How to get a FAANG Dev Job in your 40s with Coding Interview University creator John Washam [#134]
13,605
Published 2024-07-26
This is John's first-ever podcast interview, and the first time he's told his story. Interviewing him was an absolute honor.
We talk about:
- How John delivered pizzas to save enough money to buy his first computer in the 90s. "I was tired of being a broke kid."
- John's first career in the US military, where he worked as a translator in South Korea
- How John crammed Computer Science for 8 months and taught himself enough theory and coding skills to get a job in big tech, then published Coding Interview University on GitHub
- What it's like to work as a senior developer at a big tech company, and what you can expect the journey to be like
Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1986 rock song.
Also, I want to thank the 9,779 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: www.freecodecamp.org/donate
Links we talk about during our conversation:
- Coding Interview University: github.com/jwasham/coding-interview-university
- The Starup Next Door, John's blog: startupnextdoor.com/
- The Talent Code, the book John recommends: www.amazon.com/Talent-Code-Greatness-Born-Grown/dp…
- Follow John on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnawasham/
Contents
0:00:00 Introduction and Background
0:07:13 The Importance of Continuous Learning and Passion
0:30:57 Debunking the Myth of Talent in Programming
0:34:54 The Insidious Nature of MLMs
0:45:36 Learning and Transitioning to Web Development
0:56:22 Joining the Military and Learning Korean
1:08:43 Applying for Jobs and Starting a Career in Web Development
1:10:50 From DIY Websites to Entrepreneurship
1:14:42 Learning by Doing: Building Projects to Gain Skills
1:17:01 The Challenges of Marketing and Scaling a Business
1:21:33 Understanding the Market and Solving Real Problems
1:24:31 The Importance of Effective Marketing and Distribution
1:27:31 Sacrifices, Dedication, and Motivation: Keys to Entrepreneurial Success
1:45:03 Challenges in Transitioning to Software Engineering
1:51:42 Treating the Learning Process as a Startup
2:14:20 The Value of Learning Computer Science
2:19:43 Career Growth and Advice
2:30:31 Success in the Tech Industry
2:32:17 Narrowing Down Job Applications
2:58:41 Front-end Engineering vs. Software Engineering
3:02:45 Continuous Learning and Strong Fundamentals
All Comments (16)
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I used to think I was too old and not smart enough to become a developer. At 31, I'm a dev with just over 2 years of experience now.
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best you are ever going to be vs best you are ever going to do are different things. your level of effort is a huge means of determination. it isn't always about WHAT you can do, but what you are willing to do.
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What about mid-50's ??
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This is inspiring, currently working in QA , it's been 6 years and I've had enough ..want to jump to dev and always felt as if I don't have the smarts and won't be able to do any good ..
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Respect and Gratitude!
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Living On A Prayer
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I'm 93 years old, can I become a MAANG developer? I have some knowledge of web dev with react, nodejs, nextjs and django
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Interesting and I love this channel
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🎉
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❤❤
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3 hours? I don't even want a FAANG dev job.
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ven 25-year-olds can't find jobs these days. Despite knowing multiple programming languages and practicing for interview questions, people still can't get hired; they are being rejected outright. I know people who have been applying for jobs for a year, even a year and a half. People are even being laid off. Understand this, finding a job has become very difficult, extremely difficult. For those over forty, it's even harder. The job market has changed a lot, friends. Really, unless you have connections, getting a job is incredibly, incredibly difficult.
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What about 50's and just want to escape unskilled minimal wage manual drudgery?
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English is not really a difficult language to learn. 😅
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soycamp
