CodeNewbie

Latest Episodes:

S24:E2 - Understanding and Supporting Neurodivergence in Tech (Frankie Nicoletti) May 17, 2023

Show notes

Saron sits down again with Frankie Nicoletti who we heard from in Season 23. This time Saron and Frankie talk about neurodivergence. They talk about what neurodivergence is, how listening to people's needs and making accommodations to allow people to do their best work is and will always be good for everyone, not just those who are neurodivergent, and the benefits of being neurodivergent.

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Frankie Nicoletti

Francesca Kerberos Nicoletti (she/they) is an engineer, leader, educator, and polymath, and currently VP of Engineering at SoLo Funds. Previously they were AI Engineering Lead at a martech unicorn, Head of Engineering at a seed stage grocery startup, interim CTO at a big data startup, and an IC at several early-stage startups ranging from ecommerce to social media. They have been a career coach for 7 years. They hold several state records in power lifting.

S24:E1 - From Customer Service to Code (Tae'lur Alexis) May 10, 2023

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Tae’lur Alexis is a self taught software developer, application security enthusiast and content creator. Her mission is to help people with non traditional backgrounds break into tech. Tae'lur sits down with Saron to talk about her coding journey going from fast food to tech and the habits and tips she has learned to get to where she is today.

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Tae'lur Alexis

Tae'lur is a software developer, application security researcher / pentester and content creator. She transitioned into tech in 2018 after working in retail and fast food. Since then she's had the pleasure of traveling around the world speaking at conferences, have worked with startups helping improve their user experience and have helped get more people into tech. Tae'lur write about all things tech – her favorite being web app pentesting. Her goal is to explain technical concepts in way that people can understand. Tae'lur want to do her part in helping make the tech space more inclusive and accessible for those transitioning from non traditional backgrounds.

S23:E8 - Empowering the Next Generation of Black Tech Talent (Pariss Chandler) Apr 12, 2023

Show notes

For our Season 23 Finale, Saron talks to Pariss Chandler, Software Engineer turned Founder & CEO of Black Tech Pipeline. You may have heard of her before, as she was the mobilizer behind the hashtag, movement, and community #BlackTechTwitter. Pariss talks about getting into tech, being in tech at ad agencies and a beauty company, and how life changed after just one tweet. Pariss also talks about Black Tech Pipeline, the company Pariss started after seeing a lack of Black programmers in tech and wanting to change that.

Pariss Chandler

Pariss Chandler is a Software Engineer turned Founder & CEO of Black Tech Pipeline and mobilizer of the hashtag, movement and community #BlackTechTwitter.

S23:E7 - How a Single Mom in a Shelter Became a Successful Software Developer (Brittney Ball) Mar 29, 2023

Show notes

Saron sits down with Brittney Ball, Documentation Engineer at Meta. Brittney shares her experience going from being a homeless single mom living in a shelter to a Software Engineer. She talks about her journey to get to where she is today, the role a viral tweet played in kick-starting her coding journey, tips for those who are self-taught to stand out when job searching, and what a Documentation Engineer is.

Brittney Ball

Through hard work and determination, Brittney's proven that your past doesn’t define your future. Six years ago, she was a single mom living in a shelter. Now, she's a self-taught software engineer, documentation engineer, keynote speaker, event organizer, technical bootcamp instructor, and mentor.

S23:E6 - From Site Reliability Engineer to Principal Software Engineer (Alice Goldfuss) Mar 22, 2023

Show notes

Today, Saron talks with Alice Goldfuss, Principal Software Engineer and Systems Programmer specializing in building resilient distributed systems at scale. Alice delivered industry-impacting talks on container platforms, infrastructure operations, and organizational best practices, as well as written on the SRE field, kernel crashes, and personal security. We hear about her coding journey and learn all about her take on various programs and the tech world as a whole.

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Alice Goldfuss

Alice Goldfuss is a systems punk with years of experience working on cutting-edge container platforms. She's an international speaker who enjoys building modern infrastructure at-scale and writing fiction on the weekends. Alice has written articles, consulted on publications, built communities, and sipped many cups of tea. She haven't written a book, but you’ve probably read her tweets (@alicegoldfuss).

S23:E5 - Going from Ministry to Tech (Kyle Shevlin) Mar 15, 2023

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In this episode we sit down with Kyle Shevlin from Virta Health, who talks to us about his journey from ministry into tech. Kyle is a senior software engineer (JavaScript, React, and more) who spends his free time golfing, woodworking and playing video games. Hear as he describes his experience with ADHD in the workplace.

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Kyle Shevlin

Kyle Shevlin is a software developer that lives and works in wonderful Portland, Oregon. He describes himself as a simple, Midwestern man who happens to be the forbidden lovechild between a Vulcan and a Viking. Make of that what you will. He has a motto that is the driving force behind his work, “With all things, leave them better than you find them.” He sees something that could be better, he tries to find a way to make it better. Lastly, lest you think of him as only a software developer. When he's not working, he's probably working on his golf game. He plays in tournaments all around the Pacific Northwest and occasionally even wins one once in a while. He has a nascent golf blog he's just getting started to share some of his insights into the game with others. When he's not playing golf, you can probably find him playing video games with his wife 5 or having a good beer and food with some friends.

S23:E4 - Practical A/B Testing (Leemay Nassery) Mar 08, 2023

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In this episode we sit down with Leemay Nassery who talks to us about all things A/B testing. Leemay is a Senior Engineer Manager at Spotify who is passionate about tying engineering to business and user impact while keeping her team's career growth at the forefront. If you have ever been interested in learning more about A/B testing or have been confused about what exactly A/B testing might be, this episode is for you.

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Leemay Nassery

Leemay Nassery is an engineering leader at Spotify. Before Spotify, she led data engineering and personalization efforts at Etsy, Dropbox, and Comcast. Leemay is passionate about tying engineering to business and user impact while keeping her team's career growth at the forefront.

S23:E3 - Saying Yes to Opportunities (Frankie Nicoletti) Mar 01, 2023

Show notes

In this episode we talk to Frankie Nicoletti, VP of Engineering at SoLo Funds. We learn how throughout their career Frankie has always said yes to opportunities that came their way and it has made all the difference. Tune in to find out about what saying yes looks like and how to best look for and apply to jobs when you're a new bootcamp grad.

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Frankie Nicoletti

S23:E2 - Having a Growth Mindset (Tanya Reilly) Feb 22, 2023

Show notes

This week we talk to Tanya Reilly, Senior Principal Engineer at Squarespace, about having a growth mindset. Having a growth mindset includes recognizing our limitations and challenging ourselves to learn at any stage of our coding journey. We also talked about interviewing and advocating for ourselves.

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Tanya Reilly

Tanya Reilly is the author of The Staff Engineer's Path, and a Senior Principal Software Engineer at Squarespace. Before Squarespace she spent 12 years in Site Reliability Engineering at Google. She is originally from Ireland, but is now an enthusiastic New Yorker. Tanya likes raspberry pi, coding on trains and figuring out how systems will break. She blogs at noidea.dog.

S23:E1 - Psychological Safety in Tech (Taylor Poindexter) Feb 15, 2023

Show notes

Welcome back to Season 23 of the CodeNewbie Podcast! We sit down and talk to Taylor Poindexter, co-founder of Black Code Collective, an organization that strives to create a safe space for software engineers to thrive. She is also an Engineering Manager at Spotify. In her downtime you can find her adventuring, tweeting about tech, and creating whiskey videos for Instagram. She talks to us about her coding experience, the importance of taking breaks and what psychological safety in the workplace looks like. She also talks to us about her organization Black Code Collective.

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Taylor Poindexter

Taylor Poindexter is the co-founder of Black Code Collective, an organization that strives to provide a safe space for Black Engineers to collaborate and grow their skills. In addition to this, she is an Engineering Manager at Spotify, Some awards she’s received include: 2019 Power Woman of DC Tech, DC Fem Tech’s 2018 Power Woman in Code, DC’s 2017 Top Technologist, and 2017 Power Woman of DC Tech. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, working out, whiskey tasting, and spending time with her two amazing nephews.