The Virtual Coffee Podcast

In this episode, Dan and Bekah are joined by Mike Rogers. Mike has had a long and successful career, but at one point he realized he no longer felt good or satisfied with where he was as a developer. He shared with us what he did to change course, and how he has learned to approach tending his career almost like a garden.

About Mike

Mike Rogers is a Ruby developer from the UK. He made the chat bots for Virtual Coffee, has an awesome Ruby Event Calendar, and loves Docker.

• mikerogers.io
• Twitter: mikerogers0
• GitHub: MikeRogers0
• YouTube: MikeRogers0

Links to things mentioned in the episode:

• Mike's YouTube: MikeRogers0
• Where’s _why? - What happened when one of the world’s most unusual, and beloved, computer programmers disappeared.
• Mike's Business Times cover
• Meditation Minis podcast: meditationminis.com

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

In this episode, Dan and Bekah talk to Ray Deck, a trained data scientist, occasional angel investor, and software entrepreneur, about finding the right career path through growth, learning, and motivation. We talk about the importance of trust and listening, and Ray drops a bunch of great resources to help everyone find their own path.

About Ray

Ray is a trained data scientist, occasional angel investor, and software entrepreneur. His 25-year career spans industries from law to finance. Most recently, Ray is the founder of Sustained Ventures, a software product studio where he also publishes essays on technology and markets.

Ray's thoughts can be followed at sustainedventures.com/essays, and his less-thoughtful self is on Twitter@ray_deck.

Favorite nonfiction books:

• Bekah's pick: Beauty in the Broken Places by Allison Pataki
• Bekah's second pick: Scattered Minds by Dr. Gabor Maté
• Dan's pick: Shit, Actually by Lindy West
• Ray's pick: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edwarde Tufte

Links to things mentioned in the episode:

• Start With Why by Simon Sinek
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness by Stephen R. Covey

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

In this episode of the podcast, Dan and Bekah talk to Kevin, a senior software consultant at Test Double and a coding career coach at his company Tap into Tech, about some of the most common challenges early-career developers face getting into tech and offers practical advice for working through those problems. We dive into visualization, personal support, and ways to change the interview process in tech.

Kevin Truong is a senior software consultant at Test Double and a coding career coach at his company Tap into Tech. Previously a coding boot camp instructor and mentor, Kevin realized that boot camps were missing a lot of information when it came to the final steps of getting hired. With his years of experience, he has developed a program where he has coached dozens of early career devs on how to improve their results on getting a tech job.

Links:

• Kevin's Twitter: @TheKevinTruong
• Kevin's LinkedIn: thekevintruong
• Tap into Tech
• Test Double
• thekevintruong.com
• Loom
• Dustin McCaffree Upwork/Loom Tweet

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

In this episode of the podcast, Dan and Bekah talk to Joan Marie Verba, a web developer, former astronomy teacher, and prolific science fiction writer, about her early days in tech using Fortran, and how refusal to accommodate her allergies has prevented her from having a lifelong career in tech. She shares the story of her recent job offer that actually turned out to be a scam that's being investigated by the FBI. But she's not done searching for her next place in tech. She's pushing past the challenges until she finds that next job.

Joan Marie Verba earned a bachelor of physics degree from the University of Minnesota and attended the graduate school of astronomy at Indiana University, where she was an associate instructor of astronomy for one year. She has worked as a computer programmer and as an editor. She currently works as a writer, a publisher, and a web developer.

• Website: http://joanmarieverba.com
• Blog: http://joanmarieverba.info
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/joanmarieverba
• Web developer portfolio: http://joanmarieverba.co.technology
• Projects page: http://joanmarieverba.name
• UX page: http://joanmarieverba.net

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

In this episode, Dan and Bekah talk to Ayu about the impact of community, being a prolific blogger, and the very real challenge of burnout. Ayu's openness about the challenges of being a mom on the self-taught track into tech, isolation, and fears of not being good enough are the stories that we don't share enough of. Because when we share, we can all work through them together. Thank you, Ayu, for reminding us that it's ok to not be ok.

About Ayu Adiati

Originally from Indonesia and now based in The Netherlands, Ayu Adiati is a self-taught Frontend Developer & Technical Blogger. She’s on her way to break into tech from being a stay-at-home-mom of now a 4 years old daughter.

When Ayu is not coding, you can find her with the DLSR camera on her hands, cuddling with her daughter, or enjoying her iced macchiato latte.

• Twitter
• Blog
• DEV
• CodeNewbie
• Hashnode

Links mentioned in the episode:

• Lesson Learned: Massive Burnout In Learning Web Development
• Ayu's twitter thread about struggling with learning to code
• Free Code Camp - web responsive design certification
• Ayu's CodeNewbie Community Spotlight

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

On this episode of the podcast, we talk to Abbey Perini, a full-stack web developer, about the impact building in public has had on her developer journey, what her experience as a recruiting admin taught her as she sent out 160 applications before landing her dev role, and how rehearsing before an interview can make a big impact.

Links mentioned in the episode:

• Github: https://github.com/abbeyperini
• Indeed job rate checker
• Abbey's posts mentioned:
  • CSS Animated Button with Offset Border
  • Sheba Counter: How To Reload a Page Whenever a User Makes a Change with React/Redux
  • Toggle Dark Mode in React
  • Knitting as Programming
  • Practicing Confidence for the Job Search

About Abbey:

Abbey Perini is many things - a metro Atlanta native, a person of many hobbies, and a full-stack web developer. Currently ramping up in her first development role, she loves blogging about stupid Discord bots, animated CSS buttons, and other fun and useful things about programming. You can find her work and ways to connect with her at abbeyperini.dev

• https://abbeyperini.dev
• https://twitter.com/AbbeyPerini
• https://github.com/abbeyperini
• https://dev.to/abbeyperini

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

In this episode of the podcast Bekah and Dan talk to Jono Yeong, a senior software engineer originally from Australia, but currently based in Seattle, USA, about how digital gardening leaves room for growth, allows you to develop what you enjoy, and is an investment in communication skills. We also talk about learning Elixir, the process he goes through as he's learning something new, and how he brings learning new things to what he's doing with Rails. Bonus: he even walks us through how to do a proper Tim Tam slam.

About Jono:
A senior software engineer originally from Australia, currently based in Seattle, USA. He's primarily a back-end developer but is enjoying re-entering the crazy world of front-end development. Loves giving back to communities and empowering others on their developer journeys. Without such a supportive community he wouldn't be where he is today. Hash browns are his guilty pleasure food.

Twitter - https://twitter.com/JonoYeong
Website - https://www.jonathanyeong.com
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/jonathanyeong

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

In this episode of the podcast, Dan and Bekah wrap up season two by talking about what they've learned about community building over the last year and some lessons they've learned along the way. They talk about Virtual Coffee's mission to support its members, and how Virtual Coffee's unique approach presents both challenges and opportunities when it comes to finding tools and guidance as the community grows.

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

In this episode of the podcast, Dan and Bekah talk with Sara McCombs. Sara is a software engineer and team lead at Aiera, and also one of the original organizers, and a current Community Maintainer, at Virtual Coffee. Sara shared her thoughts on how to think and talk about transferable skills, leveraging past experience to differentiate yourself, and the importance of embracing that past experience as part of your journey and strengths. She also talked about the impact of career changes, promotions, and overcoming self-doubt.

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

In this episode of the podcast, Dan and Bekah talk with Nerando Johnson, a full stack developer looking for his next job, about running freeCodeCamp meetups in Atlanta, learning through hackathons (including that one time his team won the hackathon and donated the $40,000 in winnings to charity) and how his next endeavor should be socialization as a service for tech events. We also talk about the importance of having a solid support system and we laugh...a lot.

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott