We're Emma Bostian, Sidney Buckner, Kelly Vaughn, and Ali Spittel - four seasoned software developers working in different sectors. Since there's a major lack of technical podcasts out there, we've decided to start one. Just kidding -- there's already a ton! But, we wanted to add our voices to the space and share our experiences and advice. We'll have great discussions around how to start coding, the hot technologies right now, how to get your first developer job, and more! Check out our website!
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Hiring a Diverse Workforce
We’ve talked a lot about interviewing and getting hired in tech from the engineering perspective, and today we’re going to build on that. We have a special guest, Hilliary Turnipseed, the founder of Hill Street Strategies to talk about hiring from the recruiting perspective. She specializes in hiring and maintaining diverse teams. We also want to give a big shoutout to Black Girls Code, if you're able to, please donate! Show Notes 01:13 - Tell us about yourself! 08:37 - Tell us about Hill Street Strategies 23:12 - What advice would you give to someone who is looking to get their first role in tech? 35:09 - You focus a lot on hiring a diverse tech workforce, what advice would you give to a company trying to diversify their hiring? 42:42 - You are super involved with the DC tech community, why is that involvement so important to you? 48:48 - Where can people find you online? 50:06 - Shoutouts Resources from Hilliary Mental Health Rise by Jasmin Pierre & Jonathan Thompson Aweh Support Founder Mental Wealth Workplace Culture Work Bravely Empower Work Allyship Reads White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table Support Black-Owned Businesses In Common Job Boards Diversify Tech Women2 Books The Memo Resilient Management Hilliary's Contact Info Hilliary's website Hilliary's LinkedIn Hilliary's Twitter Mentioned in the Episode Human Design Chart Basic Concepts Explained of 4 Types Transcript
Black Lives Matter
Shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020, Louisville police entered the apartment of Breonna Taylor and Kenneth Walker using a battering ram to force open the door. Breonna Taylor was shot at least eight times and pronounced dead at the scene. No drugs were found in the apartment. June 5th would have been Breonna’s 27th birthday. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while he was handcuffed face down in the street. And for the past week and a half protest have been held throughout the world demanding justice for not just George Floyd, but all Black people murdered from police brutality. Police brutality is not new. It has been happening for many years as the result of systemic racism, and it must be stopped. Too many Black lives have been stolen at the hands of white police officers who walk away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Today we’re joined by Jocelyn Harper, host of the Git Cute Podcast to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and to learn more about how you can get involved.
Outliers
For the month of May we read "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. "Outliers" examines the factors which contribute to high-levels of success and while we often attribute success to circumstance today we’ll discuss our thoughts to see if we agree. Show notes 1:08 - What does it mean to be successful? 6:12 - How does privilege play into success? 22:12 - Practical intelligence versus analytical intelligence 30:52 - Our thoughts on the book Resources Outliers Nader Dabit's tweet Goodreads Group The Culture Map Open Book Commerce Tea Dave Ramsey Transcript We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here!
Networking
Today we're talking about routing and switching, starting with layer 1 of the OSI model. Let's dig in. JUST KIDDING I know nothing about that kind of networking, but we ARE talking about networking today! Networking is a great opportunity to meet new people in the same industry, learn new skills, and develop your career. This week we’re talking all things networking: why we network, how to network, and what to do if you’re really not that into networking. Let’s jump in!
Building Developer Communities
Developer community is centered around the idea of nurturing and amplifying community voices within a company and the head of developer community is responsible for leading this effort. Today we’re joined by Kim Maida, Head of Developer Relations and Community at Gatsby. We’ll discuss what her job entails, the ins and outs of developer advocacy, advice for someone looking to get into this field, and more. Show notes 2:34 - Can you tell us a bit about yourself? 3:27 - What does it mean to be the head of developer relations and community? 6:38 - What is devrel/dev advocacy? 10:45 - Do the skills vary between these 4 roles? What do you need to know? 13:25 - How can you build empathy into your content? 16:40 - Do you need to be a software engineer first? 19:32 - What is your advice for someone looking to get into your field? 24:55 - What’s your advice for becoming a better dev advocate? 29:56 - Where do you see the field going in the near future? How does the current COVID situation impact your day to day? 36:33 - Shoutouts Resources Gatsby Auth0 Kim’s twitter Compassionate coding April Wensel technicalinterviews.dev Transcript We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here!
Level up with JavaScript
JavaScript is notorious for being one of the most popular, yet also one of the most despised programming languages to learn, so today we’re covering some of the intermediate and advanced JavaScript concepts! We’ll discuss convoluted topics like generators, prototypal inheritance, and the rendering engine. Knowing intermediate JavaScript concepts like the call stack, context, scope, the prototype chain, higher order functions, async programming, and the event loop is invaluable and will help with learning frameworks. The fundamentals won't change even if the ecosystem does. Show notes 03:24 - Functional Programming vs OOP 06:28 - Prototypal inheritance 20:34 - Higher order functions 25:54 - Callback functions 27:10 - Closures 27:46 - Scope + Context 31:12 - Iterators & Generators 34:26 - Rendering engine 37:54 - Call Stack 40:33 - Event loop 43:39 - Throttle and debounce 46:21 - Asynchronous programming 52:09 - Hoisting 54:44 - Primitive vs reference 56:59 - Debugging 58:48 - Shoutouts Resources Functional Programming vs OOP Lydia Halle’s blog post on the prototype chain Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby Ali's What is Functional Programming? What Tamagotchis Can Teach You About ES6 Generators - Jenn Creighton CodeNewbie: How do Browsers Work? What the heck is the event loop anyway? - Philip Roberts Throttling and debouncing Debugging Episode
Advice to our Past Selves
Welcome to season 3 of the LB podcast. This season we’ll cover topics ranging from advanced JavaScript to networking. We’ll chat about Git & GitHub, making money outside your 9-5 job, and many more topics. For our first episode of this new season, we’ll be reminiscing about our coding history and discussing some advice we wished we had when learning to code ranging from asking more questions to negotiating job offers. Show notes 01:50 - Our stories 09:29 - Find a community 10:43 - Take breaks - you don’t have to code all the time 13:36 - Ask questions 16:50 - Overcome imposter syndrome 18:09 - Sharing your learning journey can help not only yourself but others too 20:24 - Surround yourself with people who support you 21:33 - Don’t get stuck in the cycle of tutorials 23:28 - Get comfortable with being uncomfortable 25:02 - Ask for feedback early and often 26:23 - Stop being such a perfectionist 28:06 - Document your learning journey 30:00 - Learn how to Google 31:45 - Different ways to learn 32:32 - Try to be honest w/ ur manager 34:42 - Celebrate your small wins 35:20 - Interview to challenge yourself 36:54 - Talk to people who have your dream job 38:04 - Negotiate offers 40:20 - You can be a people person in tech 41:40 - Don’t fall into shiny object syndrome 42:21 - You belong in the industry Resources Learning How to Learn episode Byteconf React Keynote FreeCodeCamp Moving Past Tutorials Cacher Stay Home Take Care Transcript We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here!
Web Developer Learning Path
There are so many ways to learn to code, and so many things to know. Today we’ll give our perspectives on different paths you can take. Whether you’re looking for your first dev job or you’re looking to advance your web development knowledge, we’ll be covering a ton of different options for you. 01:50 - What did we know before getting our first jobs? 06:40 - T-shaped knowledge 08:38 - HTML 14:07 - CSS 18:24 - JavaScript 25:00 - Backend 31:00- How the web works 32:15 - Testing 37:13 - Tooling 43:46 - Git 46:12 - Terminal 47:12 - Design patterns 48:26 - Data structures & algorithms 49:07 - How to level up Read more on our site
Learning How to Learn
On our podcast, we talk a LOT about what to learn as a developer. But today we’re switching gears and talking about HOW to actually learn all this information. We’ll discuss the concept of metacognition, or how we learn and retain information as well as some strategies for making the process easier.
Indie Hacking
This week we have a super exciting episode, we’re chatting with Courtland Allen, the founder of Indie Hackers. We’re going to talk about what indie hacking is, how to get started with it, and his advice for gaining traction with indie products. Let’s get started!
What's on Our Computers?
This week we’re giving you all the details about our computer setups including our hardware preferences, browsers, desktop software, code editor and CLI settings, and top productivity tools. We’ll also tell you some of our miscellaneous preferences like most used emoji and current desktop photo.
Behavioral Interviews
Show notes 1:43 - What is the flow of the technical interview process 6:50 - The salary conversation 15:25 - Behavioral questions 27:32 - Interview prep strategies 34:17 - Red flags 45:17 - Shoutouts Resources Star technique Data structures & algorithms episode Frontend interview episode The Culture Map Levels.fyi Thread on Negotiating Radical Candor Adam Grant podcast Andrew Certain Brotopia Bad Blood Society 6 Transcript We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here.
Engineering Management
In one of our previous episodes, we talked about different jobs within tech, one of which is engineering management. Today we’re joined by the wonderful Amal Hussein, engineering manager at NPM and we’re going to chat more in-depth about her career path. 1:27 - Tell us about yourself 3:10 - Last fall you transitioned into a new role as an Engineering Manager at NPM. How did you make that leap? 5:38 - What does your day to day schedule look like? 8:32 - What’s the hardest thing about being a manager? 13:37 - Hands on vs. hands off management style 17:01- How long have you been in engineering management? 18:33 - What’s the best thing about being a manager? 21:49 - Do you think someone should be an engineer prior to being a manager? 30:15 - Do you still write code? 33:13 - Do you have any book recommendations for management? 36:53 - How do you build personal relationships w/ employees while working remotely? 42:13 - Advice for those looking to become an engineering manager 46:44 - Where can we find you online?
Invisible Women
Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognized or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you're a woman. This month for the Ladybug Podcast book club we read Invisible Women: Data Bias In A World Designed For Men by Caroline Criado-Pérez. In this episode we’ll discuss our thoughts on the book, what shocked us, what felt a bit forced, and have a discussion about gender bias in the world around us.
Frontend Interviews
Programming interviews are terrifying. There’s so much to learn and nobody enjoys answering technical questions in front of a complete stranger. In this episode, we’ll dive into the frontend technical interview and give some tips and tricks for nailing it. 2:06 - Our experiences with technical interviews 3:36 - The interview process 14:15 - Phone screens 20:32 - Take home challenges 34:43 - In-person interviews 46:08 - Resources to get better at interviewing 49:00 - Shoutouts