Codenewbie

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Capybara Webrat Test Driven Development Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Unity HoloLens Global Game Jam Google Map's augmented reality Street View mode (article) Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 software. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) OSCON LINBIT Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Cinchapi Blavity Palantir MVP Concourse DB Apache Thrift TensorFlow Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 health has affected him and his career. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Ruby Central RailsConf Ruby Gems Wunderlist Delphi Perl Novell Directory Services (NDS) Smalltalk Matz Rails Recipes (book) Dave Thomas (CodeNewbie Podcast interview) Programming Ruby (book) "How to become accomplished" (video) What is Linux? Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) MicroConf Indie Hackers Indie Hackers Podcast Making $125,000 a Month as a Solo Founder with Mike Carson of Park.io (podcast episode) Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Tessel JSCONF US NodeBots Johnny-Five Arduino How microcontrollers work Suz Hinton's CodeNewbie Podcast episode Rachel's cyborg tweet Pioneer Works Strange Loop Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) CodeNewbie Patreon Jarvis's YouTube Channel "Why I don't code anymore" [Jarvis's YouTube video] Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Submit a book idea to A Book Apart A Book Apart briefs Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Mocha (JavaScript testing framework) Chai (BDD/TDD assertion library) Design for Delight RSpec Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Arduino Raspberry Pi Adafruit Suz's Twitch channel Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) LEAP Apprenticeship at Microsoft Behind The Tech with Kevin Scott (podcast) Microsoft Build (conference) Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Vim Amazon Web Services (AWS) CodePen VM World Girl Develop It Philadelphia WordPress Philly WordPress Meetup Geocities Head First Series (books) Hypervisor Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) freeCodeCamp Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) MHacks8 "Hackathons" CodeNewbie Podcast episode blondiebytes YouTube channel Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Interview Cake Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Launch Code Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Dark Matter Developers Seán's talk "On Quiet Developers" Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

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 DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Metaprogramming A Dark Room RubyMotion Codeland Conf Codeland 2019