is spending his days writing code for Bit Source, a position that he says was made possible after deciding to apply for a One Up internship, something he would recommend to anyone else in a similar position. 

“That six-month time space was a very generous amount of time. The fact that it was paid was another great benefit,” Smith said. “I would absolutely recommend it.”

To learn more about One Up and eligibility guidelines, or to apply for an internship, visit www.ekcep.org/one-up.

EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. The agency provides an array of workforce development services and operates the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to more than a dozen state and federal programs that offer employment and training assistance for jobseekers and employers all under one roof. Learn more about us at http://www.ekcep.org, http://www.jobsight.org and http://www.facebook.com/ekcep.