Launch School Podcast

In this Thanksgiving episode, Mandy talks to students who have been at Launch School for over a year. These students share what they are grateful for and how the community has helped them throughout their journey at Launch School.

Special thanks to the stories shared by the wonderful students: Alfonso Gonzalez, Felicia Bacon, Charles Hartman, Anne Tiotuico, Natalie Thompson, Rona Hsu, and Austin Miller.

You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In today's episode, Callie chats with three Launch School students in three very different life stages. They share how they came to Launch School, what seemed to come easy to them, and what was harder. Without hearing one another's interviews, they paint similar pictures that are still unique. Whether you've been here awhile or have just joined the community, their stories will encourage you and help you see, a little clearer, the wonderful community you're a part of.

You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In today's episode, Callie chats with Launch School TA Srdjan as he shares his journey to and through Launch School. He generously shares about a wide range of experiences, from how his cats lovingly torture him to what scared him the most as a student/TA at Launch School. He shares lessons learned from being a student, and what he believes makes a genuinely good Capstone student (it's probably not what you think). There's also plenty of jokes and laughter — and who knew Srdjan could laugh ?

You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In today's episode, students from Women Who Code share what the group is, what the meet-ups are like, and how they've found a sense of belonging and community.

These students talk about the importance of having a supportive community while going through the ups and downs of online learning at Launch School. They generously share their thoughts and experiences through their time spent in wwcode:

You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In this episode, siblings John and Adam Isom come chat about their journeys working together through Launch School. Adam had completed a different coding bootcamp and was in the midst of completing his CS degree when he switched to focus on Launch School. John walked away from a college scholarship to study CS to do Launch School. Why did they do that? How did it work out? Give this episode a listen to find out!

In this conversation, we chatted about:

You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching "Launch School", or directly on this page (see audio player above).

Today's episode is the first of a new series called Bytes: a collection of sound-bites from the Launch School community that answer a focused question.

A question we've all asked at some point or another is why should I go to Launch School? Maybe you're past that point, or maybe you're still trying to figure it out. Either way, listen in to hear the voices of eleven different people from the Launch School community share their answers to that very question.

There's also something new at the end that tells you how to help out with the podcast! So listen closely :)

You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

Previously in Season 2, Chris talked with Gabe, Ben, and Arthur to share their story on how they, as a group, supported one another through the Core curriculum. That episode highlighted the importance of community and friendship.

In this episode, Gabe, Ben, and Arthur are back with us to share more! They update us about their journey through Capstone, the job hunt, working as software engineers and meeting each other in person for the very first time.

Gabe, Ben, and Arthur take us through their personal growth as individuals and as a group. They share amazing insights on imposter syndrome, building confidence, how conflicts help relationships grow, gratitude, freedom, fun, happiness, and ultimately lessons learned about friendship and teamwork.

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far go together." - Gabe

In today's episode, Launch School students Jenae and Mandy interviewed Barbara Oakley. Dr. Oakley is no stranger to Launch School students — her Learning How to Learn course is a required part of the preparation to being a student! The conversation has many gems, including what it’s like being a woman in STEM and how programming is a form of art.

She generously shared her own journey of learning how to learn, why “follow your passion” is actually not great advice, why taking your time greatly impacts your learning, and why programming is one of the best examples of how mastery-based learning is the way to go. She’s as kind, knowledgeable, and passionate as we all already knew her to be.

You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In this episode, Staacy and I held a Zoom Q & A. I was happily surprised by the wide-range of topics that we got to dive into. Questions ranged from knowing if you’re on track for Capstone, when and how to get a job, how your age affects a career in tech, how to know if Launch School is for you, and how the Deferred Payment Program works.

Whether you’re new to Launch School, been here for awhile, or trying to figure out if you should try it, I shared a lot about why we do what we do and how it works in the “real world.” I’m biased, but I have the numbers to back me up: mastery-based learning really works, and it works long-term.

Speaking of numbers, our conversation concluded with the 2020 Capstone base salaries. I’m constantly blown away by how well Launch School students do — both in their projects and in the jobs they land. In 2020, we saw an increase in base salaries despite doubling in size, remote jobs, and COVID.

In this episode, I caught up with Liz, Jesse, and Katarina to chat about another peer-led community group at Launch School called "The Social Network". We previously chatted with The SPOT community leads here on the podcast, but The Social Network differs in that its mission is geared towards social events and having fun.

Last month, The Social Network put on an amazing Conference on Study Habits. I have never heard of a conference on studying before, even though studiousness is the primary attribute for success in any learning endeavor. And that is certainly true for us at Launch School. I wasn't sure what to expect from the conference; worst case, it'll be a nice way for Launch School students to interact outside of the curriculum and assessments. However, the quality, participation, and reception of the presentations from that conference really surprised me. The talks were good -- really good -- and many participants said that the conference changed their approach to learning.

In this podcast episode, we talked about how The Social Network group came to be and what led to the conference and where we're going next with this group.

All conference talk recordings are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/launchschool/comments/klxl2t/a_full_week_of_content_on_study_habits_tools_and/