Code Like Nobody Is Watching: On Community, Learning, and Finding the Right Culture Fit, With Scrimba Student James

🎙 About the episode

Meet James Marriott 🇬🇧! He's a software developer and a career changer who previously worked in education, project management, and communications. He devoted himself to learning to code during a lockdown because he likes making things! In this episode, you'll hear how he found a way to get more comfortable coding in front of interviewers by streaming on YouTube, avoided emails to stay motivated, and ultimately landed a job at a company that perfectly fits his personality.

James also talks about impostor syndrome, the importance of finding a community, and how being open about not knowing something can benefit you in the long run. He and Alex also discuss whether coding skills alone are enough to land you your first job and whether your previous work experience is relevant when you're breaking into tech.

🔗 Connect with James

• 👨‍💼 LinkedIn

⏰ Timestamps

• How James decided to become a developer after decades of waiting (02:31)
• How did James learn to code? (04:18)
• How does one go from hobbyist to professional? Plus, the true value of Scrimba (05:26)
• How James connected to other coders in the community (07:06)
• The difficulty of changing careers later in life (09:30)
• Ad break! Have you listened to our interview with Quincy Larson? How to support us and who's on next week (10:29)
• Changing careers in your 40s: advantage or disadvantage? (13:30)
• What do you have in your 40s that you don't have in your 20s? (16:06)
• Where does motivation come from? (17:03)
• How James approached finding his first developer job (18:40)
• James set up an email filter so that he couldn't see rejections! (19:32)
• Focusing on the things you can control (20:32)
• James was interviewed by three companies - here's how it went down (21:25)
• What James learned from his first interview and how he battled his fear of live coding by... streaming on YouTube! (23:40)
• Why should you learn how to explain your code to other people (27:16)
• On imposter syndrome (29:10)
• How James ended up in a company that aligns with his values (31:08)
• Slow burning motivation, humility, and finding a good fit (34:19)
• James' interview process and why you shouldn't lie on your resume (36:59)
• James' technical task and being transparent (42:37)
• Salaries, how to do them differently, and why a higher salary isn't always a good thing (47:19)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• Scrimba Podcast: Quincy Larson: Why Learning To Code as an Adult Might Be Easier Than You Think 
• Scrimba's blog!
• Our discord community

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