799 rejections… but he got the job! Braydon Coyer developer interview [Podcast #179]

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On this week’s episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Braydon Coyer. He’s a software engineer who started building mobile apps in high school – one of which even out-sold Angry Birds for a few days. He dropped out of his computer science degree program once he landed his first web developer job and never went back.

We talk about:
– Mobile app development VS web app development
– Strategies for applying for developer roles
– How useful is a CS degree really?
– Sane ways to integrate AI into your developer workflows

Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com.

Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity’s mission by going to https://donate.freecodecamp.org

Links we talk about during our conversation:
– Braydon’s awesome custom website: https://www.braydoncoyer.dev/
– Fruit Ninja game development documentary:
– Raycast tool Braydon uses to automate prpcesses on his Mac: https://www.raycast.com/
– Tana note taking tool Braydon uses: https://tana.inc/

Chapters
00:00 The Mobile App Revolution
10:10 Navigating the Education System
19:56 The Job Search Journey
28:02 Navigating Job Opportunities in Tech
31:00 Understanding Mobile App Development
33:52 The Evolution of Angular and Developer Tools
38:50 Enhancing Developer Experience with AI Tools
43:52 The Role of AI in Software Development
52:02 Hiring Trends and Challenges in Tech
56:12 Hiring Practices in Open Source
59:11 The Impact of AI on Hiring
01:01:49 The Future of Developer Roles
01:06:58 Navigating the Job Market
01:10:30 Internship Pathways for Junior Developers
01:12:39 Building Community Through Conferences Read More freeCodeCamp.org