Influur

First hire for web engineering team to build an AI powered influencer matching app for brands who want to partner with influencers within the music industry
Tech stack includes NextJS, OpenAI, TypeScript, v0 and a healthy mix of vibe coding and old school software engineering to iterate quickly

Senior Full Stack Engineer

Parsity

Parsity is a coding school that helps career changers break into tech. Small cohorts, big success stories and expert mentors. Visit Parsity.io to apply.

Program Owner

Scoutbee

Founding team member at an early-stage AI-driven procurement startup, working closely with the Head of Engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to shape product direction.

Contributed to the development and implementation of an AI-powered chat feature using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with Pinecone and OpenAI’s API, enabling users to quickly retrieve supplier insights.

Developed and implemented multiple key features, including in-app messaging, Stripe integration, and custom landing pages to improve user experience and streamline business operations.

Utilizing TypeScript, Prisma, PostgreSQL, Next.js, React, and Vercel to develop scalable, AI-driven procurement solutions.

Collaborating in a small, agile team to refine the core product architecture, improve internal tooling, and accelerate product development.

Archwell

This was a short yet impactful 1 month stint:

Led the planning of a migration from legacy systems to modern frameworks, including Next.js and CloudFront, focusing on scalability and code reusability.

Implemented a CI/CD pipeline that accelerated the migration process and improved overall development efficiency.

Provided technical leadership for modernizing the platform, helping the company establish a future-proof infrastructure.

Associate Director of Engineering

The Clorox Company

Democratized the release process, enabling engineers to deploy code seamlessly by adopting best practices in DevOps and continuous integration, facilitated by extensive use of Jest for comprehensive test coverage. Led the modernization of our front-end architecture, implementing ReactJS and Redux for state management, coupled with GraphQL for efficient data fetching, to create a robust, scalable, and highly maintainable web application framework.

Instrumental in elevating our engineering standards, I spearheaded the drive to enhance code quality, achieving an increase in test coverage from 0% to approximately 40% with Jest, thereby promoting a culture of code stewardship. This initiative paved the way for a more inclusive, collaborative, and ownership-driven development environment.

Oversaw the strategic migration of our front-end tech stack to leverage Adobe Commerce Cloud in a headless architecture, optimizing our e-commerce capabilities and user experience by integrating ReactJS, Redux, and GraphQL. This move not only improved performance and scalability but also enhanced developer agility in feature development.

Revamped our interview and onboarding processes to accelerate the vetting and hiring of talented developers. By fostering a rapid acclimatization within our ReactJS and GraphQL-based codebase, new team members could contribute significantly and efficiently early on in their tenure.

Developed and implemented a career-level guide to define clear advancement criteria and expectations at each level, ensuring transparent, merit-based growth paths within our technology organization, and supporting professional development

Engineering Manager

In my role within the Clorox DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) team, I spearhead the development of compelling online user experiences for Clorox's DTC brand partnerships, employing cutting-edge technologies such as ReactJS and ReduxJS, and harnessing the power of microservice architecture to ensure scalability and flexibility.

I introduced and championed the integration of unit testing across all front-end applications, utilizing Jest and @testing-library, to elevate code reliability and foster a culture of quality assurance from the onset of development.

Recognizing the need for efficiency and maintainability in our development process, I led the creation of a shared state management library specifically designed for micro frontends. This initiative significantly boosted developer productivity, curtailed code duplication, and streamlined our application's overall architecture.

Contributed to the design and implementation of a shared component library using ReactJS, facilitating a consistent and reusable codebase that accelerates development cycles and ensures UI/UX consistency across DTC platforms.

Collaborated with the team to devise a new Git flow strategy, optimizing our code release and hotfix processes to enhance operational efficiency and reduce time-to-market for new features and fixes.

As a mentor, I am committed to elevating the technical proficiency of our team members, guiding them in JavaScript best practices and testing methodologies to cultivate a high-caliber development team adept in modern web technologies.

Senior Software Engineer

Zignal Labs

Mentored and onboarded team mates in JavaScript best practices and coding standards.

Through investigation and optimization, I successfully enhanced the performance of a notably slow query in our NodeJS API, achieving a 50% improvement in speed. This optimization not only boosted our system's efficiency but also significantly enhanced user experience by providing faster access to critical data.

On the development front, I actively contributed to our ReactJS component library, focusing on expanding our data visualization capabilities. Notably, I spearheaded the integration of D3.js to develop our inaugural RidgeLine chart component, which represents trending Twitter topics.

At Zignal Labs, a forefront company in brand protection, we harness the power of extensive data aggregation from diverse mediums to deliver actionable insights that safeguard company reputations. As an integral part of the full-stack development team, my role is centered around designing and implementing dynamic widgets and robust APIs that enhance data visualization and user interaction.

Utilizing a sophisticated tech stack that includes NodeJS for server-side operations, MongoDB for scalable database solutions, ReactJS and Redux for seamless front-end user experiences, and ElasticSearch for efficient data querying and indexing, I contribute to developing innovative solutions that transform complex datasets into clear, intuitive visualizations.

My work supports clients in making informed decisions by providing them with real-time, visually compelling insights into their brand's performance across various channels. Through the creation of these widgets and APIs, I play a pivotal role in enabling Zignal Labs to offer a comprehensive suite of tools that empower companies to proactively manage and protect their brand integrity.

Software Engineer

Micasa

Micasa automates the manual process of complicated document transactions for purchasing homes
As the lead developer I built and deployed the backend services and UI as well influenced the general UX of the site

Created complex integrations with HelloSign API, deployed our NodeJS API on AWS using Lambdas and worked closely with founders to develop marketing strategy and technical direction.

Over the Summer of 2019 I led a small team of college interns to contribute to the project and identified relevant features for them to work on

Technologies included AWS, NodeJS, ReactJS, Redux. MongoDB

Co-Founder and Lead Fullstack Developer

Terminal 49

As a full stack software developer on the founding team I've had the opportunity to help create and implement new features for our logistics tech startup to help facilitate and automate international trade. Using Rails, Postgres and EmberJS I worked on projects including a system to request and send quotes, aggregate data to surface information about containers as they travel as well as a program to update container arrival times

Codify Academy

On weekends I was a lead mentor at Codify, a bootcamp that teaches students the basics of front-end development like JavaScript, React JS, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap and responsive design among other things. I also led development on a fullstack web app for the learning management system for Codify to use to track student progress and communicate with mentors and students.

Lead Front End Development Mentor

Grocery Outlet

As a full stack developer on the agile team that creates the web applications that power this 2 billion dollar business I had the chance lead development on one of our apps used to facilitate store returns which saved 10s of thousands dollars a year by preventing human error. 

Helped automate the process of unloading pallets from trucks through a program to bulk import product data.

Our small team also built a real time system for stores to order goods and many other web apps using C#, SQL, AngularJS and .NET

Web Application Developer

Besides being a talking head on LinkedIn, I lead software development teams, mentor developers and help career changers learn to write complex software.

At the core of all these efforts is a simple goal: empowering developers and magnifying their capabilities.

Sometimes that means changing processes to allow teams to move faster, deploy code with less friction and confidence. In my courses and programs, empowerment is making the abstract practical with lessons and challenges which mimic the experience of being a software developer.

If you actually read this, thanks. Always happy to connect and check out the links in about section 😉

The marketing worked. Or maybe it failed actually.

I was fully expecting GPT-5 to be earth-shatteringly good. The hype from some respected YouTubers and Altman's claims of PhD level expertise really primed the pump.

The response to the rollout has been... not great.

It's been so bad in fact, that they had to reverse course and offer older models that were hidden by a new routing feature that would choose the best model for the task... that also broke.

𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗜'𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗳*𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱.

Forget AGI or catastrophic job decimation.

The majority of GPT users aren't coders. They could care less about small improvements to code-gen tools.

They're using GPT as their therapist/friend/confidant.

That's much scarier.

People missed the cringy, over-the-top, way-too-agreeable voice. Screw the hallucinations. Forget that this is a token generator that often flubs simple math problems. They wanted their friend back.

I'm beginning to think the real AI threat won't be job displacement. It might be relationship replacement.

Brian Jenney

I run a coding anti-bootcamp - Click My Bald Head to learn more

I asked Claude Code to refactor a 2k line component last night (don't judge - or maybe do).

5 minutes and thousands of tokens later it did what would’ve have taken me hours.

• It followed SRP.
• Components were modular and well constructed.
• There were unit and integration tests and even documentation.

I mean, nothing worked - but got damn it was beautiful.

As a junior developer, I was really anxious that one day my team would find out I was a hack. 

Then, one day, I actually did get “found out” 😬 

I was working at a small startup with some incredible talent and when our star engineer left to pursue his own startup, he gave me some candid feedback: 
“𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘑𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦. 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴.” 

I was embarrassed. 

He was also correct. 

I wrote down his suggestions and made a plan to get more proficient with JavaScript and some of the concepts which had always confused me like promises, prototypal inheritance and decorators. 

It wasn’t even that difficult. 

I wondered why I hadn’t done this earlier. 

In fact it’s 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱 we 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 Parsity: 

1. Open code editor 
2. Create a practical example leveraging the concept you're learning 
3. Record a video explaining the concept and your code 

For promises, you could create a promise using the promise constructor and invoke it using the async/await pattern and then refactor it to use promise chaining. 

Make a video for yourself. NO ONE has to watch it. 

The video simply forces you to articulate what you’ve learned in plain English. Hope that’s helpful. 

https://parsity.io is a program for career changers, not influencers, but you WILL be getting on camera 😉. 

It's awkward. It's cringey. It works.

At some point we told all new developers they had to become mini LinkedIn influencers.

I disagree.
Kinda.

I spoke to a former co-worker who gave a talk to mentees Parsity . She’s an amazing developer who I knew could offer some insight and practical advice for developers at the early stages of their career.

I was shocked to learn that she ended up landing a role from a post that caught the attention of our former VP. 

This led to an interview that she crushed.

A former mentee of mine had an even wilder story:

He follows a popular YouTuber who he reached out to that ended up referring him for a role.

These stories aren’t typical.
They also can’t be ignored.

Networking and learning in public obviously work, despite my own biases.

You know what else works?

• Never writing a word on LinkedIn.
• Making connections with people through comments on their posts.
• Mass applying.
• Going on Facebook and asking your high school friends and family if they know anyone hiring.

We’re all right.
We’re all wrong.

Pick a strategy you can actually follow and then do it. They all (can) work.

“𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮? 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘎𝘗𝘛 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵?”

Your job as a developer is changing. 

Now you have to explain to people who have never written code why security, accessibility and complicated API integrations can make “simple” changes take longer than writing a sexy prompt.

As annoying as this can be — it’s also good.

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗲’𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 “𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲” 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲. A monkey! Your uncle who can’t open his Hotmail account! A child who can’t multiply yet!

AnYonE!

It’s time to learn how to articulate what we do and the value it creates as well as why things are never as simple as they seem.

Your job will involve a lot more education and gently letting those just above you understand where the AI hype ends and reality begins. 

I think this opens up major opportunities for you as a developer if you're trying to climb the corporate ladder by being the "expert" in the room to translate technical details to the higher-ups.

I'm curious - have you had to defend your code against non-coding prompt engineers?

Shocking and not so shocking takeaways from the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey:

1. Javascript is the most used programming language. Take that haters.
2. Everyone uses VS Code - learn it like a pro.
3. NextJS  surpassed Angular in popularity but is still less used than... Jquery?!
4. Bootcamps love MERN - professionals love SERN. There’s never been a better time to learn SQL with offerings like Neon/Supabase - it's easy to get started.
5. Most devs are FS. You probably should be too.
6. Twice as many new coders highly trust AI than more experienced coders. 🤔

I go into the most interesting takeaways here: https://lnkd.in/gCdkwey7

You can check out the survey here: https://lnkd.in/ggag932p

I'm biased - but we have some real super stars at Parsity. 

That's the power of being small and intentional with who we work with. 

Whether you're a recruiter or looking to connect with some other developers, here are a few people who really stand out:

Mecca Conway - runs a study group for Parsity and major contributor in our recent internship at an AI start up
Marci Prescott && Mutsumi Hata - I love how they both share the wins and (more importantly) the losses on their journey towards professional developer
Thomas Winskell - basically a senior developer at this point and de-facto team lead for students in the internship program
Roberto Iturralde - this dude won a freakin' hackathon recently and just got hired!

There are so many other amazing people we have the pleasure of working with and I could honestly shout the entire group out.

If you are a recruiter - slide in my DMs (in the most platonic way possible) and I'm happy to connect you with any of our super stars who are currently looking.

Honestly, the debate is already tired.

No one knows what’s coming next.

Not bald headed LinkedIn dudes who run coding programs.
Not mainstream news sites who don’t know what HTML is.
Not some rando telling you he’s “10x more efficient with AI”

Fear mongering is profitable and more exciting than reality.

What’s much more interesting is actually learning the skills needed for the next wave of software development:

- RAG
- Testing LLM outputs
- MCP
- Building agents
- Streaming React components

Whether or not you believe you can be replaced by AI, you’re right.

If you’re looking to start building, I have a free project to get your hands dirty with RAG, using NEXT.js, Pinecone, OpenAI and Typescript.

Grab it in the comments.

Typical Redditor’s advice to junior developers:

Just give up.

Insightful, I know.

What might actually work better:

- 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 worth writing about that has a backend and front end that looks decent
- 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 to bypass the LinkedIn hunger games
- experiment with sites like WellFound or JobRight.ai
- do live interview practice on sites like Pramp or interviewing.io
- supplement experience with an internship or 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗽𝗽
- be practically optimistic

If Zubin Pratap and I had the magic formula to finding that first role then our program would be a hell of a lot easier to run.

We can only tell you what we've seen work for others and coach you personally to see what WILL work for you.

You can imagine how the Twitter mob jumped on this.

I'll admit I was skeptical and wrote it off as rage bait.

Then I joined a small startup with some of the smartest people I've ever met from the biggest companies in tech.

The entire app, including our data pipelines to ingest hundreds of thousands of documents and API routes were all in TypeScript.

We were using a type of database I'd never heard of - a vector store - to retrieve documents we had scraped from the web and were using to augment AI responses that were being streamed to the front end.

This was my introduction to RAG and I was shocked at how simple it was to get started and how difficult it is to maintain and do correctly.

Once you see how useful it is, you can't un-see it.

It felt like I glimpsed into the future.

Turns out many other companies are using RAG but it gets a hell of a lot less attention because it requires actual technical knowledge that doesn't grab headlines like:

"[𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘫𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘊𝘌𝘖] 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘈𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 99.2% 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵"

At Parsity we're going deep into RAG and the core skills you still need as a developer to excel with and without AI. 

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗯 𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗔𝗚 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: https://lnkd.in/d6Pzfcg6

A decade ago I was living a life that can only be described as... criminal. 

I was 50 lbs overweight, my lungs were toast from years of smoking and I had regular panic attacks.

I was a complete mess. 

Learning to code didn't change my life but it did change my wallet.

These are 3 habits (that don't involve code) that made the biggest difference in my coding career and life. Maybe you'll find them useful.

We all know a Kevin. Kevin’s been coding since middle school. He got a CS degree as a formality and casually drops references to Djikstra and Linus. H

Open article: 3 Habits That Changed My Coding Career That Have Nothing to do With Coding by Brian Jenney • 4 min read

3 Habits That Changed My Coding Career That Have Nothing to do With Coding

Learning to build software is the slowest get-rich-quick scheme I know of.

It’s still worth it.

Personally, I enjoy writing code for a living. I code outside of work hours because it’s also my hobby. I’ve started multiple businesses with this skill and met tons of amazing people.

Learning to code gives you options and leverage if you’re good at it.

At the end of the day, it’s also a job.

Here's what most new coders get totally wrong about the job of writing code for money...

According to Tik-Tok, the life of a software engineer is big bags, chill schedules and centering divs. So many f*cking divs need centering! Reality is

Open article: What New Coders Get Wrong About Software Development by Brian Jenney • 4 min read

What New Coders Get Wrong About Software Development

The CEO of AWS recently said that firing junior developers because “AI can replace them” is “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Is this even controversial?

Depending on who you listen to, you’d think we’re already obsolete.

Just beyond hype and shareholder meetings we might find reality.

The CEO of AWS recently said that firing junior developers because “AI can replace them” is “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” Is this even controve

Open article: A Tale of Two AI Realities: AI Took Away High Paying Tech Jobs… Right? by Brian Jenney • 5 min read

A Tale of Two AI Realities: AI Took Away High Paying Tech Jobs… Right?

"𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘏𝘛𝘔𝘓 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘑𝘚"
"𝘑𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦"
"𝘈𝘐 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘫𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘴"

I've read these brilliant takes online and I wonder how much they affect newer developer and learners.

This is part of the reason I started a new episode of Develop Yourself podcast to answer questions directly from listeners.

No fluff, no spin. 

Just my direct advice to you based on 11 years of progressively sucking less at coding.

𝗚𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (about coding, careers or AI)? 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽 𝗶𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲:  https://lnkd.in/gYzCQ2UK

𝗚𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘁-𝘀𝗼-𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? Leave it in the comments 😉

What the hell even is an AI engineer?

Someone who uses AI to write code?
Another word for data scientist?
10x vibe coder?

TBH - I'm still not sure but I do know that most developers are missing out on the most fun (and profitable) parts of building with AI:

• Using OpenAI with structured outputs and schemas
• Vector databases like Pinecone
• Scraping data for RAG (retrieval augmented generation) pipelines
• Going past spaghetti-code generation

Last night, me and some nerds from Parsity got together to build a cringe-influencer clone based on my LinkedIn posts to learn how to practically build an app leveraging RAG.

𝗧𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗜'𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. Then I'm privatizing that repo: https://lnkd.in/g_DTazAE

A developer from Parsity recently got hired and we'll be onboarding a few more people into an internship soon.

Now the real work begins: 

- Exploring a new codebase 
- Finding areas to make impact 
- Learning the engineering culture and the boatload of jargon (CI/CD, TDD, SDLC, story points, sprints) 
- Figuring out JIRA and the team's flavor of agile 
- Using git… but like, for real this time 
- Doing on-call 👹 

This is the area where developers need the most support.

The job search is stressful but it makes up such a small portion of the developer life-cycle. 

You won’t be spending your days optimizing algorithms or manipulating palindromes. The part after the interview is when the real work begins. 

If you’re a recently hired developer, what are some areas where you wish you had more knowledge?

The problem with the internet isn't that everyone has an opinion - it's that the most polarizing ones get all the attention.

I've had non-coders tell me that my job is at stake and no one is hiring. Career coaches who don't know what HTML is explain to me that companies simply don't need junior developers any more because AI can already do whatever it is they think juniors do.

These people may all be smarter and even better looking than me. That doesn't make them right.

It also doesn't make me right.

Try the tools. Read the studies. Understand what's going on just beneath the surface of the tools you use and maybe, just maybe, draw your own conclusions.

He created a full stack app that worked pretty well. It even looked nice.

But when I asked how it worked…

Oof.

𝗔𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗲. Too many developers fall into the trap of looking at a tutorial, following along with the instructor and typing what they type.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗼𝗳𝗳: a shiny new app. 
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁: a false sense of mastery

It’s an enticing trap and it may even fool someone into hiring you.

More than 90% of my side projects never had users or been deployed. 

I made janky apps and sites to learn new concepts, frameworks and even join a startup as a mid-level developer in a completely new tech stack.

Every side project doesn’t need to be a masterpiece. Leverage them to learn what you won’t at work or what you would like to work on next.

If you want my step by step guide on creating a solid side project you can grab it here

https://lnkd.in/gKsJEhZk

Taplio

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