Junior to Senior with David Guttman

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**Junior to Senior with David Guttman**

A weekly show for ambitious devs who want to take their career to the next level.

Latest Episodes:

David Guttman - Hiatus Nov 08, 2021

Talking Points:

The disadvantage that Juniors developers have
Focus on the actual goal
Take your career to the next level

Quotable Quotes:

"Through mentorship programs and developer events that I run, I recognize that the biggest disadvantage that Juniors developers have is not technical expertise"
"Tools, libraries, technologies, frameworks, languages, they all change so fast"
"The disadvantage that Juniors devs have is that they don't know how more Senior engineers and managers think"
"That's really what I hope [the how] these interviews have given you, a window into the minds of tech leads, hiring managers, and CTOs"
"Over the previous something 60 episodes we've also covered some specific techniques you could put into practice to immediately be seen and treated as more senior by recruiters, hiring managers and teammates"
"I also hope that if you've taken away nothing else is that your ability to code and create software is only valuable if you're using it to help others or make them more productive"
"Look past your tools, your editor, your programming language, and whatever framework is popular by the time you are listening to this"
"It should be the actual goal or result that needs to be achieved, that's what should've kept in your mind"
"Often the best solution involves no code at all"
"Thanks for listening, I hope you take your career to the next level, and let me know how it goes"

Notes:
David Guttman twitter

twitter.com/davidguttman

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Avi Press - Founder & CEO at Scarf Nov 01, 2021

Talking Points:

Open-source contributions
Working with workflows
Promoting open-source projects
Networking
Founder’s mindset

Quotable Quotes:

"Getting involved with open-source can definitely make your development more visible" - AP
"A lot of the opportunities that I've had in my life often come down to networking, and open-source is no exception to that" – AP
"I've always generally been a proponent of just being exposed to lots of different ways to thinking or ways of working, that makes you more adaptable" – AP
"That was really kind of the start of it [open-source] for me, just having tools I was building and using myself" – AP
"[Canonical advice for getting started on open-source] Find a smallish but still used project, use it, try to use it in something, figure out where the gaps are in either documentation or tests or examples […] and do a small (as small as you can) PR" – DG
"[Another approach] Trying to do your own project and see what it's like to sort of packaging all up and trying to have like a very complete but again small project that checks all the boxes" – DG
"Go talk to people, go ask" – AP
"It doesn't matter how busy a person is if you very genuinely just ask [to connect with them]" – AP
"Think about who may be the dream person that you’d want to go to for advice and then just try it" – AP
"I think that just about everyone should care about the other parts of the business where you work" – AP

Notes:

Scarf

about.scarf.sh

Avi Press website

avi.press

Avi Press twitter

twitter.com/avi_press

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Junior's Journey w/ Jose Mendoza - Freelance Web Developer Oct 25, 2021

Talking Points:

How to find balance to avoid burning out
Finding your career goal as a developer
How to help others and learn while having fun

Quotable Quotes:

"You should be pushing yourself, you should be learning new things" [instead of relying on an employer] - DG
"Choose projects that you find fun” [to make your leisure time, your learning time] – DG
"I could use that knowledge [how to push myself the right way, how to find motivation..] in helping other people, making them grow as well" - JM
"I think I need [to develop] the skills that a CTO, a founder has" [to level up] - JM
"With power comes responsibility" - DG
"I think that's my biggest fear, to be in the same place [without any advance] for a very long period of time, I mean time is very limited" - JM
"My goal is to have some kind of positive impact [...] at least do something meaningful" - JM
"The second you are dying, you could say like well I did something great in life, at least my life was useful" – JM
"At the end of the day if you are not capable, you probably won't go too far with your mission, that's my main concern" - JM
"I think open-source is an amazing place to start [to somehow collaborate with others and help, to learn, to clarify your route]" - JM
"Leave the world a bit better than you found it" - JM
"My motivation to start in tech was actually to tweak stuff" [on games] - JM
"I remember those times [when learned to code as a child] with a smile on my face, it's like you're having so much fun and you're not being pressed by a timeline" - JM

Notes:

Jose Mendoza's website
josebmendozam.com
Jose Mendoza's twitter
twitter.com/JoseBMendozaM
Js.la
js.la
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

David Guttman - JTS Community Q&A 1 Oct 18, 2021

Talking Points:

Is it a problem if you personal GitHub is not showing a lot of activity? / Is it OK to have a basic portfolio site that has the basics? / How can you show that you are capable? How can you stand out from other people?
How do I provide value to a company if I do not currently know all the in demand frameworks?
How do you make an employer trust you enough so that they take a chance on hiring you?

Quotable Quotes:

"You don't need a GitHub that shows lots of activity"
"When a Hiring Manager is looking at you, you want them to get as good of an idea of what to expect, if you were on the job, as possible"
"If you have it on display, they [Hiring Managers] don't need to wonder if you are capable of it"
"You have more control [with a portfolio site] over what you want them [Hiring Managers] to see"
"You can be as creative as you want, and as distinctive and memorable as you want"
"The more clearly you show the value that you can bring if somebody hires you, the better"
"What really matters to a lot of companies is the value that their product, service or platform is providing to their users"
"Provide to them [companies] the things that help them make more money, save money or save time"
"One of the things that we are good at as engineers is learning new things, none of us were born knowing React or NodeJs or Vue or anything like that"
"Prove that you are not gonna cost more trouble than help you're gonna provide"
"Control that first impression of you [...] Demonstrate that you're capable in solving their problems, saving them time, helping them make more money"
"As an Engineering Manager what you are worried about more than anything else is that this person won't be able to do the work and in particular that they are going to be more disruptive than they are helpful"
"You just need to make them [Hiring Managers] very confident that you can come in, do the work that they need done, do the technical work, that you won't require a lot of baby sitting"
"You won't be distracting the manager a lot with questions or complains or whatever. You are actually capable of taking directions and doing the work, that you are not going to disrupt the rest of the team and that you are gonna be generally a nice person and ideally fun to be around, adding to the culture"
"One of the worst things that you can do is to get stuck on an issue for too long and not let anyone know"
"Before you ask any particular question take at least 15 minutes to try whatever you can to solve it and document what you tried and what the responses were"
"Remember that how you say things matters just as much as what you say"

Notes:

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Justin Dorfman - Open Source Program Manager at Reblaze, Co-Founder at SustainOSS Oct 11, 2021

Talking Points:

How could you become a successful developer
Approaching mistakes
Choosing a supportive environment
Contributing to open-source
Techniques to prevent mistakes

Quotable Quotes:

"Finding what you're great at" [to become successful] – JD
"It's not all about just engineering" [but working with people, different teams] – JD
"You're gonna fail and you're gonna screw up, sometimes big time" [Junior devs] – JD
"From a management point of view, it really shouldn't be about the individual developer who makes the mistake and causes an outage, it should be more about the system that allows it to happen" – DG
"Start contributing to open-source and get in some of your patches merged into the main branch and you'll be surprised how many recruiters try to hit you up on LinkedIn" – JD
"Finding little tiny things that could be fixed so you get that adrenaline rush" [when starting to contribute to open-source projects] – JD
"You gotta understand, maintainers are dealing with so much" [don't take things personal] – JD
"You're able to move up because you learn from the past" – JD

Notes:

First Timers Only
www.firsttimersonly.com
Study: A Simple Surgery Checklist Saves Lives
content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1871759,00.html
Justin Dorfman Website
www.justindorfman.com
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Alex Hughes - Engineering Manager at Eurekasoft Oct 04, 2021

Talking Points:

Importance of networking
Communication
Managing teams
How to ask questions
Understanding the approaches
Daily habits
Accountability

Quotable Quotes:

"I think both of them are essential for people coming out of bootcamps or colleges" [networking and communication] - AH
"It's a huge advantage to have a conversation with somebody like that, in an informal setting before you head down the formal path of applying" - DG
"Networking isn't about just getting a job, it's about making connections, it's about making meaningful relationships with people" - AH
"If I wasn't a tech lead, if I was just an individual contributor, getting contacts, understanding the roles of my team-mates and communicating with my manager would be a primary focus for me" - AH
"Focus on the process, on giving people contacts to the process and also being in a constant level of upwards optimization or efficiency" - AH
"If you were in a 1 on 1 with me and there's an issue that you wanted to talk about, you have to think about what is the issue, what have I done to try to solve it, who I've talked to, what does the issue do, how does it affect the environment that we're in and is there time limit to this?" - AH
"They are never going to get stronger if you keep lifting the weights for them" - DG
"The ideal [question] is one that promotes confidence in your understanding about the issue" - AH
"State the issue in a comprehensive way and list the things that you've tried in order to figure it out" - AH
"Any question that you have is [a good opportunity] to show that you understand what the question actually is" - AH
"To see somebody come in with 'everything is good' is not a good sign" - AH
"Lead by example" - AH
"I like to see developers create a plan for the day and that plan includes all of the different tasks that they are going to do" - AH
"Owning your mistakes and learning from them is key" - AH
"You just can't get better without making mistakes" - DG
"Ask questions until you don't have to ask questions anymore" - AH
"Skill does not come from ego, it comes from the work that you put in" - AH

Notes:

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

goodreads.com/book/show/29342515-the-coaching-habit

Time Boxing

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeboxing

Pomodoro method

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

Js.la

contribute.js.la/speak

Junior to Senior Community

community.juniortosenior.io

Swizec Teller - Senior Software Engineer at Tia Sep 27, 2021

Talking Points:

Difference between Senior and Junior engineer
Ways to gain experience quickly
Career paths
10x engineers
Setting up the right mindset

Quotable Quotes:

"You can have one year of experience five times or you can actually have five years of experience" - ST
"The more Junior somebody is, the more obsessed they are with their code following some sort of textbook perfection" - ST
"The more Senior people tend to focus on is delivering value" - ST
"The real art of engineering, specially in software, is how you respond to those evolving requirements, that's where most of the experience comes from" - ST
"Going to a product-focused startup is a really good way to rapidly learn a lot of things" - ST
"The actual titles aren't that important, they don't translate that well between different companies" - ST
"At some point you become so good that writing the code yourself is a waste of your time" - ST
"It doesn't matter how good of an engineer or a coder you are, a team of five people is always going to outcode you no matter what" - ST
"Figuring out ways to get the same benefit without building the feature" - DG
"Find people who have done that and talk to them" - ST
"Having much more the consultant mindset rather than an employee mindset" - DG
"If you are a developer, you have a superpower" - DG

Notes:

Swizec's blog

https://swizec.com/

Swizec's twitter

https://twitter.com/Swizec

Senior mindset

https://seniormindset.com/

So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

https://www.calnewport.com/books/so-good/
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

James M Snell - System Engineer at CloudFlare Sep 13, 2021

Talking Points:

Building tools developers use
Learning a new codebase
The viability of open source careers
What makes a good team member
Avoiding burn out

Quotable Quotes:

“Every line of code you change is going to have an impact somewhere and it's going to impact someone.” - JS
“The amount of knowledge you have...will never define you, it's how you apply it, it’s how you recover from mistakes.” - JS
“[How to learn faster] Figuring out what you don't know and knowing how to quickly identify the gaps in your own knowledge.” - JS
“I don't mind helping...but I also want to see you putting in the effort yourself to figure it out.” - JS
“[Learning new code bases] I fiddle and break things, and then figure out what broke.” - JS
“If you're just spending all your time looking at code and thinking about code, you will burn out very quickly.” - JS
“The people that I enjoy working with the most take a very humble approach to the code they write.” - JS

Notes:
James’ Twitter

https://twitter.com/jasnell

James’ Github

https://github.com/jasnell
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Gene Chuang - Chief Slacker at CTO Slackers, Board Of Directors at Innovate Pasadena, Limited Partner Investor at Hyphen Capital Sep 06, 2021

Talking Points:

Figuring out your career path
Learning to code
Working in a team setting
The skill of communicating
What makes a good engineer

Quotable Quotes:

“Handoff your code so that somebody else can maintain it.” - GC
“I strongly encourage all junior engineers to work in at least a mid-sized to a large-sized company.” - GC
“One key skillset an engineer must have is communication.” - GC
“The easiest way to do that [align yourself to the priority of the company] is align yourself with the bug priority list.” - GC
“You don't want engineers who become complacent, they produce so many bugs.” - GC
“That's very important, that you're always learning.” - GC
“You should always be assessing yourself.” - GC

Notes:

Gene’s LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/genechuang

Gene’s Github

https://github.com/genechuang
Gene’s Organization
https://www.ctoslackers.com
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Seth Purcell - Co-Founder and CEO at Constructor Aug 30, 2021

Talking Points:

Code as a means to an end
Focusing on the business problem
Building business value
The alignment of goals within an organization
Not being afraid to ask stupid questions

Quotable Quotes:

“In our culture, we build businesses...we happen to use code most of the time.” - SP
“Do you want to succeed or have fun?” - SP
“Culture is what you do, not what you say you do.” - SP
“Make sure you really understand the problem [that your team is] trying to solve.” - SP
“The best people are completely willing to ask stupid questions all the time.” - SP
“I think that the biggest mistake of junior engineers is being intimidated [to ask questions].” - SP
“Good [or bad] ideas can come from anywhere [from junior or senior].” - SP

Notes:

Seth’s LinkedIn

linkedin.com/in/sethpurcell

Seth’s Company Site

constructor.dev

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Nick Dies - Co-Founder, Partner, Partnerships Director at Funkhaus Aug 23, 2021

Talking Points:

Putting yourself in the user's shoes
Doing your work and asking questions
Interview preparation
Culture fit

Quotable Quotes:

“We don't want somebody that is just a doer without asking questions.” - ND
“I want people to always be wanting to improve themselves and challenge themselves.” - ND
“Be willing to...say, "I think this can be done better", but you don't want to dig in so hard that it becomes negative energy.” - ND
“If I'm looking at developer candidates...I'm looking for…do they care about what we're doing? Are they interested in the work.’” - ND
“[preparing for interviews] Do a deep dive on this company and understand what they're about.” - ND
“Even if they might not have a job posting...reach out and say…”I would love to talk.” - ND
“If you've spent the time to care about the company, there's more conversation [in an interview].” - ND

Notes:

Nick’s Company Site:

funkhaus.us

Nick’s LinkedIn

linkedin.com/in/nicholasdies
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

David Subar - Chief Product Officer, Chief Technology Officer at Interna Aug 16, 2021

Talking Points:

Building products people use
Getting a job you can be great at
Be in places where luck can happen to you
How to know if you are providing value

Quotable Quotes:

“If you're not providing value in your ecosystem, interacting with this person is not a good use of time or money.” - DS
“If you're aligned with your managers, then you'll tend to produce value for them.” - DS
“If you don't fundamentally care about who you serve, you should consider whether that's the job you want.” - DS
“You need to be where luck can happen to you.” - DS
“Is the product, is the team better for me having been here?” - DS
“Constantly refactor. Don't ask for permission to refactor.” - DS
“A good engineer is refactoring a little bit along the way, all the time.” - DS

Notes:

David’s Company

Interna.com
David’s LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/davidsubar
David’s Twitter
twitter.com/dsubar

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Scott Decker - SVP Of Technology, VP of Product Engineering at Nexstar Media Inc. Aug 09, 2021

Talking Points:

The different stages of a developer
Thinking about where you want to go
Find what you enjoy doing early in your career
Do you want to be a manager or a single contributor
Learning from costly mistakes

Quotable Quotes:

“Where do you want to go?” - SD
“You want to grow and you want to think, how did they get to where they're at and make that happen.” - SD
“At the earliest start be picky about what you're trying to do.” - SD
“My biggest thing that I can ask you is to be a problem solver.” - SD
“Keep encouraging yourself to take little steps ahead.” - SD
“Your skill level has nothing really to do with your degree.” - SD
"As early as you can try testing your own career with that kind of stuff [being a manager or single contributor], you'll find that way better." - SD

Notes:

Scott’s Halloween Party:

nohomonsterbash.com

Scotts LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/decke

Scott’s Email:

sdecker@nextstardigital.com
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Tyler Bushnell - CEO at Polycade Aug 02, 2021

Talking Points:

Finding missing information quickly
Not needing permission to pursue ideals
Working well with a team
Growing through community
Not just being a pair of hands

Quotable Quotes:

“The worst thing that I think a developer can do is not surround themselves with tons of other developers.” - TB
"It [NodeConf] really got me understanding how other programmers work and what they're doing.” - TB
"To be a good engineer, you always have to be learning." - TB
"Strike a balance, trust yourself. Do what you want and if that fails...try something else again." - TB
"Being around people in your industry...it's gonna help you understand the greater picture." - TB
“If you're always learning then the older you get, the more things you're going to be comfortable with.” - TB
“How to talk to people and meet people, it's totally learnable.” - TB

Notes:
Tyler’s business site:
polycade.com
Tyler’s LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in/tyler-bushnell
Polycade’s Instagram:
instagram.com/polycade
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Drew Baker - Founder, Technical Director at Funkhaus Jul 26, 2021

Talking points:

Be creative as a developer
Setting yourself apart
Choosing the right technology
The freedom of JavaScript
Finding your niche
Solve problems that free up time

Quotable Quotes:

“You should probably go down the road of the thing that's going to give you the most return.” - DB
“It's very hard to find someone that can do that [be an illustrator] and also write code.” - DB
“You should really not just reach for the latest and greatest thing because you saw it on hacker news” - DB
“Learn something as deep as you can.” - DB
“If you enjoy the design stuff that I've been talking about then absolutely focus on JavaScript, animations, and CSS.” - DB
“It's very rare that you will change languages in your career” - DB
“So it comes down to, what do you enjoy doing?” - DB

Notes:

Funkhaus website

funkhaus.us

Funkhaus Github

github.com/funkhaus

Drew’s email
drew@funkhaus.us
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Jonathan Stark - President at Jonathan Stark Consulting Jul 19, 2021

Talking Points:

Making your boss look good
How to use your skills and passions
Knowing the pros & cons of tools
Understanding risk
Focusing on the outcome

Quotable Quotes:

“If you want to advance your career...figure out how to make your boss look good.”
“He [Jonathan’s senior colleague] thought about the outcome. What are you really trying to accomplish here?”
“When...they understand a little bit about business outcomes, I'm like, oh, this person is smart, they get it.”
“The world doesn't owe you a handsome income for engaging in your favorite activities.”
“Back when you had an actual paper book you'd go way deeper into individual things.”
“You keep your eyes on the outcome...then you can get there with minimal detours.”
“...the new shiny tool, you want to talk to your friends about it, but your boss doesn’t care about that.”

Notes:
Jonathan's Twitter

https://twitter.com/jonathanstark
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Erick Herring - CTO at Vynyl Jul 12, 2021

Talking Points:

The complexity of mentorship
Surround yourself with good people
The hiring process
Kind honesty
Culture fit

Quotable Quotes:

“I think it's much more important that you have a values fit.” - EH
“From a kind place, tell the truth to people.” - EH
“Always think about the client, put yourself in the client's shoes.” - EH
“We're taught that when you're a candidate you can't address certain issues.” - EH
“Judging...the ability to do a job from the interview process is such a tricky proposition.” - EH
“When people are happy, everything is happier.” - EH
“Make sure that you're not feeling things too deeply[in the interview].” - EH

Notes:

Erick’s Twitter

linkedin.com/in/erickherring
CTO at

vynyl.com
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Pirijan - Creator of Kinopio.club and co-creator of Glitch.com Jul 05, 2021

Talking Points:

Communicating well
The cycle of learning new things
When to prioritize performance
Clean code
Empathy for the user

Quotable Quotes:

“This is a new challenge and it's hard. It becomes a lot shorter. - P
“I think people optimize for what's going to look pretty...vs. what's going to look like a real instrument” - P
“You're still keeping performance in mind, but you're not being hyper about it.” - P
“There's also the speed of how the user perceives it. The perception of speed.” - P
“Sometimes going too hard in the weeds makes code pretty gnarly.” - P
“...if you make something easier, fundamentally you have exponentially more people doing that.” - P
“Kinopio is, I guess, what I like to call a spatial thinking tool for new ideas and hard problems.” - P

Notes:

Pirijan’s Website:
pketh.org

Pirijan’s project:

kinopio.club

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Justin Higgins - Founder at 24hourhomepage.com Jun 28, 2021

Talking Points:

Watching mentors solve problems
Version control
Humble communication
Self-evaluation
Constrained creativity

Quotable Quotes:

“You have a big story[frequent Git commits]...that’s what gets published, is a story.” - JH
“You can always improve communication.” - JH
“If somebody has that[holier than thou attitude], that would probably be like a big red flag.” - JH
“Nobody knows anything at the start of this stuff, so we all learned.” - JH
“You should know why you're participating in that company, on that project.” - JH
“Every night or every week...ask yourself ‘How am I doing? Where am I going?" - JH
“One week I worked on a Saturday because I felt like I hadn't met a goal...I got chewed out for it in the best way possible.” - JH

Notes:

Justin’s Twitter
https://twitter.com/justinprojects
Justin’s Latest Project
24hourhomepage.com
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Erin Mckean - Developer Relations Program Manager at Google Jun 21, 2021

Talking Points:

Developer advocacy
Write good documentation
Confusing the solution with the problem
Define clear goals
Learning with joy

Quotable Quotes:

"Does this solve a problem that everybody agrees is an actual problem?" - EM
"Whenever you've run into problems, it's probably a goal problem." - EM
"When you don't know what you want a function to do it can be really hard to write that function." - EM
"A lot of people just don't like to close off possibilities so they want to do everything all at once." - EM
"You can't ever make yourself irreplaceable, you can only make yourself a single point of failure." - EM
"You really have to practice being okay with feeling dumb." - EM
"You should always be looking to figure out how you can bring other people into your circle instead of keeping people out." - EM

Notes:
Erin's Website:

erinmckean.com
Erin's non-profit organization:
wordnik.com

Erin's Twitter:

twitter.com/emckean

Erin's GitHub:

github.com/emckean
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Gregor Martynus - Maintainer of the JavaScript Octokit, GitHub's official JavaScript SDK Jun 14, 2021

Talking Points:

Maintaining GitHub's official JavaScript SDK
Making users and developers life's easier
Being a valuable asset to your manager and team
Growth through communication
You are entitled to mentorship

Quotable Quotes:

"I would say you are entitled to mentoring." - GM
"You [Junior dev] have a unique perspective that I lost a long time ago" - GM
"It's an easy sell. If you say I can automate this with two hours of work." - GM
"Writing skills are so important besides the coding aspect itself." - GM
"Maybe you're out of university or boot camp or a career change, you still have to great perspective." - GM
"When you do any kind of interview, a question I would definitely ask is, what is your mentorship program?" - GM
"When you look over the shoulder of a more experienced developer, you will have so many points where you will be like...how did you do that?" - GM

Notes:
octokit.js - GitHub's official JS SDK for their platform APIs:
github.com/octokit/octokit.js/
A Twitter account tweeting issues for first-time contributors:
twitter.com/first_tmrs_only
A complete backend for your apps:
hood.ie
Hood.ie's GitHub:

github.com/hoodiehq

A whole community about landing open source contributions by @bdougie:
opensauced.pizza
Gregor's Twitter:
twitter.com/gr2m
Gregor's Github
github.com/gr2m
Gregor's Helpdesk Show:
github.com/gr2m/helpdesk
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

TJ Kinion - Program Manager, Career Services Director, Director of Admissions at LearningFuze Jun 07, 2021

Talking Points:

Take advantage of your soft skills
Spot job postings scams
Mandatory things to expect in an interview
Apply to roles above your skill level
Set yourself apart as a junior developer

Quotable Quotes:

In the first line [tell me about yourself question], have something that grabs their attention. - TJ
You're making these assumptions without actually putting yourself out there and giving yourself a chance. - TJ
What the companies don't do is they don't tell job seekers that, we're actually only expecting you to have experience with 30 to 50% of this stuff. - TJ
Statistically, you actually only need to hit 50% of the requirements on the job description. - TJ
One of the biggest mistakes entry-level people do is they fall into the practice problem loop. - TJ
One of my favorite groups for students to go to is Hack for LA. - TJ
One of my favorite questions to wrap up an interview is...do you have any hesitations about moving forward with me. - TJ

Notes:

TJ’s LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tj-kinion/
TJ on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX3slV5agPg

Jacob Thornton - Sr. Staff Software Engineer at Coinbase May 31, 2021

Talking Points:

Creating Open Source Software
Why Bootstrap was created
The development scene in the early 2000s
What you should know to learn quickly

Quotable Quotes:

(Why bootstrap was created) "I just wanted to create a toolkit internally to make it so that my peers on my team could create these tools in a beautiful way." - JT
"I don't have a traditional computer science background. I studied literature in school. When I moved into the industry, I felt like I had a ton to learn, obviously not writing code, except for some basic HTML and CSS." - JT
"Getting a job at a startup as a designer, then being frustrated no one could build my designs, learning CSS, JavaScript and really leaning on open source libraries like jQuery...I just got so much from that." - - JT
"For every project like that (Bootstrap), I wrote a hundred thousand other things, or I had a hundred dumb conversations with friends where we paired on something over a beer and nothing really came of it." - JT
"I don't even know what the quote is. It's something like hard work beats talent when talent is lazy or some #!&$, but basically just outwork everyone." - JT
"A lot of the ways that I think bootstrap is so special is that it taught so many people how to code, more than a style guide that helps you with that." - JT
"You have to work past the insecurity of failing to some extent because learning is hard and software is hard." - JT

Notes:
Jacob's Twitter

https://twitter.com/fat

Jacob's Blog

http://byfat.xxx
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Sam Sweeney - Senior Software Engineer at Trivvy, Google, Uber, Wealthfront May 24, 2021

Talking Points:

Entrepreneurship
What Sam learned working at Google, Uber, and Wealthfront
Determining what tech stack to use
Learning from your mistakes
Practicing for interviews

Quotable Quotes:

“There's actually a talk online, I believe it was from an engineer from Etsy called 'Choose Boring Technology.'” - SS
“The most important lessons I've learned...are about being pragmatic in your choices of technology that you use to solve your problem.” - SS
“The main motivating principle throughout my career has been one of increasing optionality, of adding skills and experiences that brought in the possibility of what I'll be able to do in the future.” - SS
“If you go to work at a place like Google, if you're thoughtful about what you do and the way you approach your work, you have the ability to be successful at a large company.” - SS
“Always be thinking, what is the business product purpose of the tech, the technology that you're working on, and try to avoid getting swept away in the tech side of things.” - SS
“People now that are graduating from boot camps to the extent that you can, it's really important to try to find a company that understands what it's like to get a new graduate from a boot camp.” - SS
“The best way that you can practice for an interview is to do more interviews and expect the first 10, 20, or 5 to go very poorly and eventually you build up that skill set.” - SS

Notes:

Sam’s Business Website
https://www.trivvy.co/
Choosing Boring Technology Article
http://boringtechnology.club/
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Tracy Lee - CEO at This Dot Labs, Modern Web Experts May 17, 2021

Talking Points:

Software community activities
Positive traits of a Junior Dev
The value of authenticity in interviews
Setting intentional career goals
Knowing when to ask for help

Quotable Quotes:

"How do I become the best developer? How do I build the best product? You ask the people who created them and it's 'I was just trying to solve one problem.'" - TL
"I would encourage everyone to just do what they want and what they are passionate about, cause that's also where sustainable things happen." - TL
"Anything you do out in the community is generally just beneficial for your career." - TL
"You don't have to be a senior developer to want to teach, learn and be humble." - TL
"Be really intentional about the things that you do accept doing and make sure to push back where you need to because developing your skills as a developer if that's your desire, is really important to continue to do." - TL
"A junior developer will find a problem and maybe they'll spend eight hours on it and that was a 10-minute fix. If you don't speak up, you're not going to learn as fast." - TL
"Probably as a junior, asking how to fish and learning how to fish, not just getting the answer, is going to be really important." - TL

Notes:
Tracy's Business Website
labs.thisdot.co
Tracy’s Twitter
twitter.com/ladyleet
Tracy's Email
tracy@thisdot.co
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Nader Dabit - Developer Relations at Edge & Node May 10, 2021

Talking Points:

Overcoming intimidation when using new technology
The great aspects of the software community
Choosing the right people to work with
Qualities of a good team member

Quotable Quotes:

“Almost every problem is something that anyone can solve and can understand if they spend enough time trying to really dive into the issue.” - ND
“I heard recently, the key to productivity is the yin and yang of motivation, that energy, and discipline to stick with it when you don't have that.” - DG
(Overcome intimidation) “Really looking at the technology that you're trying to learn...attacking at a hello world level and then start adding on.” - ND
“I don't think I've ever been in any industry where there is such a vibrant and helpful community out there where people are doing stuff like meetups, where you can literally go and learn”
“Read books, blog posts, and videos on how to communicate better and you'll learn a lot. I still do that, I'm still learning a lot and I have a long way to go.” - ND
“You didn't need to get permission to do this, right? There's nothing stopping anyone from doing what you did...you came up with a project that you wanted to do and you started building it.” - DG
“Doing everything you can to find out if it's going to be a good fit or not because the worst thing in the world is moving your entire career into a team and then having a negative consequence.” - ND
“I think the number one quality is an eagerness to learn and communication. Those two things together seem to be really important.” - ND
“I think the best indicator of someone being successful on a team is their willingness and their eagerness to learn new things, how quickly and how good they are at learning.” - ND

Notes:
Nader's Twitter
https://twitter.com/dabit3

Nader's Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7mca3O0DmdSG2Cr80sOD7g

Nader's Dev.to
https://dev.to/dabit3
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Jim Bumgardner - Senior Engineer at California Office of Digital Innovation May 03, 2021

Talking Points:

Jim’s side projects
Early programming languages
Programming for Disney
Managing projects with a team
How to utilize frameworks
Making projects successful
Psychological safety
Asking questions as a dev in the workplace

Quotable Quotes:

“It was like pure creativity. You could imagine things and then get immediate feedback, that thing you imagined was made real.” - JB
“I learned by making mistakes.” - JB
“I discovered that fairly early on that every time I wrote a program to do X, I would get super interested in X.” - JB
“One of the things I think I learned from Kevin (Jim’s past roommate) was just to be fearless, was just to try things.” - JB
“I've seen some things (frameworks) that seem sensible and good that everyone talks about, but they come and go over time.” - JB
“I experienced this many times: I'll ask a really obvious, stupid question and I will hear audible sighs around me because the people are relieved that someone finally asked it.” -JB
“One thing for sure is if people are afraid to express their opinion, if there's just a lot of head nodding and ascent and not a lot of frank discussion, that's usually a bad sign.” - JB
“You don't get very many superpowers as you get older, you mostly lose them, but one of the ones you gain is not giving a f$#%.” - JB

Notes:
krazydad.com/about
Junior-to-Senior Community

community.juniortosenior.io

Thom Meredith - Partner, Director of Technology at Kley Apr 26, 2021

Talking Points:

Pushing beyond your limits
Abstraction of Professions
Junior Dev Traits
Forest vs Trees
Looking Under the hood
Working with non-technical people
Communication

Quotable Quotes:

“How do we make this possible? How do we achieve this?” - TM
“There’s an aspect to be sure that you have the right person for the job.” - TM
“You don’t need to be a full-stack jack of all trades master of none.” TM
“The FE bar just keeps getting raised.” TM
“You need to have people that can solve the problems that are not in the box.” - TM
“Squarespace, Wix, other online editors are a fix for simple problems.” DG
“I look for someone who is humble and hungry.” TM
“[Junior Devs] may not know that you could just look under the hood.” - TM
“Communication and knowing your audience is so important for a junior engineer.” - TM

Notes:

Kley
kley.co

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Matt Pinner - Software Engineer at Amazon Apr 19, 2021

Talking Points:

Community Building
Hireable Traits
Value of Production Environment Experience
Non-traditional Work Experiences
Getting Paid to Learn
Utilizing Experience to Grow Your Career

Quotable Quotes:

“QA has been a great way to get started [in tech.]” - MP
“Now is the best time to be a part of large group projects.” - MP
“There’s a creative revival coming out of post-COVID life.” - MP
“I saw [freelancing] as an opportunity to inject new ideas and tools into the space.” - MP
“I was able to get paid to learn.” - MP
“You have a lot of power, probably a lot more than you know.” - MP
“When you think you have 10% left, you have 90% left” - MP
“As you get experience you’re delivering smaller and smaller commits.” - MP
“To show what you’re thinking, show something that’s broken.” - MP

Notes:

CRASH space
crashspace.org
Matt's Website
touchtech.io

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Kent C. Dodds - Software Engineer Educator at Kent C. Dodds Tech Apr 12, 2021

Talking Points:

The transition from full-time software engineer to full-time educator
How teaching solidifies understanding
Involvement in the open-source community avoid losing touch with the newest tech
Going beyond following tutorials
Ways to get exposure to different problems
Importance of motivation
Being flexible in project scoping
Practice Interview skills by interviewing
Importance of blogging

Quotable Quotes:

“Sharing my knowledge is a great way to solidify my understanding” - KCD
“I quote Ashley Williams ‘Teaching is nature’s way of showing you how sloppy your understanding is.’ ” - KCD
“Anytime I run into a situation where - it works this way, doesn’t work that way - and I don’t know why, I have to figure out why.” - KCD
“I find that the best way to gain experience as a developer is by exposing yourself to problems” - KCD
“You need to do something that will motivate you and would be exciting” - KCD
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint” - DG
“The cost for everybody else in the world for you to publish a new blog post is zero” - KCD
“You can’t control your luck, but you can increase the number of situations where you’re lucky” - KCD

Notes:

Kent’s LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentcdodds/

Kent’s Website:

https://kentcdodds.com/

KCD Community on Discord

https://kentcdodds.com/discord/

Kent’s Github:

https://github.com/kentcdodds/

Testing Javascript Website:

https://testingjavascript.com/

Epic React Website:

https://epicreact.dev/

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Sam Scott - Cofounder & CTO at Oso Apr 05, 2021

Talking Points:

Comparison of PhD research vs starting a company
Similarity of Entrepreneurship and starting an open source project
Authentication vs Authorization
The importance of software security
The barrier of Information Security
Threat Modeling
Fun ways to learn more about cybersecurity
Constant communication with tech lead

Quotable Quotes:

“Research is for 10 years’ time problems, not for today’s problems.” -SS
“To be effective at any company of any size, collaboration and cooperation is going to be a huge piece.” - SS
“Find something that is missing and go ahead and address it.” -SS
“Asking ‘Why?’ a lot, can be very valuable.” - SS
“You can never ask too many questions. You can never be too thoughtful about something.” -SS
“Err on the side of communication, .... the other person always has less context or information than you assume.” -SS
“When in doubt, communicate.” - SS

Notes:

Oso’s Website:

osohq.com

Authorization Academy:

osohq.com/developers/authorization-academy

Sam’s LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/samjs

Sam’s Github:

github.com/samscott89

Sam’s Twitter:

twitter.com/samososos

Matasano Crypto Challenges

cryptopals.com

Capture the Flag

ctf.hacker101.com
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Brian 'Redbeard' Harrington - Chief Architect at CoreOS Mar 29, 2021

Talking Points:

Balancing Skill and Opportunity
Asking Questions Effectively
Foundational Learning Skills
Consulting Career Aspects
Developing Your Personal Network
Genuine Conversation
Learning Via Teaching
Interviewing For The Team

Quotable Quotes:

“The team saw that I was going to do the research before asking a question, even if it’s a dumb question.” - BH
“One of the best skills that you can develop in your early career is balancing that fear of asking questions with developing a sense of vulnerability.” - BH
“Take the path of most resistance and feel good when you arrive.” - BH
“Get good at memory and pattern recognition.” - BH
“If you’re genuinely interested in solving the problems that a person has or willing to find things to be fascinated in the things they’re trying to do, a lot of beneficial conversations can happen.” - BH
“Teaching is a way to solidify your own understanding.” - BH
“Having a good job and being on a good team means more than writing beautiful code.” - DG
“If you can take a complex topic and break it down into simple topics for others to understand that, that’s critical.” - BH

Notes:

Redbeard’s Website

brianredbeard.com

Redbeard’s LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/in/brianredbeard

Redbeard’s Twitter

twitter.com/brianredbeard
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Ask The Experts w/ Scott Hanselman, Wes Bos, Sarah Drasner, Troy Hunt, and Kent C. Dodds Part 3 Mar 22, 2021

Speakers:
Scott Hanselman
Scott's Website:
hanselman.com
Scott's Podcast:
hanselminutes.com
Scott's Twitter:
twitter.com/shanselman

Wes Bos
Wes's Website:
wesbos.com
Wes's Podcast:
syntax.fm
Wes's Twitter:
twitter.com/wesbos

Sarah Drasner
Sarah's Website:
sarah.dev
Sarah's Twitter:
twitter.com/sarah_edo
Sarah's Github:
github.com/sdras
Ship modern web apps with atomic deploys, instant rollbacks, serverless functions, split testing, and more!
netlify.com

Troy Hunt
Troy's Website:
troyhunt.com
Troy's Workshops
troyhunt.com/workshops
Troy's Twitter:
twitter.com/troyhunt

Kent C. Dodds
Kent's Website:
kentcdodds.com
Kent's Podcast:
kentcdodds.com/chats-with-kent-podcast
Kent's Twitter:
twitter.com/kentcdodds

Talking Points:

Scaling Skill
Constructing Experience
Intentional Specialization
Focusing on the Future

Quotable Quotes:

"Expose yourself to more problems if you want more experience." - Kent C. Dodds
"Build before a failure even happens." - Sarah Drasner
"JavaScript especially is useful because I can do whatever I want." - Kent C. Dodds
"If you can absolutely slam dunk some topic ... then absolutely you should be a specialist at that." - Wes Bos
"Security is something that I can't see declining in any foreseeable time in the future." - Troy Hunt
"Really good generalists with an understanding of historical contexts will always be helpful." - Scott Hanselman
"We have no idea what tech will look like in 10 years." - Wes Bos

Notes:

FaaS architecture (Serverless)
https://codepen.io/sdras/pen/oEvzwJ
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Ask The Experts w/ Scott Hanselman, Wes Bos, Sarah Drasner, Troy Hunt, and Kent C. Dodds Part 2 Mar 15, 2021

Speakers:
Scott Hanselman
Scott's Website:
hanselman.com
Scott's Podcast:
hanselminutes.com
Scott's Youtube Channel:
youtube.com/shanselman
Scott's Twitter:
twitter.com/shanselman

Wes Bos
Wes's Website:
wesbos.com
Wes's Podcast:
syntax.fm
Wes's Twitter:
twitter.com/wesbos

Talking Points:

Self-Confidence
Importance of Communication
Comprehension of System "Height"
Pushing Through Imposter Syndrome
Recognize Your Inherent Value

Quotable Quotes:

"You'd be surprised to find out just how much you understand under the hood [of code]." - Kent
"Learning to learn forces you to understand your limits and push past it" - Sarah
"[I'm more interested] in [ the junior's ] understanding of how systems snap together." Scott
"We're people that kept at it, that pushed through the hard parts." - Wes Bos
"Stay curious, explore things that are uncomfortable." - Sarah
"[Avoid] focusing on certifications or formal education at the expense of experience." - Troy
"The [computer science] degree is not what makes the difference, it's the experience and what you can bring to the company." - Kent

Notes:
CSS Tricks: Learning to learn
css-tricks.com/learning-to-learn
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Ask The Experts w/ Scott Hanselman, Wes Bos, Sarah Drasner, Troy Hunt, and Kent C. Dodds Part 1 Mar 08, 2021

Speakers:
Scott Hanselman
Scott's Website:
hanselman.com
Scott's Podcast:
hanselminutes.com
Scott's Twitter:
twitter.com/shanselman

Wes Bos
Wes's Website:
wesbos.com
Wes's Podcast:
syntax.fm
Wes's Twitter:
twitter.com/wesbos

Talking Points:

Value of Focus
Essential Communication
Growth Oriented Work Environments
Forging Your Own Path

Quotable Quotes:

"I think that communicating my accomplishments and other's accomplishments ... helped me advance my career the most." - Kent C. Dodds
"When I attach myself to a problem, I don't let go until I solve it." - Sarah Drasner
"I'd argue that [communication] is a key skill, even today." - Troy Hunt
"I learned a lot [from completing a project]... it was better than reading the docs." - Wes Bos
"If you find a [company] where they are encouraging you as a Junior to ask questions [then that will be the best place to grow]." - Scott Hanselman
"University helped funnel me in the right direction." - Troy Hunt
"[Regarding your career path choices] there really aren't any "wrong" choices." - David Guttman
"You need to collaborate with others to get things done." - Sarah Drasner

Notes:
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Aaron Crow - VP of Engineering at SPIDR Tech Mar 01, 2021

Talking Points:

Leadership Values
Illusions of Correctness
Common Beginner Mistakes
Valuable Technical Skills
Learnable, “Innate” Skills
Being Relentlessly Collaborative
Value of Failure

Quotable Quotes:

“If I changed my attitude about things, I could actually contribute as a leader.” - AC
“At the beginning of our careers, for all of us, there is so much that we don’t know.” - AC
“Confidence without the experience to back it up is arrogance.” -AC
“[Be careful and try to be aware] if you are hyperfocused on one topic.” -AC
“There is always the chance that you’ll push someone too fast and cause them to burnout.” -AC
“You want the business folk to own and define the “why” and then give that to the Tech Lead.” -AC
“We can agree that we like to see people that are constantly challenging themselves.” - AC
“When something goes wrong, are we taking ownership of it?” -AC
“Improvement comes from learning and learning comes from feedback loops.” - DG

Notes:

Aaron’s LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaroncrow
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Rand Fitzpatrick - Senior Manager of Product Management at Hashicorp Feb 22, 2021

Talking Points:

Building a Mental Model
Motivational Mindsets
Hirable Dev Traits
Communication Habits
Team Skills
Framing Your Career
Evaluating New Technologies

Quotable Quotes:

“What do they actually need? How can we integrate it into their workflow? What can we do to make it easier for them?” - RF
“Creating tools for other developers involves asking a lot of questions.” - RF
“Ask ‘why’ all the time. Take nothing for granted.” - RF
“Giving people context is empowering to [engineers].” - RF
“Focus on being less wrong rather than being more right.” - RF
“I care that people take the time to understand and be understood by others.” - RF
“We’re doing this for other people.” - RF
“What do you want to learn, practice, and be exposed to?” - RF
“Being able to work side-by-side with people who bring a new perspective and teach me new things as we move has been everything.” - RF
“What is the problem that we’re trying to solve? What are its constraints?” - RF

Notes:

Rand’s Website:
tensoroverflow.com

Rand’s Twitter:

twitter.com/sixwing

Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

James Hush - Lead Engineer at Remo.co Feb 15, 2021

Talking Points:

Startup Lifestyle
Healthy Problem Solving
Setting Clear Goals
Taking Ownership of Tasks
Preemptive Assistance
Communicating With Other Departments
Small, Intentional Steps on Projects

Quotable Quotes:

“[Our applicants] would be great at our challenges, but would not be good at communicating.” - JH
“[Standups] give you 10 minutes every day to give others context about what you’re working on and what you’re having issues with.” - JH
“A good manager, good leader, or good coworker will be able to see that you’ve been stuck on an issue and will be able to help you.” - JH
“I would much prefer to err on the side of asking for help too early.” - JH
“Take ownership of your own tasks.” - JH
“A good manager will do a good job communicating the urgency around something.” - JH
“Try and get rid of the culture around admitting defeat.” - JH
“If you want someone to do something for you, one of the best ways to do it is to have them like you.” - DG
“If you get known for being the person that can work with others, you are going to wind up in a tech lead position very quickly.” - DG

Notes:

Jame’s LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/jameshush
Jame’s Youtube

youtube.com/channel/JamesHush

Remo's Hiring
https://remo1.freshteam.com/jobs

Extreme Ownership
echelonfront.com/extreme-ownership
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Daniel Winter - Co-Founder & CTO of Salusion Feb 08, 2021

Talking Points:

Aligning Intentions
Personal Growth
Being Valued As A Professional
Synchronizing Skillsets
Important Remote Work Traits
Organizing Your Worklife
Branding Your Skills
Researching Your Role

Quotable Quotes:

“I look for projects where I can go and create something.” - DW
“In the tech world, we should assume that we don’t know everything.” - DW
“It’s not only correct, but it’s also healthy to want to improve all the time on a personal level.” - DW
“When you understand what you are building your product for, you will put yourself in a better position to do your job.” - DW
“The value you provide is business value, not writing lines of code.” - DW
“Having people who understand the bigger picture contribute to a better product, a better business environment overall.” - DW
“Make yourself known, put yourself out there.” - DW
“You have to keep learning, never stop.” - DW
“Life isn’t about work, work is about life.” - DW

Notes:
Daniel’s Website
vanwinter.co
Daniel’s Linkedin
linkedin.com/in/vanwinter
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Lauren Tan - React Data Team Engineer at Facebook Feb 01, 2021

Talking Points:

Assessing Goals
Thinking Beyond Code
Interviewing Processes
Core Skills & Technical Skills
Find Right People For A Team
Searching For A Job
Exciting Tech Developments

Quotable Quotes:

“Think more than just about code.” - LT
“Your seniority is often correlated to the effect you have outside of just yourself.” -DG
“There are different approaches to interviewing and evaluating people.” - LT
“I don’t like calling certain skills ‘soft’ skills. I like calling them ‘core’ skills.” - LT
“The technical interview is a very artificial process.” - LT
“Every manager has a different process to which questions they ask.” - LT
“Core skills don’t need to be acquired from having 10 years experience, but rather can be exhibited by junior engineers.” - LT
“Technical and Core skills are kind of like left and right shoes. You need both of them.” - DG
"Don't copy FANG's interview practices but rather think about the person that your company needs to be successful." - LT

Notes:
Lauren’s Blog:
https://www.no.lol
Lauren’s Twitter:
https://twitter.com/sugarpirate_
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Keith Hoerling - Founder and CTO of Dimension Software Jan 25, 2021

Talking Points:

Critical Outlooks For Success
Product Focus
Focusing On The Customer
Extract Value From What You Provide
Main Hirable Attribute
Selecting Reliable Frameworks
Networking As A Junior Dev

Quotable Quotes:

“Start with the customer and then work backwards.” - KH
“Every engineer should be a product person.” - KH
“Are we building an experience that the customer loves and has the desire to use?” - KH
“Attitude is 80% [ of why I hire someone ]” - KH
“It’s so easy to hate [ new technologies ] so you just need to pull your head back out and see [ from a different angle ].” - KH
“Make it work, make it right, make it fast.” - DG
“You gotta fall on your face. You have and embrace the failures, because that’s what’s going to teach you.” - KH
“I always like to look at ways to amplify ones place on the team.” - KH
“You are the average of your surroundings.” - KH
“The personal touch [ when it comes to networking ] is just so much more valuable.” - KH
“Focus on ways to try harder with more effort [ in networking].” - KH
"Everyone can control how hard they work." - KH

Notes:
Keith's Website:
hoerling.com
Dimension Software:
dimensionsoftware.com
Keith's LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in/keith-hoerling
Call to Action Podcast:
dimensionsoftware.com/call-to-action
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Dave Gullo - Co-Founder, CEO Videate Jan 18, 2021

Talking Points:

Thinking Constructively
Applied Learning
Power of Perseverance
Cultivating Skills
Lateral Career Paths
Different Company Environments
Negative Interview Traits
Junior Dev and Senior Dev core differences
Getting the most out of 1-on-1s

Quotable Quotes:

“Know what corners to cut and when.” DG
“At every step [ through learning ] there was always an extra goal.” DG
“I never worked or hacked on anything I didn’t think was fun first.” - DG
“You want people to be stoked about their work.” - DG
“My goal is to build these environments where people are challenged outside their comfort level.” - DG
“There are a bunch of laterals in your career path that not enough people realize [ especially Junior Devs].” - DG
“If someone can talk your ear off about something that they did in the past year, I want to talk to that person.” - DG
“Take ownership of your own growth at the company.” - DG
“Some of the best engineers and most industrious engineers I have worked with growth-wise, were super motivated [ to achieve their goals ].” - DG
“Life is driven by a lot of unreasonable requests.” - DG

Notes:
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
www.goodreads.com/book/show/27213329-grit
Dave's Website
drknowledge.com
Dave's Twitter
@davegullo
Dave's LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pangaea
Dave’s New Company
videate.io
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Nate Murray - Founder of Newline.co Jan 11, 2021

Talking Points:

Writing Educational Works
Beginner Code Issues
Importance of Writing Blog Posts
Starting Your Blog Post Habits
Qualities of Successful Devs
Productivity Habits
Evaluating New Technology

Quotable Quotes:

“I think my programming career was set back by two years because I couldn’t understand how 0 indexed arrays worked.” - NM
“To be meticulous all the way through [ an educational book ] is a lot of work.” - NM
“When you just learned something is the best time to write about it.” - NM
“Take notes, your notes become the foundation for a very successful blog post.” - NM
“The reason that you write or blog is so that you can meet other people.” - NM
“One of the biggest things [ of successful devs ] is that they don’t trip over small roadblocks and just give up.” - NM
“Everything becomes more interesting the closer you look at it.” - NM
“When you learn new stuff [ programming ] gets easier.” - NM

Notes:
Newline Blog
newline.co
Deeper Learning Educational Framework
edutopia.org/blog/deeper-learning-in-practice
How To Get A Job Without Learning A New Framework
youtu.be/voep4CX5lEE
Fullstack D3 Masterclass
newline.co/courses/fullstack-d3-masterclass
Fullstackio Twitter
twitter.com/fullstackio
Nate’s Twitter
twitter.com/eigenjoy
Nate’s Email
nate@fullstack.io
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Amelia Wattenberger - Senior Journalist-Engineer at Polygraph/The Pudding Jan 04, 2021

Talking Points:

Definition of Design
Types of Learning Environments
Setting Yourself Apart
Designing Your Career
Becoming A Known Quantity

Quotable Quotes:

“People thrive in a lot of different environments.” - AW
“Being able to do so many things … I was able to find out what worked best for me and what area of the stack I enjoyed working in the most.” - AW
“Figure out what really excites them, and lean into it to figure out a way to make a name for yourself.” - AW
“Think about what projects you’d like to work on and highlight that in your portfolio.” - AW
“[ From doing research on the internet ] I’ve gotten a sense of what it’s like to work in different niches.” - AW
“I would look for companies whose work I am really excited about.” - AW
“It’s really important for me to be excited about the work I do.” - AW

Notes:
Twitter
twitter.com/wattenberger
LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/in/wattenberger
Personal Website
wattenberger.com
Fullstack D3 & Data Visualization
fullstack.io/fullstack-d3
Off Screen Magazine
offscreenmag.com
Grow the Puzzle Around You
posthaven.com/grow-the-puzzle-around-you
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Jay Donnell - Sr Director of Software Engineering Dec 28, 2020

Talking Points:

Early Career Paths
Problem Solving
New Job Nervousness
Learning From Failure
The Empathy Element
Developing Communication Skills
Demand for Junior Developers

Quotable Quotes:

“In reality [ choosing your first job ] isn’t an existential crisis.” - JD
“You are constantly faced with problems that you don’t know that answers to and that’s normal.” - JD
“Write [ your problem ] down formally, write out the steps that you took to solve the problem. … If you think you’ve done enough to solve it and you still can’t, then reach out to others.” - JD
“Don’t be afraid of failure and don’t be afraid to jump into something that’s a stretch.” - JD
“If you find yourself making the mistake, again and again, you’re probably doing something wrong.” - JD
“Don’t fear making mistakes, just make sure that you learn from them and don’t repeat them.” - JD
“[ As a manager ] you become more of a people person than a tech person.” - JD
“Communication, Communication, Communication.” - JD
“You can be the deepest expert in a topic, but if you can’t effectively transfer that knowledge out to the rest of the human organization, it’s not adding the value it could add.” - JD
“Ultimately, it’s all trial and error with things you want to get better at.” - JD
“When you’re online learning programming, you’re seeing some of the best programmers in the world. And they do not apply to the jobs that you’re applying to.” - JD

Notes:
Jay’s Twitter
twitter.com/djdonnell
Jay’s LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/jaydonnell
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Hala Al-Adwan - CTO at dotOrg Technology Dec 21, 2020

Talking Points:

Critical Skills
Analyzing Fear
Leveling at Companies
Setting Goals
Team Collaboration
Situational Conversation
Remote Onboarding

Quotable Quotes:

“Fear is not something to be taken lightly … make friends with it … evaluate it.” - HA
“Growth is not comfortable.” - DG
“Is this the right fear or is it just a fear that is holding me back from recognizing my net opportunity?” - HA
“Impatience, in its own way, becomes an obstacle.” - HA
“[ Admitting when you don’t know something ] is the sign of a more Senior Engineer.” - HA
“Why is an engineer looking to get promoted? What is their driver? … What does that promotion actually mean?” - HA
“It’s important to have goals, it helps you structure how you want to move forward and what to focus on.” - HA
“Your product is a reflection of your organization, and I think great organizations have great products.” - HA
“There is no one-size-fits-all, every situation has its own need.” - HA
“Junior engineers have so much opportunity in front of them.” - HA
“It’s a challenging time with companies being remote, to start your career as a junior engineer.” - HA

Notes:
Hala’s Twitter
twitter.com/haladwan
Hala’s LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/aladwan
.Org
dotorg.io
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Val Karpov - Principal Engineer at Booster Fuels, Maintainer of Mongoose. Dec 14, 2020

Talking Points:

Open Source Project
Writing Skills
Self Promotion
Key differences in Junior and Senior Engineers
Developing Code Ownership
Creating Tech Talks And Blog Posts

Quotable Quotes:

“I absolutely recommend taking over an open-source project. It’s a great way to get experience.” - VK
“Writing is a very important skill, especially in modern times.” - VK
“Written [ instead of spoken ] information can be extremely valuable to people as they can search for it after.” - VK
“[ Promoting yourself ] can be off-putting to a lot of developers, but it is something if you want to get from junior to senior, you need to push through.” - VK
“To be a senior engineer, you need to be someone your manager wants to promote to a senior engineer.” - VK
“Being responsible for things going wrong you need to have both the self-responsibility to go in and fix it, as well as have the peace of mind that you are doing your best.” - VK
“Even if you can’t fix it now, you won’t get fired for it tomorrow.” - VK
“Always stay calm no matter what you see happening.” - VK
“Sharing your ideas in a confident manner is great for demonstrating your leadership.” - DG
“Giving talks and making blog post can give you the recognition you need to have your resume pulled out of the pile.” - VK

Notes:
Val’s Twitter
twitter.com/code_barbarian
Val’s GitHub
github.com/vkarpov15
Val’s Blogs:
masteringjs.io/
thecodebarbarian.com/
Val’s js.la Talk:
What I Wish I Knew When I Became an Oss Maintainer
Atomic Habits
jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

John Shiple - Freelance CTO Dec 07, 2020

Talking Points:

Importance of Building Your Community
Training and Cross-Training
Getting Your First Job
Specifying Your Job
Networking Tips
Developing Communication Skills
Dealing With Social Anxiety
Involving Yourself In Events

Quotable Quotes:

“I think Computer Science degrees used to be a very big deal, I do not believe that anymore.” - JS
“It has never been easier [ to become a software developer ] and it has never been more challenging.” - JS
“If your job has the word ‘lead’ in it, if you’re a Tech Lead, you’re the project manager.” - JS
“Just because I know how to build it, doesn’t mean I should be the person to design it.” - JS
“As a tech person, you’re never really trained in Management. You have to go out there and get it.” - JS
“When you have a job already, finding other jobs is easy. But when you are first starting out it is hard.” - JS
“Do not present school projects as work [ on your portfolio ].” - JS
“Connecting people is a really good skill.” - JS
“Look for mentorship wherever you can.” - JS
“Find ways that you’re comfortable going [ to tech events ].” - JS
“The tech doesn’t matter, the people matter.” - JS

Notes:
John’s Email
john@freelancecto.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/johnshiple
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Samy Kamkar, co-founder of Openpath Security Nov 30, 2020

Talking Points:

Engineering Team Organization
Networking at Tech Events
Personal Meaning in Side Projects
Accessibility of Side Projects
Importance of Public Speaking Skills

Quotable Quotes:

“It’s really good to join one if these communities and share what you are working on because it’s a great way for people working on similar and really cool projects find you.” - DG
“It’s very hard to be good at something and deliver good results if you’re spending a lot of time with something you don’t enjoy, or just don’t have a lot of passion for.” - DG
“Don’t do a side project just to do a side project, because that’s obvious.” - SK
“I smile when I hear other people talking about something that they really enjoy, even if I don’t know about it.” - SK
“If they are passionate on something that briefly touches on something that I am hiring for, I’m interested.” - SK
“A little bit of effort [ making your project accessible ] can go a long way of getting noticed.” -DG
“Your passion will come out [ in the projects that you work on].” - SK
“People want to hear the things that you are interested in. People want to help.” - SK
"There are so many libraries or frameworks that make documentation easy!" - SK
"If you want to get your project out there, get hired, or find like-minded people. I would suggest [ writing documentation ]." - SK
“Being able to frame your ideas or document what you’ve done or advocate for a position in a clear way is really valuable.” - DG

Notes:
Samy’s Website
samy.pl
Samy’s Twitter
twitter.com/samykamkar
Openpath Security
openpath.com
MIT OpenCourseWare
ocw.mit.edu
MIT-OCW: How To Speak
by Professor Patrick H. Winston
ocw.mit.edu/resources/how-to-speak
Crash Space
blog.crashspace.org
js.la
js.la
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Mike Brevoort - Platform Architect at Slack Nov 23, 2020

Talking Points:

Management and Individual Contributor roles
Career Awareness and Growth
Technology Acceleration
Transferability of skills between programming languages
Negative aspects of a generalist career path
Hirable aspects of an applicant

Quotable Quotes:

“It’s hard to be really serious about being good at [ either management or individual contributor ] and do each well.” - MB
“If you want to be a really great manager you really have to care about people. You have to invest your time with those people.” - MB
“Projecting where you want to be in 5 years … is enough for a perspective shift.” - MB
“If you are not deliberate [ about your career path ] it’s not going to happen.” - MB
“The knowledge and the things that [ flash developers ] did and their capabilities really translated into other technologies.” - DG
“We tend to overestimate these [ technological ] shifts; that we’ll be left behind.” - MB
“Everyone’s path is different, but there is a lot of commonalities and there is a lot that you gain from your experience over time.” - MB
“There are multiple skills or attributes of a person that are more important than the proficiency of the framework that you are using.” - MB
“The thing that separates a lot of engineers from others is just your drive and ability to adapt and solve problems.” - MB
“There’s no substitute for becoming deeply proficient in some technology.” - MB
“When it comes down to it, this isn’t a single-player game. You have to work with teams of people.” - MB

Notes:
Mike Brevoort's
Twitter
twitter.com/mbrevoort
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/mikebrevoort
GitHub
github.com/mbrevoort
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Vinoj Zacharia - Engineering Manager at FloQast Nov 16, 2020

Talking Points:

Traits of a Senior Dev
Hirable traits of a Junior Dev
Value of curiosity
Creating impactful projects
Aspects of going remote

Quotable Quotes:

“How can I start making others successful?” - VZ
“It doesn’t matter what part of your career you’re in. That ability to problem solve with others is going to serve you well.” - VZ
“I look at hiring as two facets:
- 1. What can you add to the culture of this company?
- 2. How can you help move the roadmap forward?
“The problems that we are trying to solve don’t always have one answer.” - DG
“For engineers, there is a similarity to artists, there’s a beauty in their work, and I actually embrace and love that fact.” - VZ
“That touch of engagement, the ‘I care about this product’ is what we want to nurture [ as a manager ].” - VZ
“We’ve hired people who have never been software developers before.” - VZ
“Granted [ a junior dev ] may not be able to move the roadmap as much as a senior, but do we see a promise here? A promise that they could? In addition, is their stuff on their resume so far that shows that growth and shows that ability to move forward?” - VZ
“We ended up hiring engineers that in this year have never even been to the office.” - VZ
“The single greatest strength you can have in this remote world is good asynchronous communication.” - VZ
“Start from the ‘why’ in the problem and then get to the ‘how’.” - VZ

Notes:

Article
The Five Levels of Remote Work — and why you’re probably at Level 2
FloQast Website
FloQast.com
Vinoj’s LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/vinoj
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Spencer Carney - Engineering Manager at Superstruct. Nov 09, 2020

Talking Points:

Leadership opportunities within a team
Addressing problems as a manager
Team-building responsibilities as a manager
Build your responsibility in a team as a junior dev
Introducing new technologies to a team
Definition of “Seniority”
Managing a team with your previous experience

Quotable Quotes:

“A big motivator [ to become a manager ] for me was that I do not want to be as bad as some of the bosses I have unfortunately worked under.” - SC
“One of the most important things to realize when leading a team is that you don’t have to be the person to solve the problem.” - DG
“Not only is it ok that you can’t solve everything, but it’s also ok if you have others … who couldn’t solve it as well as you could.” - SC
“There’s a big difference between getting the problem solved right now or investing in the team/company so that problems can be solved faster in the future.” - DG
“You can also have someone else not only learn that skill but also take the win.” - SC
“I want the team to be successful, I don’t want Spencer to be successful.” - SC
“Being proactive and solving the problems nobody else wanted to solve helped me get noticed.” - SC
“You can’t just stop doing the work, you have to advocate for it, you have to educate, you have to show people [ the pros and cons ].” - SC
“You don’t want to put people in a place where they are now stuck with a decision that costs the company time.” - SC
“There’s a balance of doing it right or do it right now.” - SC
“As long as an engineer is aware of what is important and where the values are for any particular project, they’ll have a lot more success pitching [ a new technology ].” - DG
“One of the qualities that really make a Senior Engineer is actually being able to model how other engineers are going to react to something.” - DG

Notes:
Spencer’s GitHub
github.com/spencercarnage
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/spencercarney
js.la Slack
@spencercarnage
Junior to Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Rob Maigret - former CTO of Revver & Co-Founder of DigiSynd Nov 02, 2020

Talking Points:

Hirable traits of developers
Failure is a tool
Distinguishing expectations of interviewers
The balance of talent in a team
Visibility at work as a developer
Boundaries in the workplace
Developing healthy relationships in the workspace
Importance of empathy
Power in subtle wisdom

Quotable Quotes:

“I don’t think people hire people that they don’t want to be friends with or hang out with.” - RM
“If [ working at your job ] is just to make a buck and you don’t care, that’s going to infect everything.” - RM
“When you’re starting off in your career, your success to failure ratio is very much weighted to failure.” - RM
“I didn’t come out and do something for the first time and expect to be paid or treated like I had done it 100 times.” - RM
“People need to be exited that they’re allowed to fail when they’re young.” - RM
“If you remove the pressure of the test and allow the person to be looser, you come to see who they are.” - RM
“We’re trying to connect, especially people who are trying to figure out the rules of how they fit into this world are looking for a connection. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing.” - RM
“I like the idea of people being accessible within reason.” - RM
“You can tell when you look at a product if the [developer] really was empathetic about the person who was going to use it or not.” - RM
“Empathy allows you to have great relationships and communicate in a way that’s fulfilling for all parties.” - RM
“We can’t ask these things from our team if we’re not willing to practice them ourselves.” - RM
“If I knew the value of wisdom when I was 25, I could have skipped 10 years of career mistakes.” - RM
“Everybody is trying to prove how successful they are and how smart they are, and the world has become this really interesting place where it's a bragathon. But where is the subtle wisdom?” - RM
“For the people who are early in their career, there is a long list of people out there who will help you. You don’t have to do it alone.” - RM

Notes:

Rob Maigret

robmaigret.com

Rob’s LinkedIn

linkedin.com/in/robmaigret
Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Jon Jandoc - Principal UI Frontend Engineer at Bambee Oct 26, 2020

Talking Points:

Jon Jandoc’s Career Beginnings
Management and Single Contribution
Tool Sets and Optimization
Key Engineer Traits
Forms of Positive Communication

Quotable Quotes:

“Don’t focus on the tools but [rather] the principles.” - JJ
“It’s hard for me to get excited about webpack, but I respect it a lot.” - JJ
“I have strong feelings about lots of things, but I don’t hold on to them too tightly because I am always open to other things.” - JJ
“There is always something to explore.” - JJ
“Curiosity and being open to dialogue leads to good engineers and enjoyable people to be around.” - JJ
“If there’s a roadblock, you should be able to communicate that clearly.” - JJ
“Communication isn’t just talking.” - JJ
“Documentation is communication throughout time.” - JJ

Notes:
Jon’s Homepage
jon.jandoc.rocks
Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Dan Shaw - Godfather of Node.js Oct 19, 2020

Featuring Dan Shaw, The Godfather of Node.js and Co-Founder of COR.

Talking Points:

Qualities of a Senior Developer
Important Team Traits
Empathy before Technical Skills
Benefits of both Freelance and Teamwork
Learning from failure

Quotable Quotes:

“The most remarkable thing about a senior developer is the level of focus they have.” - DS
“Seeing a mid-tier developer level-up because they’re surrounded by experts was incredible.” - DS
“In Node.js’ case, the limiting factor is language proficiency, not Junior or Senior.” - DS
“When you are building a team, you need a mix of specialists and generalists to really fill things out.” - DS
“A senior developer is an individual in your organization that is able not only deliver their own work but also make other people’s work better.” - DS
“The hardest part as an expert is knowing something that you don’t know.” - DS
“Having the humility to admit when you don’t know and seek out help when you aren’t able to satisfy the needs of the team constitutes a healthy team to me.” - DS
“You can train technical skill, but training empathetic skill … comes through life’s pain.” - DS
“Try to find folks that have a good baseline that are willing to learn, and build on that. The rest of the technical skills? That’s really time under fire and the opportunity to make enough mistakes.” - DS
“So much of what really gets you to solving a problem is understanding the problem.” - DS

Notes:
COR
cor.dev
dshaw’s email
dshaw@core.dev
Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Carter Rabasa - Organizer of Cascadia.js & Founder of FizBuz Oct 12, 2020

Talking Points:

Origin of Cascadia.js
Balancing Personal Needs and Job Requirements
Specifics of Devrel position
Importance of self branding in Devrel
Setting achievable goals
Qualities of a Senior Dev
Importance of empathy
Developing empathy
Signaling values in your resume
Applying to all companies vs specific companies
FizBuzz Website

Quotable Quotes:

“I shipped one of the first NPM packages for Twilio.” - CR
“As an evangelist or someone who is in Devrel (Developer Relations), you are this interface between this internal engineering team at a company and the outside world of developers that are interested in checking out that companies API or that companies product.” - CR
“If you are in a Devrel role, part of your job is speaking at conferences.” - CR
“95% of what you do in a Devrel role is something you can learn.” - CR
“People who operate and function well on a team, people who are incredibly clear in their communication, not just with their fellow engineers, but with their product managers or other stakeholders in the company. Those are the engineers that you see on that glide-path up.” - CR
“[ In Devrel ] you’re not just doing stuff and then walking away. You are doing things because they are tactically useful for specific outcomes that you are committed to achieving.” - CR
“What is the outcome that I am trying to drive?” - CR
“So much of being in Devrel is about empathy. So much about being successful as an engineer is about having empathy.” - CR
“If you want to start developing empathy as a junior dev, volunteer at a meetup, maybe even make a meetup.” - CR
“You just got to remember that software is written by people for people, full stop.” - CR
“The number one reason why people went to meetups was to professionally network.” - CR
“The document [ portfolio ] you are trying to construct is like basically a marketing brochure for yourself.” - CR
“Screening people out is just as important as screening people in.” - CR
“When you are looking for a job and you haven’t had one … there may be a real temptation to talk to all companies.” - DG
“In an interview, the person that is interviewing you is desperate for you to say something about why they should hire you or what you care about.” - CR

Notes:
FizBuz Site
fizbuz.com
FizBuz Twitter
@FizBuzHQ
Carter’s LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/carterrabasa
Carter’s Twitter
@crtr0
Carter’s Website
carter.rabasa.com
Cascadia.js Talks
twitter.com/CascadiaJS
Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Jad Meouchy - BadVR Co-Founder Oct 05, 2020

Talking Points:

Find opportunity by listening
Junior Devs and their fresh approach
Interview questioning techniques
Technical Process vs Output
Onboarding at BAD VR
Forms of documentation

Quotable Quotes:

“I heard a problem and I offered a solution.” - JM
“I like the concept of hiring people who are really well experienced, but I like the reality of hiring people who are demonstrating excitement, passion, self-learning.” - JM
“If they have a fundamental understanding of how technology works, or how coding is done, it doesn’t really matter what experience or what languages they have experience in if they are willing to explore this new world that we are seeking out.” - JM
“I prefer juniors now, because they approach something with an open mind.” - JM
“If you just have willingness to learn things continuously, thats the right characteristic or one of the right ones to have to having a career in this industry.” - JM
“We’re looking for HOW they answer the question, not what the answer is.” - JM
“It’s the few week of work, ,so it’s us testing them out, almost still part of the interview.” - JM
“Sometimes the product, if done really well, can be a form of documentation.” - JM
“If you make it a goal to have a codebase that is readable without comments, I think that is almost better [ than a codebase that needs comments ]” - DG
“Needing a lot of documentation may be a bad sign.” - DG
“More than anything, get comfortable with getting to know someone through a video screen.” - JM

Notes:
Bad VR
BadVR.com
Jad’s LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/jadware
Jad’s Twitter
twitter.com/jadware
Jad’s Crunchbase
crunchbase.com/person/jad-meouchy
Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Brandon Harvey - Director of Software Engineering Sep 28, 2020

Talking Points:

The value of failure
Transitioning to larger roles
Get noticed as a potential manager.
Filtering applicants based on the interview
Three types of engineers you will meet in your software career
Importance of interpersonal harmony in the workspace
Importance of the “Airport Test”.
Job hopping vs long term stay
Aligning your values with a company

Quotable Quotes:

“When the tide goes out, when things are not going good, it lays bare who creates value, where value comes from, what makes it all work. As engineers we need that.” - BH
“I always wanted to have a big say on not just how to build the thing, but what I was working on.” - BH
” There is a longer, bigger lever that you get to have once you step away from that individual contributor role. [ for jobs with more responsibility ]“- BH
“As an individual contributor, there is much more of your day that is clear right or wrong answers.” - DG
“We look for evidence that the person wasn’t satisfied at the framework level, builder level, the project builder, or scaffolding tool — but they’re actually going in and slinging code at a low level. And those kind of coders can be pointed at all kinds of languages and all kind of systems … so you have to worry less about skill fit.” - BH
“Reviewing a resume is an art … you walk through someone’s career and just think about the choices they’ve made and what kind of person made those choices.” - BH
“Even if they are going to be an individual contributor, I still want their head up and understand why we’re doing what we’re doing and care.” - BH
“The more transactional you are — i.e. I do this skill, therefore pay me this much — the more replaceable you are too.” - BH
“Look to the people in your organization that you admire, and think why they’re doing what they’re doing or why leadership seems to value to them so much.” - BH
“A mental benchmark I have for a young developer is: How long can that person go without oversight or without guidance or without being told what to do?” - BH
“If you want to level up quickly, start noticing your own patterns.” - BH

Notes:

Brandon’s LinkedIn

linkedin.com

Junior-to-Senior Community

community.juniortosenior.io

Ben Wilhelm - Bootcamp Graduate Mentor Sep 21, 2020

Talking Points:

How understanding the context of the tools you learn can help overcome imposter syndrome.
Ben discusses a healthy view of what a true junior dev is.
Positive and negative patterns of entry level developers.
What people consider before hiring junior engineers.
Advice to Junior Devs who are interviewing currently.
Important aspects to consider when developing your software career.

Quotable Quotes:

“Go deep in what you do know and understand it, and go shallow in a few other things to get context and get ideas.” - BW
“Principles over tools” -BW
“You actually do have to have a bunch of buzzwords on your resume to get to a human.” - BW
“The person who is going to struggle more is focused on the specifics of the language API to the exclusion of all else.” - BW
“Remember that you will never know even close to what there is to know in software development.” - BW
”[ Junior Developers ] DO have the ability to make and do things that can make people’s lives better.” - DG
“What I want to be sure of when I am hiring an engineer is whether or not they will make my life worse.” - BW
“Interviewing in itself is a skill. Don’t start with your dream job.” - BW
“You’re not ‘made’ when you become a software engineer.” - BW
“The resume is a terrible, terrible way to display your qualifications for anything. SO, the more real people you get to talk to the better.” - BW

Notes:

Ben’s Site: /*BW*/

benwilhelm.com

Junior-to-Senior Community

community.juniortosenior.io

Chris Ferdinandi - Web Developer & Author Sep 14, 2020

Talking Points:

Learn how Chris switched careers from HR to Development.
Most important aspects of learning programming.
The networking experience.
Good talking points to start networking with people.
Importance of understanding the hiring process from the hiring manager’s point of view.
Tips and tricks that will help you land your first job.
Should you get any job in tech or find where you fit? And how do you find that fit?
Red and green flags to look for when applying to a job.
Working in office vs working from home.

Quotable Quotes:

“[Becoming a Junior Dev] really can be much simpler than — broadly speaking — what the internet wants people to believe.” - DG
“I hit a point where I was enjoying the tech-web stuff way more than the HR stuff. And that’s when I decided that I wanted to do it for the rest of my career life.” - CF
“Learning momentum is such an important part of the [ learning ] process.” - CF
“The most important thing I learned from my dad about career stuff is the importance of networking.” - CF
“[Networking] bothers my sense of fairness.” - CF
“All the questions or many of them that you have about career stuff can be done through networking.” - CF
“Job boards just suck. They are the absolute worst way to find a job.” - CF
“I don’t think employers realize.…how much it benefits the company when you are remote.” - CF

Notes:
Chris’ Website:
gomakethings.com
Junior to Senior special page:
gomakethings.com/junior-to-senior
Vanilla JS Pocket Guide

vanillajsguides.com

Vanilla JS Academy

vanillajsacademy.com

Vanilla JS Podcast

vanillajspodcast.com
Junior-to-Senior Community

community.juniortosenior.io

Thomas Wadsworth - Product Management Sep 07, 2020

Featuring Thomas Wadsworth, Co-Founder of TvPass and former Director of Product Management and User Experience at Disney

Talking Points:

What is the special relationship between Product and Engineering?
Important conversations to have between Product and Engineering at the beginning of a project.
What is it like to work with engineering teams across the world?
How was Thomas’ experience working with engineering teams at Disney?
What is a POD based system?
Discover internal dynamics between Product, Engineering, and Design.
Learn how teamwork and communication plays a role on big company teams.
What should a junior engineer be aware of when working with Product?
What does Thomas look for when working with developers?
Communication best practices.
Learn the importance of company values and how they effect all aspects of work-life.
Apply different values to different companies.

Quotable Quotes:

“Product and Engineering are like left and right shoes. You really do need both.” - DG
“Product sets the vision for the product and help explain to the other teams why it is important.” - TW
“Product is there to support engineering and design by helping remove questions and blockers from a clarity standpoint pertaining to the product.” - TW
“It is up to Product to work with Engineering and Design to find a creative solution to a problem.” - TW
“Whether it be a big company or a small company, communication is absolutely key.” - TW
“It’s not just about how much you know your codebase, there are also a lot of soft skills that go a long way.” - TW
~“Understanding the companies values is extremely important.” - TW
“Being able to understand little bits of product [ that pertains to the project that you are working on ] is important.” - TW
“The more that you are talking to people in Product, the more you are talking to Designers just in a friendlier way, the more you will be able to internalize what they are trying to do and what their goals are.” - DG
“It is not just what you say, it is when you say.” - DG
“Show why you care, why you are invested [ in a company ] when things get tough. [ when aligning yourself with their values] ” - DG
“Do not waste time applying to companies that do not run themselves in a way that aligns with your values.” - DG
“If you don’t have any questions for me [ at the end of an interview ] then what the hell are you doing?” - TW

Notes:
Thomas's LinkedIn
LinkedIn.com
Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Eric Gradman - CTO, Inventor, Artist Aug 31, 2020

Featuring Eric Gradman, Co-Founder and Mad Inventor at Two Bit Circus

Talking Points:

What is Two Bit Circus?
Coding involved in Two Bit Circus.
The inherent value of side-projects.
Should you only focus on the latest frameworks?
The interview process of Eric Gradman.
Possible pushback in side projects.
What would Eric do if he was just starting out as a Junior Dev?
Specialization vs. generalization?

Quotable Quotes:

“Give us twenty minutes and we will turn you into a certifiable, freelance surgeon!” - EG
“So much of my repertoire and things that I have learned are directly attributable to side projects that I have learned.” - DG
“You will never learn faster or more easily than if you are learning to further a project of your own.” - EG
“It helps your soul to learn something new.” - EG
“Your side projects should be driven by something that interests you.” - EG
“When you build a side-project for yourself, you have all the jobs. You are the product developer, product designer, the project manager, you are your own boss, you are the developer, and CEO.” - EG
“Being the person who decides how the idea becomes reality is such an important skill.” - EG
” I think it is important to recognize that even if it was your side-project [ … ] depending on what your goal is [ using the latest framework ] may not be what you need to do.” - DG
“[ Using a new framework ] is kind of like ordering something online and waiting for it to be delivered. The anticipation is so much sweeter than the delivery.” - EG
“At least give something [ new frameworks ] enough time to get stuck in your head well enough that you are productive with it. Instead of jumping to the newest one.” - EG
“[ With side-projects ] What you are demonstrating is that you can handle novel challenges and novel problems, whatever they are.” - DG
“When I interview, I ask you ‘Do you know JavaScript?’. They say, ‘Yes, I do’ . I say ’Ok, program this thing for me in C#.’” - EG
“I am not hiring you because you know everything you know to solve my problem. I am hiring you because [ of your ability to deal with] issues you have never encountered before.”
“If you can learn one language, you can learn ANY language.” - EG
“I learned React, I could learn anything. What problems do I want to solve and what should I learn in order to solve those problems.” - EG
“I don’t tend to hire specialists, I tend to hire generalists, jacks of all trades.” - EG

Notes:

Eric’s website
gradman.com

Two Bit Circus
twobitcircus.com

Svelte
svelte.dev

Smooth
github.com/smooth

Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Andy Burke - Fintech CTO Aug 24, 2020

Talking Points:

What is FinTech?
How did Andy get into FinTech?
Possible changes in FinTech.
Andy’s experiences in the game industry.
Andy's deep-rooted issues in the game industry.
The value of side projects as a Junior Dev.
Andy's interview experiences at the places he has worked.
Tips for Junior Devs' mindset in the interview phase.
Andy’s favorite aspects of an interviewing Junior Dev.
What would Andy do if he was just starting out as a Junior Dev?
Life at Startups vs. Big Companies.

Quotable Quotes:

“If you are a junior dev and you are looking to go into FinTech, just consider that a lot of times when people tell you that ‘This works a certain way’ there’s usually a [ significant ] reason why.” - AB
“The pace of the game development world is extremely high [ … ] the biggest understanding that you can get out of it is to really be able to listen to the problem that needs to be solved and identify the core issues that need to be resolved.” - AB
“I would wait until there is Unionization [ in the gaming industry ]” - AB
“[The gaming industry] can be extremely good experience to gather, but it can be extremely challenging and it depends on who you are, what you are willing to deal with, and if you are looking to do it for the long term.” - AB
“One of the most important things to do if you are a junior is to just program.” - AB
“A game can be a great side project for something to motivate you if you are a junior to work on those lines of code.” - AB
“There’s two ways of making money, you can help someone save time, or you can help them waste time.” - DG
“The iteration loop of game development is the core problem of AAA game titles.” - AB
“You should endeavor to have an understanding of the whole tech stack. Not just JavaScript and Postgres, but ALL the way down.” - AB
“The better your understanding of the entirety of the system, the better you will make it perform, and the better you will be able to find out what has gone wrong.” - AB
“One of the things that help me [ with interview nerves ] is to remember that not only are you interviewing for them, they are interviewing for you.” - AB
“When you’re hiring, one of the things that I try to do [ … ] I want candidates to be comfortable. Because that is when you find out who they really are.” - AB
“The real value [ of an interview ] is if both sides are honest about what they are bringing to the table.” - AB
“Don’t undervalue what you have done. There’s nothing more attractive as a hiring manager than when someone comes in and is excited talking about what they’ve done.” - AB
“By the time you get to the company you think is your first choice, it is a good thing to have other companies to compare it to.” - DG

Notes:

Andy's GitHub
github.com/andyburke

Andy's Twitter
twitter.com/andybrk

Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Ben Junya - Lead Front-End Engineer Aug 17, 2020

Featuring Ben Junya, js.la co-organizer and Lead Front-End Engineer at StaffMeUp

Talking Points:

What does it mean to be a creator?
Positive aspects of creating your own programs.
Find the differences between SAS companies and Agencies.
Day-in-the-life of Ben Junya.
Ben’s process in application development.
How to rapidly progress your communication skills.
How to become better at predicting edge-cases.
Challenges Ben faces when converting a website from PHP to JavaScript.
Ben’s favorite attributes of an applicant.
The importance of constructive disagreements.
Advice to bootcamp graduates.
What technology is Ben excited to start using?

Quotable Quotes:

“Video games can teach you a LOT about UX” - BJ
“I like to put myself in the shoes of the user.” - BJ
“People are all very very different and by working on different teams, products, customers, you will find that everyone communicates in different ways” - BJ
“Knowing your audience and knowing how to tailor your words to get your point across to that person is incredibly important.” - BJ
“To learn about more edge cases, you constantly have to keep building stuff.” - BJ
“I view coding and learning as playing. Because when you play with something you learn the limitations of it, you find what it can and cannot do.” - BJ
“I always ask my backend team ’What is the easiest way I can send this information to you?’“- BJ
“What I am looking for is someone who can backup their answers with facts, articles, official documentation…” - BJ
“If a developer’s opinion was proven wrong and they are able to not take it personally, that is something I really, really look for. That thoughtfulness, that humility is what I look for when interviewing candidates.” - BJ
“Seeing a person’s past projects is a nice little window into a person’s head. What makes them tick?” - BJ
“Don’t stop building. Keep on building stuff. That is the best advice I can give you.” - BJ
“After your bootcamp is over, your work is not done.” - BJ
“A lot of programming is frustration. Every day you will be asked to do something you have never done before. [ …. ] Being comfortable with being uncomfortable is important.” - BJ
“You have all of these amazing tools available to you on the internet to use and no one to stop you from using them. Do it!” - BJ

Notes:
Ben’s email
bjunya@gmail.com
Ben’s Medium
https://medium.com/@MrBenJ
The Book
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
Junior-to-Senior Community
community.juniortosenior.io

Angus Perkerson - Senior Software Engineer at REX Aug 10, 2020

Featuring Angus Perkerson, js.la co-organizer and senior software engineer.

Talking Points:

What are aspects to consider regarding the longterm value of companies that you apply to?
What is the interview process with a startup like?
Does it matter if the company is %100 tech?
Explore a day-in-the-life of a Senior Software Engineer.
What is Agile Development?
What are the values in an engineer that matter the most to Angus?
How does Angus manage his team?
What does Angus look for when hiring?
Advice to new devs.
What are the new technologies Angus is looking forward to?

Quotable Quotes:

“If you look at the company, what are they selling? What is the market that they are in? What is that exchange of value?” - DG
“The CEO convinced me. He knows his business, he knows his market, he knows where it is going.” -AP
“If there isn’t a business to provide value to with your software engineering, what is the point?” - DG
“In the world that we live in where software has eaten the world, it is rare to find a business that isn’t affected by software in some ways and a lot of the great places to work are going to be not 100% tech plays, but just have a good amount of tech to make everything better.” -DG
“DSU stands for Daily Stand Up” - AP
“We use the term ‘Agile’ just to be like: ‘Hey, we think weekly, we deliver weekly’.“- AP
“What you planned for in the beginning, may not be what you needed at the end.“- AP
“The reason I joined this company was to start from the ground up, provide huge value to it, and help the architects” - AP
“You have to make these mistakes before you learn.” - AP
“I bet if you talked to the experts in the field, all of the experts would have scars on their hands” - AP
“Move fast, break things: be agile” - AP
“We want generalists. Full Stack engineers that we can make highly flexible and redistribute where needed” - AP
“We really like to use the right tool for the right job. And that means constant evaluation.” - AP
“We look for high impact, low cost solutions.” -AP
“Being the person in charge of how we build things out, you really learn to think as: “How do I evaluate this? Can I get this done today? No? Ok, how long is it going to take me?” - AP
“We adapt the engineer position to the person.” -AP
“Do you look at the problem and understand what the ask is? What the root problem is?” - AP
“Ask questions, there is nothing wrong with that. You do not have to code quickly.” - AP
“The problem solving and communication in that team is the most important.” - AP
“When I first graduated, I thought I had to go out and prove that I was the smartest person in the room to get the job, that just isn’t true.” - AP

Notes:
Junior-to-Senior Community

community.juniortosenior.io

Swyx - Coding Career Handbook Aug 03, 2020

Featuring Swyx, former Developer Experience Engineer at Netlify and current Senior Developer Advocate for Amazon Web Services ( AWS )

Talking Points:

Best practices in goal setting.
Gain new perspectives to the interview process.
New ways of defining software engineering roles.
How to pick your first job.
Should you specialize your job skills?
The multiple layers of knowledge used in programming.
What is expected of a newly hired Junior Developer.
Shaun goes into detail about the interview process.
Learn more about js.la
Is there any value in side-projects?

Quotable Quotes:

“Goals don’t tell you how to reach them.” - SW
“Focus on the means to the goals instead of the goals themselves.” - SW
“[ Finding out what job you want ] is a lot about self-knowledge than asking others for answers.” - SW
“You get paid more when you specialize.” -SW
“It is on you to tell people what you are best at.” -SW
“It is better to be resilient to mistakes rather than to plan on never making any mistake ever.” - SW
“Someone who treats technologies as checking off of boxes may treat technologies very shallowly.“- SW
“The more you learn the more you realize you don’t know.” - SW
“Remember that you are not expected to know everything when hired as a Junior Dev.“- SW
“You’re not going to have many years as a junior developer. This is your time to not know things and learn.” - SW
“Tests are the best documentation.” - DG
” Why do businesses hire people full-time instead of freelancers? They hire people full time so that they are incentivized to work and will know the business intimately. So if you continue to define yourself by technology, you are no different than the freelancer.” - SW
“You want to be a person that knows the business value of the software you use.” - SW
“I encourage proof of work over portfolios.” - SW
“One of the most valuable assets that junior developers have is the beginners mind.” - DG
“Side-projects are a great way to explore new technologies that you would otherwise not get to work with at work.” - SW

Notes:
Junior-to-Senior Community

community.juniortosenior.io

Zeno Rocha - Habits of Highly Productive Developers Jul 27, 2020

Featuring Zeno Rocha, author of 14 Habits of Highly Productive Developers

Talking Points:

What Zeno looks for when interviewing developers
Choosing which technologies to learn
Can anyone learn to be an awesome coder?
Learning new languages and frameworks using side projects
Feedback loops and learning
Difference between junior and senior developers

Quotable Quotes:

“How are you going to behave during that job interview? How are you going to behave when you get that job? Those soft skills are something that people don't talk about very often.” -- ZR
"We don't know everything. There are many things that you don't know and that I don't know. And that's ok! We got to where we are right now, and that's fine. There's this misconception that 'I'm only going to be a senior developer once I know everything.' This is just not possible." --ZR
"I have many examples in my life where I started to experiment with a tool outside work, and then I was able to bring that tool inside my 9-5 and help things there." --ZR
"What if you asked 'How do you obtain users? What is your total addressable market?' Trying to understand how the business works. That puts you in a total different position." --ZR
"If you still don't have five years of experience and all that technical knowledge, that's ok. You can be a junior with the behavior of a senior." --ZR

Notes:

Junior-to-Senior Community

community.juniortosenior.io

Spencer Allen - Veteran Tech Recruiter Jul 20, 2020

Featuring Spencer Allen, js.la co-organizer and veteran tech recruiter

Talking Points:

The path to get to where a recruiter is seeking you out
What hiring managers are looking for
How to send the right signals to hiring managers
How to communicate effectively in an interview
Preparing for an interview
How to know if a company is an engineering culture dumpster fire
The role of nervousness in an interview
What good hiring managers do
The right path for a code school grad / new developer
How to approach tech meetups when looking for a job

Quotable Quotes:

“Building tools and using them yourself is the hallmark of a great developer.” -- DG
“Your path for trying to understand the developers and engineers you were trying to recruit is identical to the path that I recommend any junior developer or new developer taking” -- DG
“Making sure that I’m adding value whenever I can -- a lot of the conversations that I have are as a sounding board and just having coffee.” -- SA
“There’s a trope with junior developers where I’m waiting for them to ask me if I have any jobs for them.” -- SA
“Time is such a negative resource for hiring managers. They’re working as hard as they can to find that person to fill a job -- and that’s in addition to their job.” -- SA
“Communication is one of the most difficult things in a software engineering team. Technical challenges get a run for their money for the people challenges you face in an organization.” -- SA
“To be interested is interesting. To be bored is boring.” -- SA
“Communication, being coachable, those are skills that are worth their weight in gold.” -- DG
“What you’re doing here is selling yourself. A resume is a sales document that’s intended to get an interview. An interview is you showing up and selling yourself.” -- SA
“Establish yourself as a known quantity.” -- SA

Notes:
Junior-to-Senior Community

community.juniortosenior.io

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