Develop Yourself

In this episode, we speak with Louie Bacaj. Louie joined Jet.com when it had fewer than 20 engineers, stayed through its acquisition by Walmart, and rose to become Director of Engineering for Walmart Pharmacy. But despite the promotions, learning, and excellent pay, Louie recently made the decision to walk away from it all and bet on himself. In our conversation, Louie and I get into the engineeri...

Each month, Develop Yourself's co-hosts (Aaron and Peter) will be checking in with each other, in part to talk through how they've each quit their Software Engineering jobs to pursue entrepreneurship, indie-hacking, self-employment, etc. This episode is the backstory on how and when we quit and how we got the guts to pull the trigger. Resources The Tail End: https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/1...

If you're listening to this episode, you probably want to learn to code. But, you might be overwhelmed and wondering how to learn or where to start. Thankfully, the best-articulated strategy I've come across for learning anything is dead simple: do the real thing. In this episode, we talk through the core tenets of this idea as well as approaches for applying it when learning to code. Li...

Because I'm juggling so much (and the podcast is growing!) we're taking a break to re-group to continue putting out the best stuff possible. In the meantime, I'll be publishing a weekly newsletter every Monday, starting on Feb 7 ! 1 actionable tip for working toward becoming a Software Engineer or getting better as a Software Engineer. Subscribe to it here: parsity.io/newsletter You...

What do Software Engineers actually build, and how? Primarily, they build "web applications" (think, Twitter, Gmail, Coinbase, etc). On this week's episode of Develop Yourself, we're going deep with a beginners step-by-step guide into how a web application is built. We'll talk about the languages, tools and frameworks that it takes to build a web application, but more impo...

Since learning to code by building custom Myspace pages as a kid, Wes Bos has gone on to build some of the world's most popular online courses for web development while hosting a top-ranking web dev podcast. In this episode we get a peek into Wes' life, what motivates him, and how at the end of the day he just wants to figure out how to code more. Check out Wes here: https://wesbos.com/...

As the new year is in full swing, many of you are undertaking learning how to code. For that reason, our latest episode of Develop Yourself is called "Advice for Beginners". After 7 years of teaching people how to code from scratch, full time, I've come up with a repeating list of soap-box suggestions that are proven to save you some serious headaches. dev30: dev30.xyz Send us a tex...

Today's podcast guest is a special one for me. Originally from Chile, Rony Rosenberg was a student in the very first class of the first coding bootcamp I started in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2015. More than 6 years later, Rony is an accomplished engineering leader and continues to fall in love with new technology. Listen to hear his journey and to get a picture of what life could look like down the...

2022 is around the corner - do you have your goals mapped out? Is the year that you finally take the next step to becoming a Software Engineer? For the last 10 years I've been actively setting goals and have read most every book I can get my hands on in regards to habits, processes, goals, life planning, you name it - I'm a nerd on this stuff in a borderline unhealthy way. That being sai...

Landing a job as a Software Engineer doesn’t make you a Software Engineer. Building software makes you a Software Engineer. And for that, you don’t need anyone’s permission. That being said, perhaps the best way to land a job as a Software Engineer is by building real software. That's right - stop working on pretend side projects and build something with goal of generating revenue. On the lat...

Harsh Patel is perhaps the most successful Coding Bootcamp CEO ever. He started MakerSquare which was acquired by Hack Reactor, which was acquired by Galvanize and he was made CEO of all of them. Unlike some of the disreputable bootcamp news you hear from time to time, Harsh has always been driven by outcomes and even played a part in starting CIRR, the Council on Integrity in Results Reporting. A...

Landing your first job as a Software Engineer is one thing - but progressing to Senior level is a different challenge entirely. On this episode of Developer Yourself, Peter Elbaum, who graduated from a Coding Bootcamp in 2016, will walk us through his journey to becoming a Senior Software Engineer and will detail what he believes make a "senior" vs. a "junior". Additionally, we...

Brian is a self-taught Software Engineer, Blockchain expert and current Engineering Manager at IBM, but currently he's passionate about helping career changers transition into tech. Listen to this week's episode as Brian shares his own story and the advice he's been giving to the dozens of beginners he's mentored over the last several years. You can find Brian and his podcast a...

Aaron went from a rapping in Staton Island where he worked laying train tracks to support his wife and kids, to working at companies like Facebook and Coinbase as a Senior Software Engineer. Listen to Aaron's journey as he shares what is perhaps the best advice we've ever had on this podcast, as he shares the details on his mindset, his attitude and even the nitty gritty of his finances....

To learn JavaScript through our JavaScript Prep Course, register here: parsity.io/prep To review individual JavaScript concepts, find explanations at these timestamps in the podcast: 2:01 - Why Learn JavaScript 9:05 - What is JavaScript's Role in Web Development? 16:24 - The 7 parts of JavaScript 17:11 - The JavaScript Environment (where to write it) 19:46 - JS 1: Declaring Variables in JS 22...

Submitting 100 job applications won't get you anywhere closer to landing your first coding job as you'll likely get rejected from 99% of your cold applications. You need another way. On this episode of the Develop Yourself podcast we're going to get deep and practical into the methodology we've used to help many career changers land their first Software Engineering jobs. So whe...

What does taking care of Conan O'Brien and working as a Software Engineer at Google have in common? Sarah Coker. This week on the Develop Yourself Podcast we get to speak with Sarah who is a recruiter at Google and here to share job searching and interview advice for juniors developers as well as advice straight from the mouth of her former boss, Conan O'Brien. Listen as we debunk severa...

Pierre switched majors in college when he realized that the Computer Science program was more about math than programming. Over 10 years later after teaching himself to program and carving his own path, Pierre has established himself as a Software Engineering leader. Listen to the latest episode of Develop Yourself as we talk through his career path, imposter syndrome and what it takes to sustain...

On this week's episode of Develop Yourself, we talk with Lisa Shissler Smith, Engineering Manager at Netflix! Listen as we chat about her own journey, how she's advocating to ensure that everyone feel like they belong in tech, and the future of code school grads at companies like Netflix. Send us a text Shameless Plugs 🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI 🤔 Got a question...

The #1 thing that is preventing you from learning to code is your inability to focus. Join us in this episode of Develop Yourself as we walk through proven, practical strategies you can implement immediately to kill the distractions and actually make progress toward becoming a software engineer. For free downloadable templates from this Podcast, visit parsity.io/links/focus Send us a text Shameles...

After months of doing coding tutorials online, Edward finally took a leap of faith and did a "coding bootcamp".  If that wasn't radical enough, when it came to applying for jobs, Edward took the ultimate leap of faith: he applied for a Senior position (which he wasn't qualified for) in a technology he wasn't familiar with at his dream company (Untappd - a tech startup that...

Casey went from CrossFit coach and having never written a line of code to being hired as a Full Stack Software Engineer at IBM, in just 6 months! Listen to this week's episode as we learn about Casey's journey and what is unique about Casey which enabled her to make this incredible transition in such a short amount of time. Send us a text Shameless Plugs 🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to...

Some people spend many months and thousands of dollars on a coding bootcamp, but ultimately fail to change careers and land a job as a software engineer. On this episode of the podcast we'll explore why some people fail, and more importantly, the 4 things you can focus on to be prepared and successful in your own journey to changing careers. Links: Parsity (Online Code School): parsity.io Par...