Career Chats with Swyx and Randall
21 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsShort, focused chats about developer careers. 1 topic each, selected from the best of our writing and thinking.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Season 0 Retro: Thank You Listeners!
January 14, 2021 23:16 - 6 minutes - 7.59 MBWe're taking a short break to focus on solo projects! Randall is launching CrowdFox.io soon and Swyx is launching his personal podcast. General format Sheldon Hull "I rarely listen to podcasts because of how much wasted time there is. I've been listening through all you and Randall do and it's super useful and interesting. absolutely incredible job. Cheers and thank you" Michael Gee "I have gained a ton of value from your informative and concise podcast Career Chats so thank you ...
Get a Job As a Dev Advocate
January 06, 2021 16:00 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBRandall interviews Swyx about how you can get a job as a developer advocate Show Links https://www.keyvalues.com/blog/what-exactly-do-developer-advocates-do https://www.samjulien.com/devrel-book-links https://alexlakatos.com/avocados/2020/11/24/building-first-year-devrel-program/ https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/developer-love/ https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1340105489133182981?s=20 Speaker Links - Randall (@randallkanna): The Standout Developer, The Standout Career -...
Goals vs Processes: Why Your Goals Are Actually Wishes
December 30, 2020 16:00 - 9 minutes - 8.65 MBWe believe in systems over goals. Swyx and Randall love goals and we talk about how you can actually achieve your goals and how you can create a process to follow through. So many people set 'wishes' and they don't actually set goals because you're not creating a process to follow through. If you don't create the process, the goal won't happen. People overestimate how much they can get done in one year and they underestimate how much they can get done in 12 weeks. When you're looki...
When To Quit Your Job
December 23, 2020 16:00 - 13 minutes - 12.1 MBIt's difficult knowing when it's time to leave a company. Sometimes we get 'stuck' and we don't want to leave. Interviewing isn't fun either! 1. When you get an offer you can’t refuse - My $200 million mistake 2. When you aren’t learning anymore/too comfortable 3. When you dread going to work (or watching the clock) 4. When you aren't aligned with company values/when there is no trust - KeyValues.com - (our episode on Ethics isn't published yet) - The Speed of Trust 5. When...
The ABC's of a CS Degree (ft. Philip Kiely)
December 16, 2020 21:19 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MBPhilip Kiely joins Swyx and Randall to talk about CS degrees, the myths around getting a CS degree and how to be successful in college. - "Institute of Technology" vs "Liberal Arts" - Hackathons to set yourself apart - Writing externally to gain credibility - Grad school? not needed - except for visas, research Links MIT's Missing Semester: https://missing.csail.mit.edu/ The Craft of Writing Effectively: https://www.robincussol.com/the-craft-of-writing-effectively-summary/ Georgia...
Getting into Cloud (ft. Forrest Brazeal)
December 11, 2020 17:15 - 32 minutes - 73.3 MBThis week we have another guest interview with the multi-talented Forrest Brazeal (site, twitter, newsletter) who is one of the most passionate cloud advocates in the world. Definitely check out A Cloud Guru's Cloud Resume Challenge if you or someone you know is interested in getting into the cloud, and stay for his hot takes on mid-century children's literature! 0:00 - Intro & Background 1:55 - Cloud Resume Challenge - a child of the pandemic - https://twitter.com/forrestbrazeal...
Staff Engineering (ft. Will Larson, CTO of Calm)
December 02, 2020 17:23 - 41 minutes - 94.5 MBWhat happens after you go past Senior? Will Larson, CTO of Calm, has been interviewing Staff-plus engineers across the industry for his new book, Staff Engineering. This is our first full-length interview podcast episode! If you enjoyed it, please help us share with a friend and let us know your feedback! (Links at bottom) ---- 1:00 Why research Staff Engineering? Most bigcos make up their ladders as they go along, or cargo cult from FB/Google. We have to separate management f...
Staying Consistent to Achieve Your Goals
November 18, 2020 14:00 - 9 minutes - 21.8 MBSwyx and Randall talk about how they've stayed consistent while writing books and working multiple jobs. Every day you're not consistent is a zero day. I was sitting and waiting for motivation to strike and it would rarely happen. Don't just be accountable to yourself; be accountable to others, make public commitments even if no one sees them. If you want consistency, be with consistent people. - Call to Action: Read the Motivation Myth and share it with a friend! - Discuss this...
Big L Notation
November 13, 2020 15:36 - 10 minutes - 25 MBPersonal growth has an algorithm and we can consciously pick better ones. Don't tell yourself you can't learn faster and get a promotion faster. https://www.swyx.io/big-l-notation/ Swyx borrows the idea of Big O notation to discuss how you can't let titles or expectations hold you back in your growth. - Call to Action: Break down the Big L of someone you admire and tell them. - Discuss this episode and give feedback!
Mindset and Grit (ft. Will Johnson)
November 04, 2020 15:43 - 10 minutes - 6.68 MBOh, so you mean I don't have to be dumb? Our first guest episode! Swyx chats with Will Johnson about how having the right Mindset and Grit can help change your career. - "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Tweet - Book: Mindset: the New Psychology of Success - Book: Grit: the Power of Passion and Perseverance - Will's Blogpost - How I Switched Careers Into Tech With No Degree In My Mid 30's - Follow Will on Twitter - Call to Action: Do something that sc...
Cold Emailing to Get a New Job
October 28, 2020 16:00 - 7 minutes - 7.29 MBWe're discussing emailing a company and pitching yourself for the job you want. Randall did this recently! If you're not getting rejected twice, three times a week, you're probably not pushing yourself to where you should be. Our natural state is to avoid rejection. This isn't just a cold email. No one likes the email where they think this person could have just emails this to ten other people. Gumroad gig announcement tweet CALL TO ACTION Get rejected on something this week. If ...
Picking a Coding Bootcamp
October 21, 2020 16:00 - 10 minutes - 10.2 MBRandall discusses how to do the research to make sure you pick the right bootcamp! Go out there and try to code email as many people as you can and find out about the bootcamp Read every blog, post, and tweet you can find about the bootcamp Links How I got a job two weeks after my coding bootcamp Want a job in Silicon Valley? Stay away from coding bootcamps Coding House Review Course Report
Learning Gears
October 16, 2020 22:55 - 10 minutes - 10.9 MBSwyx discusses the four Learning Gears for people Learning in Public - Explorers: indulge your curiosity without goals. Episodic notes to self, low public commitment. - Settler: You don't know things that others already know. Run up the learning curve. Make Open Source Knowledge for others like you. - Connector: You know what others don't. Teach to learn! Put yourself out there - Talks, blog, newsletters, videos, workshop. Regular nontrivial output. Easy to get paid to learn in p...
Twitter for Developers
October 07, 2020 15:00 - 10 minutes - 10.8 MBRandall discusses her Twitter presence and how she went from 300 to 30k+ followers in the last year. Find the intersection of what interests your audience and what you have credibility on It's not all about followers. It's about building that meaningful relationship and taking that off Twitter! Give a lot before you ask! Links - Daniel Vassallo's Twitter Course. - Randall's Free CS Degree Tweet - Randall's Frontend Developer Tweet - Randall's Resume Review Tweet - Giveaways - Dan...
Learn in Public
September 30, 2020 13:00 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBWe've been trained to learn in private our entire lives. Today, we talk about why you should learn in public. Quote 1: "The schooling systems teach us to learn in private our entire lives. "Let's all study for this test". "Let's all try to do better than our peers". We train people to learn in private. The rules of the game for school prepare you very poorly for the rules of real life." Quote 2: "Make the thing you wish you had found, document what you did, and the problems that y...
Breaking Down Problems
September 21, 2020 15:24 - 7 minutes - 6.89 MBWhen faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem, break it down. Quote 1 "Stop worrying if you can get something done. Instead, break your problem down into many small problems. And choose just one to tackle." - Pieter Levels' MAKE book Quote 2 "Try to build your idea with HTML and CSS and JavaScript and see how far you get. Just Google every single thing you don't know. Start with "how to make a HTML page" Then "how to make text colored in HTML". Then “how to make a button in H...
Create Luck
September 21, 2020 15:24 - 10 minutes - 9.5 MBBeing lucky is a skill you can develop. https://www.swyx.io/writing/create_luck/ 1. Binary Luck 2. Luck Surface Area: https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-surface-area - Fixed vs Growth Mindset: https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/ 3. Four Kinds of Luck: https://pmarchive.com/luck_and_the_entrepreneur.html - Active - Accidental - Magnetic (Do something interesting and people will be interested https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1256...
Be Uncomfortable
September 21, 2020 15:24 - 8 minutes - 7.87 MBEmbrace the uncomfortable, in order to grow. https://sive.rs/uncomf How do you get the energy to force yourself to get through the uncomfortable? - Does Homeschooling help you be more self directed? - No Zero Days: https://medium.com/hackernoon/no-zero-days-my-path-from-code-newbie-to-full-stack-developer-in-12-months-214122a8948f - The Resistance (from War of Art): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_(creativity) - The One Thing: https://www.the1thing.com/ What's something...
Break Down Problems
September 18, 2020 14:27 - 6 minutes - 6.41 MBWhen faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem, break it down.
Luck
September 17, 2020 16:06 - 9 minutes - 9.03 MBBeing lucky is a skill you can develop. https://www.swyx.io/writing/create_luck/
Uncomfortable
September 17, 2020 16:05 - 8 minutes - 7.39 MBEmbrace the uncomfortable, in order to grow. https://sive.rs/uncomf