Dial a Dev is a podcast that features interviews with software developers made for anyone in the middle of a career switch or simply for those interested in the profession. We explore the stories of people from all walks of life who took different paths to get to where they are today and learn about how becoming a software developer can entail different things depending on the perspective. Some started out with non-technical undergrad degrees, some didn’t attend a traditional 4-year college, and some knew they were interested in computer science since they were little. Regardless of what kind of journey they embarked on, each person’s anecdote offers unique and interesting insights.
Episode 09 - How Traditional Technical Interviews Impact Diversity & What Frances Did About it
Ask anyone who's hunted for a job as a software developer what they did to prepare for their technical interviews, and they will more or less provide a similar general framework. At a high-level, we grind data structures & algo problems using some flavor of an interview prep site such as LeetCode, Hackerrank, Interview Cake, among many others. Armed with a copy of Cracking the Coding Interview at our disposal, we can even spend the majority of our evenings and weekends studying and hoping to land that dream job at our dream company. Frances Coronel, who is a racial equity advocate and former software engineer at Slack, realized the potential harm this cookie cutter interview process could really have on improving diversity for underrepresented folks in the tech industry. Seeing that there were so few members from the Latinx community in the tech ecosystem relative to the general population, she identified many holes in the tech talent pipeline and decided to land herself a role at Byteboard, a company disrupting the interviewing space. Tune into this week's episode as she talks about her journey into tech, how the industry is doing in terms of diversity & inclusion in general, and what suggestions she has for allies who want to help address the various issues that have created this leaky pipeline.
Resources:
https://francescoronel.com
https://techqueria.org
https://byteboard.dev
9 Feb 2022
Episode 08 - A Day in the Life of a Support Engineer
On this episode, I sit down to chat with Dante Anthony who decided to make the most of his childhood love for computers by using it to jumpstart his career as a Support Engineer at Atlassian. During our talk, Dante reveals how the birth of his daughter motivated him to join a technical trade school and earn his A+ and Network+ certifications. These certifications ultimately helped him develop his career and the different skills Support Engineers must utilize in order to provide assistance to technical customers and stakeholders using the product. While most of the interviewees on Dial a Dev have featured Software Engineers, the goal is to empower those looking to become an engineer by providing more information, including the exploration of other engineering roles in tech.
10 Dec 2021
Episode 07 - He Was a Student Athlete Majoring in Electrical Engineering Until...
Hugh Miles entered the University of Florida ready to play sports and ready to graduate with a degree in electrical engineering. That all changed when he took his first C++ course, which drew him to software development. From that point on, he worked on a slew of coding projects that ultimately drove him to change his major and leave his athletic team. What's remarkable about his journey is that he was able to teach himself mobile development and other technical skills necessary to make the creative ideas living in his mind come to life. In this interview, I enjoyed discussing with Hugh how his passion for designing and building solutions to everyday problems fueled his career's momentum. We even touch upon his thoughts on the future of NFTs and the metaverse! Tune into this week's episode as we learn from Hugh what it's like to: balance computer engineering coursework with hobbies and sports, teach yourself relevant skills to get started on a new project, and work for a large tech company vs. a niche open source project.
12 Nov 2021
Episode 06 - Finding Strength & Confidence in Setbacks
Many classic fairy tales end with a "happily ever after," implying that the prince or princess has achieved what they wanted to and will now be satisfied forever. Similarly, students often have their eye on the prize and want to land that first entry-level software developer role in industry. But what happens after you land that dream job? Today we'll talk to Janet who graduated from a coding school for women and gender diverse individual. After landing her first entry-level dev role in the industry, however, she found herself questioning whether or not it was the right fit for her after all. On this episode, she shares with us some of the challenges she faced, what she did to regain her confidence in her desire and ability to code, as well as how her mindset shifted during this time. These insights offer a unique point of view with regards to what it's like to doubt your decision to become a software developer and how to overcome it.
19 Sept 2021
Episode 05 - An Autodidact Believed He Could
There are so many resources online available to help newbies learn how to design, architect, code, and deploy software projects. But with this large repository of knowledge, we can be overloaded and overwhelmed with information. Where does one even start? Daniel Leskosky, a petroleum engineer turned industrial engineer turned software engineer, was able to figure it out. After taking a few CS courses on the side, reaching out to hundreds of software developers on LinkedIn, and getting active on "tech twitter," he paved the way from not being able to do a single Leetcode problem to cranking them out daily through the #100DaysOfCode challenge. We discuss cold-calling on LinkedIn, taking online courses, building and deploying his own blog site from scratch, developing GitHub portfolios, and also strategies for practicing algorithms from different sources.
5 Aug 2021
Episode 04 - To Be or Not to Be... a Contractor?
Today we're talking to Monica, who went the traditional route of getting a CS degree at UCLA before working in industry for several years as a full-time employee. She opens up about the challenges she faced as a female in the minority of her college classes and her experiences working for companies of all sizes. Her story is a unique one, because after working as a full-time employee for several years, she decided to take a break and explore her cultural identity through art. Eventually she returned to tech and was able to balance her creative side hustle with working as a contract-based software developer. On this episode we learn from Monica about the importance of having a strong support system early in your career, the differences between being a full-time employee vs. a contractor, and her unique ways to explore art.
22 Jun 2021
Episode 03 - From Finance to Flow State Coding
This episode features a Senior Software Engineer named Rocky, who majored in finance during college and worked as a financial analyst/wealth manager. He originally pursued a career in finance in an effort to become more financially savvy and to learn how to make informed financial decisions to help his family. This same desire to help others eventually inspired him to pursue a career in tech. After lots of soul searching and research, he joined an intensive bootcamp called Hack Reactor and the rest is history. Since graduating Hack Reactor, he's worked for a couple different tech companies, and is currently in between jobs looking for his next role. Tune in and hear Rocky's unique career path and advice on what he's doing to prepare for his interviews and his next role.
1 Jun 2021
Episode 02 - A Liberal Arts Major's Change of Plans
This episode features someone who majored in International Studies with a concentration in Asia. Dreams of moving to Japan and studying English is what Eric always wanted to do, and the job he took after college was meant to be a temporary way to make money while he sorted out his Asia plans. Instead, this job helped him springboard into the world of technology and he transitioned from the Marketing Team to the QA team to Software Development. Today, he's a Senior Software Developer at Bazaarvoice and has a lot of insightful advice to share regarding his switch from a non-technical position and learning his skills on the job.
26 May 2021
Episode 01 - CS Major & The Myth of the Standard Path
The first episode of Dial a Dev features Rama, who is now a Senior Software Engineer at a real estate technology company. She graduated with a BS in Computer Science from the University of Washington in Seattle and shares her thoughts and experiences on topics such as how she picked her major, when she did and didn't suffer from imposter syndrome, and some fun little stories about winging it at hackathons and trying to hack the Myers Briggs personality test. Enjoy!
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