The freeCodeCamp Podcast

#182 Abandoning med school to become a software engineer with Edidiong Asikpo

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Edidiong Asikpo. Didi is a software engineer. She grew up in Lagos, the biggest city in Nigeria and the biggest tech hub in Africa. Didi got into medical school. But while waiting for her studies to start, she started studying computer science and got really into it. She graduated with a CS degree and has worked in tech for nearly a decade. She now works at MongoDB, a cloud database company, remotely from her home in London. We talk about: - Nigeria's tech scene - How to break into tech when you live outside the Sillicon Valley ecosystem - How to transition from one programming language to another (Didi moved from mobile apps -> DevOps) - How writing programming tutorials can help you become a better developer Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to https://donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - Didi's website: https://edidiongasikpo.com/ - Didi's freeCodeCamp tutorial with career advice: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-kickstart-a-career-in-tech/ - Open Data Kit - the first open source project Didi contributed to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODK_(software)

#184 Senior Playstation Engineer's tips for learning new tools and getting things done

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Dilip Krishnamoorthi. He's a software engineer working at Sony, building user interfaces for Playstation game consoles where he's been for 10 years. We talk about: - How he dropped out of a traditional Indian university and used an inexpensive distance learning program to finish his engineering degree for less than US $100 / semester - What it's like working in Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of Asia - His experience launching the Playstation 5 - Tips for continuing to learn new tools even as a senior engineer Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,423 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to https://donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - Wikipedia article on Flow State, a concept Dilip mentions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology) - An IGN article about major improvements to Playstation 5's UI that Dilip worked on: https://www.ign.com/articles/ps5s-ui-the-five-biggest-gamechangers - Webcomic about the perils of context switching: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/60wx3z/this_is_why_you_shouldnt_interrupt_a_programmer/#lightbox

#181 How to turn Open Source into a Job with Nick Taylor

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Nick Taylor. He's a software engineer from Montreal and a prolific open source contributor. We talk about: - Why trying to build your own tooling will ultimately limit your app development - Tips for getting started contributing to open source - AI and the changing nature of working in tech - Tips for leveraging libraries and tools as a dev Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to https://donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - https://www.nickyt.co/

#180 We are truly in the Hackathon Era – Namanh Kapur interview

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Namanh Kapur. He's a senior software engineer at LinkedIn. He also creates YouTube videos to help devolopers with their careers. We talk about: - Tips for getting hired in the post-Leetcode world - Tips for cold-DM'ing recruiters and for guessing their email addresses - Why AI tools are going to lead to developers doing less repetitive work and more creative problem solving - And which foundational developer skills he thinks you should priortize learning Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - Namanh's video about two legendary Google engineers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK0I4f8Rbis - Namanh Kapur on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/namanhkapur/?hl=en

#179 799 rejections... but he got the job! Braydon Coyer developer interview

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Braydon Coyer. He's a software engineer who started building mobile apps in high school – one of which even out-sold Angry Birds for a few days. He dropped out of his computer science degree program once he landed his first web developer job and never went back. We talk about: - Mobile app development VS web app development - Strategies for applying for developer roles - How useful is a CS degree really? - Sane ways to integrate AI into your developer workflows Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to https://donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - Braydon's awesome custom website: https://www.braydoncoyer.dev/ - Fruit Ninja game development documentary: - Raycast tool Braydon uses to automate prpcesses on his Mac: https://www.raycast.com/ - Tana note taking tool Braydon uses: https://tana.inc/