🎙 About the episodeMeet Adam Broda 🇺🇸! Adam is a tech lead and career coach who helps career changers break into tech. He did the same - after a decade of working in aerospace engineering at Boeing, Adam now works at Amazon! Through his coaching business, Broda Coaching, Adam aids career transitioners in constructing personalized job search strategies.In this episode, Adam unveils the four pillars of his framework: identifying your passions, skills, desired environment, and needed compensation. Alex and Adam also delve into the current state of the job market: have we moved beyond significant tech layoffs, are return-to-office policies contributing to attrition, and what implications do these factors have for software development jobs? Adam will also tech you about different phases of networking—short-term networking, advocacy networking, and engagement networking—detailing how to navigate each of them and which one is most effective.🔗 Connect with Adam👨‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Website🧰 Resources MentionedBroda Coaching⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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 episodeMeet Cassie Lewis 🇺🇸! Cassie has a fine arts degree, which turned out to be too fancy for the real world. After working in different fields, from photography to retail, she got interested in coding - and it turned out to be just the right fit with how her mind works! Cassie is fueled by curiosity, creativity, and challenges. And learning to code alongside a day job was certainly a challenge.Two years into her learning path, Cassie realized she had hit a wall. In an attempt to get unstuck, she joined the Scrimba bootcamp. She also challenged herself to read more non-fiction and embarked on a path toward effective living. In this episode, Cassie explains effective living and how it can make you a more effective coder, too! You'll hear how Cassie defeated burnout, how she approached learning, and how she - only nine months after joining the bootcamp - landed her first dev job. This is a story about setting goals, establishing systems, frictionless networking (even if you don't live in a tech hub), and keeping your plans realistic. But also: this is also a story of creativity and exploration!🔗 Connect with Cassie🧑‍💼 Linkedin🌐 Website🧰 Resources MentionedScrimba BootcampHow Johnny Learned Angular and Typescript in Three DaysCooking Up a Career Change: Overcoming Burnout and Finding Your Why, with Scrimba Student JimmyEssentialismAtomic Habits⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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 episodeMeet Bob Ziroll 🇺🇸! Bob is Scrimba's Head of Education and one of the Internet's favorite React teachers. His latest course is on AI, but don't worry, there's React... I mean, ReAct in AI as well!In the previous three episodes, we defined an AI engineer and demystified their tools. We explored foundation models and discussed how to personalize them through retrieval augmented generation and fine-tuning. We also delved into various use cases for incorporating AI models into your projects and explored why ChatGPT has brought a fundamental shift in how we perceive AI.Today, Bob will guide us through the realm of AI agents, representing the future of automation. An AI agent is capable of perceiving its environment. What does that mean, and how can one create an AI agent? Also, will they eventually take over the world?Bob will also give us actionable advice on how to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-changing world of AI models, and discuss his vision for the future of AI.Bob's AI agents and automation course is part of Scrimba's brand-new AI path. Let's dive in!This is the final episode of our series on AI engineering, introducing Scrimba's AI Engineer Path. This path is your gateway to unlocking the full potential of AI for your projects. 🔗 Connect with Bob👨🏼‍💼 Linkedin🐦 Twitter🧰 Resources MentionedThe AI Engineer PathAgentGPT⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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 episodeMeet Guil Hernandez 🇺🇸! He is a developer and educator with over 15 years of experience in tech. He's also a Scrimba teacher who is a part of the team bringing you the AI Engineer Path, and in this episode, he's helping us understand retrieval-augmented generation. In the previous episode, Tom Chant helped us understand the world of AI models. Today, Guil will further teach us how these models work under the hood. AI models don't understand the world like we do. When we interact with them, they turn our inputs into mathematical representations known as embeddings. By creating our own embeddings, we can teach AI to do what we want it to. Today, we're getting an introduction about making a model aware of your own data source so that that data can be considered for the AI output. For example, using the techniques you'll learn from Gil in this episode, you could connect a model to your customer support conversations so that the model knows what is necessary to answer unique questions about your (or your client's) business. This is the third episode of our series on AI engineering, introducing Scrimba's AI Engineer Path. This path is your gateway to unlocking the full potential of AI for your projects. 🔗 Connect with Guil🐦 Twitter🌐  Website👩‍🚀 Github🧰 Resources MentionedThe AI Engineer PathLearn Embeddings and Vector DatabasesScrimba Podcast with Saron Yitbarek⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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 episodeMeet Tom Chant 🇬🇧! Tom is a Scrimba instructor who is a part of our in-house team that brought you a brand new career path available on Scrimba.com - the AI engineer Path.In this episode, we're diving into the world of AI foundation models: what are they, how do they work, and how can you use them to build front-end applications that you, until recently, couldn't even think of unless you were a big company with loads of resources.AI is fundamentally changing the features and user experience of front-end applications. In this episode, you'll learn how to use different foundation models out there (so, not just OpenAI) for your own projects.This is the second episode of our series on AI engineering, introducing Scrimba's AI Engineer Path. This path is your gateway to unlocking the full potential of AI for your projects. 🔗 Connect with Tom👩‍💼 Linkedin🐦 Twitter🧰 Resources MentionedThe AI Engineer Path⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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 episodeMeet Per Borgen 🇳🇴! Scrimba's co-founder and CEO returns to the show after more than two years. In this episode, Per and Alex delve into the emergence of a new breed of developer—the AI engineer.What defines an AI engineer? What key skills set them apart? Is machine learning knowledge a prerequisite? Why did ChatGPT bring a paradigm shift in our interaction with AI? Dive into these topics, discover how to utilize and personalize existing AI models, and explore alternative options beyond OpenAI.Since the Scrimba podcast always brings you practical advice, this episode is a guide to the AI engineer stack. Prepare to take notes as Per unravels the terminology and technology crucial for navigating the AI landscape as a developer.This episode begins a five-part series on AI engineering, introducing Scrimba's AI Engineer Path.🔗 Connect with Per👨‍💼LinkedIn🐦 Twitter⏰ TimestampsScrimba's launching its AI Engineer Path! 🎉 (03:11)Why an AI path is so critical at the moment (04:01)Why AI engineering is not just a fad (07:32)Community Break with Jan the Producer (10:41)Why ChatGPT brought a change in the way we perceive AI, and what's the difference between discriminative and generative AI (11:40)What's the difference between GPT and ChatGPT (15:50)What companies build AI tools for developers other than OpenAI? (21:50)Human + AI is still better than just AI (23:11)The context is the product (24:56)Tuning a foundation model - data are the secret sauce (28:53)What is an AI engineer (29:54)How is AI engineering different from prompt engineering? (31:20)How's an AI engineer different from a data scientist or a machine learning engineer (32:04)OpenAI vs open-source alternatives (34:11)Making sense of the AI engineering stack (36:26)HuggingFace has machine-learning models that can run in a browser! (39:15)What is RAG and how to perform it (39:59)What is LangChain (41:55)How's the AI path structured? (45:29)🧰 Resources MentionedThe AI Engineer Path⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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 episodeMeet Matt Ehrlich and Eric Winkelspecht 🇬🇧! They are the hosts of the Self-Taught Devs podcast. And, you guessed it, they are self-taught devs and career changers to boot. Matt was a park ranger, and Eric worked at an IT solutions company but didn't code. Today, they are a front-end developer and a full-stack developer, respectively, who met through LinkedIn and then decided to host a podcast!In this episode, you will learn about their coding journeys, the resources they used, and why they decided to be self-taught. They talk about motivation and keeping yourself going, how to create structure, and what to do if you feel guilty when you take a break. If you're curious about what makes a successful self-taught dev, this episode is for you!🔗 Connect with Matt and Eric👨‍💼 Matt's LinkedIn, Eric's LinkedIn📻 Podcast✏️ Matt's blog📹 Matt's YouTube, Eric's YouTube👨‍🚀 Matt's GitHub, Eric's GitHub🔗 TimestampsHow Matt Ehrlich took up coding after being a park ranger for years (01:09)A coding career gives you the opportunity for unlimited growth (02:44)The Self-Taught Devs podcast tries to fill a gap in information (03:39)Eric just landed his first full-time software development role! (06:19)How Eric decided to learn to code (08:06)How does it feel to change careers after more than a decade (08:43)Eric's learning resources (10:10)Community break with Jan the Producer (10:58)Why Matt took the self-taught route (13:39)Matt's learning resources (14:54)Quitting your job to learn to code: pros and cons (16:11)How long did Matt take to learn to code (17:45)Can you learn discipline, and how can you stay motivated (19:12)What can you do if you get stuck (27:26)Should you be taking breaks from your job search? (29:55)Listen to this if you get discouraged after getting a rejection letter (30:54)What is productivity anxiety (33:03)How did Matt and Eric meet and what makes them work as podcast co-hosts (36:15)⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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 episodeMeet Anna Ha 🇵🇱 🇰🇷! Anna was born in Poland, where she majored in English and minored in Chinese. She then moved to South Korea and set off to learn Korean and coding at the same time! Today, she works at a startup that creates tools for learning Korean. Perfect match!In this episode, you'll discover if coding is a language. Anna also shares her learning strategy, how she discovered Scrimba, what amazing projects she worked on via Chingu, how she kept herself motivated, and how finding a community helped her stay on track. You'll also discover what's the key to both landing a job and looking forward to going to work every day!🔗 Connect with Anna👩‍💼 LinkedIn🌐 Website👩‍🚀 GitHub🐦 X🤖 annannanna on the Scrimba Discord🔗 TimestampsHow Anna discovered coding when she had a blog as a teenager but ended up studying languages (01:14)Anna started learning to code after moving from Poland to South Korea! (03:00)Anna always wanted to live somewhere else at least for a year (05:16)How Anna learned to code (06:02)What to do if you think that coding just isn't for you (08:39)Community break (11:46)Focus on one step at a time (14:41)How Anna juggled different learning resources (15:28)How Chingu helped Anna get relevant coding experience (18:02)How Anna landed her first tech role (22:01)Anna's interview process and what was most important (24:19)Anna's current company: Learn Korean in Koren (25:19)Your background is important, and so is your attitude (26:58)Quick-fire questions! K-pop, Flutter, and Scrimba (30:41)How Anna found out she was getting an offer (31:45)The importance of community and support (34:53)Advice to younger Anna (35:33)⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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 episodeReady for your first dev job? Today on the podcast, you'll learn how companies work and how teams stay efficient. How does a typical team operate? Who do you report to? How do you know if you're the right culture fit? Why should you know what you need from your team? And why do job postings sometimes... not make sense?We have compiled the best, most actionable advice to help you understand a corporate environment. You'll hear from engineering manager and career coach Tiffany Jachhja, founder of Technical Integrity Dave Mayer, opera singer turned developer and developer coach Ana McDougal, and engineering manager Jason C McDonald. 📻 Listen to the full interviewsUnderstanding Corporate Hierarchy (and Perfecting Your Resume), With Tiffany JachjaAdvice from a Junior Developer Career Coach, with Anna McDougalWhat Are Company Values… and Why You Should Know Your Own, with Dave MayerLessons Learned Recruiting and Managing Junior Developers for 10 Years, with Jason C. McDonald🔗 Connect with everybodyTiffany: 👩🏻‍💼 Linkedin, 📹 Twitch, 🐦 Twitter, 🌐  WebsiteAnna: 👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn, 🌐 Website, 👩‍🚀 GitHub, 🐦 Twitter, 📹 YouTubeDave: 🐦 Twitter, 🌐  Website, 👨🏻‍💼 LinkedInJason: 👨🏻‍💼 LinkedIn, 🌐 Website, 👩‍🚀 GitHub, 🐦 Twitter, 📖 Dead Simple Python - Idiomatic Python for the Impatient Programmer⏰ TimestampsUnderstanding corporate structure (02:14)Differences between smaller and bigger teams, and project management vs. people management (04:54)What should a junior developer look for from their engineering manager? (07:57)Nine Belbin Team Roles (09:49)How to find a mentor online, and why you should know how to code in a team (11:08)A job interview is just looking for compatibility (13:31)Community break (16:20)What does it mean to be a culture fit? What is a culture add? (19:12)Company culture vs. company values (21:55)How to understand your own values (23:16)Why you shouldn't get discouraged if you don't meet all the requirements on a job ad (29:22)🧰 Resources MentionedLearning in public!How to Avoid Burnout, Improve Your Confidence and Keep Coding Fun, with Scrimba Student Sylvia⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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 episodeThis is a rebroadcast of one of our most popular interviews. 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⭐️ Leave a ReviewIf 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.