We Belong Here: Lessons from Unconventional Paths to Tech

Latest Episodes:

Dan Morse: It’s Never Too Late to Learn to Code Jun 01, 2021

Show notes

Dan worked as a freelance sign language interpreter for nearly two decades. He has always had an affinity for visual learning and languages in particular. And in high school, he remembers observing that sign language itself was a visual language.

Once in college, he finally took a sign language class and discovered how incredible it is to express something in three dimensions. He soon began his freelancing business and quickly turned that into a full-time thing!

In 2008, he bought his first Apple computer and began building small Python scripts to automate some of his freelancing processes. That sort of tinkering piqued his interest and he began to start playing with other learning platforms as he and his kids began learning coding concepts together. Eventually, he enrolled in the Lambda School on the iOS track and has since joined Nordstrom as a mobile application engineer!

Today we tackle what it’s like to join tech as someone older than the industry average and Dan gives the advice to just own it and to not let it define you. Dan speaks to the power of community and the importance of giving back to the communities you care about - as you never know how they might impact your future and your life. This episode is packed with great advice for those curious to break into tech. It is not one to miss!

Resources:

Dan on Twitter @Danandami

Dan’s LinkedIn

UnderDog Devs

Unloop

We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com

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We Belong Here Discord Community

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Jess Bonanno: Rooting for the UnderDog May 22, 2021

Show notes

Jess Bonanno grew up in Brooklyn and moved to NJ during high school. She has always been obsessed with tech and planned to study it after high school but began getting herself into trouble.
She thought she had missed her chance to make tech a career and in 2004 became a house painter - of which she has been mastering that trade for the past 16 years.
In 2019 she decided to teach herself to code in hopes of a career switch. She started at Lambda School and earlier this year!
In September of 2020, she was invited into UnderDog Devs, a group dedicated to supporting formerly incarcerated & disadvantaged aspiring developers, and has become an active part of the community.
Since graduating from Lambda School in February, Jess started Hack Reactor and graduates on June 4th! She will then begin working with one of the partnering companies. All very happy and exciting things ✨

Resources:

Jess on Twitter: @JessDoesCode

@UnderDog Devs

UnderDog Devs Slack

Donate to Underdog Devs

We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com

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We Belong Here Discord Community

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Filip Hric: The Value of Learning in Public Apr 27, 2021

Show notes

Filip Hric always loved playing with and tinkering with tech. But growing up, he struggled with math and thus convinced himself that he didn’t belong in the world of tech. So instead, he decided to study Psychology and ended up even getting a Master’s in it!

After school, while working at an NGO, he helped build an application that allowed people struggling with mental health to chat with volunteer psychologists and social workers. He worked on the campaign graphics and changed the layout on the page. Slowly, he began to learn some CSS and HTML so that he could make even bigger changes to the app. These experiences led to him discovering that his heart desired to be in tech.
He spent his evenings teaching himself basic HTML and Javascript and that learning fueled a fire of curiosity and passion for him. His father’s tech company was searching for a tester so he decided to take the leap into the world of tech.

Today, he advocates that testing is a great way to enter into tech, to learn about the basics, and to explore the patterns and best practices of developing apps.

Because of his background in Psychology, Filip strives for a human-centered approach in everything he does. The question, why do people do what they do? is truly what user experience is all about.

Today he is a QA lead and test automation engineer at a Slovakia-based company called Slido, where he leads a team and watches over the monthly releases of Slido products.

There he searches for bugs and problems within the product and simulates the way the end-user might interact with a feature.

Today’s episode is a great conversation and is full of encouragement for those looking to transition into tech!

Resources:

Filip on Twitter: @filip_hric

Filip’s blog and website: filiphric.com

Testing automation resource: Cypress.io

Hectic - the freelancing app for everyone

Visit: GetHecticApp.com/WeBelongHere to start for free today!

We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

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We Belong Here Discord Community

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Tali Herzka: From Molecular Biology to Software Engineering Apr 13, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode, I chat with Tali Herzka. Who has forever been interested in Science, genetics, and Molecular Biology. Molecular pathways and systems seemed to connect with the way she understood the world.

After getting a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and working in a cancer research laboratory for several years, she moved cross country to pursue a drastic career change and learn to code. It was a massive leap of faith diverging from her prescribed future in science and felt wildly exciting and terrifying all at once. She moved into a “Hacker House” which was just a warehouse in San Francisco and was thrust into a whole new world of tech.

Since graduating from her bootcamp, Tali has been a full-time software developer/data engineer for 7 years now. She currently is a software engineer at Scribd but when not coding, she's crafting or taking pictures of her bird for the 'gram.

In today’s episode, Tali gives the advice of combining your prior interests and experiences into your role in tech. And also to listen to your gut, to take a risk on passions, and to never pursue a path that isn’t your own.

Resources:

Codecademy

Tali on Twitter: @therzka

Tali’s bird: Mango the Yellow Sided Conure

Tali’s Website

Hectic - the freelancing app for everyone

Visit: GetHecticApp.com/WeBelongHere to start for free today!

We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com

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We Belong Here Discord Community

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Kilo Loco: Self Taught Sr. Developer Advocate at AWS Mar 17, 2021

Show notes

On today’s episode, I chat with Kilo Loco, aka Kyle Lee. Who is a self-taught developer, programming tutorial YouTuber, and Senior Developer Advocate at AWS.
Kilo officially entered tech in 2016. Prior to that, he worked in many different industries: in restaurants, real estate, car sales, telemarketing, and more. But he never found a true passion in any of those roles. Eventually, he came across programming and absolutely fell in love!
He navigated through different tech languages including HTML, CSS, Javascript, Objective-C, and Swift. To learn the language, he played around with building apps that he and his family wanted and/or needed. For example, he created an accessibility app for his great grandfather who was hard of hearing to better communicate with him. Although they were simple apps, he felt ready to start applying for full-time development roles.
He started a YouTube channel to share his learning with his community and today is a Sr. Developer Advocate at AWS.
Kilo has several years of experience working at companies both large and small, as well as freelance contracting. His focus is to take his experiences as a developer and share them with the world, helping others to code passionately.
Resources:

Kilo’s YouTube channel
Follow Kilo on Twitter @Kilo_Loco

AWS Amplify
Hectic - the freelancing app for everyone

Visit: GetHecticApp.com/WeBelongHere to start for free today!
We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com

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We Belong Here Discord Community

Join us on Discord Server today! bit.ly/webelongdiscord

41. Alex Trost: Horsing Around with this Frontend Dev🐴 Mar 04, 2021

Show notes

Alex Trost grew up having, as he puts it, a fixed mindset. He studied graphic design and education in school and actually taught himself to program by making an app for his school when he was a teacher. In 2018, he realized he wanted to do development full time and has been a frontend dev ever since.

Growing up, he was always passionate about tech and loved to tinker and build. So much so that he had a pet project called FreeBasketballSkills.com where he modified the HTML and CSS of the site to share basketball skills with his friends. Despite that, he never thought he could actually program because he equated that with calculus and complex math abilities.

He thought he wasn’t smart enough to succeed in school, so wondered why even bother trying. He ended up going to community college to study graphic design. But eventually found himself in a career in teaching 2nd grade as he loved the moment of helping kids unlock new skills.

Soon he learned about the Growth Mindset Concept and realized that he had always thought that because he didn’t currently understand something it meant that he never would know it. He discovered that we can in fact be good at whatever it is we set out and work to learn.

He taught himself to code when he built an application for his school to make sense of all of the data the district had on their students’ performance.
Eventually, he landed a role as a frontend developer and had the opportunity to do a ton of on-the-job learning.

Today, he is a Developer Experience Engineer at Prismic and writes Frontend Horse, a newsletter and blog where he learns creative techniques from other great frontend developers. Alex brings with him what he learned in his past as an educator into his newsletters to ensure that they are accessible to a variety of skill levels.

Resources:

Frontend Horse
The Overlap Podcast
Bear app - note taking & writing app
The Learning Myth: Why I'll Never Tell My Son He's Smart
Doing Content Right with Steph Smith

Follow Alex on Socials:

Alex’s website

Hectic - the freelancing app for everyone

Visit: GetHecticApp.com/WeBelongHere to start for free today!

We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com

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We Belong Here Discord Community

Join us on Discord Server today! bit.ly/webelongdiscord

40. Dacey Nolan: The Power of Community While Searching For Your First Coding Role Feb 23, 2021

Show notes

In today’s episode, Dacey tells the story of studying Public Relations in school and pursuing many different avenues and industries to find a job she loved. She tried many different things from content management, social media, marketing, special education, and Non-Profit work.

One day, during a series of dates where she and her boyfriend (now husband) taught one another new things, he tried to teach her HTML and CSS. But the lesson wasn't a success because she didn't think she'd be good at it and zoned him out.

But eventually, she decided to build an app with him and they collaboratively built things that they were both interested in. He helped guide her self-learning and exposed her to core concepts and tools such as GitHub and pull requests.

When she felt ready, she left her full-time job in March 2019 to search for a job. She gave herself a year to learn the skills and wanted to be ready to apply to jobs by March 2020... which was a pretty rough time in the world to be applying to new roles! But she refused to let the pandemic get her down. Her husband and friend group helped her prep for interviews and built up her algorithm skills. She applied to 207 positions and got rejected 206 times. But she applied for a Sr. Developer role at This Dot and asked them to take a chance on her. And that they did! She came on via a contract, which helped her land her current job at TriggerMesh where she uses Javascript, Vue, and Cypress in her frontend role.

Today, her work in special education still impacts her work in tech. She understands the accessibility needs that folks face and that drives her passion day in and day out. You can find her tweeting about how to make applications more accessible for someone with epilepsy or is visually or audibly impaired.

Dacey reminds listeners that there is no age limit to learning to code.

Early in her career, she felt frustrated with how quickly another new employee was closing tickets and performing on the job. She reached out to her boss and received feedback that has never left her: “To never compare yourself to anyone but yourself.”

Resources:

Women in Tech sessions

Follow Dacey:

Twitter: @dacey_nolan

Dacey's LinkedIn
Hectic - the freelancing app for everyone

Visit: GetHecticApp.com/WeBelongHere to start for free today!

We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com

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We Belong Here Discord Community

Join us on Discord Server today! bit.ly/webelongdiscord

39. Frank Foster: Persistence Pays Off After 100+ Interviews for this iOS Software Developer Feb 16, 2021

Show notes

Frank got his start in tech working at Apple’s Genius Bar doing all sorts of IT things. He loved Apple products and when a store was opening up near him, he jumped at the opportunity to work there.
Realizing that a lot of IT work was within the PC world, he jumped from Apple to PC to see what it was all about. But ultimately he craved something that would be more fulfilling and creative.
As a gamer himself, he became curious about how to create video games. Virtual Reality was super hot and he dabbled with VR and trying to build experiences despite there not being a ton of tutorials or docs out there on how to.
He's a firm believer that you can teach yourself to do anything and in 2018, he joined as a mentor for Inspire Idaho, a program created for adults who weren’t able or interested in following traditional education paths to become app developers. He became a volunteer and mentor for the program and helped people on their journey of learning iOS development. As he helped folks learn, he too began to level up his coding skills.
He started with the question, what app do I want to build? And decided on an organization app for Dungeons and Dragons players. He learned how important passion is to your coding journey and tackled it piece by piece as opposed to getting overwhelmed by how big the project was.
When he finally felt ready to begin applying for software development roles, he applied to over 100 jobs. He maybe got 5 interviews out of all of those applications.
Ultimately he was hired by Gleason Technology as a Mobile Software Engineer in September of 2020! Frank finally landed his first software development role!
We talk about that recent journey of interviewing and submitting over 100 job applications and what it takes to overcome imposter syndrome and finally land your dream job. We acknowledge how overwhelming it feels to finally feel ready to apply for your first software engineering role and the value in learning the art of interviewing itself.
His past in retail helped him shine in his interviews in that his soft skills differentiated him from other candidates.
We talk about the value of asking questions. His advice is to admit when you’re feeling emotions of imposter syndrome those around you. Nothing good comes from struggling alone - it’s important to rely on our communities to navigate those feelings.
His advice is to find a project and commit to it. Every day, commit to learning one small thing. Reach out to your communities & know that we are all here to cheer you on.

Resources:

Steve Wozniak, What’s In My Tech Bag

Journey, the game

Inspire Idaho

Apple Learn to Code with Apple

100 Days of Swift

iOS Dev Happy Hour

Follow Frank of Socials:

GitHub

Twitter @ FrankeFoster

Frank’s website

Bonus Interview:

Greg Thomas: Code Your Way Up

Reach out to Greg to get the book: codeyourwayup@betarover.com

Ads:

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38. JT Kaufman: Tips & Tricks on Breaking into Tech from a Former Recruiter Feb 01, 2021

Show notes

JT Kaufman dabbled in a whole lot of things before learning to code. She worked as a nanny, at a restaurant, as a janitor, and a load of different office work. At some point, she found her way into recruiting and eventually specialized within tech recruiting, which allowed her to learn about all of the different areas of tech.

After realizing that she was burned out from recruiting, lost, and unhappy in general, JT took a massive leap of faith and moved across the country to attend a coding bootcamp. She is super creative and she discovered that learning to code would be a super creative form of expression. Code ignited passion for her from day one.

We talk about how to differentiate yourself from fellow bootcampers and how to get your foot in the door as a developer. As a prior recruiter, she learned tips and tricks on how to smartly apply for jobs. She knew not to just apply for every role out there but instead use the boolean technique. She landed a role and took those recruiting skills with her started out doing query construction with SQL. Instead of diving into React as so many bootcampers do, she specialized in Vue.js, which has allowed her to stand out as a candidate. And today, she is a Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat working on product vulnerability tooling.

Despite not necessarily “needing it,” JT is currently working to complete her Computer Science degree. She has loved the process of continuing her education and being challenged and pushed technically

She advocates for community and using Twitter, Slack, Discord, to find your community while learning to code. She shares tons of community resources for the listeners to check out!

Resources:

- Open Source Software Degree on GitHub

- Women in Tech chat online (but it’s by invite, if you DM JT, she’s happy to add you!)

- Frontend Foxes is a great group for learning frontend web technologies for women

- CodeBuddies Slack has tech-specific channels, social channels, and pairing sessions

- CodeNewbies Slack

- CodeTheDream the nonprofit that creates a bootcamp-like experience with more structure than solo learning and is free!

Socials:

Follow JT on Twitter at @heyJTK

Read her writing on dev.to

Connect with her on LinkedIn

Bonus Interview:

Jennifer Brazer, author of From Cubicle to Cloud: How to Start and Scale a Virtual Professional Service Business

Hectic - the freelancing app for everyone

Visit: GetHecticApp.com/WeBelongHere to start for free today!

We Belong Here Podcast:

Follow Lauren on Twitter @LoLoCoding

WeBelongPodcast.com

Subscribe on Apple

Subscribe on Spotify
We Belong Here Discord Community

Join us on Discord Server today! bit.ly/webelongdiscord

37. Cher: The Power of Resilience Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

My guest today is a self-taught engineer currently working as a Principal Software Engineer at Apple. With 20 years of experience in web development, she attributes her skills and success to being “passionately curious”. She has a deep affinity for gaming and is a published video game journalist.

Her journey started when she was in middle school when her mom worked as an office administrator and brought home computer parts. Cher quickly became fascinated in taking things apart and putting them back together again.

She faced abuse and addiction early on in life and eventually dropped out of high school. She soon started doing sex work and stripping. It felt as though no matter where she went, that was her story. At that point, it felt entirely impossible that she was ever going to become a scientist or an architect and decided that if she was going to be used for sex anyway, she might as well be paid for it and do porn. She managed to escape that situation but as a result, she tried to end her own life and ended up spending 6 weeks in a mental institution.
Cher eventually got pregnant, which helped her stop using drugs and stripping. In need of a job, she applied for a front end developer role and landed one because, throughout all of these hard times, she had been tinkering and building live journal templates and had become the second google result for “front end developer” in 2006.
We discuss the sexism she faced when she started doing freelance work and quickly learned that clients did not trust or believe her to be both the designer AND the engineer. So instead had to pretend she wasn’t doing the backend work when she really was.

Cher couldn’t afford a lot of data for her phone plan and so developed a lot of opinions about mobile development and soon became a leader in that up and coming space. Because of that expertise, USA Today took an interest in her, and although she did not know how to whiteboard and flopped the interview, she demonstrated her passion and willingness to learn, and thus they took a chance on her and she got her big break.

She went on to work at many different companies as a software developer and at Apple today, she is paid fairly and the end of her poverty debt is near! Over the past 20 years, she has learned the power of grit and resilience. She has had to navigate so many difficult life situations to survive. She brings the lessons she learned from those challenges and is capable of zooming out and seeing things from a broader perspective with the resolve that she is capable of solving any problem.
Her life and story is beyond inspiring. It is packed with wisdom, advice, and an incredibly beautiful story of overcoming life’s largest obstacles. This episode is genuinely not one to miss!

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