Outside The Code

Welcome to the Coding Bootcamp Review Series!

I invited two Codesmith alumni onto my channel to talk about their experience with the coding bootcamp. We talked about both the positives and negatives during their time, as well as advice for future students.  Hope you enjoy!

Discipline is important in any stage of your life, sometimes you have to sacrifice the monetary pleasures to achieve your goals.  Ale Thomas said these words early in her career and to this day she lives it in her software developer journey.  Join me in my conversation with Ale where we talk about the early coding life, enjoy life through travel, milestones she accomplished, and her future plans.

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As consumers of social media like Youtube and Twitter, do we really know the person behind the online profile?  In this conversation with James Quick we go over his early days before he knew that Developer Advocacy was his calling.

We also dive deep into finding motivation through others to achieve a goal that at one time seemed impossible.

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Making the Leap as a Self Taught Engineer with Stephanie (The Road To Tech)

There’s a saying, if it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great. This is true for someone like Stephanie, who went through multiple layoffs before deciding to pursue coding full time.  With her background in manufacturing, it's a natural reaction to go back to what she knows, which was manufacturing multiple times. After her final layoff, she said enough is enough, let's make a change. Join me in my conversation with Stephanie on how she navigated her career to tech and how she's helping new developers follow the same path.

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FreeCodeCamp: Code for Free - Quincy Larson

Too often we only see the end product. freeCodeCamp, is a household name for both new and experienced engineers. But what if I told you that Quincy had to go through multiple failures to eventually find a product that clicked. Join me in my conversation with Quincy where he shares his non-traditional software developer journey, why he started Free Code Camp, and what the future holds!

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Restaurant Manager to Frontend Engineer in 10 Years with Joel Hernandez

I'm not sure how many of us would say becoming a Software Engineer was their dream.  For Joel Hernandez, it was very clear that this was what he wanted to become. Joel came to New York City, starting off as a dishwasher, knowing no English - but ready to take on any challenges that came his way.  He used the money he earned to learn English and get his associate's degree in computer science. He was ready to start applying for jobs, but nothing hit. Joel stopped looking for a job after being rejected time after time. On top of that, life just throws you curve balls. Joel got married, had a kid, and needed to support his family. Unfortunately, having a dream is one thing, but life, and the unexpected things that come with it, happened.. He got a job as a restaurant manager, made decent money, had health insurance, and gave up on his dream to become a Software Engineer.  He always had the itch to get back into software development, but it wasn't until the pandemic hit, when he lost his job, that he finally went all in to start again. Join me in my conversation with Joel on how he did it.

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