How Kyle Became a Developer and Found His First Dev Job in Just Four Months

The Scrimba Podcast

🎙 About the episode

Meet Kyle Tan 🇵🇭! A business major with an unrelenting passion for coding, Kyle decided he couldn't wait any longer to pursue his dream. Taking a leap of faith, he left his job, discovered Scrimba's Frontend Career Path, and within only four months, he found his first developer job. Talk about lightning speed!

In this episode, Kyle shares his approach to learning, unveiling the secrets behind his rapid progress. Discover the invaluable role of downtime and gain insights into the way Kyle chose his portfolio projects: what are the right ones, and why embracing open-source resources is a game-changer. Kyle also takes you through his interview process, when he had to dive into backend technologies for a week so that he could build his take-home project in less than 72 hours.

Kyle also reveals how his business background played a role in landing his dream job, what's the power in having a community, and what's his advice for everybody currently learning to code. Tune in and unlock the secrets to accelerated coding mastery!

🔗 Connect with Kyle

• 👨‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🐦 Twitter
• 🌐 Portfolio
• 📺 TikTok

⏰ Timestamps

• How Kyle decided to learn to code after getting a degree in business (01:14)
• How Kyle discovered Scrimba and chose frontend (02:13)
• What challenges did Kyle face, and how did he solve them? (06:03)
• Kyle finished the Career path in only three months by doing it full-time (07:04)
• The importance of downtime (07:48)
• How Kyle branched out of Scrimba (09:47)
• Kyle’s portfolio projects (11:21)
• Why simple projects rock (13:06)
• Community break with Jan The Producer (14:23)
• How Kyle started applying for jobs after only four months of learning to code (17:07)
• To interview for the job he got, Kyle had to take a week to learn backend! (20:08)
• The interview process: Kyle had to build an app in 72 hours (21:38)
• Kyle’s tips for presenting your code in job interviews (23:33)
• Culture fit interviews (24:39)
• How Kyle felt when he got the job (26:55)
• Quick-fire questions (27:44)
• What motivated Kyle to change careers (29:47)
• Did Kyle’s previous experience help him to land a job so quickly? (31:13)
• Did working as a developer live up to Kyle’s expectations? (32:40)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• The Coding Career Handbook
• Scrimba's Discord Community
• Frontend Developer Career Path
• Podcast: How to make your own luck with Shawn Wang (Swyx)
• html.new

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