scrimba

In this web development podcast episode, I invited on 3 graduates to review Scrimba - a front end focused educational platform for aspiring web developers. We dove into opinions about the curriculum, instructors, and projects. They even shared who they feel like this program IS for and IS NOT for. If you're considering Scrimba, it's definitely worth listening to what they had to say about it. Enjoy!

Host and Guests:
Don Hansen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/donthedeveloper
Louis Steimel - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lhsthree
Cristhian Benitez - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristhianbenitez
Ridwan Kadri - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ridwankadri

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Annemarie Visser learned frontend web development and became a full-time Junior Developer in only 5 months.

The secret sauce?

Anne embraced rejection and turned it into opportunity.

With only a few months experience, Anne sent her resume to 25+ companies full well expecting them to reject her. It sounds unorthodox but here is why it worked.

With each rejection, Anne politely asked "why?" and with the answers she got, dramatically accelerated her learning.

Because Anne was resilient to rejection, she learned what employers are looking for and where her blind spots were. As a result, she was able to focus on improving in the areas that matter most using the Frontend Career Path.

It's uncomfortable to face your weaknesses head-on but Anne knew what most people won't accept: Embracing discomfort is quickest path to success!

Anne was uniquely brave in this way and proved to us all that the worse someone can say is "no".

Of course, they might also say "yes"!

To Anne's surprise, she got an offer much earlier than she had anticipated. Now she is earning to learn which, we think, is a dream scenario for any aspiring developer 💸

True to character, Anne asked "why?" when she was hired and shares the reasons with us in this interview!

In this interview, I also asked Anne about:

• How Anne learned to code while raising a newborn 👶🏻
• Some examples of specific feedback she received when rejected
• Why Anne made a portfolio early and how number of projects isn't as important as you might think
• How Anne stood out against the competition for her specific role (Anne could communicate her thought process much clearer)
• Anne's top tips she WISH she knew at the beginning

Alejandro coded EVERY DAY for 100 days and Tweeted his progress with the #100DaysOfCode hashtag.

After this 100 days sprit, Alejandro had a beautiful portfolio 🤩 and compelling GitHub account full of projects that proved to employers he could do the job even though he didn't have a computer science degree. 

While Alejandro continued polished his skills using Scrimba's Frontend Career Path he applied to take part in a special mock React job interview we hosted with Cassidy Williams.

HE PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS 🎉 so it was no surprise when 2 months later, Alejandro shared word of his new job.

It wasn't that surprising to hear that Alejandro had a lot of interest from recruiters either. Alejandro has a knack for marketing himself. In this episode, you'll learn his top tips to stand out among the competition.

Meet Paul Lee.

In September 2020 Paul decided to learn to code and stumbled upon Scrimba. Just 7 months later he got an entry-level job in Tokyo 🎉

In this interview, I spoke to Paul about:

• Anxieties and doubt learning to code
• How Paul learned to trust the process and all of a sudden had 2 job offers
• How developer jobs work in Japan (I learned two-day internships are common)
• At Scrimba we claim "Our career path helps motivated students become hireable frontend developers for 1% of the cost" I asked Paul if we're telling the truth 😬

Meet Justin Lowen (Justin Lowen#3893 on Discord) from San Antonio 🇺🇸.

Justin lost his job in the oil industry because of COVID-19. Less than one year later (and after 163 job applications) he was recruited as a professional developer!

Being recruited isn't something that happens by accident. 

After 163 applications and several failed interviews, Justin managed to progressively optimise his LinkedIn, polish his resume and used Scrimba to close skills gaps revealed in previous interviews. I spoke to Justin so YOU can learn from his experience.

In this interview, I also spoke to Justin about:

• Justin's shotgun approach wherein he applied to more than 160 jobs
• Changing career later in life - going from senior petroleum engineer to junior software engineer
• Who should you listen to when it comes to CV/resume advice?
• How to be humble and prove you don't think you're "over-qualified" while still highlighting your potential to transfer skills from your previous, more senior role
• How to compete with young computer science and traditional bootcamp graduates

After a modest launch among friends, Josh earned the attention of local news stations. COVID INVADERS 👾. went from a few hundred players to a few thousand. It was an overnight hit!

On the topic of hits, Josh performed a freestyle rap to accompany the game. He even rapped about Scrimba in our interview since it was the Frontend Developer Career Path that helped him build the game!

In this interview, Alex from Scrimba spoke to Josh about:

• How Josh got freelance clients at 15
• Why Josh doesn't care about a Computer Science degree
• Do young people have an unfair advantage when learning to code?
• How a can-do attitude and a knack for marketing earned Josh such an exciting opportunity
• How Josh went viral by identifying a trend, making the game work on all platforms (à la Fortnite), and promoting the fact he was young to his advantage - fair play 👏!

When Benedicte returned from her pregnancy break, she was shocked to find that her university had stopped teaching her class!

After weighing her options, Benedicte made a brave decision to pursue web development.

At first, it was overwhelming. Benedicte didn't think she was smart enough.

She repeatedly questioned if she could do it and wondered if she would have to return to retail. Deep down, she knew that wasn't an option because of Coronavirus.

18 months into the journey, Benedicte felt tired.

Companies still weren't responding to her applications, and it made her want to quit...

Less than 2 months later, she got a phone call.

It was from a huge newspapers in Norway (VG). "You're HIRED," the manager said cheerfully!

In this interview, I spoke to Benedicte about

• How Scrimba and the Frontend Career Path helped her find success
• How to become invincible to rejection
• What to do when a job requires "2 years minimum experience" or a degree 🙄
• The specific details of her coding tasks (could you do them??)
• Her unique interview experience where she did pair programming on a Google Hangout but wasn't allowed to type any code 🤔

Nico's story is incredible. After working as a bus driver for 5 years, he recently landed his first professional frontend development job showing us all it's never too late to be the change you want to see in your life.

In this episode, Nico and I explore many interesting topics including,

• Escaping the dreaded tutorial hell 🔥
• Pushing your comfort zone to secure multiplejob offers 
• What Nico's two-day interview process looked like 😱
• Nico's tips for creating a résumé and portfolio that stand out (here's Nico's portfolio)
• How Nico weirdly helped himself by helping others in the Scrimba Discord (??)
• And more