🎙 About the episode

Meet Sylvialynn Favello 🇺🇸! Sylvia got exposed to coding accidentally: by watching online courses for fun after she took a break from work and studying so that she could have surgery. Today, she works at Docker! She will teach us how to stay on track even when our brains don't want to.

In this episode, Sylvia will give us her insights on how to recognize you're heading towards burnout, how to keep learning fun, and how to remain motivated. She also talks about working on her self-confidence and public speaking by participating in communities and Twitter spaces (the latter is also how she met her hiring manager!), as well as how she found a way to enjoy the learning process for what it is. Spoiler alert: you'll get many unconventional study tips, but they might work for you!

Alex and Sylvia also discuss programming with ADHD, why being a developer is rewarding, and how you can turn perceived failures into learning experiences.

🔗 Connect with Sylvia

⏰ Timestamps

How Sylvia started learning to code because she was bored and wanted to learn... anything (01:48)
Alex met Sylvia a year ago when she was joining Twitter spaces to work on her self-confidence and public speaking. Here's how it went down! (03:59)
Why you should try different things until you find something that sticks (05:12)
How Sylvia's dream about studying at Harvard turned into a passion for coding (05:53)
How Alex got exposed to coding by watching videos from Stanford, and Sylvia's unconventional learning practices (07:09)
Developers with ADHD and how programming can be stimulating (11:12)
Ad break: Have you heard our show with Jessica Chan? Coming up next week, lead software engineer Katy Ashby.
Sylvialynn's approach to learning and why you shoulud follow your cuiosity (15:27)
Why you should always be open to tweaking your goals and plans (17:21)
Finding motivation in challenges (18:39)
Keep learning fun! (20:06)
How to recognize and avoid burnout? (23:18)
Why you should enjoy the journey, not the destination (26:44)
When did Sylvia feel she was ready to start applying for jobs? (28:12)
How Sylvia chose her portfolio project (29:34)
What resources did she use to learn JavaScript and React? (30:25)
Sylvia's approach to findind a job (spoiler: in the end, community is always important) (31:26)
Why you should start working on your presentation skills right away (34:13)
How to deal with mental setbacks in networking and socializing (39:16)
Sylvia met a hiring manager at Docker in a Twitter space! (43:33)
Are you an introvert... or an anxious extrovert (45:33)
Sylvia's interview process at Docker (47:33)
What is it like being an intern at Docker? (49:47)
What's it like doing an internship remotely? (51:00)
Technical vs behavioral questions for a Docker internship (53:12)
How long did the internship last and did it come with a promise of a possible job opportunity? (54:46)
Keep trying different things! (57:19)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

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