If you're new to testing, the idea of writing tests for code that you wrote might sound strange. You just wrote it, so, theoretically, you should know what it does, right? But with a growing codebase and lots of people touching the code, implementing your piece of software might come with some unexpected side effects! Jonas explains why testing is so important, how to get started, and what it was like to write Capybara, the very popular testing framework. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNe...
Nov 05, 2018•40 min
Jesslyn worked with NASA to build an app for astronauts. She and a small team used augmented reality to create a navigation tool, much like Google Maps for space. Building it meant learning new tools, even traveling to a volcano to test it out. But most of what she built, she learned on the job. She tells us how she did it, what she's learned about leveling up in a short amount of time, and how she got started on her coding journey. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Unity H...
Oct 29, 2018•45 min
Hayley works with storage software. But before that job, she had no idea what storage software even was. In fact, at the time, she was a librarian working towards becoming a web developer. Then one day, she visited a booth at OSCON, a huge conference on open source, where she met the company that would end up hiring her for her first technical role in storage software. She talks about what it was like to transition from librarian to developer, and gives us an intro to the world of storage softwa...
Oct 22, 2018•37 min
Jeff is an executive at two very different tech companies, but data is at the heart of both. He describes how he uses data to make apps better and smarter, how he got started in the world of data, and how he built a database of his own. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Cinchapi Blavity Palantir MVP Concourse DB Apache Thrift TensorFlow Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Oct 15, 2018•44 min
Chad Fowler is an author, developer, speaker, and investor. He's been a CTO, he founded Ruby Central, the non-profit behind RubyConf and RailsConf, and is a recognizable tech figure, particularly in the Ruby community. But before he knew what code was, he was a professional musician. He shares how he switched careers without a computer science degree and how he's ended up with such an incredible tech career. He also shares how he's managed his bipolar disorder over the years, and how mental heal...
Sep 24, 2018•35 min
Courtland Allen has built up a community of Indie Hackers, people who want to make money by selling products they build themselves. But how do you become an Indie Hacker? And how good of a coder do you need to be to become an Indie Hacker full time? Courtland shares lessons he's gathered over the years on what it takes to live off of your own product and how you can do it too. He also gives us his take on some popular tech business topics. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) ...
Sep 17, 2018•48 min
Rachel spends her free time building robots, creating hardware art, and making silicone molds of her friends' faces. She got her start with NodeBots, a beginner-friendly way of creating hardware projects using JavaScript. Rachel shares how she was first introduced to the hardware world, breaks down what a simple hardware project looks like, and tells us what it was like to be one of the first beta users of Twitch.tv, back when it was called Justin.tv. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie...
Sep 10, 2018•38 min
Jarvis recently went from engineer to engineering manager, taking his career down a whole new path. He talks about how he thinks about his career, what different tech career paths look like, and why, although being a developer can be wonderful, it may not be everything you think it'll be. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) CodeNewbie Patreon Jarvis's YouTube Channel "Why I don't code anymore" [Jarvis's YouTube video] Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Sep 03, 2018•46 min
With so many different ways to learn to code, how do you pick? And where do technical books fit into your learning curriculum? Katel LeDû is the CEO of A Book Apart, a company that produces short technical books. She shares how to get the most out of a coding book, the benefits of reading technical books, and how she went from a career in photography to running a technical publishing house. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Submit a book idea to A Book Apart A Book Apart br...
Aug 27, 2018•37 min
Dan decided he wanted to get into tech, so he looked for a new job. And he found one! But it wasn't exactly the coding job he was hoping for. In fact, it would be about five years before Dan landed that dream coding job. He shares how he navigated the many ups and downs of becoming a developer, and what helped him persevere. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Aug 20, 2018•43 min
You may have heard of quality assurance and testing, but what's quality engineering? Intuit engineer, Rocio Montes, guides us through the world of quality, and shares why she's so passionate about this piece of the product development process. She also shares her own journey of being a quality engineer and how you can get started on the same career path. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Mocha (JavaScript testing framework) Chai (BDD/TDD assertion library) Design for Deligh...
Aug 13, 2018•36 min
Suz Hinton introduces us to the world of open source hardware. She shares interesting projects, both artistic and functional, and breaks down the steps it takes to create a hardware product. She also tells us what it's like to livestream her coding projects on her Twitch channel, and why she keeps doing it even though it can be scary and uncomfortable. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Arduino Raspberry Pi Adafruit Suz's Twitch channel Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Aug 06, 2018•45 min
Kevin Scott is the first CTO of Microsoft in almost twenty years. But what does the chief technology officer at such a large tech company do? He tells us all about his day-to-day, how he ended up at Microsoft, and shares his thoughts on the value of computer science degrees. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) LEAP Apprenticeship at Microsoft Behind The Tech with Kevin Scott (podcast) Microsoft Build (conference) Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Jun 12, 2018•38 min
Angela Andrews hosted her first coding workshop at her dining room table. Since then, she's hosted a number of coding workshops, sharing her technical skills and introducing other codenewbies to new tech topics. She shares how she puts on these workshops and how being a newbie herself has helped her be a better teacher. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Vim Amazon Web Services (AWS) CodePen VM World Girl Develop It Philadelphia WordPress Philly WordPress Meetup Geocities He...
Jun 04, 2018•38 min
Michael started his career as a glass blower, creating lighting for movies and tv shows. But after cutbacks at work, he decided it was time to look into other careers, and revisited his childhood love of computers. He shares how he taught himself to code, and the one-year job search that landed him the developer job he has today. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) freeCodeCamp Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
May 28, 2018•41 min
Kathryn's participated in dozens of hackathons as a student, and even when things didn't go well, she kept going back. Kathryn shares all the ways hackathons have helped her in her professional coding career, what the real benefits are (spoiler alert: it's not the thing you're hacking on), and how you can get the benefits of a hackathon even if you're not a student. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) MHacks8 "Hackathons" CodeNewbie Podcast episode blondiebytes YouTube channe...
May 21, 2018•33 min
Whether you're a new developer or an experienced developer, you probably don't enjoy the technical interview process. It's long, hard, and, often times, not even related to the actual job you're interviewing for. So how do you make the most of this notoriously difficult process? We talk to Parker Phinney, creator of Interview Cake, on what to expect in an interview and what to do when you feel like you don't know what you're doing. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Intervie...
May 14, 2018•42 min
Launch Code is a non-profit that helps you launch your tech career through apprenticeships. But what's it like to be a coding apprentice? Kasey, one of their graduates, shares her experiences as an apprentice and how she successfully navigated the tech industry and landed her first job. Chris, their VP of Education, talks about what companies are looking for when hiring a code newbie and how you can increase your chances of getting your first tech job even without a traditional CS background. Sh...
May 08, 2018•49 min
A big part of the developer culture is sharing knowledge, writing blog posts, and posting code. You show your passion for coding by putting your work out there, but how do you show that passion if you can't publish your work? What if your job requires you to keep your work private? What if being quiet is part of being safe online? We talk to Seán Hanson about what it means to be a quiet developer and how passion doesn't always have to be loud. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (spons...
May 01, 2018•37 min
Amir Rajan is CEO of RubyMotion, a tool that helps you turn your ruby code base into an iOS app. He shares his own app building experience, and what developers should know when turning their project into a mobile app. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Metaprogramming A Dark Room RubyMotion Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Apr 23, 2018•46 min
Colleen is a military spouse, mother of three, and taught herself how to code over a number of years. She learned to code and became a freelance developer with little time, little money, and a lot of patience. She tells us how she did it, and how you can do it too. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Operation Code Reshma Saujani's TED Talk "Teach girls bravery, not perfection" Saron's "Punch Your Feelings In The Face" talk #100DaysOfCode Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Mar 19, 2018•28 min
Anil Dash has been in tech for a long time. He’s a vocal advocate for inclusion and humane tech, writes amazing blog posts (and tweets!), and is now the CEO of Fog Creek. He shares how he navigated his impressive career in tech and how he builds kindness and community into his company's products. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Fog Creek Software Glitch StackOverflow Anil Dash's blog Trello Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Mar 11, 2018•44 min
You type in a url and you get a website. But how did you get that website? What are all the little steps that happen when you request a page and (hopefully) see that page in your browser? Julia Evans breaks down how the internet works and gives us an amazing introduction to computer networking. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Networking! Ack! (Julia's zine) Netcat Cat (command) TCP UDP TCP dump Juia's blog posts Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Mar 05, 2018•42 min
If you’ve been trying to figure out what JavaScript framework you should learn, Sarah is here to help. She explores the differences (and similarities!) between JavaScript frameworks like Vue.js, React, and jQuery, and what new developers should think about when deciding which tool to learn. She also shares how she got into coding, a journey she started as a science illustrator. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Vue.js Evan You (creator of Vue.js) jQuery Replacing jQuery Wit...
Feb 26, 2018•43 min
Many companies use cookies, tracking, and behavioral ads to help them sell more things. But it also means they collect a lot of data on what we do and who we are, raising online privacy concerns. What does that mean for developers? Laura Kalbag explains how those tools work and what we as developers should think about when building our own products. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) GDPR Piwik Fast Mail Proton Mail cookies Better How Companies Use Personal Data Against Peop...
Feb 19, 2018•46 min
What is bitcoin? How do cryptocurrencies work? What is the blockchain? Preethi Kasireddy, a blockchain engineer, gives us a gentle introduction to the world of digital currencies. She walks us through how it all works, what developers should care about, and how she transitioned from a career in finance to being a blockchain engineer. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Bitcoin Ethereum Satoshi Nakamoto's paper on Bitcoin Satoshi Nakamoto (author of Bitcoin paper) Solidity Eth...
Feb 12, 2018•41 min
If you've heard of containers and this thing called Kubernetes, but you're not sure exactly how they work and what they are, this episode is for you. Kelsey Hightower of Google gives us a newbie friendly tour of the world of containers. We talk about what problems they solve, and what new developers should know about them. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) Kubernetes Heroku Digital Ocean TensorFlow Docker Jenkins Kubernetes Up and Running (book) Scalable Microservices with ...
Feb 05, 2018•42 min
What's the value of a computer science degree? Is it worth going back to school for? We talk to a computer science student and professor to help us answer these questions. Ashley Fong is a history major who's going back to school to get her CS degree online. She shares how she made that decision and what her experience has been like. Dave Thomas is a programmer who recently became a professor. He shares why he had doubts about the value of the CS degree and how his experience teaching has influe...
Jan 29, 2018•44 min
You want to get started in open source, but where do you start? How do you pick a repo? And once you do, what's the best way to help out, especially if it's your first time? Richard Schneeman is here to help. He's the creator of Code Triage, where you can sign up for repos and get an open issue sent to your inbox. He talks about different ways first-timers can get started, and how small contributions can be incredibly impactful. He also shares some hilarious stories from his own coding adventure...
Dec 18, 2017•32 min
You've heard of augmented reality, but you're not sure how to get started. Molmol and Zach, the wife and husband coding team, give us a solid intro to AR and how they've built powerful experiences and beautiful stories using AR tools. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) ARKit SceneKit Swift Recording audio in space (Zach's project) Codeland Early Bird Tickets Codeland Conf Codeland 2019
Dec 10, 2017•44 min
