Meet Dominik Piątek 🇵🇱🇬🇧! Dominik moved to the UK from Poland in search of career opportunities. He worked odd jobs, acquired a varied set of skills, and became a partner in a digital agency at the age of 23. That's where he got interested in front-end development, and more than a decade later, Dom is still in London. He's a staff developer who has also led cross-functional teams, worked with complex JavaScript applications and multiple times served as a tech lead.Dominik interviewed Alex for a job in their previous company. Today, the tables have turned, and Alex interviews Dom. In this episode, you'll learn what Dom looks for in a candidate, what's the difference between a senior developer and a tech lead, and whether or not whiteboard interviews can actually be useful. Dominik also talks about company values and explains the notion of a culture fit once and for all. You'll find out if the hiring processes are getting better, what are the current interview trends, and how different companies optimize their interviews so that they select just the candidates that are right for them.🔗 Connect with Dominik👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn🌐 Website👨‍🚀 GitHub⏰ TimestampsIn an interview, you only get one shot (01:34)Sometimes you get nervous, but sometimes you're too relaxed (02:45)How Dominik became a developer (04:19)Why Dominik left Poland (05:21)"This is not like C!" (06:56)It's going to take five years to become comfortable with coding (11:26)Don't be buzzwordy! (12:13)Community break with Jan the Producer (15:50)What do companies want to see in a beginner developer (19:39)If your PR gets destroyed, don't be emotional (23:49)What's a culture fit? (24:39)Can you codify culture? (26:34)A lot of time, values are aspirational (28:13)Why do people tend to hire people like themselves? (29:12)Should you vibe with your job interview? (30:38)Is your ability to interview more important than your coding skills? (32:54)Are whiteboard interviews a culture test? (34:15)Who needs whiteboarding as a skill? (39:33)Do you need computer science fundamentals? (43:54)Closing advice: The job market always ebbs and flows, focus on your own growth! (45:31)Next week on the show: Rachel Lee Nabors (46:45)⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Ian Douglas 🇺🇸🇨🇦! Developer, DevRel, Tech Educator, Career Coach, and author of The Tech Interview Guide, Ian Douglas, has been coding professionally since 1996. During that time, he worked at seventeen different companies! So, he probably knows a thing or two about how to transition companies in the most productive and secure way.Whether you're a new or more experienced developer, sooner or later, the time will come to change companies. How can you be sure it's time to quit your job? How do you hand in your notice, and what do you even write in a resignation letter? Why is a manager who gets surprised by your leaving the company probably not a good manager? How do you hand off your projects, and when do you tell your coworkers you're moving on from the company? When should you publicize your new role on LinkedIn, why do some recruiters hit you up 90 days after you've changed jobs, and ultimately, how should you navigate all this in today's job market?If you need help moving on from your role - or at least renegotiating it, listen to this episode!🔗 Connect with Ian👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn🌐 Website🐦 Twitter⏰ TimestampsAlex changed jobs recently! (01:58)"The first thing you really need to understand is why you want to leave the company" (03:16)Have a direction in mind (05:02)It takes six to twelve months to hit your stride at a new job (07:13)With all the info you have currently, could you see yourself being at the new company for at least two years? (09:29)Sometimes the company changes, and that's okay (10:00)Should you feel guilty when quitting your job? (10:49)What you need to know about notice periods (12:46)The risk of resigning (14:42)Get all your paperwork signed first (16:34)What if your current company wants to keep you? (17:31)Even if they manage to keep you, they might not trust in your loyalty (18:59)Always communicate with your manager (21:00)If you leave a job, it shouldn't really surprise your manager (22:29)What if your company can't make the accommodations you need (23:20)You need to be able to trust your manager (25:45)How to communicate your resignation (26:27)How to write your notice letter: it's just a notification email! (28:53)Should you tell the team you're quitting (30:21)Be prepared to lose access to company stuff (31:31)Can you work for a competitor? (32:06)Should you tell your current employer about the new company (33:48)When should you share the news about your new job on LinkedIn? (37:58)🧰 Resources MentionedOur previous shows with Ian: An Expert Guide to Technical Interviews, and This Is How You Onboard: Actionable Tips for Developers On a New Job ⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Jean Lee! She was the nineteenth engineer at WhatsApp (that was even before it got acquired by Facebook!) and then worked at Meta as an engineering manager for six years after the acquisition. She helped set up WhatsApp's London office and also worked on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her coding journey didn't start there - she discovered tech almost by chance after her family moved to California. She wanted to study art - but after taking art courses at her university, she realized that coding was her thing. She worked at a tiny startup competing with YouTube and a huge corporation, IBM, before she realized which company size suited her best. She became an engineering manager at Meta without ever planning to become one - but when an opportunity arose, she took it. Because how are you ever going to know what you like doing or not if you don't try things? Today, Jean is a cofounder of Exaltitude, providing resources and coaching to software engineers navigating the ever-changing tech landscape and cultivating a community where everyone can grow together.In this episode, Jean shares her best career advice. You'll also find out what it was like to work at WhatsApp during the expansion, why company culture always changes when a company is scaling up, why inclusive hiring practices are important, and what is one thing that juniors never remember they need to do.🔗 Connect with Jean👩‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Website📹 YouTube⏰ Timestamps "I had never really met adults who were so into their work before" (01:08)How Jean decided to learn to code (02:50)Should you go to university to become a developer (03:52)Jean's first role: internship at a Youtube competitor (05:14)Jean's second role was at IBM! (05:41)Are bigger companies better? Was WhatsApp a happy medium? (06:49)Is there a difference in how startups and big companies hire? (08:21)The startup scene then vs. now (09:40)Should you follow trends and disruptors? (12:20)Community Break with Jan the Producer (14:50)The challenges of joining WhatsApp early on (16:57)How Jean progressed into a management role (19:19)Give it a go! (21:32)Alex's personality type, and how personality types relate to work (22:21)What was it like to set up the WhatsApp London office? (24:28)"Whenever there's growth, you have to shift the culture" (27:57)Why we need diversity, equity, and inclusion (28:52)"Siri would not understand me, and I was offended" (31:04)How can we support the professional growth of underrepresented people in tech?  (32:23)What is Exaltitude (34:05)The number one thing developers struggle with (36:02)Make a brag journal! (39:38)Next week on the podcast: Ian Douglas! (41:44)🧰 Resources MentionedExaltitudeExaltitude YouTube channel⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

✨Use this link for a free month of O'Reilly Learning and read Anna's book and any other resource on the platform! ✨ Meet Anna Skoulikari! She's a UX designer turned front-end developer, senior technical writer, and the author of "Learning Git" - a book published by O'Reilly Media that teaches Git in a simple, visual, and tangible manner so that you can build a solid mental model of how it all works.Anna started teaching Git because she had to understand it herself. It's powerful but not the most user-friendly of tools. Yet, Git is what we all have in common, whether we're working on back-end or front-end development, on Windows or a Mac. Even GitHub's lawyers use Git!If you're learning to code, you probably have many questions. Should you use GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket? What's the difference between a merge request and a pull request? Does it make sense to use Git from your command line, or is a GUI good enough? Where are all those files? And how, for the last time, does any of that work? This episode will help you understand Git and provide you with plenty of practical insights to navigate its complexities effectively.🔗 Connect with Anna👩‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Website⏰ TimestampsAnna’s journey into coding via UX design (01:44)How Anna decided to conquer her fear of Git (02:25)What is Git? (03:28)What can you use Git for? (04:38)What is GitHub, and what other platforms are out there? (05:35)GitHub’s lawyers also use Git (07:58)Should you use Git for your own projects, even if you’re not collaborating with anyone? (08:27)What is branching? What is merging? (10:39)How do companies typically use Git? (12:14)Community Break with Jan the Producer (16:47)When should a new deveoloper start learning Git? (18:36)Git is a unifying technology (20:27)Why is the terminology around Git so confusing? (21:38)How Anna teaches Git: the colors of the rainbow (23:08)Making the four areas of Git tangible (25:12)How to use git: command line or GUI? (28:04)What are merge conflicts and how to handle them? (33:24)How to practice merge requests and conflicts? (35:47)How Anna decided to write a book on Git, and how O’Reilly chooses animals for the book covers (37:57)🧰 Resources MentionedUse this link for a free month of O'Reilly Learning!Learning Git⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

✨Use this link for a 20% discount on the Scrimba bootcamp! ✨ Meet Michaella Rodriguez! If you're already in the Scrimba Discord community, you probably know her. If not, she's a career changer who discovered Scrimba while learning, like many; she was active in the Scrimba community when Guil recruited the first-ever code reviewers for our bootcamp. Now, she's a bootcamp lead at Scrimba. And no, she never thought she would be a coder - but a friend made her try it.Yes, Micha and Alex do talk about the Scrimba bootcamp in this episode. But even if you're not interested in the bootcamp, this interview brings a wealth of information that can help you if you're learning to code. You have probably already heard that trying and teaching somebody else is the best way to solidify your learning. Well, in this episode, you'll find out how to do that as a junior, why you should be able to talk about and explain code, and whether you can bring anything to the table in a discussion or a code review if you're not an expert. Also in this episode: group projects, GIT, accountability, (not) letting yourself slide, and Alex's unorthodox StackOverflow strategy.🔗 Connect with Micha👩‍💼 Linkedin🐦 Twitter👩‍🚀 GitHub🤖 michaellala on Scrimba Discord⏰ TimestampsHow Micha started to learn to code after a friend told her he thought she'd be good at it (01:57)Micha used freeCodeCamp but turned to Scrimba for JavaScript (03:19)Eventually, Micha started working at Scrimba! (04:42)What is the Scrimba Bootcamp? (06:07)What challenges do coding students typically face? (09:45)How Scrimba bootcamp keeps students accountable (10:57)Community Break with Jan the Producer (15:04)Why code reviews are important (17:03)Why you should look to give code reviews and not just get them (18:29)Pay it forward, learn by teaching, and foster community (20:25)How Alex used StackOverflow while learning to code (21:39)Why you should be able to talk about code (22:42)Can beginners actually help someone with their code? (23:28)The best person to teach a subject is somebody who just learned it (26:01)ELI5 (26:54)Some teachers love sounding smart, and that's not always the best for students (28:03)The common traits of successful self-taught developers (29:09)Where to learn more about the Scrimba Bootcamp (30:53)Do group projects as a learner! (33:38)Next week on the show: O'Reilly author of Learning Git, Anna SKoulikari! (35:02)🧰 Resources MentionedUse this link for a 20% discount on the Scrimba bootcamp!Scrimba BootcampFrom Lab Coat to Code: Vanessa's Path from Lab Scientist to Developing Lab SoftwareAnna Skoulikari⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Parul Singh 🇬🇧! Parul is a Tech Careers & Neurodiversity Consultant, ADHD advocate, board member at Manchester Tech Festival, Public Speaker, and a former recruitment marketing partner and tech recruiter. The last time she was on the show, she gave us advice on how to stand out and land a role in tech.Today, we're talking about neurodiversity! What does it mean, why do we need it, why do tech companies seem to attract neurodivergent talent, and how can we create a more inclusive workplace? In this episode, you'll find out why neurodivergent conditions aren't superpowers (but sometimes feel like they are), why some people get diagnosed late, and whether self-diagnosis is valid. Parul is passionate about these topics because of her own lived experience with ADHD and autism, which intersects with her being a woman of color. But even if you're not neurodivergent yourself, chances are you've worked with or managed somebody who is... so tune in!🔗 Connect with Parul👨‍💼 Linkedin📪 Parul's Dopamine Diaries Newsletter🌐 Linktree🐦 Twitter⏰  TimestampsWhat are they: neurodivergent, neurotypical, neurodiversity (02:22)The medical model of neurodivergent conditions is deficit-focused (04:13)Stereotypes and internalized ableism (05:53)What is masking? (08:16)Are neurodivergent conditions classified as disabilities? (09:02)Is being neurodivergent a superpower? (10:08)What are the challenges for an employer in working with neurodiverse employees? (12:43)How many people working in tech are neurodivergent? (14:01)You have probably already worked with neurodivergent coworkers (15:43)On setting expectations, handling challenging situations, and sharing personal stories (16:43)Double empathy problem (20:20)Modern corporate culture and delivery pressure (22:09)How Parul got diagnosed with ADHD at 25 (24:56)Misdiagnosis, and why autism and ADHD mask each other out (26:34)You are diagnosed based on how much you inconvenience other people (28:13)ADHD medication (30:26)The importance of intersectionality (32:29)Learned skills vs. habitual skills (34:10)Is self-diagnosis valid (37:22)🧰 Resources MentionedAnnual Report: Diversity in Tech in the UKParul's Dopamine Diaries NewsletterParul's previous interview⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Özge Ahras 🇹🇷! Özge studied computer enigneering, but felt her coding skills weren't up to par. She yearned to transition into frontend development and explore cutting-edge technologies, but the company she had spent eight years in was relying on vanilla javascript. Eventually, she discovered Scrimba, back in the day before the Frontend Career Path even existed. Can you imagine?Özge fell in love with Scrimba's pedagogy and enrolled in the Path. But the journey wasn't without its challenges. It took her two and a half years to complete the course, balancing her studies with a demanding full-time job. And in February 2023, a devastating earthquake struck her hometown in southern Turkey. Yet Özge persevered, realizing that the true investment lay in nurturing her own growth and peace of mind.Today, Özge is a front-end developer living in sunny Malta! You'll hear how she picked where she wanted to move and how she went about hunting for jobs, as well as learn one trick that boosted her job application success rate. Özge also shares the details of her interview process (spoiler: there was a bit that was slightly unconventional). This is a story about giving yourself grace and time, staying motivated, and remaining curious!🔗 Connect with Özge👩‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Portfolio👩‍🚀 GitHub⏰ Resources MentionedÖzge studied computer engineering and worked at the same company for eight years, but wanted to get better at frontend (01:03)How it felt to relearn JavaScript and React (04:15)Why JavaScript fixed 90% of Özge's work problems (06:43)Community Break with Jan the Producer (07:48)How Özge stayed motivated and learned to code alongside her full-time job (09:43)Özge's mindset shifted after a devastating earthquake that hit her hometown (11:13)Invest in yourself, that's the only thing you can't lose (12:50)The aftermath of the earthquake (14:02)Letting go of material goals (17:38)Why Özge moved to Malta to continue her career (18:35)Özge's job-hunting process: ChatGPT and reaching out directly (22:09)Özge's job interview (22:41)How Özge got a same-day coding assignment... And successfully completed it! (24:53)HR questions and a technical interview (26:31)And finally, the latest technologies! (27:41)🧰 Resources MentionedLearn React for free!Scrimba BootcampFrontend Career Path⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Amy Posten 🇺🇸! Amy was a veterinary technician for fifteen years before she decided to switch careers. First, she discovered freeCodeCamp while on maternity leave. Later, she joined a premium bootcamp but didn't feel quite ready to apply for coding jobs afterward, so she turned to Scrimba to polish her skills. Nowadays, she's a front-end engineer and instructor.In this episode, you'll learn how to figure out what kind of job you want and what was a small change in her job-hunting approach that brought Amy immediate results. You'll discover what are the gaps in knowledge one might have after a bootcamp, and how you can make learning to code less lonely. Finally, Amy and Alex discuss generative AI tools and how you can use them in your job hunt.🔗 Connect with Amy👩‍💼 Linkedin⏰ TimestampsHow Amy became a Veterinary Technician (01:32)Maternity leave on freeCodeCamp, and a career change brought up by the pandemic (04:38)Why Amy likes JavaScript, HTML, and CSS (06:59)Why Amy decided to join a bootcamp (08:56)The importance of getting to connect with people (11:16)Social media break with Jan the Producer (12:43)How to make learning to code less lonely (14:12)Joining a bootcamp is like drinking from a fire hose (16:27)Amy discovered Scrimba through her bootcamp! (18:31)After the bootcamp, Amy also joined the Scrimba bootcamp (19:37)Why Amy decided to start from scratch on Scrimba (21:35)How Amy found her north star and became a teacher (24:48)Amy changed her approach to job applications and got immediate results! (28:26)Amy's reach-out strategy and how she got a job interview at the company she currently works at (31:52)How to figure out what kind of job you want (35:11)Amy's job interview (36:04)How to use AI tools in your job hunt (40:22)🧰 Resources MentionedScrimba podcast: The State of React (and Should You Still Learn It in 2024), with Dev AgrawalScrimba podcast: An expert guide to technical interviews with Ian DouglasScrimba podcast: This Is How You Onboard: Actionable Tips for Developers On a New Job from Ian DouglasLearn React for free!Scrimba BootcampScrimba's Discord community⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Chris Webster 🇬🇧! Chris is a full-stack developer based in Reading. In a past life, he taught Mandarin to both children and adults and obtained a master's degree in education. If you're guessing that this episode is about pedagogy, maintaining your mindset, and learning hacks, you're on the right track.When Chris decided to switch careers, he enrolled in a premium London boot camp. Was it worth the money? Or the time? In this episode, Chris lays out the differences between a boot camp and learning to code by yourself online. He ended up on Scrimba afterward—sometimes even while at work at his first coding job—which helped him land his dream job. But that wasn't the only thing! It's the perseverance, strategies for successful adult learning, and knowing what to look for in the myriad of teaching methods available to us that paved Chris's path to success. In this podcast, you'll learn all about them!🔗 Connect with Chris👨‍💼 Linkedin⏰ TimestampsHow Chris discovered computers (but became a teacher and only later took up coding) (01:09)Was changing careers an easy decision? (03:57)What do bootcamps promise, and do they deliver? (06:32)How did Chris structure his learning? (06:46)Was Chris happy with what he got out of the bootcamp? (08:36)Did the marketing of the bootcamp match the actual offering? (10:41)Midroll with Jan the Producer: Tweet about us! (12:31)The appeal of a bootcamp: the path + the community (13:27)How Chris discovered Scrimba (14:34)The problem with many teachers nowadays (17:40)Chris's Number One Learning Hack (19:20)Don't keep hammering the problem (23:18)The system for problem-solving (25:52)The stigma of (not) working hard enough (27:18)Pomodoro technique vs being in the zone: there's a right time for both (29:30)How Chris found his first job (31:34)What's it like working for a consultancy (32:38)How Chris landed his dream job as his second job (34:33)Chris's LinkedIn strategy (36:37)Just be enthusiastic! (37:49)Chris's message to a recruiter on LinkedIn (38:35)🧰 Resources MentionedLearn React for Free! Book: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanBook: How to Solve It by George Polya⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Dev Agrawal 🇮🇳🇺🇸! With a name like that, how could he not become a developer? He's a software developer, developer advocate, and content creator. Moreover, he's a React expert deeply ingrained in the React community. That's why we invited him onto the show to shed light on the current state of affairs!You've probably noticed certain discontent surrounding React recently. A basic React app has become significantly more complex. It has been quite some time since there has been a significant update to React, with the recent ones relying heavily on meta-frameworks. And what about the React core team? What's happening there?All of this might sound disheartening. However, we're delving into whether these concerns hold true in this episode. Let's find out together!🔗 Connect with Dev👨‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Website🐦 Twitter⏰ TimestampsHow Dev became a dev (01:34)Teamwork is a skill you can learn! (07:06)Should you go to college or learn to code by yourself? (09:10)Studying coding can be a "choose your own adventure" game (11:04)Community break with Jan the Producer (12:42)How Dev landed his first role in tech (14:28)Disappointment with React: what's that about? (15:42)What are meta-frameworks, and why are they gaining traction? (18:55)React was originally all about the front end... And now? (20:55)GraphQL and React Server components (22:23)Pete Hunt, Rethinking Best Practices, and separation of concerns (23:09)History is repeating itself (24:24)The most common problem with server components (25:34)The battle of the frameworks (26:10)Is Next.JS in an advantageous position? (28:08)Most people nowadays are using Vue! (34:13)Should you have FOMO about server components? (36:37)🧰 Resources MentionedNiche Down to Blow Up: Scrimba Student Leo Reveals How to Land an Awesome First Dev Job

Meet Parul Singh 🇬🇧! Parul is a Tech Careers & Neurodiversity Consultant, ADHD advocate, board member at Manchester Tech Festival, Public Speaker, and a former recruitment marketing partner and tech recruiter. If you're familiar with the topic of neurodiversity in tech, you've probably come across her name. In this episode, we're speaking with Parul because her advice on how to stand out and land a role in tech is anything but ordinary. This episode contains refreshingly unique and honest insights and perspectives on hiring in tech, along with some new job platforms you can use to inspire or recharge your developer job search. Everybody's on LinkedIn, and that can be a blessing and a curse! In this episode, you'll learn about the best alternatives. Standing out as a junior developer can be challenging, but we'll discuss some ideas on how you can do it. What should your CV look like? Do you need a cover letter? To wrap things up, we'll learn from Parul why some recruiters don't advertise the salary range and what you can do when you see a job ad like that!Plus: Why should tech recruiters know how to code, and is JavaScript more similar to a ham or a hamster?🔗 Connect with Parul👨‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Linktree🐦 Twitter⏰ TimestampsHow Parul became a tech recruiter (01:19)Java vs. JavaScript (03:18)How Parul learned to code (03:34)Why it's important to find a coding instructor and method you vibe with (05:35)Why tech recruiters should know how to code (06:36)Community break with Jan the Producer (08:42)How can a developer be recognized by a recruiter (10:08)Job platforms other than LinkedIn (11:12)Make sure your profile is up to scratch (12:08)Who swipes right? (12:49)How to stand out as an entry-level candidate: your CV (15:01)Send your CV using normal methods, but THEN follow up directly (17:40)Do recruiters really only spend a few seconds on each resume? (18:38)Is sending a cover letter necessary? (20:21)Should you apply on the weekends? (22:10)What should you do if you're applying for a job that doesn't list the salary? (23:07)Why we need to be good negotiators (26:23)We need empathy (32:59)🧰 Resources Mentionedhttps://hackajob.com/https://cord.co/https://www.haystackapp.io/https://otta.com/https://wellfound.com/https://hired.com/⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Shawn Wang (Swyx) 🇺🇸! Swyx is a developer, writer, and startup advisor. If you listen to our show regularly, you know him as the biggest advocate for learning in public! Today, he's the founder of smol.ai and a podcast host and teacher at Latent Space. Last summer, Swyx wrote a blog post titled The Rise of the AI Engineer, which quickly went viral.In this episode, Swyx will revisit that blog post to see if anything changed. You will learn why AI engineers are a thing, the differences between AI and ML engineers, and why the demand for this specialization is larger than the supply. Swyx also reveals what defines an industry (and why it's not only about tools) and gives many good examples of successful products made using existing foundation models. Swyx and Alex also talk about the inner workings of AI and whether it's a good idea to run AI models on your own hardware.🔗 Connect with Swyx👨‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Website🌐 smol.ai🏫Latent Space⏰ TimestampsSwyx wrote a blog post about The Rise of the AI Engineer, and it went viral (02:32)The three-stage progression of an AI engineer (04:33)Can an AI agent become a CTO? (05:36)We can become AI engineers now. What changed? (07:50)We didn't invent AI foundation models; we discovered them (11:27)Are we evolving new intelligence? (14:20)AI researchers vs AI engineers (15:36)Why is AI engineering a specialization? (17:04)What's an inference API (20:50)What are weights (21:09)There's a lot of interest in small AI foundation models (24:27)Should you use the cloud or run your AI models locally? (25:37)Is there a demand for AI engineers? (27:26)What AI products do companies want to build? (29:40)Updated career advice for new developers (34:51)🧰 Resources MentionedThe Coding Career Handbook by Swyx (30% discount applied when you use this link)

Meet Adam Broda 🇺🇸! Adam is a tech lead and career coach who helps career changers break into tech. He did the same - after a decade of working in aerospace engineering at Boeing, Adam now works at Amazon! Through his coaching business, Broda Coaching, Adam aids career transitioners in constructing personalized job search strategies.In this episode, Adam unveils the four pillars of his framework: identifying your passions, skills, desired environment, and needed compensation. Alex and Adam also delve into the current state of the job market: have we moved beyond significant tech layoffs, are return-to-office policies contributing to attrition, and what implications do these factors have for software development jobs? Adam will also tech you about different phases of networking—short-term networking, advocacy networking, and engagement networking—detailing how to navigate each of them and which one is most effective.🔗 Connect with Adam👨‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Website⏰ TimestampsHow Adam transitioned into IT (and became a career coach) after a long career in the aerospace industry (01:30)Adam's engineering background vs. his new roles (05:19)The tech industry changes frequently (08:32)How Broda Coaching came about (10:32)Fail fast! (14:22)The state of the tech job market (and should we be worried about layoffs (15:32)Why is there fewer junior roles? (18:12)Returning to the office forces attrition (19:41)Does social media give you a good overview of what's happening in the job market? (20:59)Before the pandemic, junior roles had a lower experience requirement (23:19)Adam's job-hunting strategy (23:51)Start with your why (25:14)Passions, skills, environment, and compensation (27:13)Is niching down limiting your opportunities? (28:02)Adam's three-phase networking approach (32:17)Demonstrate potential! (36:07)Go where you're passionate (39:50)🧰 Resources MentionedBroda Coaching⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

🎙 About the episodeMeet Cassie Lewis 🇺🇸! Cassie has a fine arts degree, which turned out to be too fancy for the real world. After working in different fields, from photography to retail, she got interested in coding - and it turned out to be just the right fit with how her mind works! Cassie is fueled by curiosity, creativity, and challenges. And learning to code alongside a day job was certainly a challenge.Two years into her learning path, Cassie realized she had hit a wall. In an attempt to get unstuck, she joined the Scrimba bootcamp. She also challenged herself to read more non-fiction and embarked on a path toward effective living. In this episode, Cassie explains effective living and how it can make you a more effective coder, too! You'll hear how Cassie defeated burnout, how she approached learning, and how she - only nine months after joining the bootcamp - landed her first dev job. This is a story about setting goals, establishing systems, frictionless networking (even if you don't live in a tech hub), and keeping your plans realistic. But also: this is also a story of creativity and exploration!🔗 Connect with Cassie🧑‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Website⏰ TimestampsHow Cassie went from a fine arts degree to retail to coding (01:24)How Cassie chose her careers and roles and basically created her last retail position (03:35)Cassie originally discovered coding through WordPress (05:11)Is coding similar to making art? (05:47)Learning to code was a gradual shift (06:53)Why you should maintain some balance while learning to code (08:39)How Cassie managed her self-confidence (10:03)Community break with Jan the Producer (10:59)Resources Cassie used to help with her mindset during her coding journey (13:39)What is effective living (15:39)What did Cassie do to put herself back on track when she slipped? (19:32)Cassie's systems (21:13)Identify the key pillars in your life (23:07)How Cassie landed her first developer job (26:50)You never know who can help you (28:07)How's Cassie's new job going after three months? (34:15)Getting paid to learn on the job (35:54)🧰 Resources MentionedScrimba BootcampHow Johnny Learned Angular and Typescript in Three DaysCooking Up a Career Change: Overcoming Burnout and Finding Your Why, with Scrimba Student JimmyEssentialismAtomic Habits⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

🎙 About the episodeMeet Bob Ziroll 🇺🇸! Bob is Scrimba's Head of Education and one of the Internet's favorite React teachers. His latest course is on AI, but don't worry, there's React... I mean, ReAct in AI as well!In the previous three episodes, we defined an AI engineer and demystified their tools. We explored foundation models and discussed how to personalize them through retrieval augmented generation and fine-tuning. We also delved into various use cases for incorporating AI models into your projects and explored why ChatGPT has brought a fundamental shift in how we perceive AI.Today, Bob will guide us through the realm of AI agents, representing the future of automation. An AI agent is capable of perceiving its environment. What does that mean, and how can one create an AI agent? Also, will they eventually take over the world?Bob will also give us actionable advice on how to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-changing world of AI models, and discuss his vision for the future of AI.Bob's AI agents and automation course is part of Scrimba's brand-new AI path. Let's dive in!This is the final episode of our series on AI engineering, introducing Scrimba's AI Engineer Path. This path is your gateway to unlocking the full potential of AI for your projects. 🔗 Connect with Bob👨🏼‍💼 Linkedin🐦 Twitter⏰ TimestampsNowadays, Bob teaches both React and AI (01:34)AI is moving even faster than the front end (02:16)What's new in the world of AI and coding (02:46)ChatGPT vs. the GPT foundation model (04:15)What is an AI agent (05:45)The Terminator! (09:33)We didn't invent AI; we discovered it (10:29)Midroll! (11:56)Prominent examples of AI agents today (12:35)Will AI agents replace people (15:25)Why you shouldn't fear nor ignore AI (18:12)Any predictions about AI are temporary and short-lived (21:36)How can you build your own AI agent? (24:34)React... and REact (31:26)Advice on how to stay up-to-date without getting totally overwhelmed (35:58)🧰 Resources MentionedThe AI Engineer PathAgentGPT⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

🎙 About the episodeMeet Guil Hernandez 🇺🇸! He is a developer and educator with over 15 years of experience in tech. He's also a Scrimba teacher who is a part of the team bringing you the AI Engineer Path, and in this episode, he's helping us understand retrieval-augmented generation. In the previous episode, Tom Chant helped us understand the world of AI models. Today, Guil will further teach us how these models work under the hood. AI models don't understand the world like we do. When we interact with them, they turn our inputs into mathematical representations known as embeddings. By creating our own embeddings, we can teach AI to do what we want it to. Today, we're getting an introduction about making a model aware of your own data source so that that data can be considered for the AI output. For example, using the techniques you'll learn from Guil in this episode, you could connect a model to your customer support conversations so that the model knows what is necessary to answer unique questions about your (or your client's) business. This is the third episode of our series on AI engineering, introducing Scrimba's AI Engineer Path. This path is your gateway to unlocking the full potential of AI for your projects. 🔗 Connect with Guil🐦 Twitter🌐  Website👩‍🚀 Github⏰ TimestampsGuil focuses on RAG and embeddings (01:42)RAG makes a foundation model aware of your data (03:14)Spotify has been using RAG since 2014 (05:56)How embedding works: embedding model + vector database + generative model (09:00)You're enhancing content retrieved from a database with a generative model (10:26)A foundation model can't just understand text (10:34)What's a vector database? (12:35)Can we make an AI chatbot for the Scrimba podcast? (15:05)You can chunk the files directly at OpenAI now! (16:49)OpenAI's Assistants API (17:33)AI is evolving quickly (19:07)Assistants API does RAG (19:55)What is fine-tuning? (20:39)Differences between RAG and fine-tuning (21:14)Community break with Jan the Producer (23:58)🧰 Resources MentionedThe AI Engineer PathLearn Embeddings and Vector DatabasesScrimba Podcast with Saron Yitbarek⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

Meet Tom Chant 🇬🇧! Tom is a Scrimba instructor who is a part of our in-house team that brought you a brand new career path available on Scrimba.com - the AI engineer Path.In this episode, we're diving into the world of AI foundation models: what are they, how do they work, and how can you use them to build front-end applications that you, until recently, couldn't even think of unless you were a big company with loads of resources.AI is fundamentally changing the features and user experience of front-end applications. In this episode, you'll learn how to use different foundation models out there (so, not just OpenAI) for your own projects.This is the second episode of our series on AI engineering, introducing Scrimba's AI Engineer Path. This path is your gateway to unlocking the full potential of AI for your projects. 🔗 Connect with Tom👩‍💼 Linkedin🐦 Twitter⏰ TimestampsOne year is a long time in AI (02:14)What are some of the recent applications of AI that have converted the skeptics? (04:06)Revenue-boosting usage of the new AI models (07:50)Is AI a revolutionary shift for developers? (13:03)What are foundation models (15:41)How do foundation models work? (18:12)Multi-modality of foundation models (20:04)What are the differences between different versions of GPT- 3.5, 4, 4 Turbo... (22:20)What's OpenAI Whisper? (25:49)HuggingFace and are alternatives to OpenAI (28:50)What to do if OpenAI goes down? (32:20)Why ChatGPT is slow... and running an AI model on your own hardware slower (35:35)What is fine-tuning? (38:01)What is RAG? (39:12)Using RAG can save you money (41:03)Scrimba's AI Engineer Path and Tom's course (43:46)Social Media Break with Jan the Producer (46:39)🧰 Resources MentionedThe AI Engineer Path⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

🎙 About the episodeMeet Per Borgen 🇳🇴! Scrimba's co-founder and CEO returns to the show after more than two years. In this episode, Per and Alex delve into the emergence of a new breed of developer—the AI engineer.What defines an AI engineer? What key skills set them apart? Is machine learning knowledge a prerequisite? Why did ChatGPT bring a paradigm shift in our interaction with AI? Dive into these topics, discover how to utilize and personalize existing AI models, and explore alternative options beyond OpenAI.Since the Scrimba podcast always brings you practical advice, this episode is a guide to the AI engineer stack. Prepare to take notes as Per unravels the terminology and technology crucial for navigating the AI landscape as a developer.This episode begins a five-part series on AI engineering, introducing Scrimba's AI Engineer Path.🔗 Connect with Per👨‍💼LinkedIn🐦 Twitter⏰ TimestampsScrimba's launching its AI Engineer Path! 🎉 (03:11)Why an AI path is so critical at the moment (04:01)Why AI engineering is not just a fad (07:32)Community Break with Jan the Producer (10:41)Why ChatGPT brought a change in the way we perceive AI, and what's the difference between discriminative and generative AI (11:40)What's the difference between GPT and ChatGPT (15:50)What companies build AI tools for developers other than OpenAI? (21:50)Human + AI is still better than just AI (23:11)The context is the product (24:56)Tuning a foundation model - data are the secret sauce (28:53)What is an AI engineer (29:54)How is AI engineering different from prompt engineering? (31:20)How's an AI engineer different from a data scientist or a machine learning engineer (32:04)OpenAI vs open-source alternatives (34:11)Making sense of the AI engineering stack (36:26)HuggingFace has machine-learning models that can run in a browser! (39:15)What is RAG and how to perform it (39:59)What is LangChain (41:55)How's the AI path structured? (45:29)🧰 Resources MentionedThe AI Engineer Path⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

🎙 About the episodeMeet Matt Ehrlich and Eric Winkelspecht 🇬🇧! They are the hosts of the Self-Taught Devs podcast. And, you guessed it, they are self-taught devs and career changers to boot. Matt was a park ranger, and Eric worked at an IT solutions company but didn't code. Today, they are a front-end developer and a full-stack developer, respectively, who met through LinkedIn and then decided to host a podcast!In this episode, you will learn about their coding journeys, the resources they used, and why they decided to be self-taught. They talk about motivation and keeping yourself going, how to create structure, and what to do if you feel guilty when you take a break. If you're curious about what makes a successful self-taught dev, this episode is for you!🔗 Connect with Matt and Eric👨‍💼 Matt's LinkedIn, Eric's LinkedIn📻 Podcast✏️ Matt's blog📹 Matt's YouTube, Eric's YouTube👨‍🚀 Matt's GitHub, Eric's GitHub🔗 TimestampsHow Matt Ehrlich took up coding after being a park ranger for years (01:09)A coding career gives you the opportunity for unlimited growth (02:44)The Self-Taught Devs podcast tries to fill a gap in information (03:39)Eric just landed his first full-time software development role! (06:19)How Eric decided to learn to code (08:06)How does it feel to change careers after more than a decade (08:43)Eric's learning resources (10:10)Community break with Jan the Producer (10:58)Why Matt took the self-taught route (13:39)Matt's learning resources (14:54)Quitting your job to learn to code: pros and cons (16:11)How long did Matt take to learn to code (17:45)Can you learn discipline, and how can you stay motivated (19:12)What can you do if you get stuck (27:26)Should you be taking breaks from your job search? (29:55)Listen to this if you get discouraged after getting a rejection letter (30:54)What is productivity anxiety (33:03)How did Matt and Eric meet and what makes them work as podcast co-hosts (36:15)⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

🎙 About the episodeMeet Anna Ha 🇵🇱 🇰🇷! Anna was born in Poland, where she majored in English and minored in Chinese. She then moved to South Korea and set off to learn Korean and coding at the same time! Today, she works at a startup that creates tools for learning Korean. Perfect match!In this episode, you'll discover if coding is a language. Anna also shares her learning strategy, how she discovered Scrimba, what amazing projects she worked on via Chingu, how she kept herself motivated, and how finding a community helped her stay on track. You'll also discover what's the key to both landing a job and looking forward to going to work every day!🔗 Connect with Anna👩‍💼 LinkedIn🌐 Website👩‍🚀 GitHub🐦 X🤖 annannanna on the Scrimba Discord🔗 TimestampsHow Anna discovered coding when she had a blog as a teenager but ended up studying languages (01:14)Anna started learning to code after moving from Poland to South Korea! (03:00)Anna always wanted to live somewhere else at least for a year (05:16)How Anna learned to code (06:02)What to do if you think that coding just isn't for you (08:39)Community break (11:46)Focus on one step at a time (14:41)How Anna juggled different learning resources (15:28)How Chingu helped Anna get relevant coding experience (18:02)How Anna landed her first tech role (22:01)Anna's interview process and what was most important (24:19)Anna's current company: Learn Korean in Koren (25:19)Your background is important, and so is your attitude (26:58)Quick-fire questions! K-pop, Flutter, and Scrimba (30:41)How Anna found out she was getting an offer (31:45)The importance of community and support (34:53)Advice to younger Anna (35:33)⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.