Ingrid took us back to her childhood, discovering video games and a different reality. And then she took us on an adventure led by curiosity. We talked about exploring marketing and sales. We talked about finding a job to pay the bills. We spoke about testing and learning the ropes. We talked about moving toward the startup world. We talked about interviewing bad managers, and we briefly spoke about Netlify, where Ingrid has been happily ever after. Here are the links from the show: https://www....
Jul 05, 2022•49 min•Season 5Ep. 27
Arpit's story took us from Tamagotchis to Robotics, and then to discovering that Software development is not just for failed hardware engineers. Arpit took us on a wild ride, made of entrepreneurship, learning on the job, hypergrowth, and finding the product-market-fit (or not). We talked about his transformation from a software engineer to a coding CTO and then to an organization builder. We spoke about his last endeavor AppSmith, and finally about algorithms to live by. Here are the links...
Jun 28, 2022•47 min•Season 5Ep. 26
Maia's story started with a ZX-81 in the 80s, and from there on, she was hooked. We talked about how she followed her curiosity and studied engineering while not wanting to become an engineer. Maia spoke about how she started working on embedded systems while still not wanting to become an engineer. She spoke of how she went back to school and studied art because she still didn't want to be an engineer... and mixed software engineering and art. We spoke about discovering phones and And...
Jun 21, 2022•49 min•Season 5Ep. 25
Carl took us on a wild ride, starting with discovering he could build on computers very early. We brushed over his Engineering studies and how he almost went to study history instead. Carl spoke about his first job as an IT support person/sys admin and how he found his love for programming and creating back after a multi-year hiatus. Carl told us about how he created his career around learning and being an expert generalist (vs. an expert specialist) whose motto is "I'll figure it out....
Jun 14, 2022•51 min•Season 5Ep. 24
Eve took us through her first career in marketing, and how she slowly joined the "fine, I'll do it myself club." She then spoke about her moving to Lake Tahoe and being forced to embrace a new career. We then spoke about her new business revolving around teaching. We talked about the tools she creates for teachers' time management and the courses she made for LinkedIn Learning. We brushed over the writing of her books and how she re-uses the content she produces inside the ni...
Jun 07, 2022•45 min•Season 5Ep. 23
Legacy code, often considered a daunting challenge, holds valuable lessons in its complexity. It carries the weight of decisions made in the past, and learning to navigate it can provide a rich, rewarding journey. Such is the tale of Scott Ford, a seasoned software developer who embraced this path and has gained unique insights that have shaped his career and outlook. Scott's story took us from learning BASIC, C/C++, and Object PASCAL in high school to quitting jobs every seven months becau...
May 31, 2022•52 min•Season 5Ep. 22
Jess told us about the toys she disassembled (and sometimes failed to reassemble) as a kid. She then spoke about her early dabbling with HTML, discovering IF statements and PHP. We then talked about writing vs. using CMSs, creating websites, working in teams, contracting and consulting, and finally about communities and Jess's Podcast: BaseCode. And as of the publication of this show, she is now a Laravel employee. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/jessarchercodes ht...
May 24, 2022•45 min•Season 5Ep. 21
Swiz' told us how he discovered computers at a very early age and how the planets aligned. By the time he enrolled in a CS degree in Slovenia, he had already had multiple internships and experiences working as a software developer. He spoke about freelancing and how this led him not to finish his CS degree. He talked about how his first entrepreneurial experience took him to Silicon Valley, what he learned there (by crashing and burning his startup) and how it eventually took him where he w...
May 16, 2022•54 min•Season 5Ep. 20
In this episode, Wajahat tells us the moving and emotional story of how his mother, family, and friends shaped the person he became. Wajahat spoke about his childhood in Pakistan when his family couldn't afford a computer. He talked about applying to highly selective universities and the role the loss of his mother played in him being accepted at one of them. He told us about his studies of telecom engineering and how a mentor changed his view on "defining his career." And finally...
May 09, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 19
Crazy but true, it's show number 200! I invited Patrick Leblanc to come and ask me all the questions he wanted about the show to celebrate this milestone. Credits Cover Heliotrope by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 . Your host is Timothée (Tim) Bourguignon, more about him at timbourguignon.fr . Gift the podcast a rating on one of the significant platforms https://devjourney.info/subscribe PodMatch PodMatch Automatically Matches Ideal Podcast Guests and Hosts For Interviews Buz...
May 03, 2022•37 min•Season 5Ep. 18
Carl first told us about his father's role in introducing him to computers. He then spoke about how he used projects to learn new things and became a developer. He told us the story of his first job at Crescent Software and how he got the teaching bug. We then discussed teaching and how he got onto the .NET bandwagon. Carl told us how a Windows update ended up crashing one of his music shows. We brushed over the history of the dotnetrocks show and finished intense talking about flow and his...
Apr 26, 2022•53 min•Season 5Ep. 17
Laura took us on a wild ride, made of starting and dropping, taking unexpected turns to follow creative endeavors, and finally reaching a great destination. We spoke about her dreams of studying tech, going to trade school instead, and joining a startup before the end. We talked about opportunities, moving out and back in and then abroad, applying, and finally meeting communities. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/freezydorito https://www.linkedin.com/in/walaura/ https://...
Apr 19, 2022•48 min•Season 5Ep. 16
Holden's tech story started at a very early age, and her tech-savviness grew very quickly. She told us how her parents and childhood neighbors helped her get on the right track. Going from one nostalgic memory to the next, Holden took us from her love for "Search" to Amazon through internships and moving to the West Coast. We talked about functional programming, Scala, and going to New York. We finally discussed interviewing, joining Google, and teaching. Here are the links from t...
Apr 12, 2022•41 min•Season 5Ep. 15
Aran started talking about Biotech and how he discovered that the slow feedback loop of biology didn't suit his needs. We then brushed over his career, from learning to code, going to Harvard, being a researcher, and finally, his startup Archera. We briefly talked about his privacy projects, including the so-called "Marauders Map," exposing Facebook's lack of privacy concerns. And then, we dug deeper into Archera, how it works, and the company's business model (building ...
Apr 05, 2022•36 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Dagna decided to study robotics to change the future. She told us how she hated programming at first until it clicked when she worked with a fantastic crew at Nokia. She spoke of her mentors and learning to value simplicity. We discussed moving abroad and the privilege of being developers. We talked about startups and sabbaticals. Finally, Dagna took us on her last adventure of becoming a career coach for devs and how she made her side gig and her dream a reality. Here are the links from the sho...
Mar 29, 2022•45 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Ségolène's story started in law school and with internships which left her puzzled about her career choice. She then studied for an MBA and finally joined a startup with an undefined role. She took over a product management position in this company and working with developers slowly piqued her interest. Later on, Ségolène decided to join a Bootcamp and later the 42 school, which we talked about. Finally, we talked about her joining Doctolib in France, right as the first COVID lockdown was h...
Mar 22, 2022•43 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Nicolas started tweaking HTML pages on PHP-BB forums when he was in high school, but even though he liked coding, that didn't propel him toward a dev career... yet. He then studied physics and chemistry and joined a business school while still coding on the side. His interests were very eclectic, so he freelanced on web projects. After an exciting experience building a real-life connected wine farming simulator game, he discovered the Software Crafters community. He joined a company attract...
Mar 15, 2022•43 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Julianna started by telling us about her love for maths and figure skating. She spoke about the hard choice she had to pursue sports toward a professional career or going to college. She chose the latter and went to a business school. There she discovered computer science and transferred to Stanford. We then talked about her studies there and how she entered the startup world. We discussed finding what you like and the challenges. We debated leaving Strava and pursuing dreams, and finally creati...
Mar 08, 2022•41 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Carly took us from her CS and software engineering studies to her internships and later career at an investment bank. We spoke about moving internally, mentorship, learning, public speaking, management, and going back to individual contribution and trusting your guts. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/CarlyLRichmond https://carlylrichmond.medium.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-richmond-b4b03563/ https://carlyrichmond.com/blog-home/ The three persons Carly mentioned...
Mar 01, 2022•50 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Laurie first took us through the many times where she should have realized that she was meant to be a developer but didn't. We spoke about her changing gears, going from law to program management, and finally, tech'. We talked about the public vs. private sector and highlighted her transferable skills when applying for her first dev job. We spoke of consultancy, what she learned and how she went from being title-less to a Staff Engineer at Gatsby. We finally spoke about finding where t...
Feb 22, 2022•49 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Rich's computer story started early in his childhood with an Amstrad computer. But it took him 30 years, 2 or 3 different careers in screenwriting, scaffolding, building glasses, and moving from the UK to Sweden to discover programming (again). We talked about this journey and what ensued when he married his love for screenwriting and tech together to become a technical writer. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/studio_hungry https://www.richardhaines.dev/ https://www...
Feb 15, 2022•48 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Luce took us back to her childhood when she discovered computers but also realized she didn't fit into the mold. She told us the story of her being bullied and eventually diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum. She told us about her difficulty studying and how she finally found a vocational program in IT that matched her needs so well that she could strive. She then took us on the wild ride of the many jobs she had, how she discovered Xamarin, entered the communities, and finally ended...
Feb 08, 2022•46 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Michael took us back in his gaming past, tweaking his machine to get the most of it. This led him to enroll in a trade school, leading to IT support and network administration. Discovering Powershell and later Python were the game changers for him. From there on, he went into automation and then SRE. We talked about learning, changing careers, recognizing when you are not learning, being bold, making the most of situations, shiny object syndrome, toxic people, and much more! Here are the links f...
Feb 01, 2022•46 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Suze took us from her first love for programming on a BBC-Micro, to her career in Marketing. She explained how she worked for the Police and managed communities. After being made redundant, she embraced freelancing and went back to coding. We discussed how she finally came back to technical marketing in the form of developer advocacy. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/SuzeShardlow https://hbr.org/2021/02/stop-telling-women-they-have-imposter-syndrome Credits Cover Heliotr...
Jan 25, 2022•47 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Scott took us from his job as a bank clerk to learning VBA. He told us how he became a VBA analyst, solved problems on giant spreadsheets, and at some point decided to change careers. We talked about recruiting(and recruiters), teaching, blogging, advocating, and scratching your own itch. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/spences10 https://scottspence.com https://www.youtube.com/c/ScottSpencePlease https://www.linkedin.com/in/spences10 https://scottspence.com/faq https://...
Jan 18, 2022•44 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Sydney first told us about her early love for building websites on Geocities and how she didn't pursue a career in tech but instead went into sociology. We then talked about the implications of sociology on society and how she came back to tech. We spoke about growth hacking and (technology) adoption. We finally talked about Web3, how it relates to Web2 and how one can go from one paradigm to another. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/sydneylai Credits Cover Heliotro...
Jan 11, 2022•50 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Karl took us from his passion for architecture and mechanics to his first freelancing project in college. We talked about how he learned how to create websites and started building a network. We spoke about the startups he joined and the ones he made. We finally talked about the power of networking and how Karl used it to his advantage throughout his career. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/KarlLHughes https://github.com/malgamves/CommunityWriterPrograms https://draft.de...
Jan 04, 2022•50 min•Season 5Ep. 1
This year was even crazier than 2020, time for a review! Credits Cover Campfire Rounds by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 . Your host is Timothée (Tim) Bourguignon, more about him at timbourguignon.fr . Gift the podcast a rating on one of the significant platforms https://devjourney.info/subscribe Support the podcast, support us on Patreon : https://bit.ly/devjpatreon Support the show...
Dec 28, 2021•7 min•Season 4Ep. 52
After briefly speaking about his early eSports amateur career, Tom took us on a teaching journey. We talked about how he beat his fear of public speaking and became a high school teacher. Then we talked about his decision to go back to school and study computer sciences. Tom told us about his experience in Finnland, how he finally ended up working for Info Support and how he set foot into the public speaking and community world. We finally talked about mentoring junior developers and how Tom tea...
Dec 21, 2021•51 min•Season 4Ep. 51
Madison took us from her dropping college and learning about development to the BookClub she is running. We talked about learning on your own, figuring things out, applying, and getting job interviews. We talked about internships and free mentoring. We talked about making plans and revising them. Finally, we talked about her podcast, as well as the CodeBookClub itself. Here are the links from the show: https://www.twitter.com/Madisonkanna https://www.madisonkanna.com https://www.madisonkanna.com...
Dec 14, 2021•43 min•Season 4Ep. 50
