The Front End

On today's show, Amir Muntasser, a director of development, talks to us about his route into development and how he manages a large team. We discuss the challenges of sizeable tech departments, his hands on coding skills, and upcoming advancements and technologies that he's really excited about. Amir also shares some valuable tips for job seekers on how to impress hiring firms, and what newcomers can really do to land a role as a front end developer.

Danai Nanou is a UI developer specialising in CSS and its architecture. Originally from Greece, she's lived in the UK for many years, moving from retail into software engineering through a part-time course and a coding bootcamp. She found her passion in the styling layer of front-end apps, taking on some large scale CSS migrations, implementing the ITCSS methodology to help add some key structure to the code base, and ultimately pursuing a passion for well-structured, maintainable, predicable CSS. Danai talks about the pitfalls of CSS frameworks, dives into her love of the cascade and how CSS should be embraced not feared. She also walks us through her personal challenges in leaving an unfulfilling career to move into the world of software engineering and how she leveraged networking to land herself a junior dev role.

Joe has been a developer for over 12 years, currently working as a senior engineer at KFC (sadly no free chicken available!). He started out in his 20's from a recommended web design course. From there he's moved from financial start ups and a leading ticketing company, to AND Digital working as a software engineering consultant. Joseph's been all-in with FE from the beginning working through jQuery, to Angular JS, to React and Next.js, and trying out things like Astro and Svelte. In this episode, he and I talk about Joseph's love of CSS, his embracing of modern frameworks and libraries, such as Astro and Next. We also discuss the possibility of React being put out to pasture and has React had its heyday?

We're taking a break from the usual guests for just this episode to answer some community questions sent in from our listeners and other social media outlets. We'll be running a full-length Q&A including: Do you do eye exercises or something for your eyes What do you think the future holds for the software development industry? What is your favourite piece of tech from the last 20 years (tool, language, framework etc) and why? What is the best piece of advice you have been given? Are you scared that AI will replace your job?! ...and more!

We're joined by Tom Riglar from Moropo, an automated testing start up dedicated to helping you test your mobile apps and products. Tom co-founded a million pound agency, Morrow, and talks about his journey into tech from the humble days of HTML and some ecommerce work, through to starting and running two successful agencies. We also talk about the importance of testing your apps and how they can ultimately produce better products.

Simeron Taak is a fulltime freelancer specialising in web design and development. She's had a great route into tech following a family background of graphic design. Simeron shares her passion for technology, talks about her route into development, design qualifications, and the challenges that freelance life brings with it. We also delve into coding bootcamps vs. degrees, and Simeron's experience with both of these approaches to learning web skills.

On this episode we're joined by Anthony Main, founder of The Distance, a top 5 mobile app development agency in York. Anthony talks to us about his journey into tech from a CS degree to running a successful development agency for over 15 years! We chat about changes in technology and business over that 15 years, how remote work is here to stay and why businesses need to adapt, as well as the importance of fostering a solid culture. We also get some valuable advice from an agency owner on how someone can get started in a career in app development and what makes good job applications stand out.

In this kick off episode of our fourth season we're joined by Daniel Merriman, an engineering manager from York. Daniel talks about his route into tech via social sciences, the impact of sociology and the human element of tech that's sometimes forgotten, and the ethics of development and tech.

After being recommended as a guest to the show by several twitter peeps, we’re so pleased to welcome Matt Studdert. Matt is a fellow UK developer and founder of the hugely popular Frontend Mentor, a coding skills levelling up platform used by close to 100,000 people to hone their skills in front end development. Matt hails from a background in fitness and personal training and made the leap to dev life, and shares a passion for helping others get into development. He’s going to share his story and give us some tips on how and where to start with learning to be a developer.

Today’s show features not one but two whole guests! Brian Rinaldi, a developer advocate at StepZen, and Raymond Camden a lead developer evangelist working at HERE, a location technology company.  This Jamstack-loving pair have co-authored a book called The Jamstack Book, which is published by Manning and dives deep into the Jamstack and helps you build up a portfolio of Jamstack-architectured sites including a full-blown e-commerce store. They're sharing their love of all things Jamstack and how you can get started by using their shiny new book!

For this final episode in the season Hassan El Mghari joins us to share his incredible journey from high-school student running multiple gaming communities totally almost a million users, founding a gaming marketing company, to pursuing a CS degree and learning full stack development. Hassan talks lessons learned, how to learn in public and the power of long-game effort.

In this penultimate season 2 episode, I'm answering some of your most popular questions such as: What's better, React or Vue? Do I ever write dirty code to finish sooner? How do I start blogging and creating content? How do I start freelancing? And loads more....

For episode 8 we're joined by Mark Baldino. Mark runs Fuzzy Math, a user experience design agency, and shares his founder's journey and how good UX can improve your business and how developers can get involved in the UX design process.

Phil is a developer experience engineer at Netlify and spends his days helping developers to build a better, modern web within the Jamstack. We discuss how Phil went from engineering to computer science, to delivering computers in a van, to (eventually) Netlify. He shares his thoughts on the Jamstack and how Netlify is leading the charge in hosting a modern web.

On this episode, Louise Ogilvy joins us to talk about getting hired in some exciting emerging tech industries such as agritech. We talk about how to write a winning CV and work with recruiters to land your dream role. Louise is a founder of recruitment agency Propeller Tech, which was launched to provide recruitment solutions to the  startup and early stage growth community.

Joining us today is the web’s very own web witch Stephanie Stimac. She's going to be sharing her journey from fashion and design into web standards and the Microsoft Edge team. Stephanie is a design technologist and lives somewhere in-between the role of a designer and developer. With a background in digital design and many years of building things from wireframe to code, she finds herself currently working in the Microsoft Edge Developer Experiences team.

In this fourth episode of season 2, James Tucker is joining us. James is a full stack developer based in Minneapolis currently working at Soona Studios. He loves Vue and Rails, and tweeting about tech, startups and big ideas. James talks about his love of the web and how he moved from a potential career as a pastor into web development. He also shares some tips and advice on how to get started in development and his experiences to date.

For this episode, freelancing legend Tom Hirst shares his journey into self-employment. Tom is based in Yorkshire and he's enjoyed a successful freelancing career for the past 11 years, specialising in WordPress development. Tom also runs a mentorship program to help other aspiring freelancers to help get into the freelancing life and start their own successful self-employment careers. Tom shares his super valuable freelancing tips, tricks and advice right here in episode 3 of season 2.

Coming in hot for the second episode of season 2, Microsoft MVP Pete Gallagher, is a developer, public speaker, Pluralsight Author and owner of software consultancy PJG Creations.

For the very first episode in season 2, the inimitable Peter White, a developer, entrepreneur and maker based in York, talks all things entrepreneurship. We'll find out how he found his way through being a freelancing, part-time developer, product owner and maker of digital things.

For the final episode in season 1, Scott Spence, a good twitter friend, joins me to share his path into development from VBA analyst to front end coder. He's passionate about the JAM Stack and Gatsby JS and we chat about how a more streamlined, static driven web is rising up to improve both developer and user experiences alike.

A little bit of a different take for this episode as I take to the microphone to answer some of our listeners' most frequently asked questions. From freelancing, to portfolios, improving design skills and whether you need dev ops skills in the world of front end, I aim to give my most honest and helpful answers from my years of development experience.

A whole seven episodes in and this time, we're talking with Ben Furfie about his background in games journalism that led into a career in web dev. We're also digging into the state of CSS, specifically Tailwind CSS and how a shift towards utility-driven styling can improve code maintainability and how it compares to methodologies such as BEM.

This this sixth episode, Emily Beardshaw, a front end specialist recruiter, talks to us about the state of getting hired in today's front end market with everything that's going on with the global COVID pandemic.  She's also sharing how she went from philosophy and politics into recruitment, and how to tailor your CV to maximise your hiring chances.

Episode four features not one but two guests, Arjun Gillard and Simran Hundal, both very experienced recruiters with the firm, Understanding Recruitment.  On the show they're going to cover a range of 'getting hired' topics including: how to get hired as a developer; how to help recruiters to help you; why you should use a recruiter; how can employers engage with and attract the best software engineers; and the age old question of 'do you need a software development degree?'. All this and more in episode four.

In this episode we're joined by Sam Beckham a Senior Front End Developer at GitLab. As a fellow all remote worker, Sam shares his experiences of life without an office, the good parts and the bad, as well as tips for those new to remote working.  He also introduces us to his popular monthly meetup, Front End NE, and offers his thoughts on starting and growing a regular meetup, attending them as a developer, and what you can get out of them.

In the very first episode of The Front End podcast, I give an introduction to the show, talk about my coding origin story and answer one of the most common questions I get asked about life as a developer: do you need a degree to get hired? I also mention a few names and resources in this episode that I've linked to here, check them out: Coding Coach website, Emma Bostian on Twitter, Rachel Andrew on Twitter.  You can find out more about me, Rob Kendal, on my personal website, or follow me on Twitter. For more about The Front End podcast, you can read more on robkendal.co.uk/the-front-end-podcast