The freeCodeCamp Podcast

In this week's episode, Abbey interviews Ariel Leslie, a software developer with an interesting background (she was once a knife salesperson, among other things!) who lives and works in Colorado.

While she can't discuss all the details of her super-secret job, she fills us in on how she got to where she is now. You'll hear about the benefits of her university degrees and how supportive communities have helped her along the way, why she loves tough problems and how she battles her insecurities, and why she takes time to learn new things, like how to play the Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer.

Ariel offers an interesting perspective on being a woman in tech, how various mentors have helped her become the developer she is today, and how she tackles imposter syndrome.

Find Ariel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArielLeslie

Find Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn

 

Guest: Adam Hollett, developer at Shopify: https://twitter.com/admhlt

Host: Quincy Larson, the teacher who founded freeCodeCamp: https://twitter.com/ossia

On today's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Quincy interviews Adam Hollett. He's a software developer at Shopify in Ottawa, Canada.

Adam started building basic websites and forums when he was in high school, but he never saw coding as something he could do professionally. He got a degree in English Literature, worked in food prep, and taught at a community college. He later worked as a technical writer, and set his eyes on working at Shopify, a major Canadian tech company based in Ottawa. Adam was able to gradually to learn new tools on the job that helped him transition into a role as developer.

We talk about Adam's journey - from meandering college student to software developer - and the many lessons he learned along the way.

 

On today's episode of the freeCodeCamp.org podcast, Abbey chats with Jennifer Bland, a Google Developer Expert, software engineer, prolific speaker, entrepreneur, and world traveler. You'll learn how Jennifer got into tech (twice!), what she's working on now, and how she helps many different communities of developers learn and grow.

Find Jennifer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ratracegrad

Check out Jennifer's podcast: https://www.codeprep.io/podcast/

A bit more about Jennifer:

Jennifer Bland is a senior software engineer out of Atlanta, Georgia. Jennifer has a fascinating background - she started in tech at an early age after studying computer science in school, but then left the field, worked elsewhere, and retired at the age of 51.

Once she had some time to explore other interests, she rediscovered programming - through a JavaScript book on the clearance table at a local bookstore.

A number of years later, she's now working on some very exciting tech at Stanley, Black and Decker, she's an extremely active volunteer in her local tech community, she's on the leadership team for Women who Code Atlanta chapter, she speaks at numerous conferences, and she's recently become a Google Developer expert!

So in this episode, you'll hear about how she got to where she is, what she's passionate about, and her advice for getting into tech, conquering those pesky whiteboard interviews, how to network if you're an introvert (like she is) and much more...

On this episode of the freeCodeCamp.org podcast, Abbey chats with Lauren Mayers, a web developer working in Ottowa, Canada. Lauren hasn't always lived in North America, however - she's from Australia - and hasn't always been in tech.

We'll hear about how she transitioned from being a registered nurse into the world of coding, how she moved halfway around the world, why she loves the open source community, and what she's learned along the way...among many other things.

Connect with Lauren on Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenalexm

Connect with Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn

 

On today's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with  Tracy Lee, a prolific speaker, founder, JavaScript advocate, and open-source enthusiast.

Tracy is a Google Developer Expert and the founder of This Dot. She organizes numerous meetups, runs the Modern Web podcast, and is on the RxJS core team.

Tracy will share with us how she got into tech, what she's passionate about, and how you can become a badass person in tech, too.

Connect with Tracy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ladyleet

Connect with Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn

Find Tracy on the web: https://www.thisdot.co/

Learn to code for free: https://www.freecodecamp.org/

 

Zubin Pratap is a corporate lawyer who taught himself to code using freeCodeCamp.org and other learning resources.

Zubin develops software in Melbourne, Australia. He's a lover of hackathons and competed in freeCodeCamp's first hackathon at GitHub headquarters last November.

Follow Zubin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZubinPratap

Follow Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia

The following is a note from Zubin himself about a course he just launched. Note that freeCodeCamp.org does not receive any benefit from this, and has not reviewed his course - we just want to help him publicize it.

---

Zubin was a non-technical person for a long time, and set a goal to become his own tech cofounder. But he quit from discouragement twice.  It was much harder than it should've been, and Zubin put together a course on all the things he wish he'd known and all the techniques that made him not quit the third time. In 3 hours you can learn the roadmap that could save you months, thousands of dollars, and a lot of stress.

For podcast listeners, Zubin has a special promotion. The first 20 people to buy the course on Udemy before the end of March can get it for free using the Promo Code: FCC_FREE_PROMO   Course link: https://www.udemy.com/how-not-to-quit-coding/   If you're not among the first 20, the next 50 can get it before April 30 at the discounted rate of US$10, using the Promo Code: FCC_PROMO_50   If you're a later listener, get in touch at the webform on https://matchfitmastery.weebly.com, and mention FCC in the message to get a discount code.

Abbey and Quincy talk about the freeCodeCamp podcast itself, and the new weekly episodes starting on Monday.

Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn

Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia

Links mentioned:

The article Quincy mentioned: "The best podcasts for new coders, and the best tools for listening to them": https://fcc.im/2T2lMHT

Tools:

Listen Notes: https://listennotes.com

Audacity: https://www.audacityteam.org

Zencastr: http://zencastr.com

Libsyn: https://libsyn.com

Abbey Rennemeyer interviews Erica Peterson, the founder of Moms Can: Code and Science Tots, and Founder Gym alumna. 

Erica started her career in biology, but after being told that she should leave her graduate program once she became pregnant with her first child, she started to look for other options.

Three years ago, inspired by her desire to understand how her children were learning, she founded Science Tots, a non-profit that helps introduce children to the world of STEM.

And just over a year ago, Erica founded Moms Can: Code, an organization that helps mothers learn to code so they can both support their children's learning and open new doors for themselves.

In 2018, Erica has been a South By Southwest accelerator pitch finalist, Project Entrepreneur finalist, and Startup of the Year semifinalist - so it's been a busy year for her!

Erica is extremely active in her local community, and spends a great deal of her time helping people learn. Today, she'll tell us all about how she got into the tech world, how and why she became a founder, and why being a mom who codes is so awesome.

Interview by Abbey Rennemeyer: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn

Erica Peterson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/foundermama

Moms Can: Code website: https://www.momscancode.com/

Learn to code for free at: https://www.freecodecamp.org

Intro music by Vangough: https://fcc.im/2APOG02

Quincy Larson interviews Sacha Greif, who's a designer, developer, and prolific open source project creator.

Sacha created the Vulcan.js framework, the Sidebar.io daily design newsletter, and so many other important projects in the developer community.

Most recently, Sacha started the State of JavaScript survey, where he asks developers a ton of questions about which web development tools they use. He just finished the third annual survey, and soon he'll release the results from the more than 20,000 developers who took the survey.

Sacha grew up in Paris. His grandparents were Jewish refugees who fled to France from Poland during World War II. Sacha's father was an author who wrote books about computers, and shared this passion with his son.

Sacha has spent much of his adult life living abroad in China, Switzerland, and Japan. He and his wife currently live in Kyoto and they just had their first child.

During this interview, Sacha talks about how he got his start as a professional developer in Beijing, then got deeper and deeper into user interface design. He shares how his passion for both of these disciplines resulted in him creating so many important open source projects.

Sacha also talks about how he followed in his father's footsteps and wrote the "Discover Meteor" book - the most popular resource for Meteor.js - and how the book's financial success helped bankroll his other projects.

Sacha Greif is one of the most prolific developers I know. And it was a blast getting to learn more about his coding journey. So without further ado, here's Sacha.

Interview by Quincy Larson: https://twitter.com/ossia

Sacha Greif on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SachaGreif   Sacha's personal website with links to many of his projects: http://sachagreif.com/   Learn to code for free at: https://www.freecodecamp.org

Intro music by Vangough: https://fcc.im/2APOG02

Quincy Larson interviews Lyle Troxell, who's a senior software engineer at Netflix.

Lyle has hosted his own technology radio show for the past 18 years, and now he hosts the official Netflix podcast, too.

Lyle's parents were artists and a part of the 1960s hippy movement. Lyle didn't enjoy school, and in middle school he dropped out so he could focus on learning math and electronics. He eventually went to community college, got a 2-year degree, and did some basic web design work at a few companies during the dot com boom of the late 1990s.

Lyle spent the next 11 years as a teacher and administrator at University of California in Santa Cruz. Eventually he decided he wanted get into software development. He was able to dust off his skills and through a remarkable series of events get a software engineer job at Netflix.

Lyle and Quincy have known one another for years and had a lot to talk about, including the story behind how he built Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's personal website.

Interview by Quincy Larson: https://twitter.com/ossia

Lyle Troxell on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lyle   Lyle's 18-year running tech podcast: https://geekspeak.org   The "Wat?" talk Lyle mentions: https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat   Learn to code for free at: https://www.freecodecamp.org

Intro music by Vangough: https://fcc.im/2APOG02