Meet Deb Goodkin! Deb is the Executive Director of the FreeBSD Foundation. The Foundation supports the FreeBSD project and community. FreeBSD is a powerful open-source operating system known for its reliability and security and used by companies like Netflix to power their servers and networks.

With a strong background in engineering, Deb is passionate about open-source technology, and after this episode, you might become passionate about it, too! In this episode of the Scrimba podcast, you'll learn how a complex project like FreeBSD works from an organizational standpoint, why open-source is a great place for even newer developers, what are the key differences between community-driven projects and working for a corporation, and where should you start if you're looking to get into open-source.

🔗 Connect with Deb

• 👩‍💼 LinkedIn

⏰ Timestamps

• What is FreeBSD? (01:19)
• What is the FreeBSD Foundation? (02:49)
• Open-source projects vs. commercial projects (04:04)
• Open source is a nourishing place (07:04)
• Some original BSD developers are still working on the project decades later! (07:46)
• Open source is a community (09:35)
• How can contributing to open source help a newer developer advance their career? (11:25)
• Community break! (14:08)
• What skills do you need to join an open-source project? (16:23)
• Start with documentation! (18:42)
• How do you interact with others working on an open-source project? (21:20)
• Are people more likely to help others who help themselves? (24:05)
• Quick-fire questions! (27:26)
• How does an open-source project like FreeBSD run?
• If you're listening and want to get into open source, do this! (38:13)

🧰 Resources mentioned

• FreeBSD Foundation
• FreeBSD
• Jon 'maddog' Hall on Linkedin and Twitter
• Kirk McKusick on YouTube
• Michael W Lucas on Mastodon

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Meet Sam Julien 🇺🇸! Sam is a director of Developer Relations at Writer, a teacher, and the author of Getting Started in Developer Relations. He loves helping people level up their developer advocacy or web development jobs. Recently, he became interested in AI engineering. And in this episode, you'll find out why you should, too!

Sam will teach you how to differentiate passing fads from the tech that's here to stay, how to stay future-proof, and why it's still important to learn the basics. AI as a tool has changed the scale at which we can make stuff - and that's the biggest reason to get acquainted with it. Sam and Alex discuss the current state of the job market in the realm of AI engineering, whether AI will make developers obsolete, as well as the novel use cases and key applications of large language models. Sam also shares how he broke into the field! You'll also learn more about Writer - their LLMs are available on Hugging Face!

🔗 Connect with Sam

• 👨‍💼 Linkedin
• 🌐 Website
• 🐦 Twitter

⏰ Timestamps

• How Sam Julien got into AI engineering (01:34)
• What convinced Sam that AI was here to stay? (03:56)
• Sam was strategic about pursuing AI engineering (05:55)
• The spectrum of career opportunities in AI engineering (07:23)
• Machine learning is not the only thing you can work on! (09:19)
• The current state of the job market: there's a significant discrepancy between how people perceive AI engineering and how things are actually going
• Break (14:02)
• What is Writer (15:01)
• Writer's own AI models - also available on Hugging Face (17:03)
• Are there opportunities for front-end developers in this space? (18:28)
• How to learn AI engineering? (23:19)
• Using models to teach you how to use models (25:18)
• Did Sam use AI to get a job in AI engineering? (27:48)
• Quick-fire questions: favorite podcasts, music, and people to follow (28:49)
• Do you need an ML certificate? (31:06)
• Novel uses and core applications of AI and LLMs (31:58)
• Should a new developer focus on AI? (35:33)
• How to stay future-proof (40:44)
• It just takes one breakthrough to catch you by surprise (41:43)
• How to use Writer (41:53)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• Course: Level Up From Software Engineer to AI Engineer (Shawn "Swyx" Wang and Noah Hein)
• Latent Space Podcast
• The Rise of the AI Engineer
• Scrimba's AI path
• Kadasha Kerr

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Meet Rizel Scarlett 🇺🇸! Rizel is a Staff Developer Advocate at TBD. She's also a career changer, software engineer, and community builder!

Rizel dropped out of psychology studies after running out of money. Then she went into IT support, then into coding, and then realized that, after working in an organization that teaches women and non-binary people of color to code, developer advocacy could be a great career for her!

In this episode, you will hear how Rizel learned to code, paved her own path, and knew when to pivot. You'll learn why internships are cool and what to be on the lookout for if you're looking for your first opportunity. Rizel will also teach you why you need personal branding and how to do it even if you're an introvert - complete with step-by-step instructions on writing a blog post, practicing public speaking, or networking.

This is a rebroadcast of one of our favorite interviews!

🔗 Connect with Rizel

• 👩‍💼 Linkedin
• 🌐 Website
• 🐦 Twitter
• 👩‍🚀 GitHub

⏰ Timestamps

• Why Rizel switched from psychology to IT and, later, to coding (01:43)
• Rizel tried many different jobs. Here’s why that’s not a bad thing! (03:48)
• How Rizel approached learning to code (05:55)
• Community and camaraderie are important parts of learning to code (06:50)
• How Rizel decided to enroll in a bootcamp (07:58)
• On learning to code with your significant other (08:31)
• Thinking like a programmer comes with practice (09:46)
• Why Rizel pursued internships (10:50)
• Why connections are important (12:20)
• What was Rizel’s internship experience like (13:21)
• What should you look for in an internship or your first job? (13:58)
• Break (15:54)
• What juniors bring to the table (17:00)
• How Rizel discovered developer advocacy and got hired as a developer advocate at GitHub (18:15)
• What does a supportive manager do (20:18)
• How Rizel approaches personal branding (22:08)
• You can’t expect people to find you. The best person to advocate for you is you (22:25)
• How to work on your public speaking (24:25)
• How to work on your writing and how Rizel approaches writing blog posts (27:08)
• How to get involved with the community (30:48)
• Closing advice: it’s okay to switch your focus, take your time, and maintain a list of your wins! (34:43)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• How to support early career developers 
• freeCodeCamp

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Meet Angie Jones 🇺🇸! Angie is a veteran software developer currently working as a global Developer Relations executive at TBD. Before that, she worked as an automation engineer at Twitter and as a software engineer and master inventor at IBM (where she worked for nine years)! Angie is also a teacher and an international keynote speaker who has authored 27 patents.

In this episode, Angie takes us through her career path, from falling in love with coding through automation engineering to eventually discovering her passion for teaching and DevRel. You'll learn the differences between large enterprises, medium-sized companies, and startups and find out what to look for if you're just breaking into the industry. Angie also talks about teaching, patenting your ideas, and finding specialization. Plus: decentralized technologies, changing jobs with the same company, and why it's important to keep learning new stuff.

This is a rebroadcast of one of our favorite interviews!

🔗 Connect with Angie

• 👩‍💼 Linkedin
• 🌐  Website
• 🐦 Twitter
• 👩‍🚀 GitHub

⏰ Timestamps

• Angie's father thought she should familiarize herself with computers, so she took a C++ course. The rest is history! (01:21)
• What Angie loved about programming (02:54)
• Are developers missing out if they don't study computer science at university? (03:42)
• What makes a good teacher? (05:31)
• Break (09:40)
• Angie got his first role in tech through an internship (10:33)
• How Angie spent nine years at IBM (12:04)
• What are the advantages of changing jobs within the same company? (12:41)
• How does working at a huge corporation compare to working at smaller companies and startups, and why should you try a bit of both (14:22)
• What does career progression look like? (16:27)
• As a beginner, should you prioritize learning opportunities? What size companies should you go after? (17:05)
• Pay attention to the ratio of juniors vs. seniors (18:28)
• Software development is about much more than coding (18:49)
• How Angie discovered automation engineering and, subsequently, DevRel (19:32)
• There are gaps in the market for specializations (23:06)
• How to find a slight specialization within frontend (27:16)
• Quick-fire questions: Java, decentralized technologies, Sarah Drasner and Kelsey Hightower (29:03)
• Angie Jones has 27 patents! Here's how that happened. (33:10)
• What does a patent look like? (34:34)
• What's it like to invent patents within a big corporation like IBM? (37:04)
• Closing advice: Aside from technical competency, what else should new developers focus on? (38:41)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• Sarah Drasner
• Kelsey Hightower
• Scrimba Podcast with Chad Stewart: Tech Is Hiring, and Here's What You Need to Do!

⭐️ Leave a Review

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You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏  Or tell Jan the Producer he has butchered your name here.

Scrimba v2 is here! And you probably already know this if you've visited our website recently. Scrimba cofounder and CEO Per Borgen 🇳🇴 is joining us to reveal what this update is all about. 

You might have noticed the redesign - but the update is not just on the surface. Scrimba has been rewritten from the ground up to support further development, and you can already enjoy a lot of new features. The platform is no longer a closed platform, which means you can make your own scrims, create and follow profiles, and make use of numerous templates. You can also use Scrimba's code editor to create your own projects - even if you're not following a course. It even features an advanced version control! Per and Alex also talk about AI and how it will change the way we learn coding and which AI features are already being worked on at Scrimba.

🔗 Connect with Per

• 👨‍💼LinkedIn
• 🐦 Twitter

⏰ Timestamps

• Scrimba v2 is a complete rewrite of the entire platform (01:00)
• "We also rebuilt the tools to build Scrimba" (02:45)
• What are Templates? (05:49)
• You can now use Scrimba as an online code editor (07:34)
• You can also add commits! (08:31)
• Scrimba is now open to anyone to create content and scrims (09:15)
• Scrimba profiles (10:59)
• The future of pedagogy on Scrimba (13:02)
• Backend courses are coming! (14:40)
• Visual rebrand: is Scrimba still playful? (17:12)
• The state of using AI to learn to code (24:44)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• Scrimba v2

⭐️ Leave a Review

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You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Ryan Talbert 🇺🇸! Ryan studied entrepreneurship and had an idea for an app. To build it, he hired a developer who scammed him and used his server for phishing! But that was also the best thing that could've happened: Today, Ryan is a developer, passionate about JavaScript, and helping other career switchers break into tech. Oh, and he wrote a book!

In this episode, Ryan shares his story and many things he's learned along the way. Ryan will teach you how to break the process of applying and interviewing for a job into smaller steps and improve them one by one - and some of his strategies are pretty novel, even after more than 160 episodes of our podcast! Ryan's approach divides the interview process into four stages. This way, you can pinpoint the exact part of it where you fail, and work on it without distractions.

You will also learn how to make learning to code more manageable and rewarding for yourself - because the more you win, the more you will win. Ryan also describes how he got his first coding job: he told the hiring manager the company wasn't right for him, but they wanted to hire him anyway, and he eventually agreed - because he had a good reason to do so.

🔗 Connect with Ryan

• 👨‍💼 Linkedin

⏰ Timestamps

• You can come into tech from any career (01:36)
• Ryan studied entrepreneurship and wanted to build an app (03:56)
• How Ryan lost all his savings and got a cease and desist letter from the country of Germany (05:46)
• Getting scammed was a good thing, in the end (08:57)
• Community Break with Jan the Producer (10:13)
• How Ryan learned to code (11:40)
• Becoming a coder instead of entrepreneur (14:41)
• Job hunt in 2017 vs job hunt in 2024 (20:33)
• Linear progression of a job interview (22:22)
• Write a good resume (or pay somebody to do that), and get it in front of humans (23:37)
• What to do when they ask you to tell them abour yourself? (25:39)
• Practice coding problems (26:49)
• Climbing the interview hill (27:32)
• We're bad at multitasking (28:56)
• Anything is a skill! (30:42)
• You need to keep winning and build momentum (35:15)
• Set achievable goals (40:01)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• Ryan's book: 101 Tips: TypeScript, React, and JavaScript
• The Companies Expert on YouTube
• Edabit

⭐️ Leave a Review

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You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Dev Agrawal 🇮🇳🇺🇸! Dev is a software developer, developer advocate, content creator, and A React expert deeply ingrained in the React community. The last time he was on the show, we tried to find an answer to the question of whether we should still be learning React in 2024 - the community was divided! Today, we’re talking about React 19.

React 19 is the latest version of React, introducing some amazing new features! Key features include the new React Compiler, which automates performance optimization; Server Components, which allow rendering components on the server for faster initial page loads and improved data handling; Actions; and some new hooks! In this episode, you’ll learn what these features are, how to use them, which ones are the most important, and why we are getting them in the first place. Understanding the context and history behind these new features, as well as the needs of developers who have been using React in their work, will help us use them more effectively.

React 19 is expected to be released by the end of 2024 and is set to enhance both performance and developer experience. In the meantime, you can try the release candidate!

🔗 Connect with Dev

• 👨‍💼 Linkedin
• 🌐 Website
• 🐦 Twitter

⏰ Timestamps

• Can we use React 19 already? (01:24)
• Is React Canary the same as React 19 RC? (02:14)
• When does React 19 come out? (03:04)
• React Compiler is the biggest feature of React 19. What does it do? (04:18)
• There is a performance cost associated with memoizing (08:23
• How does the React compiler help with memoization? (11:13)
• Could you manually accomplish what the Compiler does automatically? (12:59)
• How do you use the React Compiler? (15:41)
• You need to abide by the React rules for the Compiler to work properly (16:48)
• Is React a library or a language? (17:04)
• Transpilers vs compilers (19:44)
• What are Actions? (23:41)
• What are React Transitions? (24:37)
• Server Actions vs Client Actions (31:39)
• New hoks: useFormState, useFormStatus (33:29)
• New features are a big departure from how we use React today (35:45)
• Where to learn more about React 19 (37:29)

⏰ Resources Mentioned

• React.dev
• Sam Selikoff: Roadmap to React 19
• Scrimba Podcast with Rachel Nabors

⭐️ Leave a Review

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You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Kevin Tanzyl! Originally from New Zealand, Kevin moved to Japan to become an English teacher. But after a while, he felt like he hit a plateau. Kevin then tried coding, and after a sting in the infamous tutorial hell, he discovered Scrimba. While learning to code, he made a React app for English teachers, which is still used in Japanese schools! This game-changing portfolio project for Kevin caught the eye of employers and recruiters alike.

Within a couple of months, Kevin got his first developer job, but several months later, he realized that it wasn't a good fit after all. In this episode, you'll find out all about Kevin's career change, learning path, and hurdles along the way. You'll learn how to pick your portfolio projects and why you should focus on basic programming principles while maintaining a technology-agnostic approach. Kevin also shares his approach to dealing with stubborn bugs, why "no pain, no gain" applies to coding, and how learning to code compares to learning a new language. Plus, how's the work culture in Japan different from the Western one?

🔗 Connect with Kevin

• 👨‍💼 LinkedIn
• 👨‍🚀 GitHub
• 🌐 Website

⏰ Timestamps

• "Software development involves a lot of math, so I avoided that" (01:13)
• How Kevin started teaching English in Japan (02:51)
• Why Kevin wanted a career change from teaching: the tech world doesn't stop! (03:51)
• How did learning programming compare to learning languages? (04:56)
• Why Kevin struggled to learn to code - and how he solved that (05:43)
• Do you need to go to university to become a software developer? (07:25)
• What are the differences between a software developer and a web developer? (08:06)
• Community break with Jan the Producer (09:37)
• Kevin learned on Udemy, freeCodeCamp, and,  ultimately, Scrimba (12:17)
• Tutorial hell (14:02)
• The path of least resistance is not the right one for coding (14:57)
• How to fix very stubborn bugs (15:53)
• How Kevin made his number one portfolio app (16:44)
• Picking a portfolio app: ask your friends and family and solve a real problem they have! (18:56)
• Killing three birds with one stone (I mean, feeding three birds with one scone!) (21:05)
• How Kevin landed his first dev job... and didn't like it (23:20)
• How Kevin landed his second dev job (24:24)
• "They just wanted to see the willingness to learn" (26:05)
• Quick-fire questions! (26:43)
• Did Kevin have a tech interview? (28:13)
• Your portfolio helps an interviewer help you (28:50)
• "What are the things you think are lacking?" (30:01)
• The working culture in Japan (33:13)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• Learn React FOR FREE with Bob Ziroll!
• Alex Kallaway, the creator of #100DaysOfCode
• Fireship on YouTube

⭐️ Leave a Review

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Meet Monica Fidalgo 🇵🇹! Monica is a front-end product engineer at Cloudflare, an advocate for new developers and women in tech, as well as a teacher, mentor, and resume reviewer. Her path to tech wasn’t straightforward: she originally studied marine biology and was a licensed scuba diver!

Monica's life took a dramatic turn when she was involved in a serious car accident that temporarily left her unable to walk. After months of recovery, she was even able to run again! However, her recovery made finding a job in her already competitive field even more challenging. In 2018, she began exploring other interests and remembered her love for customizing her Blogger and Tumblr templates. So, she decided to learn web design!

In this episode, you’ll learn a thing or two about motivation. You'll also discover a fantastic technique you should be using when applying for jobs, and learn everything about Monica's inspiring career change. You'll also find out when to switch companies, how to evaluate coding schools before you sign up, and how Monica's car accident changed her outlook on life.

🔗 Connect with Monica

• 👩‍💼 LinkedIn

⏰ Timestamps

• Monica studied marine biology and thought IT was just for men (01:31)
• How Monica's car accident changed her outlook on life (04:29)
• Feeling sorry for yourself won't take you anywhere (08:53)
• Community break with Jan the Producer (09:27)
• How Monica learned to code (11:02)
• Monica coded during the day and worked at night - but also took up sports (13:57)
• "It's difficult, but it won't last forever" (15:24)
• Monica's family wasn't always supportive (16:36)
• You can't count on luck (18:38)
• Monica had a checklist of companies she wanted to work for (19:10)
• How to apply to a company without open job ads (20:35)
• Quick-fire questions (21:07)
• How Monica found her first job in tech (23:09)
• Getting ahead of the curve: why you should be sending your CV to HRs on LinkedIn (23:27)
• Why - and how - Monica changes jobs (25:57)
• How Monica got a job at Cloudflare (29:37)
• Monica's first counter-proposal and why women should negotiate their salaries (32:51)
• "You already have a NO. Try getting a YES"
• Sometimes you feel bad - and that's okay (39:19)
• Boxing! (40:45)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• Lisi Linhart
• From Pathologic Anatomy to QA Lead

⭐️ Leave a Review

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You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Shaundai Person 🇺🇸! Shaundai is a senior software engineer at Netflix, but she hasn't always been a coder. She studied entrepreneurship and had a long, successful career in sales. After a decade in sales and running her own business, Shaundai discovered coding through customizing her business's Shopify website.

Shaundai realized she was ready for a career change to something she felt more passionate about. She also learned that you don't have to go back to school to become a software engineer and that much of engineering isn't NASA-level stuff. In fact, it's about listening to customers' needs and offering them solutions—just like in sales!

In this episode, you'll learn how Shaundai transitioned into the tech team of the company she was already working at. She leveraged her extensive sales experience and her passion for coding to create a personal brand within the company, building a reputation that preceded her. The key to a successful sale is believing in your product, and if you're learning to sell yourself, you are the product! Shaundai will teach you how to do just that while remembering that you're still human. Shaundai and Alex also discuss the often non-linear path to career change and why coding skills are nowadays a commodity (so you need to find a different way to stand out).

🔗 Connect with Shaundai

• 👩‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🌐 Website

⏰ Timestamps

• How Shaundai chose to study entrepreneurship (01:53)
• "I had never been in a position where I loved the thing that I was doing" (04:41)
• Selling software made Shaundai fascinated with software engineering (05:49)
• How Shaundai eventually taught herself to code on Codecademy (10:17)
• How Shaundai organized her studying... and went overtime (12:58)
• "I could make money AND be happy with that I'm doing" (13:25)
• "In this case, I'm selling myself!" (14:36)
• There are always more decision-makers involved in hiring, and here's what to do about them (16:57)
• Shaundai's strategy to win over her company's engineering team (18:31)
• You're always in a more powerful position when people think that something was their idea (20:07)
• Never start conversations with what YOU need (20:54)
• Shaundai started submitting projects to the engineering team's personal development form... and getting challenges (23:50)
• Put yourself in the shoes of the customer (26:02)
• Managers can't go through every single line of code of everybody who's applied. Here's how to tackle that! (26:21)
• Your coding skills are a commodity! Provide value instead. (27:31)
• What's a commodity? (28:16)
• If you're a career changer, you're a superset of a developer! (29:18)
• How Shaundai eventually got to switch teams (30:19)
• Shaundai started interviewing with Netflix less than a year into her new career, and it all started with a podcast (32:01)
• "In order to stand out, I need to show that I'm a human" (36:27)
• How to be human (38:10)
• How to get outside of the goal (while still keeping the goal in sight) (38:55)
• Sometimes we pick the more tangible thing, but ultimately you don't know what can help you in the long run (42:04)
• How to cultivate self-belief? (45:07)

🧰 Resources mentioned 

• Front End Happy Hour

⭐️ Leave a Review

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.
You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.