How Pastor-Turned-Developer Chris Crushed It on LinkedIn and Landed an Internship... and a Job

🎙 About the episode

Meet Chris McCoy 🇺🇸! He's a pastor who did odd jobs on the side. But he was always interested in coding! Somewhere between working retail and doing food delivery, he realized he needed something more stimulating. Nine months later, he landed not one but two job offers as a junior developer!

Chris CRUSHED it on LinkedIn, even though he never liked social media: in this episode, he shares his approach to posting and being actively present on the platform. You can use it both to learn and to connect with people working in the industry, and that's exactly what Chris did. Spoiler alert: it doesn't have to be complicated.

You'll also learn more about internships: Chris landed one, which turned out to be pretty cool! What do companies look for in an intern? Should you become one,  and how? He also shares how he approached learning to code and found a balance between learning and work. Chris and Alex also discuss what you can learn from odd jobs.

Sadly, you won't learn the recipe for Chick-fil-A. But it does make an appearance in this episode :)

🔗 Connect with Chris

• 👨🏼‍💼 Linkedin

⏰ Timestamps

• How Chris decided to become a developer (01:51)
• Can you still learn something from odd jobs that have nothing to do with coding? (03:19)
• How Chris chose to learn to code and found support in his community (04:35)
• Balancing work, learning, and being a pastor: how Chris did it (06:28)
• How Chris discovered Scrimba (09:16)
• It's okay not to know everything about development (12:08)
• Why you need real-world examples when learning a new skill (12:57)
• Did Chris complete Scrimba's Career Path or get a job before he managed to? (14:14)
• When and how did Chris start applying for jobs? (16:31)
• How Chris created a LinkedIn profile and started crushing it (17:31)
• How to be genuinely present on LinkedIn and use the platform to connect (18:33)
• Chris's approach to writing LinkedIn posts (21:36)
• How adding Scrimba to his education connected Chris to a recruiter (21:51)
• Can an internship be... good? (24:41)
• What does a company expect from an intern, and what did Chris do about it (27:05)
• Working with other interns and the higher-ups (30:02)
• How Chris compared to the other interns in his group (32:38)
• How Chris's internship turned into a job (34:33)
• In the end, Chris had not one but two job offers! How did he pick one? (36:17)
• The hard work paid off (37:49)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• The Frontend Developer Career Path

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