🎙 About the episode
Meet Rían Errity 🇮🇪! He's a Scrimba student who started learning to code as a child. Today, he studies Computer Science and Language, a study program that marries his interest in linguistics with his passion for computing. He has also recently completed an internship with Microsoft!
In this interview, Rían talks about his love for computers, growing up with Linux, how he ended up choosing his study program (hint: there was YouTube involved), and whether he actually needs a CS degree. Alex and Rían discuss what self-taught developers might be missing out on compared to developers who are learning to code at a university and what universities could learn from bootcamps and online platforms like Scrimba. You'll also hear all about Rían's internship at Microsoft and learn about his journey from Dublin, where he was competing with 16.000 candidates, to former Skype offices in Tallinn, Estonia!
This episode is jam-packed with actionable advice, but it also brings you an exciting story brimming with enthusiasm!
🔗 Connect with Rían
⏰Timestamps
- How Rían became a programmer: it started with growing up with Linux (02:00)
- What is CoderDojo (02:45)
- Why programming appealed to Rían as a child (04:01)
- On Lubuntu and Minecraft (05:42)
- How Rían chose his study program (by watching Tom Scott) (06:26)
- Computer Science and Language (08:37)
- Do universities give you more in-depth knowledge? (12:34)
- Teaching children how to code as another way of learning (14:17)
- Ad break: If you like the show - share it! And mention Alex on Twitter. Next week, it's Madison Kanna! We already interviewed her older sister (and the link for that episode is below, under Resources).
- What are self-taught developers missing out on compared to the ones coming out of a university? Do self-taught developers have a hidden advantage? (16:58)
- How do you test programming at a university? (20:11)
- Has math been important to Rían as a developer? (21:54)
- How Rían got an internship at Microsoft (23:42)
- Are Microsoft internships attainable to self-taught developers? (26:38)
- How Rían had to compete with 16.000 people and eventually ended up at the old Skype headquarters in Estonia (28:58)
- Does Microsoft care about technical skills or culture fit? (32:48)
- Rían's interview process for a Microsoft internship (35:24)
- What is the difference between coding and programming? (37:37)
- How Rían thought the offer from Microsoft was a spam email (38:40)
- More on Microsoft's interviews (39:49)
- What does being an intern at Microsoft look like? (41:17)
- Rían's advice to anybody who's just starting to learn how to code (45:18)
- Easy apply! (46:40)
🧰 Resources Mentioned
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