Develop Yourself

In this episode of Develop Yourself , I sit down with Gabe Rucker, CEO of Founding Titans , to discuss everything from entrepreneurship and building startups to the practical side of networking and getting money from thin air. We also dive into how Parsity students gained valuable, hands-on experience through an internship with Founding Titans , working alongside a real AI startup team. Topics we...

When I first tried to learn JavaScript, I hated it so much I told myself I’d just be an HTML and CSS developer and never touch it again.  Of course, my first job threw me straight into Angular, C#, SQL, and a mountain of JavaScript I wasn’t ready for. In this episode, I share what made JavaScript so brutal for me (and for almost every student I’ve worked with), the mistakes that keep people stuck,...

When your only tool is a hammer - everything looks like a nail. 2 of these database I'm sure you've heard and 2 might be completely new to you. Let's go past MongoDB and SQL to learn what tool is best for what job and what's the database choice for AI in 2025. If you're interested in learning SQL, check out this episode: https://open.spotify.com/show/69BHCbRAl6rHT9LlNhFWUy...

Every year, Stack Overflow surveys nearly a 100,000 developers to learn what technologies, languages and tools are trending. The answers here might surprise you, especially when it comes to AI tools. You can check out the survey here: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/developers/ Send us a text Shameless Plugs 🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI 🤔 Got a question you want answer...

Maybe I'm just coping. Maybe. I’ve been pretty vocal about the over-hype of AI coding tools and I always get the same responses from AI bros: “YoU gOtta PrOmpt bEtteR!” “This iz a skillz issue dawg”“I’m using [x] and it works perfectly” “I’m a super duper senior architect and I’ve replaced my entire team with AI agents. You’re coping.” I’d be lying if I said I didn’t doubt myself. Maybe they’...

If I lost everything today—no job, no network, no portfolio—and had to start over in 2025 as a software developer, I wouldn’t be looking for a 3-month miracle.  I’d be planning for 12 months.  That’s how long it really takes now. We cover: what tech stack you should learn networking as a developer using BFS a capstone project that is actually impressive an interviewing strategy 3 books I'd re...

Five years ago, during an interview for a senior dev role, I had a panic attack. It was one of my worst interview experiences. It also taught me a lot about what I was doing wrong. In this episode, I'll break down the process that took me from under-paid developer to passing interviews and 4x'ing my salary. Here's your worksheet to help you create a solid story for an interview: wor...

Harish, former lead engineer at MongoDB and current co-founder of Flaire, takes us on a journey through his unusual career path—one that didn’t involve grinding LeetCode or chasing FAANG. Instead, he got deep into cybersecurity, built large-scale systems, and eventually started his own company that’s redefining how small businesses use software. We talk about: What it’s actually like to work on da...

Are junior devs cooked? How can I scaffold a solid MERN stack app? What's the best way to stick with a tutorial? We got some great questions this episode and my answers might surprise you. Got a question you want answered? Drop it here: https://form.typeform.com/to/Q499M9kl Send us a text Shameless Plugs 🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI 🤔 Got a question you want answered o...

Learning JS is tough. And you're probably making some of the same mistakes I did in the past. In this episode you'll get a path and a small project to make to teach you the minimum effective dose of JavaScript necessary to move forward in your learning journey. Here's the challenge I mentioned which includes some short videos:  Your Form Challenge Send us a text Shameless Plugs 🧑‍...

A junior developer who got hired at a startup used AI non-stop to keep up. It worked for weeks until he crashed and burned. He'd built a house of cards that he couldn't keep up. The AI tools went in doom loops or just added more sloppy code that his team wouldn't accept. Turns out they hired a prompt engineer instead of a coder. We're in uncharted territory my friends. You can&...

3 traps to avoid in your career, that I nearly fell for: 1. The Framework Developer Trap 2. The Developer in a Hoodie Trap ( might be the most surprising revelation for many aspiring programmers) 3. The Hype-Driven Development Trap Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here: https://form.typeform.com/to/Q499M9kl Send us a text Shameless Plugs 🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from...

Matt Watson, who scaled VIN Solutions to a $150 million exit, shares his journey from coding to building products that make a real impact in the business world. We talk about: Why most developers fail at launching products What it means to be a product-minded engineer How AI is exposing weak developers The importance of sales, customer empathy, and learning in public “Your code isn’t the product....

This episode introduces a weekend project that will give you authentic experience working with existing code—a crucial skill that most tutorials and coding platforms simply don't teach.  Using Kyle Simpson's YouPeriod GitHub repository , you'll learn to navigate a codebase written by someone else, which is exactly what you'll do in your first development job. This particular pr...

Have you ever wondered what data scientists and engineers actually do all day? Forget what you've seen in movies – it's not all neural networks and fancy algorithms. Ryan Varley, Engineering Fellow at Magnite and experienced data leader, pulls back the curtain on the rapidly evolving world of data science and engineering.  The real work often involves what he colorfully describes as &quo...

Interviewing is arguably the highest paying skill you can have as a developer. I don't think this is fair but it is reality. I've taken part in well over 100 interviews both as an interviewee and interviewer. I've worked with dozens of developers to ace their interviews and increase their salaries by tens of thousands of dollars. This is not for developers looking to get into Big Te...

These principles don't just create pretty code—they reduce bugs, simplify updates, and prevent real-world problems like the $10,000 mistake I made early in my career. Yeah, that was not a fun one. Check out https://www.dofactory.com/javascript/design-patterns/adapter if you want to learn more patterns. PS - I write unfiltered advice for early career developers here: 👉 Real Talk JS Send us a...

In this Office Hours Q&A, I got some pretty interesting questions: Should you lie on your resume to trick the ATS and get more interviews? If you’re building websites with tools like Squarespace, does it count as real experience—or are you cheating yourself? Is a master’s degree in computer science worth it if you already have some tech skills? I also share thoughts on how to get experience th...

The software development market didn't die, it's just unrecognizable. Let's go over 8 harsh pieces of advice that will help you as a career changer to make a successful switch into a career as a software developer. PS. If you're a front-end developer looking to expand your skills, grab the Node Express Starter Kit here . Have a question for the Friday Q&A show? Submit it th...

Whatever you do, don’t learn to code. The market is over-saturated. AI took your job. There is no hope. But then you meet someone like Jacob, a young dad who was delivering food a year ago and just landed his first dev job without submitting a single application. Is his story typical? No. But then few stories are. At Parsity.io , we've seen CS grads take up to a year to get hired. We've...

Got a question you want answered on the show? Drop it here: Ask Your Question On today's show: " I’m currently a mid-level product manager thinking of switching to software engineering. Is that too ambitious?" “Where do I get good at interview practice? Leetcode seems unrealistic. Is there something more practical?” “Should I go all in on C# or .NET instead? Or maybe get a CS degree...

Learning data structures and algorithms (DSA) isn't JUST a smart interview skill, it will boost your confidence as a software engineer, give you a deeper understanding of computer science fundamentals and they can even be fun once you know how to use them. If you're self teaching or just starting out with code, they can be intimidating. They don't have to be. I break down a pretty c...

Check out this beginner project to use AI with HTML and JS 👇 Grab the project here I'm no AI hater but I am getting so tired of the dialogue online I read from people who claim that AI is making developers 2, 3 or 10x more productive. Google's CEO recently came out with a sobering statistic: AI has made their engineers 10% more productive. ( source ) 10%. This is still massive but no wh...

Have you ever felt like the weakest link on your development team? You're not alone. The moment you land your first developer job, you're likely to face the crushing weight of comparison. Your teammates seem to know everything while your mind fills with doubts about your abilities. Seven years ago, this pressure nearly drove me out of the industry despite earning more money than ever bef...

What do engineering leaders really think about bootcamp grads? Why are so many developers so stressed? Is it even worth learning to code in 2025? Michael Greenspan pulls back the curtain on the realities of engineering leadership, interviewing and the state of the industry, drawing from his extensive experience as both a software engineer and engineering manager before becoming a coach for burnt-o...