The Virtual Coffee Podcast

In this episode of the Virtual Coffee podcast, Dan and Bekah talk to Gant Laborde, an owner of Infinite Red, mentor, adjunct professor, published author, and award-winning speaker, about overcoming challenges, being authentic, and finding your voice. They share some of the struggles they've faced, talk about how practice can lead to growth, and the importance of recognizing your body's s...

In this episode of the podcast, Dan and Bekah switch things up. Since it's last episode of season one, they share a bit about their origin stories, when their paths connected, and how that led to where Virtual Coffee is today. They talk about the challenges of the last year, how Virtual Coffee has been a light during dark times, and how growing can be painful, but also the process that allows...

In this episode, Dan and Bekah talk to Kirk Shillingford, a software developer (and Community Maintainer at Virtual Coffee), who has been "haphazardly writing code for about seven years," about the importance of making mistakes and the growth that comes with it. We also talk about empathy being a key indicator of a senior developer and the importance of having a supportive community. Spo...

In this episode, we talk to Colleen Schnettler about the challenges of being a woman in the workplace, the benefits of working for yourself, and building her own SaaS business. Colleen is a Ruby on Rails consultant, who recently launched her first product--simple file upload--a career changer, and a mom. Colleen talks about how difficult it is to learn to code; it will take time and commitment, bu...

In this episode, we talk to Drew Clements about the challenges junior developers face, learning through building Protege.dev, and the importance of community support. Drew is a career transitioner, father of two, and full-time developer who spends his spare time building Protege.dev, the platform curated with remote jobs for junior developers. We also talk about approaches to problem-solving, when...

In this episode, Bekah and Dan talk about mental health with Cameron Bardell, an iOS developer in the healthcare industry, and Rahat Chowdhury, a mental health start-up founder. We talk about how sometimes building a product to meet our own needs is a great place to start and the importance of prioritizing mental health, especially in a fast-paced industry like tech. We walk through our own experi...

In this episode, Vic talks about Indie Hacking and gives us his take on when to ship, what to focus on, and the value of diverse opinions in your community. He also talks about treating life as a lot of drafts and about building things that you're passionate about as well as things that others find valuable. He cautions against the danger of survivorship bias, recognizing that it's diffi...

In this episode, Dan and Bekah welcome Tori to talk about her journey through the interview process that included about 53 interviews, 430 applications, and a pandemic offer that ultimately led to her being ghosted by the company. She gives her tips and tricks, including recognizing that interviews are a two-way street; you should also be interviewing the companies that are interviewing you. She t...

In this episode, Marie Antons talks with Dan, Bekah, and Kirk about how she went from being a chef to a junior developer. With more and more developers coming into tech from non-traditional backgrounds, Marie shares her own unique story and how taking her past experience as a chef allowed her to understand coding in her own way. There are ingredients and steps to follow with recipes, and similarly...

Dan and Bekah welcome Nick Taylor (Senior Software Engineer at Forem/DEV) to talk about his journey into tech, open source, and the importance of community. Sponsor Virtual Coffee! Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community. Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can even sponsor...

This is the Virtual Coffee Podcast, hosted by Bekah Hawrot Weigel and Dan Ott. You'll find interviews with members of our community to learn more about their stories, who they are, how they found Virtual Coffee, and how it has influenced their lives as developers. We want to bring everything that's special about Virtual Coffee, the intimacy and the friendships we’ve built, and share that...