🎙 About the episode

Meet Saron Yitbarek 🇺🇸! Saron is a developer, entrepreneur, community builder, and the founder of CodeNewbie. Saron has been helping new developers break into tech for a decade, and in this episode, she distills her best and most sought-after advice!

Saron, who recently launched a new project called NewDevCareer.com, is a career changer herself - she first studied to become a doctor! In this interview, you will hear how she decided to make that change, why her first attempts at learning to code didn't work, and what she wishes she knew then. You will learn the ins and outs of different paths you can take to break into tech. You will get practical tips for creating deeper connections within your online community - and learn why they're important. Saron and Alex also discuss the right motivation to learn to code, why tech is fascinating, and how to decide what to learn first.

🔗 Connect with Saron

• 🧑‍💻 CodeNewbie
• 👩‍💼 Linkedin
• 🌐 Website
• 🐦 Twitter

⏰ Timestamps

• Saron’s road to becoming a developer: Originally, she studied to become a doctor and then worked as a journalist (01:31)
• How Saron got interested in tech after reading a book on Steve Jobs (03:32)
• How Saron approached learning to code and why that approach was wrong (05:43)
• Saron first joined startups working in sales and marketing and decided to try coding again out of frustration (08:03)
• Bootcamp, university, or a self-directed path? Here’s how Saron made that decision (09:38)
• The benefits of bootcamps… and coding communities (11:35)
• Community break! Jan the producer reads your tweets, reviews, and LinkedIn posts (13:21)
• How can an aspiring developer involve more in the community? (15:21)
• How to foster deeper connections online? (17:24)
• How important is consistency when learning to code? (19:21)
• Can anybody teach themselves coding? (20:23)
• What is the right motivation to become a developer? How much should you be passionate about coding? (22:00)
• What are a first-time developer’s biggest assets and why? (24:22)
• Is “passion” too strong of a word? Should you be passionate about coding? (27:15)
• The importance of mentoring juniors (28:53)
• Junior developers are an investment (30:45)
• What is newdevcareer.com? (32:22)
• Information is all around us, but we’re lacking action (36:42)
• What is the main problem new developers face? (38:38)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• CodeNewbie
• NewDevCareer.com
• Scrimba Podcast: Tech Layoffs Are Still Happening, and ChatGPT Can Code: How To Stay Ahead of the Curve as a New Developer, With Lane Wagner
• How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably

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