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Programmer Education Requirements Explained by an Expert
Unlike in many careers, aspiring programmers aren’t locked into going to college and getting a computer science degree. You can do that, but there are other paths you can take to become a programmer. That being said, there must be some minimum requirements to become a programmer. So, how much education do you need to become a programmer? And are programmers smart? To answer those questions, we talked to Erik Dietrich. Erik has worked as a developer, architect, manager, CIO, and, eventually, independent management and strategy consultant. This breadth of experience allows him to speak to all industry personas. So, let’s hear Erik’s take on whether programmers need to be…
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Programmer Personality Traits Explained by an Expert
Stereotypes abound about programmers. People who are drawn to tech are introverted, socially awkward, lazy, or rude—or so laypeople believe. But are they really? Certainly, people who have these traits exist in software development. That’s why the stereotypes exist. But there are plenty of people who don’t fit within this mold. To understand why these stereotypes exist and why—especially when it comes to the notion that programmers are lazy—they’re often wrong, we sat down with someone with years of experience in the software world: Erik Dietrich. Erik has worked as a developer, architect, manager, CIO, and, eventually, independent management and strategy consultant. This breadth of experience allows him to speak…
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100 Days of Code: Disney Web Producer Katie Reynolds on Self-Reliance
This post is part of a series interviewing folks who have recently participated in the #100DaysOfCode challenge. Today we’re talking to Katie Reynolds, a web producer for Disney. Katie has worked in web content management for over a decade, but she never needed to know much coding besides very basic HTML. In her current role, she does most of her work in a no-code content management system (CMS). After her company furloughed her for a few months during the pandemic, Katie realized that she felt like she didn’t have any real technical skills in the event that she needed to find a new job. That motivated her to kick-start her…
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100 Days of Code: From Ambulance Driver to Dev With the Coding Paramedic
This post is part of a series interviewing folks who have recently participated in the #100DaysOfCode challenge. Today, we’re talking to Elias Rostad, who goes by the alias @CodingParamedic on Twitter. Why the Coding Paramedic? Because he worked as a paramedic for 10 years before turning to code. Elias’ work as a paramedic ranged from big cities to small towns to a ship in the Pacific Ocean for two months to AirMed on a helicopter. As a paramedic, Elias was getting burned out, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. His wife noticed how much he enjoyed playing with the Grasshopper learn-to-code app and suggested he explore programming further. So, Elias bought…
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Lessons From a Veteran: From Economics to Software Engineering With Andrew Bryant
This post is part of a series interviewing veteran developers, asking them questions about their journey to tech mastery and sharing the advice they have for those getting started. Today we’re talking to Andrew Bryant. Andrew is a developer and data analyst living in Chile. He studied economics in school before pursuing a tech career. Andrew has worked for startups doing everything from natural language processing (NLP) to UI fixes. He also writes code that generates artwork. Let’s hear what he has to say about the benefits of working at a startup and how having a non-software engineering background helped him when he started his career. Basic logistics: Stack? How…
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Magento Performance Concerns and How to Boost It
If you’re a web developer interested in working in e-commerce, Magento should definitely be on your radar. Experts and famous e-commerce players regard Magento as one of the major platforms for running online stores. Magento is a top choice of mid-sized and large companies, as the CMS enables serving thousands of visitors simultaneously and provides broad opportunities for customization and scaling. In turn, this often leads to a bunch of problems related to the overall performance of such sites and, in particular, their speed. Every Magento migration company is aware of possible troubles and searches for efficient solutions to overcome them. In this post, we’ll consider some classic peculiarities of…
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Programming Languages Explained by an Expert
Programming languages: There’s a lot to unpack there. For those new to the field, you probably have questions like How many programming languages are there (and, more importantly, how many should I know)? How do programming languages work? How and why are they made? How do programming languages make money? To answer these questions, we sat down with someone with years of experience in the software world: Erik Dietrich. Erik has worked as a developer, architect, manager, CIO, and, eventually, independent management and strategy consultant. This breadth of experience allows him to speak to all industry personas. He’s also written several books and countless blog posts on dozens of sites.…
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Lessons From a Veteran: Career and Personal Self-Discovery With Juho Vepsäläinen – Conference Director and Consultant
This post is part of a series interviewing veteran developers, asking them questions about their journey to tech mastery and sharing the advice they have for those getting started. Today we’re talking to Juho Vepsäläinen, a conference director and consultant. Juho is behind the SurviveJS effort, where developers train to optimize their development workflow’s tooling. He has been active in the open-source scene since the early 2000s and has participated in projects like Blender and webpack as a core team member. You can follow Juho on Twitter @bebraw. Let’s hear what he’s learned on his career in the tech industry and how that coincides with his personal journey of self-discovery.…
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Lessons From a Veteran: Incidental (or Maybe Accidental) Catalysts With Jonathan Hall
This post is part of a series interviewing veteran developers, asking them questions about their journey to tech mastery and sharing the advice they have for those getting started. This week we’re talking to Jonathan Hall. Jonathan started out as a self-taught developer and is now a consultant and blogger who helps small teams benefit from DevOps best practices. He publishes a daily newsletter with advice about implementing DevOps, and you can follow him on Twitter @TinyDevOps. Let’s learn how Jonathan got his start in programming and how you can be a self-taught developer, too. Stack? How long have you been doing it? These days, I spend a lot of…
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Lessons From a Veteran: Ukpai Ugochi on Her Career Change to Software Engineer
This post for those considering a career change to software engineer is part of a series interviewing veteran developers, asking them questions about their journey to tech mastery and sharing the advice they have for those getting started. Today we’re talking to Ukpai Ugochi. Ukpai is a full stack JavaScript developer transitioning her career from marine engineering to software development. She loves sharing about her experience to encourage people who love software development and don’t know where to begin. She also contributes to FOSS in her free time. Let’s find out what lessons Ukpai has learned, like overcoming impostor syndrome, during her career change to software engineer. Basic logistics: Stack?…
