CodeNewbie

Latest Episodes:

S22:E9 - Coding Bootcamps & Coding Journeys (Mark Thompson) Jan 04, 2023

Show notes

Happy New Year! In this final episode of Season 22, Saron speaks with Mark Thompson, Senior Developer Relations Engineer at Google. Mark loves to teach and code. He is an award-winning university instructor and engineer with a passion for creating meaningful learning experiences. Listen as they discuss Mark's interest in code, coding bootcamps and how to manage your career.

Show Links

Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor)
Svelte
Vue
React
Angular

Mark Thompson

Mark loves to teach and code. His love for both of these disciplines has led to becoming an award winning university instructor and software engineer. He comes with a passion for creating meaningful learning experiences. With over a decade of developing solutions across the tech stack, Mark likes to use that experience to break down the fear of technology and make challenging technical topics more accessible. Lately, Mark has been spending time creating a disruptive fitness community by building Totally Strong, Inc. Oh, he also has a 1000+ day streak practicing Spanish on Duolingo!

S22:E8 - From Opera to Code (Anna McDougall) Dec 28, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, Saron talks to Anna McDougall, Director of Product and Engineering for the tech subsidiary of Europe's largest media publisher, Axel Springer National Media & Tech. Anna grew up in Sydney, Australia, and moved to Germany to pursue a career as an opera singer. At 32 she rediscovered her love for code and technology and made the switch to software engineering. She quickly discovered her mix of software and social skills made her perfect for leadership and technical speaking. Today, Saron and Anna discuss her experience in tech and navigating the career transition from entertainment to code. She is also the author of "You Belong in Tech: How to Go from Zero Programming Knowledge to Hired", and is passionate about getting historically excluded individuals into tech.

Anna McDougall

Former opera singer turned software engineer Anna McDougall is originally from Australia, but now lives in Leipzig, Germany. She currently works as Director, Product and Engineering (Projects and Organisation) for Axel Springer National Media & Tech GmbH, based in Berlin. There, she consults on project teams spanning AI, ML, web development, data science/analytics, AR/VR, DevOps, and more. Her work involves lifting up other engineers to better advocate for their work; representing the company's technical teams at conferences, meetups, and events; and also promoting diversity and inclusion initiatives for technical staff. Anna has consistently striven to motivate and drive practical results for others trying to transition into a tech career.

S22:E7 - Starting out in Open Source (Brian Douglas) Dec 21, 2022

Show notes

On today's episode, Saron speaks with Brian Douglas, founder and CEO of Open Sauced, where he works on increasing the knowledge and insights of open-source communities. In the past he’s lead Developer Advocacy at GitHub by fostering a community of early adopters through conversations with the top open source maintainers on GitHub. Hear them discuss how Brain learned to code to start his own company, takeaways from working at startups, open source insights and learning through rejection.

Brian Douglas

Outside of Open Sauced, Brian was most recently a member of the Developer Relations team at GitHub where he worked on the increasing use of GitHub and its API by fostering a community of early adopters through the developer programs. In the past, he’s led Developer Advocacy and Front-end development at Netlify, where he sat in a hybrid role as Frontend Engineer and Developer Advocate. Today, Brian finds a lot of enjoyment in encouraging folks to get involved in Open Source through his organization, Open Sauced.

S22:E6 - Technical writing (Philip Kiely) Dec 14, 2022

Show notes

Saron sits down with writer, programmer, and creator, Philip Kiley. Philip is the author of Writing for Software Developers and Life-Changing Email. They discuss how he first got into technical writing while studying abroad in Budapest, what technical writing is, what technical content platforms are out there, why new developers should publish content early in their careers, and more.

Show Links

Philip Kiely

Philip Kiely is a technical writer at BaseTen and the author of Writing for Software Developers. He runs PK&C, the world's smallest conglomerate. He graduated from Grinnell College in May 2020 with a degree in computer science. Before a stint as Head of Marketing at Gumroad, he began his career writing code for Markforged, Principal Financial, and CUNA Mutual Group. Philip’s professional hobbies include appearing on podcasts and panels, sending cold emails, and tweeting about business. He also plays D&D, practices martial arts, and reads widely.

S22:E5 - Bonus: How should we handle failure? (Compiler) Dec 08, 2022

Show notes

This week we’re bringing a bonus featured episode from Compiler, a show made to simplify tech for tomorrow’s IT leaders, from our friends at Red Hat. Jen Krieger and Dr. Erika Hamden join us on the show to discuss failure, and how approaching it in healthier ways can help individuals learn and grow. Take a listen!

Show Links

Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor)

Compiler

Do you want to stay on top of tech, but without the time spend? Compiler presents perspectives, topics, and insights from the industry free from jargon and judgment. They want to discover where technology is headed beyond the headlines, and create a place for new IT professionals to learn, grow, and thrive.

S22:E4 - Showing up in tech (Jason Lengstorf) Dec 07, 2022

Show notes

Joining Saron today is Jason Lengstorf, host of Learn with Jason, where he pair programs with experts from around the community to learn something new in 90 minutes. Jason talks about how he found his way into tech after being in a band, his passion for code and all things Developer Relations. He helps companies form stronger connections with their communities through creative media and special events. Jason also discusses the importance of showing up in tech, and what it really means.

Jason Lengstorf

Jason Lengstorf is a principal developer experience engineer at Netlify and the host of Learn With Jason, a live-streamed video show where he pairs with people in the community to learn something new in 90 minutes. He’s passionate about building healthy, efficient teams and systems, and he’s done his best to positively influence the community, leadership, and technical health of open source and companies including Gatsby and IBM. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

S22:E3 - Demonstrating curiosity kindly with Matt Newkirk (Matt Newkirk) Nov 30, 2022

Show notes

Joining Saron today is Matt Newkirk, Engineering Director at Etsy. Matt talks about his coding journey, his current role at Etsy, leadership tips and advice for people on their coding journey. Matt's found a career in paying forward the help he received along the way, starting as a volunteer MUD developer and finding a path to becoming a director of engineering at Etsy. His engineering efforts cover Quality Engineering, Infrastructure and Operations, with the most value coming from finding improved collaboration across teams.

Matt Newkirk

Matt Newkirk cares a lot about code quality, having started in a Code/Design Review position in 1997 for The Two Towers LPMud. Since then, he's worked in a variety of industries, always preaching testability and always building tools to support that philosophy. He now is the Director of Engineering at Etsy, where he leads the charge focusing on market localization, international search, and internal localization platforms such as machine and human translation.

S22:E2 - Building the bridge across the tech gap (Michelle Glauser) Nov 16, 2022

Show notes

Joining Saron today is Michelle Glauser, CEO & Founder of Techtonica. Ever since joining the industry as a software engineer, Michelle recognized the glaring lack of diversity within the world of tech, which is why she's dedicated herself to addressing this issue. Techtonica is a nonprofit that provides tuition-free tech training with laptops, living stipends, and job placement or search support to women and non-binary adults with low incomes. Michelle shares insights she's gained through her coding journey and advice for those looking to start their path today.

Michelle Glauser

Michelle Glauser is the founder and CEO of Techtonica, a nonprofit that offers low-income women and non-binary adults free tech training, along with living and childcare stipends, then places them in positions at sponsoring companies that are ready to support more diverse teams. She learned to code at Hackbright Academy in 2012 and became a software engineer, where she quickly realized that the industry was severely lacking diversity. Michelle is also the lead organizer for PyLadiesSF, and in 2015, she spearheaded the #ILookLikeAnEngineer ad campaign.

S22:E1 - The new wave of frontend developer tools are on their way (Chris Ferdinandi) Nov 09, 2022

Show notes

To welcome back our show for Season 22, we talk with a familiar face to the CodeNewbie Podcast, Chris Ferdinandi. Chris is the author of the Vanilla JS Pocket Guide series and the creator of the Vanilla JS Academy training program. On today's episode, Chris talks about what he's learned since coming on the show in 2020, how he sees the future of frontend development evolving over the next few years, and what tools might help in your next job search.

Chris Ferdinandi

Chris Ferdinandi is the author of the Vanilla JS Pocket Guide series, creator of the Vanilla JS Academy training program, and host of the Vanilla JS Podcast. My developer tips newsletter is read by over 8,500 developers each weekday.

S21:E8 - How to get into Web3 development (Nader Dabit) Sep 26, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, we talk about how to get into Web3 development, with Nader Dabit, developer relations engineer at Celestia and founder of Developer DAO. Nader talks about how Web3 differs from Web2, when it makes sense to build something as a Web3 app, and what are the tools and concepts a developer needs to know in order to build an app for Web3.