#111 How the Insane Pressure of Working in Classical Music Prepared Jessica Wilkins for Tech

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Feb 16, 2024

Former orchestral musician Jessica Wilkins shares her journey from classical music to tech, discussing the insane pressure of the industry, her sheet music e-commerce website, and the transition to becoming a software engineer. She talks about the challenges faced by musicians during the pandemic, her contributions to the freeCodeCamp curriculum, and the power of AI in content generation. The conversation touches on the importance of empathy in the tech industry and the effective incentives for hiring employees.

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Introduction

00:00 • 3min

Transition into Tech and Early Life in California

02:54 • 4min

A Personal Story of Introducing Piano

06:53 • 2min

Journey to Becoming a Professional Oboe Player

08:32 • 20min

Experience with Auditions and Acceptances

28:39 • 7min

Limited career options for women and the influence of generation and time on career choices

35:50 • 4min

Visiting the Campus and Meeting the Oboe Professor

39:53 • 4min

Learning Music Performance at College

43:43 • 24min

Opportunities for Oboe Players in the Classical Music Industry

01:08:05 • 15min

The Power of Software in Automating Business Processes

01:23:17 • 4min

Progressing as a Musician in LA

01:26:57 • 7min

Navigating the Challenges of the Music Industry During the COVID-19 Pandemic

01:33:27 • 24min

The Power of AI in Content Generation

01:57:41 • 11min

The Challenges of Getting a Job and the Importance of Empathy in the Tech Industry

02:08:57 • 5min

The Importance of Incentives in Hiring Employees

02:13:55 • 18min

On this week's episode of the podcast, I interview orchestral musician-turned software engineer Jessica Wilkins.

Jessica found success in the extremely competitive field of classical music, playing the Oboe in orchestras, recording sessions, and even at major events such as the NFL awards on national television.

She started her own business – a sheet music e-commerce website. This not only helped her survive in the high cost of living city of Los Angeles – it also helped her learn web development.

During the pandemic, many of her performance and recording gigs were cancelled. This inspired her to dive much deeper into coding. She now works as a software engineer at freeCodeCamp, and has contributed substantially to freeCodeCamp's core curriculum. Also, her many freeCodeCamp tutorial articles have more than 400,000 readers each month.

During our conversation, Jessica talks about the insane pressure she faced as a musician, where standards are incredibly high. So many people want to be professional musicians, and there is so little money in the industry. Jessica was a rare case of finding success. But even that success could not dissuade her from diving into software development.

This is a long, intimate conversation with one of the sharpest minds behind freeCodeCamp.org. It was a blast talking with Jessica for more than two hours. I think you'll dig it.

Some timestamps in case you want to skip some our lengthy discussion about music education and the music industry:

- 0:00:00 My bass intro. See if you can guess this 1970 classic bassline. - 0:01:00 Our discussion of Jessica's upbringing by a school teacher and single mom, and her journey into classical music - 1:07:00 Jessica Learns to code and builds a profitable sheet music e-commerce business - 1:35:00 Jessica's decision to go all in on software development - 1:44:00 Contract work and thoughts on what caused recent tech layoffs

Links we talk about during the interview:

One of Jessica's articles - 40 JavaScript Projects for Beginners – Easy Ideas to Get Started Coding JS: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/javascript-projects-for-beginners/

The Black Excellence Music Project, Jessica's first React project: https://blackexcellencemusicproject.com/

Danny Thompson freeCodeCamp Podcast interview: https://freecodecamp.libsyn.com/site/were-back-danny-thompsons-journey-from-chicken-fryer-to-software-engineer

Danny's LinkedIn course that Quincy mentions: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/linkedin-profiles-for-technical-professionals/main-visuals-on-your-profile