The Scrimba Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

So this is goodbye. But do not unsubscribe!

It's the end of what will now be known as Season One of the Scrimba podcast! And Alex Booker is stepping down as its host.

Over the past 160+ episodes, we have helped you learn to code and land your first job in tech. If you've missed any episodes, now is the time to go and listen to them. If you're new to the show, just start listening from the very beginning! The archive isn't going anywhere, and we aimed to create an evergreen podcast where you can find useful takeaways and inspiring stories for years to come.

Stay tuned for Season Two! And in the meantime, browse through our past shows, or:

🔗 Connect with Alex

• 👨‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🐤 Twitter

👋 Say hi to Jan The Producer

• 👨‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🐤 Twitter
• 🌐 Personal Website

See you :)

Meet Deb Goodkin! Deb is the Executive Director of the FreeBSD Foundation. The Foundation supports the FreeBSD project and community. FreeBSD is a powerful open-source operating system known for its reliability and security and used by companies like Netflix to power their servers and networks.

With a strong background in engineering, Deb is passionate about open-source technology, and after this episode, you might become passionate about it, too! In this episode of the Scrimba podcast, you'll learn how a complex project like FreeBSD works from an organizational standpoint, why open-source is a great place for even newer developers, what are the key differences between community-driven projects and working for a corporation, and where should you start if you're looking to get into open-source.

🔗 Connect with Deb

• 👩‍💼 LinkedIn

⏰ Timestamps

• What is FreeBSD? (01:19)
• What is the FreeBSD Foundation? (02:49)
• Open-source projects vs. commercial projects (04:04)
• Open source is a nourishing place (07:04)
• Some original BSD developers are still working on the project decades later! (07:46)
• Open source is a community (09:35)
• How can contributing to open source help a newer developer advance their career? (11:25)
• Community break! (14:08)
• What skills do you need to join an open-source project? (16:23)
• Start with documentation! (18:42)
• How do you interact with others working on an open-source project? (21:20)
• Are people more likely to help others who help themselves? (24:05)
• Quick-fire questions! (27:26)
• How does an open-source project like FreeBSD run?
• If you're listening and want to get into open source, do this! (38:13)

🧰 Resources mentioned

• FreeBSD Foundation
• FreeBSD
• Jon 'maddog' Hall on Linkedin and Twitter
• Kirk McKusick on YouTube
• Michael W Lucas on Mastodon

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You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏

Meet Shaundai Person 🇺🇸! Shaundai is a senior software engineer at Netflix, but she hasn't always been a coder. She studied entrepreneurship and had a long, successful career in sales. After a decade in sales and running her own business, Shaundai discovered coding through customizing her business's Shopify website.

Shaundai realized she was ready for a career change to something she felt more passionate about. She also learned that you don't have to go back to school to become a software engineer and that much of engineering isn't NASA-level stuff. In fact, it's about listening to customers' needs and offering them solutions—just like in sales!

In this episode, you'll learn how Shaundai transitioned into the tech team of the company she was already working at. She leveraged her extensive sales experience and her passion for coding to create a personal brand within the company, building a reputation that preceded her. The key to a successful sale is believing in your product, and if you're learning to sell yourself, you are the product! Shaundai will teach you how to do just that while remembering that you're still human. Shaundai and Alex also discuss the often non-linear path to career change and why coding skills are nowadays a commodity (so you need to find a different way to stand out).

🔗 Connect with Shaundai

• 👩‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🌐 Website

⏰ Timestamps

• How Shaundai chose to study entrepreneurship (01:53)
• "I had never been in a position where I loved the thing that I was doing" (04:41)
• Selling software made Shaundai fascinated with software engineering (05:49)
• How Shaundai eventually taught herself to code on Codecademy (10:17)
• How Shaundai organized her studying... and went overtime (12:58)
• "I could make money AND be happy with that I'm doing" (13:25)
• "In this case, I'm selling myself!" (14:36)
• There are always more decision-makers involved in hiring, and here's what to do about them (16:57)
• Shaundai's strategy to win over her company's engineering team (18:31)
• You're always in a more powerful position when people think that something was their idea (20:07)
• Never start conversations with what YOU need (20:54)
• Shaundai started submitting projects to the engineering team's personal development form... and getting challenges (23:50)
• Put yourself in the shoes of the customer (26:02)
• Managers can't go through every single line of code of everybody who's applied. Here's how to tackle that! (26:21)
• Your coding skills are a commodity! Provide value instead. (27:31)
• What's a commodity? (28:16)
• If you're a career changer, you're a superset of a developer! (29:18)
• How Shaundai eventually got to switch teams (30:19)
• Shaundai started interviewing with Netflix less than a year into her new career, and it all started with a podcast (32:01)
• "In order to stand out, I need to show that I'm a human" (36:27)
• How to be human (38:10)
• How to get outside of the goal (while still keeping the goal in sight) (38:55)
• Sometimes we pick the more tangible thing, but ultimately you don't know what can help you in the long run (42:04)
• How to cultivate self-belief? (45:07)

🧰 Resources mentioned 

• Front End Happy Hour

⭐️ Leave a Review

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.
You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so that he can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan he's butchered your name here.

🎙 About the episode

Meet Nadia Zhuk 🇧🇾! Nadia made a switch to coding from journalism at the age of 25. That decision has got her moving countries not once but twice! Nowadays, she lives in London, works at Intercom, and helps aspiring developers. She's also written a book, Crossing the Rubycon, filled with practical advice and insider tips on learning to code and building a programming career.

In this episode, Nadia shares her story and many things she's learned along the way! You'll get to know what's it like to learn to code without a technical background, how to manage your mindset and mental health during the process, and what's Nadia's take on choosing your first programming language. Nadia and Alex also discuss common stereotypes about programming,  gatekeeping within the industry, and what are the critical but often overlooked factors in choosing what to learn. 

🔗 Connect with Nadia

• 👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🌐 Dev.to
• 🐦 Twitter
• 📹 YouTube

⏰ Timestamps

• Nadia's journey into coding and move to Poland (01:41)
• Can you learn to code with no computer education whatsoever? (06:48)
• Why Nadia chose the self-taught route (08:16)
• How and why Nadia chose to learn Ruby (11:17)
• What influences your choice of a programming language (13:33)
• How to choose your first coding language if you're not technical (14:43)
• What to do (and what not to do) if you're learning to code on your own (17:03)
• Is coding creative? (23:17)
• The biggest stereotypes about being a programmer... and why they're wrong
• Can anyone learn to code? (28:26)
• Gatekeeping in the industry - and gatekeeping that's self-imposed (29:50)
• Quick-fire questions: favorite programming language, JavaScript, frameworks, chatbots, caffeinated beverages, London, and cats! (32:54)

🧰 Resources mentioned

• Nadia's book, Crossing the Rubycon: How to Learn to Code and Build a Programming Career
• Women Who Code

⭐️ Leave a Review

If you enjoy this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and let us know who you want to see on the next podcast.

You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏

🎙 About the episode

Meet Ollie Church 🇬🇧! Ollie started out as an actor. He took up coding as a hobby during a lockdown and made a puzzle game partially inspired by an escape room where he worked at the time. Now he works in fintech!

This episode is about lockdowns, hobbies, motivation, and having fun. Ollie talks about his career change and approach to goal-setting. He also shares advice on choosing portfolio projects, as well as dealing with rejection - something that actors are maybe even more familiar with than new developers.

You'll find out how an online game he made for fun brought Ollie some income even before he landed his firs junior developer role, and what it's like to accidentally be interviewed for a senior role when you're applying for a junior position. Spoiler: Ollie did get the job in the end!

You'll also get an inside scoop on working as an actor, and how the pandemic has impacted the world of performing arts and in-person experiences.

🔗 Connect with Ollie

• 👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🌐 Website
• 👩‍🚀 GitHub
• 🐦 Twitter
• 🎥 Acting reel

⏰ Timestamps

• What is's like being an actor (01:59)
• Theater, in-person experiences, and performing arts during the COVID-19 pandemic (03:18)
• How Ollie took up coding (07:55)
• Front-end development as a hobby (09:34)
• How Ollie and his partner created their first online puzzle game (11:43)
• How to make learning to code playful, and how to choose portfolio projects (14:17)
• Ollie's puzzle game became a work project! Here's how that happened. (17:13)
• Should you apply before you're ready? How Ollie navigated changing careers and defined his goals and deadlines (20:53)
• Ollie's job hunt stats (25:51)
• An interview process from hell (16:15)
• How Ollie got his current job - it started with a rejection (30:13)
• How to deal with rejection and when is the common advice about it actually useful (31:03)
• The interview that got Ollie his current job... and how it went wrong (33:30)
• First months on the job and imposter syndrome (38:33)
• Ollie's closing advice for new developers: do the projects you think are fun and focus on showing up. It's a marathon, not a sprint!

🧰 Resources mentioned

• The Frontend Developer Career Path
• "Happy", by Derren Brown

⭐️ Leave a Review

If you enjoy this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and let us know who you want to see on the next podcast.

You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏

🎙 About the episode

Meet Guil Hernandez 🇺🇸! You've heard of a learning curve, but what about the forgetting curve? Don't worry, Guil can help you not get overwhelmed. He is a developer and educator with over 15 years of experience in tech, and in this episode, he teaches you how to get better at learning. Guil and Alex also talk about Scrimba Bootcamp, a brand new study program that Guil has been working on.

Guil has developed over one hundred coding courses and workshops and comes from a teaching environment, so he also answers the dreaded question of what makes a good teacher. You'll also learn different learning techniques that might work for you, what's the Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve, and what it was like to make stuff for the web back in the early days of Web 2.0. Alex and Guil also discuss scopes, structure, and the importance of storytelling in teaching, as well as why you won't vibe with every YouTube tutorial out there... but you might still want to learn from multiple sources.

🔗 Connect with Guil

• 🐦 Twitter
• 🌐  Website
• 👩‍🚀 Github
• 🤖 Guil from Scrimba#6455 on the Scrimba Discord

⏰ Timestamps

• How Guil got into coding (01:18)
• Web development in the early days of Web 2.0 (03:02)
• Do you need a computer science degree to consider yourself a developer? (04:50)
• How Guil became a teacher (06:17)
• What makes a good teacher (07:18)
• The science of learning (10:38)
• What's the forgetting curve, and what you can do about it (11:54)
• How to not make a learning process overwhelming (14:07)
• Learning techniques that work for Guil: Scheduling study time, Pomodoro technique, Keeping a study log (16:15)
• Scrimba now has Solo projects: What are they, and how can they help you learn better? (20:32)
• What is Scrimba Bootcamp and the benefits of code reviews and getting feedback (25:24)
• Quick-fire questions: Code editors, coding music, Web 3.0, and Puerto Rico (27:48)
• Closing advice: be a librarian, not an encyclopedia 

🧰 Resources mentioned

• Scrimba Bootcamp
• Comparing Scrimba Pro and Scrimba Bootcamp plans

⭐️ Leave a Review

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.

You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏

🎙 About the episode

Meet Yin Chu Rijnaard 🇳🇱! Yin Chu is a new developer who landed a job offer after only seven months of learning to code! In the meantime, he also became a Scrimba Community Hero.

In this episode, Yin Chu shares his approach to learning to code, why he chose front-end development and some of the struggles he encountered along the way. He also talks about his involvement in the Scrimba Discord community and how he became our Community Hero. On Scrimba's Discord, you can award karma points to other users, and Yin is currently on top of the leaderboard. You'll learn more about online communities, their unexpected benefits, and Yin Chu's approach to helping other newbie developers online.

Plus: Alex shares Scrimba's origin story!

🔗 Connect with Yin Chu

• 👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🌐 Website
• 👩‍🚀 GitHub
• 🐦 Twitter
• 🤖 YinChuRijnaard#2266 on the Scrimba Discord

⏰ Timestamps

• Yin Chu got into coding by way of business school (01:27)
• Front-end development for visual learners (02:40)
• How Yin Chu learned to code while at work (04:11)
• Yin's approach to learning (05:11)
• Learning to code when English is not your first language (09:04)
• How to become a Scrimba community hero (11:39)
• A surprising benefit of being in Scrimba's Discord community (15:10)
• Why you should help people (16:20)
• Yin Chu's new job... and LinkedIn's Easy Apply (17:23)
• Good LinkedIn profile strategies (19:29)
• Yin Chu's interview process (21:24)
• You have to play the long game (24:50)

🧰 Resources mentioned

• Free JavaScript course
• Scrimba's Discord Server

⭐️ Leave a Review

If you enjoy this episode please leave a 5-star review here and let us know who you want to see on the next podcast.

You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏

🎙 About the episode

Meet Cameron 🇬🇧! Cameron is a full-stack software engineer, podcaster, and co-founder of The Coder Career. But before learning to code, he studied business... and worked as a tech recruiter! This episode is all about networking. How to do it? What to say? And... To whom? Do you have to be an extrovert to become good at it?

Cameron will teach you why networking is important and how to go about it. He will also give you scripts for different situations - from reaching out to a recruiter on LinkedIn to starting a conversation with somebody at a meetup. Alex and Cameron discuss how to stand out when applying for a job and how recruiters operate. There are more junior developers than junior positions, and we hope this episode will help you get your foot in the door! Or, at least, nurture your professional relationships - you never know when can they come in handy.

🔗 Connect with Cameron

• 🐦 Twitter
• 🌐  The Coder Career
• 🔈 The Coder Career podcast episode with Simon Barker

🧰 Resources mentioned

• Never Eat Alone

⭐️ Leave a Review

If you enjoyed this episode please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.

You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏

🎙 About the episode

Meet Ansub Khan 🇮🇳! Ansub has always been drawn to front-end development, but he took a couple of detours: he studied computer science and tried to learn C, C++, Java, and Python. In the end, he got a job by creating a website for a self-sustaining AI, while chatting to his now CEO about robots and quantum mechanics.

In this episode, you'll learn how to know when to go back to the basics of what you're learning, why rushing to get a job isn't always a good idea, and how a sprinkle of stoic philosophy can help you on your journey. Ansub shares details of his pretty unconventional job interview, as well as his approach to figuring out which jobs to apply to. He also talks about all of his failed job applications and what he learned from them.

🔗 Connect with Ansub

• 👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🌐 Website
• 👩‍🚀 GitHub
• 🐦 Twitter

🧰 Resources mentioned

• Scrimba's Front End Career Path
• Bob's React course (FREE!)
• Maya Labs

⭐️ Leave a Review

If you enjoy this episode please leave a 5 star review here and let us know who you want to see on the next podcast.

You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏

🎙 About the episode

Meet Shannon Brown 🇺🇸! Shannon is an experienced tech recruiter in a company known for diversity. In this interview, she will teach you how to get your foot in the door even if you're coming from an unconventional background. A good recruiter should know how to recognize an overlap between your skills and job requirements, but there are also things you can do to make your application stand out. 

In this episode, we're talking about the dreaded ATS, the importance of storytelling, and cover letters (which might not be as crucial as you'd think... unless they're required)! You will learn how recruiters operate and what they're looking for, and why both recruiters and job applicants should be in it for the long game. You'll also find out when is the right time to apply for a job and how to troubleshoot an unsuccessful application. Plus: photos on CVs, font preferences, free resume reviews, and tough coffees. 

⏰ Timestamps

• Shannon's work as a technical recruiter (01:02)
• The importance of domain knowledge (03:57)
• What recruiters do, what they should do, and why some of them have a bad reputation (05:54)
• Why both recruiters and job-seekers should focus more on building relationships (10:21)
• How to contact a recruiter, and what's the ideal first message (12:31) 
• Should you be afraid of an ATS (application tracking system)? (14:39)
• When is the best time to apply for a job? (16:29)
• What is a well-optimized resume? (19:01)
• Are cover letters necessary? (22:48)
• Cover letters as a tool to provide additional information (24:50)
• Storytelling on your resume (28:34)
• How to know when not to use job-hunting advice from influencers (30:00)
• Setting career goals helps you write a better job application (31:17)
• How to get free feedback on your resume (32:46)
• Quick-fire questions: fonts and photos on a resume, practicing self-care during a job search, debugging your job application
• What is the most important thing to do when looking for a job? (38:21)

🔗 Connect with Shannon

• 🐦 Twitter
• 👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn

⭐️ Leave a Review

If you enjoyed this episode please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast.

You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏