🎙 About the episode

Meet Madison Kanna 🇺🇸! She's a front-end developer and a creator of a coding book club. She's also a college dropout, a master networker, and a former homeschooler. In this episode, you'll learn about her fascinating journey and get a lot of good, actionable advice!

Madison will teach you how to figure out what you are actually interested in and how to keep pursuing it. You'll learn about her journey to becoming a developer and how being homeschooled helped her in the early days of her coding career.

Also in this episode: Why do companies want juniors with experience, and what did Madison do to go around it? Do you get any better at personal branding if you get a domain with your name at the age of nine? Why is it important to work on production code? How to stand out if you don't have a degree?

Madison also shares how a single tweet turned being laid off into the best experience of her life!

🔗 Connect with Madison

👩🏼‍💼 LinkedIn
🌐 Website
🐦 Twitter
👩‍🚀 Github

⏰ Timestamps

How Madison dropped out of college and decided to learn to code (01:28)
Do you need a college degree? (02:50)
What's it like being homeschooled, and did it help Madison teach herself development? (04:11)
How to avoid burnout as you're learning to code? (06:20)
How to tackle projects as a self-taught developer? (08:09)
How to follow your curiosity? (11:48)
What was Madison's goal? (14:07)
When should you start applying for jobs? Also, MOMS! (15:37)
Madison and her sister, Randall, both became developers. Were their parents an influence there? (18:40)
Madison's approach to personal branding and history of blogging (21:26)
How Madison created her first tech opportunity - and why it was an unpaid apprenticeship (24:25)
Why do companies want juniors with experience (26:44)
How to get the experience needed for your first tech job (28:28)
Why you should work on production code (29:28)
Should you go easy on yourself or keep grinding? (31:50)
Recently, Madison got laid off! But one tweet changed everything. A.K.A. Here's why you need to build community (37:04)
Should you interview even when you're happy at your job? (44:38)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

Scrimba Podcast: From Doctor to Developer, with Jefferson Tang
Scrimba Podcast: Becoming a Standout Developer with Randall Kanna
Book: Deep Work by Cal Newport
Blog post: Why I'm Glad I Grew Up Playing Neopets

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