Bridget Kromhout is a DevOps professional with a passion for giving back to her community. In her professional working life so far, Bridget spent 15 years as an operations engineer, and now works at Microsoft as a Principal Cloud Developer Advocate. Her spare time is full of tech-related and volunteer activities: she leads the worldwide conference organization Devopsdays, runs community tech events in her home city of Minneapolis, co-hosts the Arrested DevOps podcast, and frequently participates in tech conferences as both a speaker and committee member. In our conversation, Bridget talks about how she worked her way through college, what the day-to-day of being a tech advocate looks like, her experiences attending, chairing, and speaking at tech conferences, and the various side projects she's involved in to do her part in helping others. See the full show notes on  the Learn to Code With Me website. Thank you to this episode's sponsors:  Make School Flatiron School 

S4E10: Tech Advocacy, Community and Conferences With Bridget Kromhout

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As the eighth season of the Learn to Code With Me podcast draws to a close, I wanted to share a few quick updates on LTCWM and my life outside of work. To stay in touch while we're off-season, join our email list at learntocodewith.me. Catch up on all past episodes at learntocodewith.me/podcast, including these Season 8 episodes:  S8E1: From Stay-At-Home Mom to Full-Time Front-End Developer With Phoebe Voong-Fadel  S8E2: From Frying Chicken to Working at Google With Danny Thompson  S8E3: From Prison to Programming: How Nikkole Spurgeon Learned to Code While Incarcerated  S8E4: From Washing Dishes to Managing Engineers: How Jesse Weigel Pivoted into a New Tech Career  S8E5: From Admin Assistant and Cancer Survivor to Software Developer With Stacey Graham  S8E6: How to Code With Your Voice (No Typing Required) With Matt Wiethoff  S8E7: From Tutus to Tech: How a Ballerina Became a Front-End Developer With Kara Luton  S8E8: From Film Student and Rugby Player to Startup Software Engineer with Michael Poage 

The End of Season 8

After playing rugby in college, working an unpaid filmmaking internship, and switching into recruiting, Michael Poage was feeling burnt out. But after teaching himself how to code, Michael was able to land a job at startup Teachable without a computer science degree or coding bootcamp experience. In this episode, Mike talks about how he got his job at Teachable, what internal tools are and why they matter to a company, and his experience watching a brand new startup grow into a 200+ employee company. To learn more about Michael Poage, Laurence Bradford, and today’s key takeaways, visit learntocodewith.me/s8e8. Thank you to our sponsor for this season, Linode. Host your app, website, or service on the cloud from just $5 a month, plus get $100 in credit when you create a new account at linode.com/learntocode.

S8E8: From Film Student and Rugby Player to Startup Software Engineer with Michael Poage

At 17, Kara Luton was living on her own in New York City on her way to becoming a professional ballerina. But after realizing that a career in ballet wasn’t for her, she worked in the music industry and PR before she stumbled across coding. In this episode, you’ll learn how Kara’s athletic training helped her in her tech career, and how she became a UX engineer at CrowdStrike. To learn more about Kara Luton, Laurence Bradford, and today’s key takeaways, visit learntocodewith.me/s8e7. Thank you to our sponsor for this season, Linode. Host your app, website, or service on the cloud from just $5 a month, plus get $100 in credit when you create a new account at linode.com/learntocode.

S8E7: From Tutus to Tech: How a Ballerina Became a Front-End Developer With Kara Luton

Matt Wiethoff had a promising career in tech, until everything was put on pause because of an injury that made it painful to type on a keyboard. But he turned his challenge into an opportunity and founded Serenade, a powerful tool that lets you code using only your voice, from refactoring code to writing docs. Your move, RSI. To learn more about Matt Wiethoff, Laurence Bradford, and today’s key takeaways, visit learntocodewith.me/s8e6. Thank you to our sponsor for this season, Linode. Host your app, website, or service on the cloud from just $5 a month, plus get $100 in credit when you create a new account at linode.com/learntocode.

S8E6: How to Code With Your Voice (No Typing Required) With Matt Wiethoff

It took Stacey Graham 13 years to earn her IT degree. She’s gone through a lot – moving into another state, becoming a mother of three, surviving cancer, and losing a six-month-old son – and amidst these difficult situations, Stacey was still able to find a successful career in tech. To learn more about Stacey Graham, Laurence Bradford, and today’s key takeaways, visit learntocodewith.me/s8e5. Thank you to our sponsor for this season, Linode. Host your app, website, or service on the cloud from just $5 a month, plus get $100 in credit when you create a new account at linode.com/learntocode.

S4E10: Tech Advocacy, Community and Conferences With Bridget Kromhout

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