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The Front End

The Front End

By Rob Kendal

In The Front End, we explore the in's and out's of life as a developer. We delve into challenging topics around modern-day development and technology including learning and professional growth, programming languages, frameworks, tools, techniques, UX/UI, and careers.
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Recruitment: how to get hired as a developer, how to work with a recruiter, and how to attract the best talent

The Front EndMar 30, 2020

00:00
34:26
Tom Riglar talks automated testing and founding a 1M agency

Tom Riglar talks automated testing and founding a 1M agency

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.


Dec 13, 202335:24
Simeron Taak talks freelancing, bootcamps, and her path to tech

Simeron Taak talks freelancing, bootcamps, and her path to tech

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.

Dec 01, 202339:29
Anthony Main talks agency ownership, remote culture, and how to land a role in a winning mobile app agency

Anthony Main talks agency ownership, remote culture, and how to land a role in a winning mobile app agency

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.

Nov 15, 202345:06
Daniel Merriman talks about social sciences and ethics in tech

Daniel Merriman talks about social sciences and ethics in tech

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.

Nov 03, 202348:13
Matt Studdert, founder of Frontend Mentor, shares his passion for helping others to learn

Matt Studdert, founder of Frontend Mentor, shares his passion for helping others to learn

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.

Mar 21, 202141:26
Authors Brian Rinaldi and Raymond Camden talk about their love of the Jamstack and their upcoming book on the very same subject

Authors Brian Rinaldi and Raymond Camden talk about their love of the Jamstack and their upcoming book on the very same subject

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!

Mar 08, 202124:48
Hassan El Mghari talks startups and lessons learned from running a community of almost a million users

Hassan El Mghari talks startups and lessons learned from running a community of almost a million users

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.

Dec 14, 202042:12
Rob Kendal AMA Q&A - Your favourite developer questions answered

Rob Kendal AMA Q&A - Your favourite developer questions answered

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....

Nov 30, 202033:40
Mark Baldino from Fuzzy Math talks UX and user-centered design

Mark Baldino from Fuzzy Math talks UX and user-centered design

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.

Nov 16, 202026:52
Netlify's Phil Hawksworth talks about modern front end development in the Jamstack, and his route into dev

Netlify's Phil Hawksworth talks about modern front end development in the Jamstack, and his route into dev

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.

Nov 02, 202043:28
Louise Ogilvy talks getting hired in exciting emerging tech industries and writing your best CV

Louise Ogilvy talks getting hired in exciting emerging tech industries and writing your best CV

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.


Oct 19, 202031:13
Stephanie Stimac talks web standards, developer experience her journey to the Microsoft Edge team

Stephanie Stimac talks web standards, developer experience her journey to the Microsoft Edge team

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.

Oct 05, 202027:26
James Tucker talks life as a full stack dev and tips on starting out in development

James Tucker talks life as a full stack dev and tips on starting out in development

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.

Sep 21, 202024:32
Tom Hirst on running a successful freelancing business for over a decade

Tom Hirst on running a successful freelancing business for over a decade

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.

Sep 07, 202030:42
Pete Gallagher shares his experience with the Internet of Things and life as a freelancing developer
Aug 24, 202033:31
Peter White, an entrepreneur from York shares his experience with making things and entrepreneurship

Peter White, an entrepreneur from York shares his experience with making things and entrepreneurship

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.

Aug 10, 202024:25
Scott Spence talks VBA to front end dev, the JAM Stack and his love affair with Gatsby

Scott Spence talks VBA to front end dev, the JAM Stack and his love affair with Gatsby

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.

Jun 22, 202032:27
Senior front end developer answers your burning development questions

Senior front end developer answers your burning development questions

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.

Jun 08, 202034:10
Emma Bostian talks technical interviews, coding challenges and getting into engineering

Emma Bostian talks technical interviews, coding challenges and getting into engineering

In episode eight I'm joined by Emma Bostian, a prominent software engineer in the tech Twitter community who works at Spotify. Emma talks to us about the technical interview: the good, the bad, where it can be improved and how it can be useful in hiring the best developers. We also talk about increasing diversity in tech roles and how Emma got into software engineering.

May 25, 202035:30
From games journalism to web development, Tailwind CSS and utility-first styling

From games journalism to web development, Tailwind CSS and utility-first styling

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.

May 11, 202044:22
How to tailor your CV and getting hired during a global pandemic

How to tailor your CV and getting hired during a global pandemic

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.

Apr 27, 202030:18
From medieval history to a tech marketer, Bethan Vincent discusses hiring processes, women in tech, and her podcast The Brave

From medieval history to a tech marketer, Bethan Vincent discusses hiring processes, women in tech, and her podcast The Brave

For episode 5, we have Bethan Vincent, a fellow podcaster from The Brave. On this fifth episode, Bethan and I discuss a range of topics including her winding career path, women in tech, the hiring process, and her very own podcast, The Brave.

Apr 14, 202037:36
Recruitment: how to get hired as a developer, how to work with a recruiter, and how to attract the best talent

Recruitment: how to get hired as a developer, how to work with a recruiter, and how to attract the best talent

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.

Mar 30, 202034:26
Static code analysis, linting, introducing coding style guides and how to enforce them

Static code analysis, linting, introducing coding style guides and how to enforce them

In episode three we have Chris Bertrand, a senior fullstack developer with Aldermore bank. Chris has a wealth of coding experience across different technologies and is filling us in on static code analysis, code linting and software development policies; what they are, why they're a good thing, and how you can implement them in your own organisation.

Mar 14, 202026:09
The ups and downs of remote working, GitLab, and running a successful meetup

The ups and downs of remote working, GitLab, and running a successful meetup

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.

Mar 02, 202032:44
Introduction, my origin story, and do you need a degree
Feb 17, 202031:07