Stories and interviews from people on their coding journey.
S27:E4 - Living the Dream with AI (Rob Frelow)
Meet Rob Frelow, Co-founder & Chief AI Officer at The Storygraph. Rob shares how a trip in his friend’s Tesla led him to enroll in his first AI course, how he broke into AI later in his career and his experience truly living the dream waking up each morning excited to dive into AI and his work at Storygraph. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Fast.ai Course Reddit ChatGPT Large Language Models The StoryGraph Rob's Twitter
S27:E4 - Living the Dream with AI ()
Meet Rob Frelow, Co-founder & Chief AI Officer at The Storygraph. Rob shares how a trip in his friend’s Tesla led him to enroll in his first AI course, how he broke into AI later in his career and his experience truly living the dream waking up each morning excited to dive into AI and his work at Storygraph. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor)
S27:E3 - Helping You Build Machine Learning Products (Pau Labarta Bajo)
Meet Pau Bajo, Machine Learning Engineer and Educator at Real-World Machine Learning. Pau talks to Saron about transitioning from working daily in Excel to Python, why data is everything, and what skills early developers need to foster if they want a career in machine learning. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Machine Learning Python Pau's GitHub Pau's Instagram Pau's Twitter
S27:E2 - The Journey from Sound Engineer to Software Engineer (Alejandro Aspinwall)
In this week’s episode, we explore the journey of Alejandro Aspinwall, a Frontend Engineer at Amazon. You’ll hear how Alejandro began his career deeply immersed in the world of music and what led him to transition to the world of tech. He emphasizes the importance of adaptability in his career shift and provides insights into how coding bootcamps played a pivotal role in his development. Additionally, Alejandro explores the impact of artificial intelligence in his work, particularly discussing how AI tools have become an integral part of his coding toolkit. His experiences offer valuable perspectives on the practical use of AI in software engineering, and his story sheds light on the evolving nature of tech careers and the increasing role of AI in the industry. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) VS Code NPM Prisma GraphQL Cody Sourcegraph Stable Diffusion Claude Poe AWS Whisper FreeCodeCamp Coursera Udemy JavaScript C# Unity Unity DevOps Sound Engineering API Frontend Engineer Stack Overflow ChatGPT Open AI
S27:E1 - Nurturing Relationships for AI Excellence (Shawn Charles)
Meet Shawn Charles, Developer Advocate & Community Manager at The Hunt. Shawn shares with Saron how he got into tech solely by building and maintaining websites for local businesses, what inspired him to level up by enrolling in a bootcamp, and his advice on those who might feel overwhelmed in identifying their career path in this new world revolving around AI. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Resilient Coders AWS Services Udemy Shawn's GitHub Shawn's Twitter
S26:E8 - Being Open to the Unexpected (Katherine Evans)
Meet Katherine Evans, Lead Engineering Instructor at Actualize Coding Bootcamp and Senior Software Engineer at Neon One. Katherine walks us through her journey from bootcamp student to bootcamp teacher, sharing tips for recent grads looking to land their first role. Saron and Katherine also talk about whether Katherine thinks it’s still worth learning to code given the economic climate and what she would tell others who might be interested in learning to code. Show Links Code Comments (sponsor) IRL (sponsor) Actualize Coding Bootcamp Podium Education CAD PHP Katherine's GitHub Katherine's Website Katherine's Instagram
S26:E7 - Thoughts on Degrees and Bootcamps (Johnny Proano)
Saron speaks with Johnny Proano, Associate Software Engineer at Hilton Grand Vacations. Initially drawn to code while building his personal DJ website, Johnny took the full leap with the support of his family. Johnny discusses his initial belief that a degree was necessary to become a software engineer and his decision to attend a coding bootcamp instead. He reflects on the differences between the bootcamp and college experience and shares his job search process after graduation. Show Links Code Comments (sponsor) IRL (sponsor) SQL Ruby Johnny's GitHub Johnny's Instagram Jonny's Website
S26:E6 - Embracing Rest for Productivity (Ronesha Dennis)
Saron chats with Ronesha Dennis, Founder and Lead Engineer at Bergeron-Woodley. Ronesha talks about growing up and how tech played a role in her childhood (her first website was a fan site for Lil Bow Wow). She talks about how she ended up in another career for 5 years until she sat down and thought about things she liked doing as a child without being paid for doing those things. This led her to want to get into tech. She decided to leave her job, move back with her parents, and do an 8-week program on Ruby on Rails. She then did a fellowship with Code for Progress. After graduating, she landed a job as a consultant then advanced to an Engineer, a Senior Engineer, and finally to managing other Engineers. She has authored coding books and she has her company building applications for nonprofits and other small businesses. Ronesha speaks on the mental health break she took after making the switch to tech and how important it is to give yourself space and time to take breaks after a career transition. Show Links Code Comments (sponsor) IRL (sponsor) Python, the Relatable Way Coding with Cornell Ruby on Rails Ronesha's GitHub Ronesha's Instagram Ronesha's Twitter
S26:E5 - Exploring the Path from Medicine to a Tech Career (Shona Chan)
Saron speaks with Shona Chan this week about her experience navigating the world of software following a successful career as a doctor in the field of Anaesthesia. Shona shares her experience working in the medical field for 10 years until she decided she wanted to pivot into tech. Shona talks about how she made the decision to go to a bootcamp to learn to code and how she got her first job in tech. Finally, she talks about transferable skills from her medical career to her newfound tech career and reiterates how there are so many skills career transitioners can take from one career to another. Show Links Code Comments (sponsor) IRL (sponsor) JavaScript CSS Shona's GitHub Shona's Twitter
S26:E4 - The Ins and Outs of LinkedIn (Laura Thorson)
Saron chats with Laura Thorson, Program Manager at GitHub. Laura talks about how she was always interested in singing, dancing and music growing up which led her to UCLA on a scholarship to play the oboe. She tells us about her experience at UCLA and her decision to go to a coding bootcamp after graduation as opposed to searching for a job with her English Lit degree. Laura then describes the jobs she landed after bootcamp at Salesforce, Twitter, Meta and now GitHub and how LinkedIn played a huge role in helping her land these opportunities. Show Links Code Comments (sponsor) IRL (sponsor) STK AdTech Laura's GitHub Laura's Twitter
S26:E3 - Learning to Code with a Full-Time Job (Beau Carnes)
In this week’s episode, Saron chats with Beau Carnes, Director of Technology Education at freeCodeCamp. Beau shares insights into his career trajectory, which began in television and digital media production. After gaining initial experience in this industry, he transitioned to work in education as a teacher. Beau speaks on his experiences within both these professions and speaks on his decision to venture into technology, establishing himself as a proficient software developer. During this conversation, Beau shares his reasoning for getting three degrees, finding the motivation to learn to code while balancing the demands of a full-time job, and sending out cold emails for his first job in tech. Show Links Code Comments (sponsor) IRL (sponsor) FAANG Beau's GitHub Beau's Twitter FreeCodeCamp JavaScript
S26:E2 - Freelancing While Homeschooling (Sarah Greer)
In this episode, Saron chats with Lead Web Developer, Sarah Greer. Sarah talks about her coding journey and how she juggled her passion for coding through freelancing while homeschooling her children. Sarah talks about why it was so important to her to learn to code and to have a career outside of having the title of “mom”. She also shares her experience going from freelancing to working full-time and the reasoning behind the switch. Show Links Code Comments (sponsor) IRL (sponsor) CSS HTML JavaScript
S26:E1 - Make Your Accomplishments Visible (Camille Eddy)
This week, Saron talks with Camille Eddy, Technical Product Manager. Camille talks about her life growing up as a Pastor’s child, how she started and grew her business, and when she first found her passion for tech. Camille also shares her experience overcoming a fear of public speaking, and why it enabled her not only to travel the world but also land internships at companies like Google X, NVIDIA, and HP Labs all before graduating. Saron also talks to Camille about when she was asked to introduce President Obama. Camille concludes with principles she would lead with if she was a career transitioner looking to start her career in tech today. Show Links Code Comments (sponsor) IRL (sponsor) Project Manager Product Manager Robotics Engineering Artificial Intelligence Camille's GitHub Camille's Instagram Camille's Twitter
S25:E8 - Empowering Developers of All Abilities (Judith Lung)
Saron chats with Judith Lung, Software Engineer at LinkedIn. Judith shares how she found herself in tech after initially getting her masters in Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling. Judith talks about her experience learning to code as someone who is blind and the changes she aims to make in the tech space to aid in the progression of tech accessibility. Show Links Compiler (sponsor) Judith's GitHub Judith's LinkedIn edX Edge freeCodeCamp Assistive Technology Department of Rehabilitation IDE Screen Reader
S25:E7 - Overcoming Fears and Pursuing Passions (Stefi Rosca)
Saron chats with Stefi Rosca, Frontend Engineer at Typeform. Stefi talks about their path to breaking into tech in their later twenties after having a fulfilling career in marketing. They also talk about the communities they joined to help motivate and encourage them along the way and how they leveled up in the tech space. Show Links Compiler (sponsor) Stefi's Website Stefi's GitHub Stefi's LinkedIn Stefi's X Account The Recurse Center Codebar freeCodeCamp C