#170 From Art School Drop-out to Microsoft Engineer with Shashi Lo
On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Shashi Lo. He's a software engineer at Microsoft. He grew up the child of refugees. He wanted to start earning money and build his family so he abandoned his art school degree and taught himself how to program. He immediately hustled to land freelance development clients – something he still does today on top of his full time job and raising his 4 kids. We talk about: - Making ends meet doing freelance work - How to bootstrap your reputation toward getting a job in big tech - Mistakes he sees careers changers make - The pros and cons of working in big tech VS working at developer agencies Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - Shashi's conference talks and other podcast interviews: https://bento.me/shashilo
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#169 From fast food worker to cybersecurity engineer with Tae'lur Alexis
On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Tae'lur Alexis. She's a developer and security analyst. Instead of going to college, Tae'lur spent years working various fast food and retail jobs. Tae'lur taught herself Python and JavaScript using freeCodeCamp and worked as a software engineer for 5 years before specializing in security engineering. Now instead of building applications, she breaks them. We talk about: - Making ends meet working McDonalds in Florida - How she taught herself programming using freeCodeCamp and the #100DaysOfCode challenge - Leveraging local meetups to make developer friends - Moving to Thailand and working remotely Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - Tae'lur's website and blog articles: https://taeluralexis.com - Tae'lur's YouTube channel about working remotely in Bangkok: https://www.youtube.com/@TaelurAlexis - Tae'lur on Twitter: https://x.com/TaelurAlexis
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#168 From Accountant to Data Engineer with Alyson La
On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Alyson La. She taught herself how to code while working as an accountant at GitHub and was able to transition to a data scientist there, then ultimately a software engineer. After one of her kids got diagnosed with autism, she left her career for 3 years to be a full-time mom. She then re-entered the workforce and now teaches other moms how to do the same through a charity called Tech-Moms. She recently won a teacher of the year award and was a top 5 finalist in a data visualization competition. We talk about: - How Alyson taught herself programming while working as an accountant - How she transitioned to data analyst and ultimately data engineer - Tips for preparing for a break from work to take care of your family or address burnout - How to re-enter with the workforce with gusto Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - Alyson's new analytics consultancy: https://alysonla.com/ - The charity Alyson teaches at: https://www.tech-moms.org/ - Tech-Mom's Data class: https://github.com/Tech-Moms/data-analytics-course - The petition site Alyson mentioned: https://playground-petition-portal-9cfaeecf.vercel.app/ - Alyson's Drake fan page: https://alysonla.github.io/drizzydrakefanpage/ - Alyson's matching game: https://alysonla.github.io/hubber-memory-game/ - Alyson substack: https://alysonsaiplayground.substack.com/ - The data visualization app Alyson that was a finalist in the recent competition: https://pixar-scroll-tale.lovable.app/
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#167 From drop-out to software architect with Jason Lengstorf
On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Jason Lengstorf. He learned to code out of necessity building websites for local emo bands. He dropped out of college but eventually worked as an engineer at IBM and has gone on to roles at many other companies doing everything from software architecture to management. He runs CodeTV, a Bravo-style reality TV channel for developers. We talk about: - Jason's winding path into development from building websites for bands - Teaching yourself programming by chasing your curiosity - How in-person events gives you tacit knowledge that makes you a better engineer - How having a broad range of skills ultimately helps you build better projects Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - CodeTV: https://codetv.dev/ - The CodeTV YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnty0z0pNRDgnuoirYXnC5A - Jason's website: https://jason.energy/
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#166 From broke musician to working dev. How college drop-out Ryan Furrer taught himself to program
On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Ryan Furrer. He's a Front End Engineer working on tools that help companies monitor their buildings for energy usage, water leaks, and other environmental factors. Ryan dropped out of college and worked as a musician and violin instructor. He spent 5 years teaching himself how to program before getting freelance gigs, and ultimately landing developer jobs. We talk about: - Life as a broke musician - Teaching yourself to code while working full-time - How Ryan had to move back in with his parents after a divorce - His 5-year journey to his first developer job Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Also, I want to thank the 11,384 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Or you can listen to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Be sure to follow the freeCodeCamp Podcast there so you'll get new episodes each Friday. Links we talk about during our conversation: Ryan's podcast, Web Dev Dialogues: https://www.webdevdialogues.com/episodes Ryan's website: https://www.ryanfurrer.com A freeCodeCamp course on the Astro front end development framework taught by freeCodeCamp podcast guest James Q Quick: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-the-astro-web-framework/
The official podcast of the freeCodeCamp.org open source community. Each week, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews developers, founders, and ambitious people in tech.
Learn to math, programming, and computer science for free, and turbo-charge your developer career with our free open source curriculum: https://www.freecodecamp.org
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