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AAA Game Programmer Helping Visual Learners Succeed
Liam S.

4.9 (90 ratings)

254 hours tutoring

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Hourly Rate: $55
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Response time: 14 minutes

About Liam

Bio

Hi! I graduated from Sonoma State University (SSU) with a B.S. in Computer Science with a 3.7 CS GPA. These days, I work in a C++ codebase for a game engine at a AAA video game company. I thoroughly enjoy this line of work, but I've always had a soft spot for tutoring!

While I was getting my degree, I spent a lot of my free time helping other CS students. I realized I enjoyed helping others with coding assignments, so I eventually worked at SSU for 1 year as an Embedded Computer Science...

Hi! I graduated from Sonoma State University (SSU) with a B.S. in Computer Science with a 3.7 CS GPA. These days, I work in a C++ codebase for a game engine at a AAA video game company. I thoroughly enjoy this line of work, but I've always had a soft spot for tutoring!

While I was getting my degree, I spent a lot of my free time helping other CS students. I realized I enjoyed helping others with coding assignments, so I eventually worked at SSU for 1 year as an Embedded Computer Science Lab Tutor, where my job was to rotate around a lab classroom with 20 -- 30 students working on a coding assignment, helping each of them get unstuck and answering their questions. Working with so many students at once helped me learn how to adjust my teaching style for different levels of experience and learning/communication styles. I got to experience tutoring in person as well as over Zoom at this job, since I was hired before the pandemic.

When I was learning various coding disciplines, such as Web and Mobile, I often felt uncertain about whether I was using the right framework, using the available API's correctly, or if I was unintentionally reinventing the wheel, or if I was learning skills that would be relevant to industry jobs. I also found many online tutorials confusing or misleading. I want to help students working on side projects to answer these questions and make sure that they're on the right track to learn critical skills that will help them in their careers.

I try to carry forward what I learned at my previous tutoring job into my tutoring on Wyzant. I hope to help new programmers get unstuck on hard coding problems, feel less confused, find new project ideas to help them gain experience, and narrow down what type of coding career is right for them.

Throughout all of my tutoring experience, I have felt that I'm passionate about helping people better understand software and programming. I hope to find other motivated learners on Wyzant with whom I can share my knowledge and experience!

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Education

Sonoma State University
Computer Science

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Approved Subjects

C#

C#

As an experienced C/C++ programmer, I was able to pick up C# quickly when I was first introduced to it. I used the language intermittently for various personal and school projects during high school and college, but my first professional exposure to the language was at an internship where I was on a team developing ASP.NET Core MVC Web applications for a government organization. This work introduced me to how well-designed frameworks can administer high amounts of encapsulation, yielding a simple interface that can be used to author elegant application code. Additionally, the built-in serialization interfaces that come with the language helped me understand why C# was such a strong choice for web applications, which make heavy use of serialization to send data back to clients that request data from the web server. I currently work on a Triple-A MMO game for a Fortune 500 company which uses C# to build its content authoring tools for visual artists and game designers, and I spend a significant chunk of my weeks working in the C# codebase for those tools.
C++

C++

I learned C++ as my first programming language, and have used that language more than any other. Additionally, I took 10 different courses that were primarily taught using C++ while obtaining my Computer Science degree, which helped me explore the ins and outs of the language in a supervised environment where I could dig into any part of the language that I didn't fully understand and ask questions along the way. Later on, I worked for my school tutoring the introductory C++ course, helping students understand the core fundamentals of the language while simultaneously reinforcing that knowledge for myself. I now work full-time for a Fortune 500 company fixing bugs and implementing features in an industry-standard large-scale game engine's C++ codebase, working to modernize aging parts of the codebase using new language features and standard library functions.
UNIX

UNIX

I first started learning about UNIX in my bedroom when I was in high school; I was simply curious about how servers worked and how so much of the Internet could be running on an operating system that most people haven't even heard of. I setup a VMware ESXi virtualization host on an old desktop I had on hand and got some virtual machines running, but I wanted to know more about how real server administration work was done, so I attended an LPIC-1 Linux System Administration course and a Cisco Networking CCNA preparation course at a community college while I was still in high school. During this time, I built up strong foundational skills in this area that helped me weave common UNIX tools into my everyday work throughout my Computer Science major in addition to the further instruction on the topic that my major had to offer, often when I was not expressly instructed by professors to use UNIX to accomplish the task at hand. Additionally, I continued to broaden the purpose of my self-hosted servers while I was in school, experimenting with self-hosted file servers, game servers, media streaming servers, continuous integration servers, VPN servers, web development servers, jumpboxes to facilitate remote access through SSH tunneling, and much more! As a result of the broadly applicable nature of UNIX knowledge, I'm continuous to accumulate experience and exptertise in this field with every passing year, and I hope to share those things with others on Wyzant!
C
Computer Programming
SQL
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Response time: 14 minutes

Ratings and Reviews

Rating

4.9 (90 ratings)
5 star
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4 star
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3 star
(3)
2 star
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Reviews

Knowledgeable, patient, and friendly tutor

Liam took the time to go through complex tasks relating to the development of algorithms using C++. Throughout each session Liam displayed quick thinking while providing thorough explanations for the parts I found confusing. Liam helped me accomplish my tasks in a way that will aid in future assignments and projects.

Sean, 1 lesson with Liam

Very knowledgeable and helpful

Liam was willing to go through the logic if why I was doing what I was doing as well as helping me progress through an assignment. Highly recommend if you'd like a friendly tutor to help you understand key concepts in his preferred coding languages.

Camille, 1 lesson with Liam

Excellent tutor

It is great to share the subject covered and how you spent time with the student. Liam is an excellent tutor, being flexible and patient with a student. We look forward to working with him.

Makiko, 4 lessons with Liam

Very articulate and clear: I can tell he knew Unix in depth!

He helped me solve an SSH issue in a very short timeframe and I gained great contextual information to work on the problem. Very helpful and would recommend!

Liz, 1 lesson with Liam

Knowledgable and Patient

Liam was amazing and super helpful. He was very patient in looking through my code and helping me figure out my issues. I really appreciated his knowledge and helpfulness.

Bobbi, 1 lesson with Liam

The greatest person to help with your C++ assignments

He made C++ easy to understand. He is reliable, and professional, and helped me get a perfect score on my final project. One of the greatest tutors who helped me understand C++.

Marie, 1 lesson with Liam

Super easy to work with

Liam is sharp, explains things well, and is kind. I appreciated how engaged, in that we could discuss strategies on the best approach. I would use him again!

David, 1 lesson with Liam

Very Experienced

Liam is a very accomplished tutor and very knowledgeable in his field and can tackle difficult problems with ease. Liam thought me the proper way to use GDB to find bugs in a program.

Anisha, 2 lessons with Liam

awesome tutor

Fast response time, flexible on where to meet, and very patient I felt comfortable asking questions highly recommend I plan on having more sessions.

David , 2 lessons with Liam
Hourly Rate: $55
Response time: 14 minutes
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