In this week's episode, Abbey chats with artist and game dev Angela He who's a college student at Stanford University. Angela creates beautiful digital art and develops games that speak to emotional issues - and she's almost completely self-taught. Angela grew up in a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., and started studying art at the tender age of 3 (after her parents found her drawing on the walls of their home). From there, she has worked with and learned about all different kinds of art, and has taught herself much of what she knows. As she grew older, she got into game development and started figuring out what sort of games - and art - her peers and the general public might like. When she came to Stanford to start university, she continued to explore new tech and expand her skills. Now, Angela is launching a clothing and accessories line inspired by her art while going to school and landing internships at companies like Microsoft and Niantic. She loves exploring the Bay Area with her friends, enjoys shopping for house plants, and eventually wants to write an anime, among many other things. You can find Angela on twitter here: https://twitter.com/zephybite You can check out her website here.

In this episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with developer advocate Alejandra Olvera-Novack about how she broke free from her restrictive cult upbringing, moved to the United States, and taught herself how to code. Alejandra was raised without technology, without formal schooling, and in an extremely conservative environment. When she was in her late teens, she left her village and moved to Florida.  After a couple years of googling everything under the sun to catch up on the world's events, and trying to attend college, she ran out of money. Since she was alone - having cut all ties with her family - she took a leap of faith, moved to Seattle, WA, and started looking for work. She worked odd jobs for a while, but quickly realized she'd need something more to survive and thrive. So she started to learn about HTML and CSS, something she never thought she could do. Fast-forward a couple years later, and she was working her way up to a job at Amazon Web Services. Today, Alejandra works with robots, helps developers be as happy and productive as possible at AWS, and runs the non-profit she founded that teaches women, minorities, and disabled how to code for free. She manages her anxiety and PTSD with the help of a service dog and some really great mentors and friends, and she still can hardly believe she's living her dream. Find Alejandra on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/QuetzalliAle Visit her website here: https://alejandraquetzalli.com/ Check out SheCodesNow, Alejandra's non-profit here: https://twitter.com/shecodesnow Find Abbey on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn

Saron on Twitter: https://twitter.com/saronyitbarek Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia Get tickets to Codeland in NYC on July 22, 2019: http://codelandconf.com Quincy's review of his Codeland experience: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/5f01cadf0a42 In this week's podcast, Quincy interviews Saron about her childhood, and her winding path into tech as an adult. Saron moved from Ethiopia to the US as a child. Her parents had high standards for her academics, and they would even make up extra homework for her each night. After studying liberal arts, Saron worked in science journalism. Eventually she decided to learn to code. After some self-study, she attended a coding bootcamp. From there, she got her start as a developer at ThoughtBot, and then worked at Microsoft. Saron founded CodeNewbie in 2014 and started hosting Twitter chats for people who were interested in learning to code. Then she launched the CodeNewbie podcast, which now has more than 200 interviews with developers around the world. Even though Saron is extremely productive, this productivity doesn't come easy. She talks about was recently diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and General Anxiety Disorder, and she has adapted to her situation by being extremely methodical about how she invests her time and energy. Enjoy the interview, and be sure to subscribe to both the CodeNewbie podcast and the freeCodeCamp podcast for new interviews each week.

In this episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with freelance Ruby on Rails developer Colleen Shnettler about how she switched from electrical engineering to development, how she founded her business, and how she makes time for kids and family - among many other things.

In this episode, Beau chats with Jesse Weigel, who live streams on the freeCodeCamp.org YouTube channel and is a Senior Software Engineer at DICK'S Sporting Goods. He talks about his career path, live streaming, getting a developer job, speaking at conferences, React Native, dealing with mental health issues, and more.    Jesse's career has benefited a lot by live streaming. He talks about the benefits and offers suggestions for other people who want to get started with it.   Jesse currently builds progressive web apps with React and GraphQL. He talks about why more people should be using React Native for their projects. He also talks about getting the confidence to speak at conferences and offers some tips that helped him deal with mental health issues.   Links to topics Jesse discussed: Direct Neural Interface & DARPA: https://youtu.be/nvUHDK59Igw Brain Scan Clinic: https://www.amenclinics.com/   Find Jesse on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JesseRWeigel   Also consider following Jesse's wife, Bekah, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BekahHW   Find Beau on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnesBeau

In this episode, Abbey chats with Kate Illsley, a tech recruiter and budding developer in Melbourne, Australia. Kate talks about how learning to code helps her be better at her job, and they also discuss Kate's journey into tech, how she got so involved in volunteering for various organizations in Melbourne, and what she loves about working with young women just starting out. Kate's path from university to her current job was fairly straightforward, but once she discovered coding, she realized there was so much more she could be doing to help job seekers find their perfect fit. She started volunteering with Startup Weekend in Melbourne, helped found Grad Girl, and got involved with VicITC for Women. Through her work with these non-profits, she discovered a passion for helping young people, especially young women, find careers in STEAM. Kate attends and speaks at a variety of events, and loves discussing how to do well in interviews, how to get into tech, and how women can nurture their love of coding. When she's not running around the city and organizing events, she makes sure to spend plenty of time in her veggie patch with her rescue dog, Cookie, getting some quality time away from her computer. Find Kate on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kate_illsley Find Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn  

Tim Myers is a developer from Denver. In the 1990s he finished high school and immediately enlisted in the US Army. When he got out, he started coding. He was working as a developer at an accounting firm when he got into a drunken brawl and ended up injuring somebody. Tim was convicted of 2nd degree assault and got a 12 year prison sentence. He earned his college degree entirely while in prison, and was released after 8 years for good behavior. He spent the next 3 years working various jobs like fast food while studying to get back into software development. And for the past 4 years, he's worked as software developer at several Denver companies. In today's episode, Quincy interviews Tim about his journey from convicted felon to developer and family man. Follow Tim on Twitter: https://twitter.com/denvercoder Follow Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia Help our community spread the word the old fashion way - tell a friend about this podcast.

In this episode, Abbey interviews social engineering expert Rachel Tobac and learns how she transitioned from teaching to infosec by way of one exhilarating competition.  Growing up, Rachel’s family didn’t have normal dinner table conversations. Her father was in medicine, so their chats revolved around strange diseases and scary edge cases. So when Rachel went to college, she aimed to follow in her father’s footsteps. However, life had other plans, and she ended up becoming a teacher instead. But she wanted to do more than teach a small number of students – she wanted to help more people at scale. So she tried to figure out a way to do that.  After moving across the country to Silcon Valley and learning more about the world of tech, she stumbled upon her true calling (with a little nudge from her husband and now co-founder): social engineering. She took a trip to Defcon four years ago, won second place in a social engineering capture the flag hacking event, and she was hooked. She dove in head first, learned all she could about infosec, social engineering, and security, and never looked back. Now, she and her husband run Social Proof Security, the boutique educational security firm they founded two years ago, and boast some of the largest tech companies in the Valley as clients. Rachel is also chair of the board of the non-profit WISP (Women in Security and Privacy), helps get scholarships for women to attend Defcon each year, and travels and speaks at all kinds of conferences and events herself.  When she isn’t educating companies about making their processes safer, she’s traveling the world, thinking up new ways to hack, or staring at her rescue dog.  In this episode, you’ll learn all about Rachel’s somewhat meandering path into security, how she discovered her passion for educating teams about social engineering, what it takes to get into the field, and why she loves her job. Find Rachel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelTobac Check out Rachel's company: https://www.socialproofsecurity.com/ Learn more about DefCon: https://www.defcon.org/ Read up on WISP: https://www.wisporg.com/ Find Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn  

On this week's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Quincy interviews Shawn Wang (@swyx). We talk about "learning in public" and his transition into tech from finance, where he left behind a job that paid him US $350,000 per year. Shawn grew up in Singapore and came to the US as a college student. He worked in finance, but at age 30, he burned out. So he decided to learn to code. He used freeCodeCamp and a ton of other resources, and since then he's worked as a freelance developer, and at several companies including Netlify. Follow Shawn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/swyx Follow Quincy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ossia Here are some links we discuss in the interview. Shawn's Projects: The official React subreddit that Shawn moderates: https://reddit.com/r/reactjs Shawn's article on No Zero Days: https://www.freecodecamp.org/forum/t/no-zero-days-my-roadmap-from-javascript-noob-to-full-stack-developer-in-12-months/164514 Job Search / Salary Negotation articles: Cracking the Coding Interview: https://fcc.im/2UihbNm Hasseeb Qureshi's story of getting a $250K/y developer job at Airbnb: https://haseebq.com/farewell-app-academy-hello-airbnb-part-i Steve Yegge's "Get that job at Google" essay: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-google.html Patrick McKenzie on Salary Negotiation https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ Quincy's recommended article: I spent 3 months applying to jobs after a coding bootcamp. Here's what I learned: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/9a07468d2331 Algorithm Expert: https://www.algoexpert.io Full Stack Academy https://www.fullstackacademy.com Shawn's Learn In Public movement: Shawn's Learn In Public essay https://gist.github.com/sw-yx/9720bd4a30606ca3ffb8d407113c0fe5‌‌ Kent C Dodds' Zero to 60 in Software Development: How to Jumpstart Your Career https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qPh6I2hfjw&app=desktop‌‌ Cory House on Becoming an Outlier: https://vimeo.com/97415346‌‌ Brad Frost on Creative Exhaust: http://bradfrost.com/blog/post/creative-exhaust/‌‌ Patrick McKenzie on the origin of the word "friendcatcher": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=511089‌‌ Chris Coyier on "Working In Public": https://chriscoyier.net/2012/09/23/working-in-public/ Links to other things we discuss: Shawn's Software Engineering Daily Interview with Sacha Greif: https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2017/08/09/state-of-javascript-with-sacha-greif/‌‌ The origin of No Zero Days: https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1q96b5/i_just_dont_care_about_myself/cdah4af/‌‌ John Resig, creator of jQuery, telling his team to rip out jQuery: http://bikeshed.fm/180 ‌‌Jeff Bezos' Two Pizza Team rule: https://buffer.com/resources/small-teams-why-startups-often-win-against-google-and-facebook-the-science-behind-why-smaller-teams-get-more-done‌‌ Shawn's "You can learn so much on the internet for the low, low price of your ego" quote draws from Paul Graham's Keep Your Identity Small: http://paulgraham.com/identity.html‌‌ Shawn's Impostor Syndrome Bootcamp Podcast: https://player.fm/series/impostor-syndrome‌‌ TypeScript's growth via npm surveys: https://mobile.twitter.com/seldo/status/1088240877107965953

In this week's episode, Abbey interviews Ariel Leslie, a software developer with an interesting background (she was once a knife salesperson, among other things!) who lives and works in Colorado. While she can't discuss all the details of her super-secret job, she fills us in on how she got to where she is now. You'll hear about the benefits of her university degrees and how supportive communities have helped her along the way, why she loves tough problems and how she battles her insecurities, and why she takes time to learn new things, like how to play the Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer. Ariel offers an interesting perspective on being a woman in tech, how various mentors have helped her become the developer she is today, and how she tackles imposter syndrome. Find Ariel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArielLeslie Find Abbey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn