Episode 098 – Working Remote. – Today, Valarie and I have a bonus episode about working remote. I do it on a full time basis now in my job, and now a lot of people – pretty much soon to be all of America – is going to be forced into working remote as a result of the virus that’s impacting our communities. So we’re going to talk about what it’s like to work remote whether you do it as a full time job or you get forced into doing this now as a result of the virus.

Mentioned in this episode

Create schedules and roles for kids and family members at home.

Schedule your lunch break on your calendar, visible to your teammates.

Notify your immediate teammates whenever you’re stepping away from your workstation, e.g. when you’re stepping out for lunch.

During team meetings, keep your webcam on to encourage camaraderie among your teammates.

Episode 097 – Pete Cochrane – graduated from the University of North Florida with a degree in economics. After graduating from university he worked as a technical recruiter. Today, he’s the chief sales officer for Interactive Resources which is an IT staffing firm located in Jacksonville Florida. Pete is also the event director for the Code On The Beach conference which gets great reviews from speakers and attendees as one of their favourite tech conferences.

Mentioned in this episode

Choose formal clothes and venues for your virtual interviews; don’t appear too casual.

On your resume, relate your skills to projects that you’ve accomplished with those skills.

Be ready for technical deep dives into details of anything that is on your resume.

Make sure to spend time with family.

Fullstack Academy – Top coding bootcamp in New York and Chicago.

Pete Cochrane

Pete is an experienced Chief Sales Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the staffing and recruiting industry.

Episode 096 – Pariss Athena – has had a very interesting journey to get into tech. After graduating from high school she studied screenwriting; this developed an interest in acting which prompted her move to Hollywood. Later, she moved back to Boston and studied aesthetics and worked in this field for several years. Unfortunately, the job didn’t provide career growth, so she went back to school to get a degree in marketing. While in school, she learned about coding and participated in the Resilient Coders bootcamp. Today, she’s a front end developer using React and React Native. Pariss started the BlackTechTwitter hashtag and is the founder of Black Tech Pipeline. She’s a writer and speaker, and we’re excited to have her on the CodePrep podcast today.

Mentioned in this episode

Understand that there are many different routes through which to figure something out.

Take risks and try things before saying no to them, because by doing so, you open yourself up to various opportunities.

When applying at a company, find out if they have any preferred topics which you should study for your tech interview.

Black Tech Pipeline – A service based platform connecting opportunity extenders with Black technologists.

Pariss Athena

Pariss began her career as a front-end developer after graduating from Resilient Coders. She works for G2i as a hiring and platform member- vetting engineers as an engineer, and taking lead on social media marketing efforts.

Episode 095 – Debugging With Chrome Dev Tools. – We have a bonus episode for you today and it’s about how to debug your code. What we’re going to teach you is the skill of how to fix problems in your code. The difference, usually, between a junior developer and a senior developer is how fast they can find bugs in their code and fix them. And so today, with our bonus episode, we’re going to show you how to use Chrome Dev Tools to be able to improve your debugging skills.

Mentioned in this episode

Don’t Be Afraid of the JavaScript Stack Trace by Jennifer Bland.

How to get the most out of the JavaScript console.

Debug Better: 7 breakpoints in Chrome DevTools.

Debugging in Chrome.

Network Analysis Reference.

Episode 094 – Chris Corriere – has a degree in mathematics and leadership from Kennesaw State University. He’s very interested in mathematics and data, and has used that interest to build his knowledge of data science. His primary area of specialisation has been DevOps. He’s given back greatly to the community as the organiser of the DevOpsDays Atlanta conference. Today, he works as an architect for a medical billing company. He also speaks at tech conferences and writes for multiple publications.

Mentioned in this episode

Ensure whatever you’re doing is something you actually enjoy.

When applying to speak at an event, clearly outline the content and expected outcomes of your talk.

DevOpsDays – A technical conference for developers, sysadmins e.t.c.

Chris Corriere

Chris has been working with data and phone networks and writing software since he was in middle school. He spent eight years working for the Division of Information Technology at Southern Polytechnic State University maintaining over 100 systems in labs and classrooms for various departments.

Episode 093 – Kayla Sween – graduated from Mississippi State University with a degree in Computer Science. While a student at university, she worked as a research assistant. After graduating she got a job as a front end developer; this job was a remote job, so we’ll be talking more about that. Beginning of the year, Kayla was looking for a new job so she’ll share her job hunting experience. Also, Kayla is a speaker at tech conferences.

Mentioned in this episode

HackerRank – Practice coding, prepare for interviews, and get hired.

Send thank you notes to your interviewers.

Spend time learning the workings of things you don’t yet understand.

Be overly communicative with your teammates.

When at a remote job, prepare for your day as if you’re actually going to an office.

Spend time meditating.

Kayla Sween

Kayla Is a front-end developer who’s passionate about design and giving all users the best experience possible.

Episode 092 – Importance Of A Portfolio. – In this episode Valarie and I will be discussing why you need a portfolio, what should you include in your portfolio and how you can display it. You can get a job in tech with a good portfolio. But you can get a job faster with a great portfolio. Let us show you how.

Mentioned in this episode

Angel Banks portfolio.

My Portfolio.

Valarie’s Portfolio.

Episode 091 – Sarah Kinneer – graduated university summa cum laude with a degree in special education and teaching. For the next decade or so, Sarah worked as a special education teacher. A year ago, she decided to change careers. Her first step was to attend the coding bootcamp program offered by Georgia Tech. Now she works as a Junior Implementation Developer for AudioEye where she focuses on accessibility.  We will talk more about accessibility during this episode.

Mentioned in this episode

IAAP – International Association of Accessibility Professionals.

WAI-ARIA Overview – Strategies, standards, resources to make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.

Udacity course on accessibility.

Be aware of your weaknesses.

If you get stuck during an interview, step back and admit it.

Sarah Kinneer

Sarah is a Full-Stack Web Developer with a background in Special Education and Full-Stack Certification from Georgia Tech Coding Bootcamp. Passionate about building data-driven, user-friendly applications that enrich users’ lives with skills in JavaScript, MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, ReactJS, Node,js), and Python.

Episode 090 – Barkha Herman – graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a Computer Science degree. For the past decade she has worked as a developer. She has worked her way up from developer to Senior Developer and Senior DevOps Engineer, and today, she is a Sr. Cloud Solution Architect for Microsoft. Along the way, she has also been the founder or co-founder on several startups. In addition, Barkha is a speaker at tech conferences.

Mentioned in this episode

Tony Robbins’s DISC profile – Find Your True Self.

Code.org – Learn computer science. Change the world.

Mindset by Carol Dweck.

Go through interview questions on Glassdoor.org.

Shadow somebody at a company you are interested in interviewing with to learn more.

Barkha Herman

Barkha is a problem solver and people helper who’s found herself in the world of technology and consulting for the past twenty plus years. She currently works at Microsoft as a Senior Cloud Solution Architect, focusing on Data and AI.

Episode 089 – A Few Of Our Favorite Things. – Today we have a bonus episode that we are calling “A Few of Our Favorite Things.” Valarie and I have completely different roles in Tech. Valarie is a DevOps Engineer and I am a Frontend Engineer. We use different tech stacks and we have our favorites in our use of tech stacks. Today we will be talking about a few of our favorite things.

Mentioned in this episode

Docker – Empowering App Development for Developers.

Kubernetes – Automated container deployment, scaling, and management.

Vue.JS – The Progressive
 JavaScript Framework.

Try using analogies to help you understand any new concepts that you’re trying to learn.