The freeCodeCamp Podcast 40853

In this episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with developer advocate Alejandra Olvera-Novack about how she broke free from her restrictive cult upbringing, moved to the United States, and taught herself how to code. Alejandra was raised without technology, without formal schooling, and in an extremely conservative environment. When she was in her late teens, she left her village and moved to Florida.  After a couple years of googling everything under the sun to catch up on the world's events, and trying to attend college, she ran out of money. Since she was alone - having cut all ties with her family - she took a leap of faith, moved to Seattle, WA, and started looking for work. She worked odd jobs for a while, but quickly realized she'd need something more to survive and thrive. So she started to learn about HTML and CSS, something she never thought she could do. Fast-forward a couple years later, and she was working her way up to a job at Amazon Web Services. Today, Alejandra works with robots, helps developers be as happy and productive as possible at AWS, and runs the non-profit she founded that teaches women, minorities, and disabled how to code for free. She manages her anxiety and PTSD with the help of a service dog and some really great mentors and friends, and she still can hardly believe she's living her dream. Find Alejandra on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/QuetzalliAle Visit her website here: https://alejandraquetzalli.com/ Check out SheCodesNow, Alejandra's non-profit here: https://twitter.com/shecodesnow Find Abbey on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn

Ep. 65: CodeNewbie founder talks about her immigrant story and her journey into tech

In this episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with freelance Ruby on Rails developer Colleen Shnettler about how she switched from electrical engineering to development, how she founded her business, and how she makes time for kids and family - among many other things.

In this episode, Beau chats with Jesse Weigel, who live streams on the freeCodeCamp.org YouTube channel and is a Senior Software Engineer at DICK'S Sporting Goods. He talks about his career path, live streaming, getting a developer job, speaking at conferences, React Native, dealing with mental health issues, and more.    Jesse's career has benefited a lot by live streaming. He talks about the benefits and offers suggestions for other people who want to get started with it.   Jesse currently builds progressive web apps with React and GraphQL. He talks about why more people should be using React Native for their projects. He also talks about getting the confidence to speak at conferences and offers some tips that helped him deal with mental health issues.   Find Jesse on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JesseRWeigel   Find Beau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnesBeau  

Ep. 62: How Kate Illsley learned to code and got involved in her local tech community

Tim Myers is a developer from Denver. In the 1990s he finished high school and immediately enlisted in the US Army. When he got out, he started coding. He was working as a developer at an ing firm when he got into a drunken brawl and ended up injuring somebody. Tim was convicted of 2nd degree assault and got a 12 year prison sentence. He earned his college degree entirely while in prison, and was released after 8 years for good behavior. He spent the next 3 years working various jobs like fast food while studying to get back into software development. And for the past 4 years, he's worked as software developer at several Denver companies. In today's episode, Quincy interviews Tim about his journey from convicted felon to developer and family man. Follow Tim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/denvercoder Follow Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia Help our community spread the word the old fashion way - tell a friend about this podcast.

Tim Myers is a developer from Denver. In the 1990s he finished high school and immediately enlisted in the US Army. When he got out, he started coding. He was working as a developer at an ing firm when he got into a drunken brawl and ended up injuring somebody. Tim was convicted of 2nd degree assault and got a 12 year prison sentence. He earned his college degree entirely while in prison, and was released after 8 years for good behavior. He spent the next 3 years working various jobs like fast food while studying to get back into software development. And for the past 4 years, he's worked as software developer at several Denver companies. In today's episode, Quincy interviews Tim about his journey from convicted felon to developer and family man. Follow Tim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/denvercoder Follow Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia Help our community spread the word the old fashion way - tell a friend about this podcast.

In this episode, Abbey interviews social engineering expert Rachel Tobac and learns how she transitioned from teaching to infosec by way of one exhilarating competition.  Growing up, Rachel’s family didn’t have normal dinner table conversations. Her father was in biomedical engineering, so their chats revolved around strange diseases and scary edge cases. So when Rachel went to college, she aimed to follow in her father’s footsteps. However, life had other plans, and she ended up becoming a teacher instead. But she wanted to do more than teach a small number of students – she wanted to help more people at scale. So she tried to figure out a way to do that.  After moving across the country to Silcon Valley and learning more about the world of tech, she stumbled upon her true calling (with a little nudge from her husband and now co-founder): social engineering. She took a trip to Defcon four years ago, won second place in a __ capture the flag hacking event, and she was hooked. She dove in head first, learned all she could about infosec, social engineering, and security, and never looked back. Now, she and her husband run Social Proof Security, the boutique educational security firm they founded two years ago, and boast some of the largest tech companies in the Valley as clients. Rachel is also chair of the board of the non-profit WISP (Women in Security and Privacy), helps get scholarships for women to attend Defcon each year, and travels and speaks at all kinds of conferences and events herself.  When she isn’t educating companies about making their processes safer, she’s traveling the world, thinking up new ways to hack, or staring at her rescue dog.  In this episode, you’ll learn all about Rachel’s somewhat meandering path into security, how she discovered her ion for educating teams about social engineering, what it takes to get into the field, and why she loves her job. Find Rachel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelTobac Check out Rachel's company: https://www.socialproofsecurity.com/ Learn more about DefCon: https://www.defcon.org/ Read up on WISP: https://www.wisporg.com/ Find Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn  

On this week's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Quincy interviews Shawn Wang (@swyx). We talk about "learning in public" and his transition into tech from finance, where he left behind a job that paid him US $350,000 per year. Shawn grew up in Singapore and came to the US as a college student. He worked in finance, but at age 30, he burned out. So he decided to learn to code. He used freeCodeCamp and a ton of other resources, and since then he's worked as a freelance developer, and at several companies including Netlify. Follow Shawn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/swyx Follow Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia Here are some links we discuss in the interview. Shawn's Projects: The official React subreddit that Shawn moderates: https://reddit.com/r/reactjs Shawn's article on No Zero Days: https://www.freecodecamp.org/forum/t/no-zero-days-my-roap-from-javascript-noob-to-full-stack-developer-in-12-months/164514 Job Search / Salary Negotation articles: Cracking the Coding Interview: https://fcc.im/2UihbNm Hasseeb Qureshi's story of getting a $250K/y developer job at Airbnb: https://haseebq.com/farewell-app-academy-hello-airbnb-part-i Steve Yegge's "Get that job at Google" essay: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-google.html Patrick McKenzie on Salary Negotiation https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ Quincy's recommended article: I spent 3 months applying to jobs after a coding bootcamp. Here's what I learned: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/9a07468d2331 Algorithm Expert: https://www.algoexpert.io Full Stack Academy https://www.fullstackacademy.com Shawn's Learn In Public movement: Shawn's Learn In Public essay https://gist.github.com/sw-yx/9720bd4a30606ca3ffb8d407113c0fe5?? Kent C Dodds' Zero to 60 in Software Development: How to Jumpstart Your Career https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qPh6I2hfjw&app=desktop?? Cory House on Becoming an Outlier: https://vimeo.com/97415346?? Brad Frost on Creative Exhaust: http://bradfrost.com/blog/post/creative-exhaust/?? Patrick McKenzie on the origin of the word "friendcatcher": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=511089?? Chris Coyier on "Working In Public": https://chriscoyier.net/2012/09/23/working-in-public/ Links to other things we discuss: Shawn's Software Engineering Daily Interview with Sacha Greif: https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2017/08/09/state-of-javascript-with-sacha-greif/?? The origin of No Zero Days: https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1q96b5/i_just_dont_care_about_myself/cdah4af/?? John Resig, creator of jQuery, telling his team to rip out jQuery: http://bikeshed.fm/180 ??Jeff Bezos' Two Pizza Team rule: https://buffer.com/resources/small-teams-why-startups-often-win-against-google-and-facebook-the-science-behind-why-smaller-teams-get-more-done?? Shawn's "You can learn so much on the internet for the low, low price of your ego" quote draws from Paul Graham's Keep Your Identity Small: http://paulgraham.com/identity.html?? Shawn's Impostor Syndrome Bootcamp Podcast: https://player.fm/series/impostor-syndrome?? TypeScript's growth via npm surveys: https://mobile.twitter.com/seldo/status/1088240877107965953

In this week's episode, Abbey interviews Ariel Leslie, a software developer with an interesting background (she was once a knife salesperson, among other things!) who lives and works in Colorado. While she can't discuss all the details of her super-secret job, she fills us in on how she got to where she is now. You'll hear about the benefits of her university degrees and how ive communities have helped her along the way, why she loves tough problems and how she battles her insecurities, and why she takes time to learn new things, like how to play the Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer. Ariel offers an interesting perspective on being a woman in tech, how various mentors have helped her become the developer she is today, and how she tackles imposter syndrome. Find Ariel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArielLeslie Find Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn  

Guest: Adam Hollett, developer at Shopify: https://twitter.com/hlt Host: Quincy Larson, the teacher who founded freeCodeCamp: https://twitter.com/ossia On today's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Quincy interviews Adam Hollett. He's a software developer at Shopify in Ottawa, Canada. Adam started building basic websites and forums when he was in high school, but he never saw coding as something he could do professionally. He got a degree in English Literature, worked in food prep, and taught at a community college. He later worked as a technical writer, and set his eyes on working at Shopify, a major Canadian tech company based in Ottawa. Adam was able to gradually to learn new tools on the job that helped him transition into a role as developer. We talk about Adam's journey - from meandering college student to software developer - and the many lessons he learned along the way.  

Guest: Adam Hollett, developer at Shopify: https://twitter.com/hlt Host: Quincy Larson, the teacher who founded freeCodeCamp: https://twitter.com/ossia On today's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Quincy interviews Adam Hollett. He's a software developer at Shopify in Ottawa, Canada. Adam started building basic websites and forums when he was in high school, but he never saw coding as something he could do professionally. He got a degree in English Literature, worked in food prep, and taught at a community college. He later worked as a technical writer, and set his eyes on working at Shopify, a major Canadian tech company based in Ottawa. Adam was able to gradually to learn new tools on the job that helped him transition into a role as developer. We talk about Adam's journey - from meandering college student to software developer - and the many lessons he learned along the way.  

On today's episode of the freeCodeCamp.org podcast, Abbey chats with Jennifer Bland, a Google Developer Expert, software engineer, prolific speaker, entrepreneur, and world traveler. You'll learn how Jennifer got into tech (twice!), what she's working on now, and how she helps many different communities of developers learn and grow. Find Jennifer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ratracegrad Check out Jennifer's podcast: https://www.codeprep.io/podcast/ A bit more about Jennifer: Jennifer Bland is a senior software engineer out of Atlanta, Georgia. Jennifer has a fascinating background - she started in tech at an early age after studying computer science in school, but then left the field, worked elsewhere, and retired at the age of 51. Once she had some time to explore other interests, she rediscovered programming - through a JavaScript book on the clearance table at a local bookstore. A number of years later, she's now working on some very exciting tech at Stanley, Black and Decker, she's an extremely active volunteer in her local tech community, she's on the leadership team for Women who Code Atlanta chapter, she speaks at numerous conferences, and she's recently become a Google Developer expert! So in this episode, you'll hear about how she got to where she is, what she's ionate about, and her advice for getting into tech, conquering those pesky whiteboard interviews, how to network if you're an introvert (like she is) and much more...

On this episode of the freeCodeCamp.org podcast, Abbey chats with Lauren Mayers, a web developer working in Ottowa, Canada. Lauren hasn't always lived in North America, however - she's from Australia - and hasn't always been in tech. We'll hear about how she transitioned from being a ed nurse into the world of coding, how she moved halfway around the world, why she loves the open source community, and what she's learned along the way...among many other things.

On today's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with  Tracy Lee, a prolific speaker, founder, JavaScript advocate, and open-source enthusiast. Tracy is a Google Developer Expert and the founder of This Dot. She organizes numerous meetups, runs the Modern Web podcast, and is on the RxJS core team. Tracy will share with us how she got into tech, what she's ionate about, and how you can become a badass person in tech, too. Connect with Tracy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ladyleet Connect with Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn Find Tracy on the web: https://www.thisdot.co/ Learn to code for free: https://www.freecodecamp.org/  

Zubin Pratap is a corporate lawyer who taught himself to code using freeCodeCamp.org and other learning resources. Zubin develops software in Melbourne, Australia. He's a lover of hackathons and competed in freeCodeCamp's first hackathon at GitHub headquarters last November. Follow Zubin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZubinPratap Follow Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia The following is a note from Zubin himself about a course he just launched. Note that freeCodeCamp.org does not receive any benefit from this, and has not reviewed his course - we just want to help him publicize it. --- Zubin was a non-technical person for a long time, and set a goal to become his own tech cofounder. But he quit from discouragement twice.  It was much harder than it should've been, and Zubin put together a course on all the things he wish he'd known and all the techniques that made him not quit the third time. In 3 hours you can learn the roap that could save you months, thousands of dollars, and a lot of stress. For podcast listeners, Zubin has a special promotion. The first 20 people to buy the course on Udemy before the end of March can get it for free using the Promo Code: FCC_FREE_PROMO   Course link: https://www.udemy.com/how-not-to-quit-coding/   If you're not among the first 20, the next 50 can get it before April 30 at the discounted rate of US$10, using the Promo Code: FCC_PROMO_50   If you're a later listener, get in touch at the webform on https://matchfitmastery.weebly.com, and mention FCC in the message to get a discount code.

Abbey and Quincy talk about the freeCodeCamp podcast itself, and the new weekly episodes starting on Monday. Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia Links mentioned: The article Quincy mentioned: "The best podcasts for new coders, and the best tools for listening to them": https://fcc.im/2T2lMHT Tools: Listen Notes: https://listennotes.com Audacity: https://www.audacityteam.org Zencastr: http://zencastr.com Libsyn: https://libsyn.com

Abbey Rennemeyer interviews Erica Peterson, the founder of Moms Can: Code and Science Tots, and Founder Gym alumna.  Erica started her career in biology, but after being told that she should leave her graduate program once she became pregnant with her first child, she started to look for other options. Three years ago, inspired by her desire to understand how her children were learning, she founded Science Tots, a non-profit that helps introduce children to the world of STEM. And just over a year ago, Erica founded Moms Can: Code, an organization that helps mothers learn to code so they can both their children's learning and open new doors for themselves. In 2018, Erica has been a South By Southwest accelerator pitch finalist, Project Entrepreneur finalist, and Startup of the Year semifinalist - so it's been a busy year for her! Erica is extremely active in her local community, and spends a great deal of her time helping people learn. Today, she'll tell us all about how she got into the tech world, how and why she became a founder, and why being a mom who codes is so awesome. Interview by Abbey Rennemeyer: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn Erica Peterson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/foundermama Moms Can: Code website: https://www.momscancode.com/ Learn to code for free at: https://www.freecodecamp.org Intro music by Vangough: https://fcc.im/2APOG02

Quincy Larson interviews Sacha Greif, who's a designer, developer, and prolific open source project creator. Sacha created the Vulcan.js framework, the Sidebar.io daily design newsletter, and so many other important projects in the developer community. Most recently, Sacha started the State of JavaScript survey, where he asks developers a ton of questions about which web development tools they use. He just finished the third annual survey, and soon he'll release the results from the more than 20,000 developers who took the survey. Sacha grew up in Paris. His grandparents were Jewish refugees who fled to from Poland during World War II. Sacha's father was an author who wrote books about computers, and shared this ion with his son. Sacha has spent much of his adult life living abroad in China, Switzerland, and Japan. He and his wife currently live in Kyoto and they just had their first child. During this interview, Sacha talks about how he got his start as a professional developer in Beijing, then got deeper and deeper into interface design. He shares how his ion for both of these disciplines resulted in him creating so many important open source projects. Sacha also talks about how he followed in his father's footsteps and wrote the "Discover Meteor" book - the most popular resource for Meteor.js - and how the book's financial success helped bankroll his other projects. Sacha Greif is one of the most prolific developers I know. And it was a blast getting to learn more about his coding journey. So without further ado, here's Sacha. Interview by Quincy Larson: https://twitter.com/ossia Sacha Greif on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SachaGreif   Sacha's personal website with links to many of his projects: http://sachagreif.com/   Learn to code for free at: https://www.freecodecamp.org Intro music by Vangough: https://fcc.im/2APOG02

Quincy Larson interviews Lyle Troxell, who's a senior software engineer at Netflix. Lyle has hosted his own technology radio show for the past 18 years, and now he hosts the official Netflix podcast, too. Lyle's parents were artists and a part of the 1960s hippy movement. Lyle didn't enjoy school, and in middle school he dropped out so he could focus on learning math and electronics. He eventually went to community college, got a 2-year degree, and did some basic web design work at a few companies during the dot com boom of the late 1990s. Lyle spent the next 11 years as a teacher and at University of California in Santa Cruz. Eventually he decided he wanted get into software development. He was able to dust off his skills and through a remarkable series of events get a software engineer job at Netflix. Lyle and Quincy have known one another for years and had a lot to talk about, including the story behind how he built Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's personal website. Interview by Quincy Larson: https://twitter.com/ossia Lyle Troxell on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lyle   Lyle's 18-year running tech podcast: https://geekspeak.org   The "Wat?" talk Lyle mentions: https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat   Learn to code for free at: https://www.freecodecamp.org Intro music by Vangough: https://fcc.im/2APOG02