Open Source Superstar and Roadmap.sh Founder Kamran Ahmed [Podcast #145]

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On this week’s episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Kamran Ahmed. He’s a software engineer and founder of Roadmap.sh, which has skill tree roadmaps for lots of developer fields, such as DevOps. As a teacher, he’s also a Google Developer Expert and a GitHub Star.

We talk about:

– Kamran’s tips for finding the right open source projects to contribute to
– The story behind Roadmap.sh, his popular developer website
– Other specialized open source Kamran has built over the years
– How Kamran became a Google Developer Expert and GitHub Star

Can you guess what song I’m playing during the intro?

Also, I want to thank the 10,922 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

You can also listen to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Be sure to follow the freeCodeCamp Podcast there so you’ll get new episodes each Friday.

Links we talk about during our conversation:

– Kamran’s website, Roadmap.sh: https://roadmap.sh/

– Kamran’s “Design Patterns for Humans” GitHub book: https://github.com/kamranahmedse/design-patterns-for-humans

– freeCodeCamp’s “How to Contribute to Open Source guide” Quincy mentions: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-contribute-to-open-source-projects-beginners-guide/

– Kamran on Twitter: https://x.com/kamrify

Chapters
0:00:00 Introduction to Kamran Ahmed and Roadmap.sh
0:09:19 The Power of Open Source Projects
0:16:53 Navigating Career Progression in Software Engineering
0:22:42 Lessons Learned from Working in Different Companies
0:27:22 The Value of Putting Yourself Out There
0:38:47 From Small Company to Startup: Seizing Opportunities
0:51:03 Growth Through Trust and Leadership
0:54:09 Learning and Expanding Skills Through Diverse Projects
0:56:06 From Dubai to Germany: A Journey of Growth and Exploration
0:58:21 Launching a Platform and Learning from Mistakes
1:01:31 Balancing Individual Contribution and Management
1:10:02 Roadmap.sh: Growth and Success
1:13:41 Moving to the UK and Settling Down
1:18:58 Contributing to Open-Source and Establishing Projects
1:21:31 Finding Project Ideas by Looking at Other Languages and Solving Problems
1:26:10 Promoting Projects and Embracing Negative Feedback
1:38:28 Roadmap.sh: A Resource for Developers at All Levels Read More freeCodeCamp.org