Launch School Podcast

A quick introduction to this season with a peak at what's to come.

In this episode Chris and Karis discuss the latest Capstone Salaries page update. Chris shares important data to look out for on the new salaries page, and provides advice when comparing other career-launching programs out there on the market. This discussion is to be used as a companion guide to the salaries page, and is especially helpful for those looking to have more clarity on Capstone. The episode finishes with some announcements and upcoming events. Because the Capstone Salaries page is discussed in depth it might be a good idea to have launchschool.com/salaries (https://launchschool.com/salaries) open as you listen to this episode. to listen to the podcast click on the play button above the RSS and SHARE buttons Introduction (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salary-reflections?t=0) Salaries Page Discussion (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salary-reflections?t=26) Conclusion & Karis Sign-off (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salary-reflections?t=1550) Announcements (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salary-reflections?t=1583) Show Notes - Capstone Salaries Page (https://launchschool.com/salaries) - Article: Our New 2021 Salaries Page (https://medium.com/launch-school/our-new-2021-salaries-page-48be56002145) - Winter holiday forum announcement (https://launchschool.com/posts/6e40c70f) - Do you want to be a TA? Information Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/c4a938a2) - Capstone Presentation Videos (https://launchschool.com/videos) Fill out our form below if you have any questions about anything Launch School related whether its our prep course, Core Program, Capstone and beyond. Your question could be answered in our next episode! - Ask a Question Form (https://launchschool.com/podcast-requests)

In this bytes episode Karis asks Chris and the Launch School community "What was some of their biggest takeaways this year at Launch School?" After the students and staff share their takeways, Karis closes with some Launch School announcements and upcoming events. to listen to the podcast click on the play button above the RSS and SHARE buttons Introduction (https://podcast.launchschool.com/biggest-takeaways-this-year?t=0) Chris' Takeaways (https://podcast.launchschool.com/biggest-takeaways-this-year?t=48) Bytes: Community's Biggest Takeaways this year (https://podcast.launchschool.com/biggest-takeaways-this-year?t=356) Conclusion (https://podcast.launchschool.com/biggest-takeaways-this-year?t=1601) Annoucements (https://podcast.launchschool.com/biggest-takeaways-this-year?t=1686) Show Notes - Capstone Presentation Signups (https://launchschool.com/events) - Introduction to JavaScript Book - New Content (https://launchschool.com/posts/1f6e2683) - Programming Essentials Workshops Page (https://launchschool.com/workshops) - Capstone Salaries Page (https://launchschool.com/salaries) - Launch School Shop (https://shop.launchschool.com/) Fill out our form below if you have any questions about anything Launch School related whether its our prep course, Core Program, Capstone and beyond. Your question could be answered in our next episode! - Ask a Question Form (https://launchschool.com/podcast-requests)

In this episode Chris and Karis conduct a Q&A session about Launch School's new Programming Essentials Workshops, what they are why new programmers would want to attend. Karis then catches up with Launch School Alumnus Kelvin, who shares his experiences as a UK Capstone student and what it's like working as a software engineer based in the UK. The episode comes to a close with some Launch School announcements and upcoming events. to listen to the podcast click on the play button above the RSS and SHARE buttons Introduction (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=0) Workshop Q&A: What are Programming Essentials Workshops? (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=151) Workshop Q&A: Who are the workshops for? (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=350) Workshop Q&A: How do workshops differ from study sessions? (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=470) Workshop Q&A: What do I gain from attending a workshop? (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=624) Workshop Q&A: Would I learn anything new if I'm already going through the Prep Courses? (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=715) Workshop Q&A: Is it mandatory to attend a workshop for Launch School Students? (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=850) Workshop Q&A: Will there be a recording of these workshops available? (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=891) Workshop Q&A: More Information (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=931) Interview with UK Capstone Graduate Kelvin (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=1063) Annoucements (https://podcast.launchschool.com/programming-essentials-workshops?t=3285) Show Notes - Latest Programming Essentials Workshops (https://launchschool.medium.com/take-the-struggle-out-of-learning-to-program-with-3-new-workshops-9e8988204f6d) - How to navigate a recession webinar/medium post (https://medium.com/launch-school/how-to-navigate-a-recession-357f6c1a520e) - Launch School's Reddit Community (https://www.reddit.com/r/launchschool/) - Do you want to be a TA? Information Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/a1b03ff7) - Introduction to Programming with JavaScript Book with 78 new video walkthroughs (https://launchschool.com/books/javascript) - Launch School Women's Group October 9th Meetup (https://launchschool.com/posts/e6bd2e48) Fill out our form below if you have any questions about anything Launch School related whether its our prep course, Core Program, Capstone and beyond. Your question could be answered in our next episode! - Ask a Question Form (https://launchschool.com/podcast-requests)

In this episode Chris and Karis discuss a recent inspirational talk given by Core graduate student Jake. Chris answers some additional Launch School-related questions including how ISAs work. Karis interviews Capstone graduate and Launch School Alumna Catherine, who shares what life has been like as a software engineer a year and a half on from her studies at Launch School. The episode ends with a few announcements about the latest events. Introduction (https://podcast.launchschool.com/transforming-at-launch-school?t=0) Discussion on Jake's Gather Town Talk: Transformation (https://podcast.launchschool.com/transforming-at-launch-school?t=40) Discussion on Jake's Gather Town Talk: Study Checklists (https://podcast.launchschool.com/transforming-at-launch-school?t=324) Discussion on Jake's Gather Town Talk: Good Grades as the Goal (https://podcast.launchschool.com/transforming-at-launch-school?t=593) Question about Technicality versus Personality in a Tech Role (https://podcast.launchschool.com/transforming-at-launch-school?t=887) Question about Income Share Agreements (ISAs) at Lauch School (https://podcast.launchschool.com/transforming-at-launch-school?t=1083) Interview with Catherine (https://podcast.launchschool.com/transforming-at-launch-school?t=1602) Annoucements (https://podcast.launchschool.com/transforming-at-launch-school?t=4709) Show Notes - Dealing with Failure at Launch School: how to transform from a C to an A student with Jake deVarennes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-wvbwnYC7Y) - Jake's A+ Checklist (https://medium.com/@jakedevar111/there-are-many-ways-to-study-for-an-assessment-however-this-is-the-best-way-that-i-have-found-for-ed85cea4ffba) - Capstone Program and Launch School's ISA (https://launchschool.com/capstone) - Chat to @Catherine on The Launch School Community Slack (https://launchschool.com/chat) - Do you want to be a TA? Information Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/c4a938a2) - Chelsea's Blog Posts: Time Out Part 1 (https://chelsea-saunders.medium.com/time-out-part-1-6b9349afbb) - Chelsea's Blog Posts: Time Out Part 2 (https://chelsea-saunders.medium.com/time-out-part-2-db3b30a3d514) - Launch School Women's Group August 28th Meetup (https://launchschool.com/posts/49f5d4c1) Fill out our form below if you have any questions about anything Launch School related whether its our prep course, Core Program, Capstone and beyond. Your question could be answered in our next episode! - Ask a Question Form (https://launchschool.com/podcast-requests)

In this episode Chris discusses the latest 2021 Capstone salaries, and provides some advice for students that have concerns about the recession. Karis catches up with younger students, Ethan and Tyler, and learns how their Launch School studies are already making an impact on their software engineering journey. Karis ends the episode with a few announcements about the latest events at Launch School. Introduction (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=0) 2021 Capstone Salaries (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=47) Recession (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=579) Question about student impact on Recession (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=761) Question about increasing cost of Core and Capstone (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=1085) Question about Capstone Admissions (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=1145) Capstone Introduction and Breakdown (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=1280) Interview with Ethan (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=1529) Interview with Tyler (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=3571) Annoucements (https://podcast.launchschool.com/capstone-salaries-recession-young-launch-school-students?t=4375) Show Notes - 2021 Capstone Salaries (https://www.reddit.com/r/launchschool/comments/vilb1l/2021_capstone_salary_tweet/) - Capstone Information Page (https://launchschool.com/capstone) - Jason Wang's Article on Building an App during Launch School (https://medium.com/@jasonherngwang/building-an-app-at-the-midpoint-of-launch-school-core-d1354fa99188) - New Practice Problems for RB109 Interview Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/8c5400fa) - New Practice Problems for JS109 Interview Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/ca1f1406) - New Practice Problems for JS210 Assessment Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/45eda63c) - Cloud9 Support Group Information Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/ca3925d0) - Launch School Women's Group August 7th Meetup (https://launchschool.com/posts/f4319233) - Do you want to be a TA? Information Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/c4a938a2) - Excellent Student 175/185 Backend Projects! - Jason's Project (https://launchschool.com/posts/61ea0b18) - Ethan's Project (https://launchschool.com/posts/11725358) - Ricky's Project (https://launchschool.com/posts/842102f3) - Zach's Project (https://launchschool.com/posts/deeeb700) - Student Rich's Article: What Century is After Midnight? (https://medium.com/@justcodeitrich/what-century-is-after-midnight-4182529cb24c) If you have any questions about anything Launch School related whether its our prep course, Core Program, Capstone and beyond please fill out our form below and your question could be answered in our next episode! - Ask a Question Form (https://launchschool.com/podcast-requests)

In this episode Launch School Student Felicia interviews Chris as he shares the origin story of how Launch School came to be. He also offers his unique perspective on how Launch School approaches learning, coding education and software engineering. The show includes several new announcements that students should be aware of. Show Notes - LS181 Assessment Update (https://launchschool.com/posts/0d4cdede) - Launch School Exercises Update (https://launchschool.com/exercises) - Capstone Video Recording Presentations (https://launchschool.com/videos) - SPOTs Gather Town Introduction Video (https://vimeo.com/705224933/72e449a8d0) - Women's Group May 15th meetup post (https://launchschool.com/posts/15ff8fd9) If you have any questions about anything Launch School related whether its our prep course, Core Program, Capstone and beyond please fill out our form below and your question could be answered in our next episode! - Ask a Question Form (https://launchschool.com/podcast-requests)

This episode Karis and Chris discuss the all the latest Launch School interviews and presentations. Karis also catches up with the co-host from last season Mandy who now works at Mozilla. Finally they leave you with a number of new announcements that students should be aware of. Intro (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=0) Agenda (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=19) Felicia's Interview with Chris (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=62) Felicia's Interview with Carolina (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=267) Women's Group Employer Speaker Series (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=562) Rodney's Tech Talk on GatsbyJS (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=1083) New Assessment details: RB189/JS189 (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=1301) Answer your Questions on Air: Core Graduates (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=1663) Karis' Interview with previous co-host Mandy (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=2183) Reminders & Outro (https://podcast.launchschool.com/latest-news-interviews-mandy?t=3986) Show Notes - Felicia's Interview with Chris (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MSarPQLprU) - Felicia's Interview with Carolina (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09CFH1Gz_as) - Women's Group Employer Speaker Series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKLe_cNpOSY) - Rodney's Tech Talk on GatsbyJS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xNVJu1mIY0) - New Assessment details: RB189/JS189 post (https://launchschool.com/posts/fe4ef7eb) - Core Curriculum Results post (https://launchschool.com/posts/6c701be2) - New Practice Problems for RB109 and JS109 Interviews post (https://launchschool.com/posts/c4a938a2) - Introduction to Command Line Book exercise videos (https://launchschool.com/posts/e56d9167) - JS239 Interviews are now deprecated post (https://launchschool.com/posts/38b95bfa) - Peer-led Seminar: JavaScript Testing (https://launchschool.com/posts/db091877) - Capstone Project Presentations Signup Posts: - QMantis (https://launchschool.com/posts/0c0036d3) - Hypha (https://launchschool.com/posts/df7d6a0f) - Waypost (https://launchschool.com/posts/97634bf6) - Artemis (https://launchschool.com/posts/6a213d4f) - SPOTs Gather Town Information (https://launchschool.com/gists/0aae3afb) - Women's Group 24th April meetup post (https://launchschool.com/posts/6a0e54c7) If you have any questions about anything Launch School related whether its our prep course, Core Program, Capstone and beyond please fill out our form below and your question could be answered in our next episode! - Ask a Question Form (https://launchschool.com/podcast-requests)

This season Chris kicks off our first episode by introducing Launch Schools new podcast format and new co-host Karis. Together they discuss the latest events happening at Launch School and some quick reminders students should be aware of. Karis also catches up with previous host Callie in a 1 on 1 interview. Show Notes Articles and Interviews: - Felicia's video: Interview with Karis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke5uLNQzlV4) - Chelsea's Article: “Lessons from the first half of Core” (https://medium.com/launch-school/lessons-from-the-first-half-of-core-50a6d85f9c76) - Felicia's video: How she prepares for assessments and interviews (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS1ar08blQk) - Katarina's Article: “We are made of Stories” (https://katarinarosiak.medium.com/we-are-made-of-stories-c9bf30c2f69d) - Ethan's Article: “Variable Scope and Access in Ruby” (https://ethanweiner.medium.com/variable-scope-and-access-in-ruby-the-important-parts-dc2d146977b3) New and updated assessment Information: - New assessment RB185 and JS185 (https://launchschool.com/posts/fe4ef7eb) - Update to JS239 assessment (https://launchschool.com/posts/03acaa9b) Professional Git Seminar Post: - Professional Git Peer-Led Seminar (https://launchschool.com/posts/32e091b2) Daylight savings notice: - Daylight Savings Launch School Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/751c6507) Next Womens Meetup notice: - Women's Group Meetup April 3rd 2022 Post (https://launchschool.com/posts/1b781274) If you have any questions about anything Launch School related whether its our prep course, Core Program, Capstone and beyond please fill out our form below and your question could be answered in our next episode! - Ask a Question Form (https://forms.gle/nrqvGgUjeaki3DcJ8)

In today's episode, our podcast hosts Chris, Callie, and Mandy share their end of the year reflections on Season 3, new updates on where Mandy and Callie are going, upcoming ideas for season 4, and ambitious goals for Launch School in the New Year and beyond. Chris, Callie, and Mandy wishes everyone a joyous and wonderful holiday season! You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In today's episode, Callie chats with Launch School TA Pete about his journey to and through Launch School. He shares about his beloved cats we see glimpses of, what brought him to Launch School, and why he enjoys being a part of this community. He also sheds light on what makes a good Core student and talks about someone who made a lasting impact on his career. You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In this Thanksgiving episode, Mandy talks to students who have been at Launch School for over a year. These students share what they are grateful for and how the community has helped them throughout their journey at Launch School. Special thanks to the stories shared by the wonderful students: Alfonso Gonzalez, Felicia Bacon, Charles Hartman, Anne Tiotuico, Natalie Thompson, Rona Hsu, and Austin Miller. You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In today's episode, Callie chats with three Launch School students in three very different life stages. They share how they came to Launch School, what seemed to come easy to them, and what was harder. Without hearing one another's interviews, they paint similar pictures that are still unique. Whether you've been here awhile or have just joined the community, their stories will encourage you and help you see, a little clearer, the wonderful community you're a part of. You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In today's episode, Callie chats with Launch School TA Srdjan as he shares his journey to and through Launch School. He generously shares about a wide range of experiences, from how his cats lovingly torture him to what scared him the most as a student/TA at Launch School. He shares lessons learned from being a student, and what he believes makes a genuinely good Capstone student (it's probably not what you think). There's also plenty of jokes and laughter — and who knew Srdjan could laugh ? You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In today's episode, students from Women Who Code share what the group is, what the meet-ups are like, and how they've found a sense of belonging and community. These students talk about the importance of having a supportive community while going through the ups and downs of online learning at Launch School. They generously share their thoughts and experiences through their time spent in wwcode: Elizabeth talks about how and why wwcode started Dana and Bernardette share insights on what it's like hosting a meeting up Rachael and Stephanie share their experience attending a meet-up Gwen and Shay share how they have been helped by wwcode Leena and Carolina talk about how wwcode influenced them and memorable moments throughout the year You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In this episode, siblings John and Adam Isom come chat about their journeys working together through Launch School. Adam had completed a different coding bootcamp and was in the midst of completing his CS degree when he switched to focus on Launch School. John walked away from a college scholarship to study CS to do Launch School. Why did they do that? How did it work out? Give this episode a listen to find out! In this conversation, we chatted about: * Attending college vs getting a job straight out of high school * A CS degree vs Launch School * Working and studying with your brother * The importance of a "default environment" * The SPOT community at Launch School * The awkwardness of a six-figure job hunt straight out of high school You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching "Launch School", or directly on this page (see audio player above).

Today's episode is the first of a new series called Bytes: a collection of sound-bites from the Launch School community that answer a focused question. A question we've all asked at some point or another is why should I go to Launch School? Maybe you're past that point, or maybe you're still trying to figure it out. Either way, listen in to hear the voices of eleven different people from the Launch School community share their answers to that very question. There's also something new at the end that tells you how to help out with the podcast! So listen closely :) You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

Previously in Season 2, Chris talked with Gabe, Ben, and Arthur to share their story on how they, as a group, supported one another through the Core curriculum. That episode highlighted the importance of community and friendship. In this episode, Gabe, Ben, and Arthur are back with us to share more! They update us about their journey through Capstone, the job hunt, working as software engineers and meeting each other in person for the very first time. Gabe, Ben, and Arthur take us through their personal growth as individuals and as a group. They share amazing insights on imposter syndrome, building confidence, how conflicts help relationships grow, gratitude, freedom, fun, happiness, and ultimately lessons learned about friendship and teamwork. "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far go together." - Gabe

In today's episode, Launch School students Jenae and Mandy interviewed Barbara Oakley. Dr. Oakley is no stranger to Launch School students — her Learning How to Learn course is a required part of the preparation to being a student! The conversation has many gems, including what it's like being a woman in STEM and how programming is a form of art. She generously shared her own journey of learning how to learn, why “follow your passion” is actually not great advice, why taking your time greatly impacts your learning, and why programming is one of the best examples of how mastery-based learning is the way to go. She's as kind, knowledgeable, and passionate as we all already knew her to be. You can listen from your favorite podcast app by searching for “Launch School”, or listen directly from your browser.

In this episode, I caught up with Liz, Jesse, and Katarina to chat about another peer-led community group at Launch School called "The Social Network". We previously chatted with The SPOT community leads here on the podcast, but The Social Network differs in that its mission is geared towards social events and having fun. Last month, The Social Network put on an amazing Conference on Study Habits. I have never heard of a conference on studying before, even though studiousness is the primary attribute for success in any learning endeavor. And that is certainly true for us at Launch School. I wasn't sure what to expect from the conference; worst case, it'll be a nice way for Launch School students to interact outside of the curriculum and assessments. However, the quality, participation, and reception of the presentations from that conference really surprised me. The talks were good -- really good -- and many participants said that the conference changed their approach to learning. In this podcast episode, we talked about how The Social Network group came to be and what led to the conference and where we're going next with this group. All conference talk recordings are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/launchschool/comments/klxl2t/afullweekofcontentonstudyhabitstools_and/

Welcome to another episode of the Launch School podcast. This is a slightly different episode in that it’s a recording of a webinar we did a few weeks ago about our Deferred Payment Program (https://medium.com/launch-school/announcing-our-deferred-payment-program-f29eb08e64fb). Now why would we include a webinar in the podcast? Well, the reason is because this webinar is actually a panel of Launch School students and the conversation is mostly about their journey through Launch School, so I thought it’d be suitable for the podcast. The student panel includes: Derick Gross, Capstone alum, Software Engineer at Ridgeline Catherine Emond, Capstone alum, Software Engineer at Shopify Graham Robertson, current Core and DPP participant Enjoy the conversation.

In this episode, I caught up with Leena, Rodney, and Christian who started a peer-based study group within the Launch School community called SPOT, which stands for Study, Practice, Overlearn, and Teach. This is, arguably, one of the most important topics for us as a mastery-based learning program. I’ve been observing this group for a few months and have been blown away by their organization, professionalism, quality of the study sessions, quality of the session leads, and in general the culture of giving back they’ve established. Everyone is at Launch School because they are ambitious and they want to become the best programmers they can be. We’ve always said it’s a tough road and there’s a lot of hard work involved. Mastery based learning has the potential to unlock every individual’s potential, but it’s a lonely journey. The SPOT community is showing that you can have the best of both worlds and it doesn’t HAVE to be a lonely journey after all. It’s showcasing the fact that Launch School, despite being online and being mastery-based, can also be a collaborative journey, one with community at the core. Enjoy the conversation.

Welcome to Season 2, Episode 7 of the Launch School podcast. In this episode, I had a chance to chat with Sunny Beatteay, a senior software engineer at Digital Ocean and Capstone alum. This conversation was recorded a few months ago back in March, 2020. Many of you who hang out in the Launch School chat room have probably seen his name there. Sunny is always amazing to speak with because he’s so open and willing to share. Despite all his achievements, he has no ego and I hope through this conversation, it sheds light on the attitude and approach anyone at Launch School can take to reach their career goals. In this conversation, we chat about day to day life at Digital Ocean, what projects he’s working on, how he got promoted so quickly just two years in, and he even gave a breakdown of his salary progression from when he first joined to his post-promotion salary. We also talked a bit about his post-Capstone job hunt and how it takes luck, confidence, and preparation to land an ideal job. It’s a great conversation. By the way, if you take time to leave a positive a review for us on either Apple or Google, it’d help us spread the word. If you enjoyed this episode, we’d really appreciate it if you could leave us a good review. Thanks and I hope you enjoy!

In this episode, I asked one of our very first Capstone graduates to share with us what’s been going on a few years removed from graduating Capstone. Michael joined Launch School in 2016, finished Capstone in 2017, and is now making a “quarter of a million” at Facebook working on the Oculus VR team. We always talk about Launch School being a long-term investment, so now we get to see what the returns on that investment can look like years down the road. I loved this conversation because despite the dream job and impressive salary, Michael absolutely exudes humility. He said something that I completely agree with, which is that humans are more similar than we are different, and if he can do it, anyone can. Just two years ago, he was just like you: here at Launch School working through the assignments. Note that this episode was recorded in the fall of 2019 and it is now, at the time of publishing this episode, mid-2020. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

In this episode I got a chance to speak with Nick Calibey, a Capstone graduate and software engineer at TimescaleDB. We talked about how he went from getting his Masters in Theological Studies to now working on Cloud Infrastructure making 6 figures all working remotely from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nick is one of the first remote people we took into Capstone, so the remote job hunt is a topic we focused on in this conversation. Now this episode was recorded late 2019; it is now April, 2020. At the time of recording, we were not yet in a pandemic and so we didn’t talk about that at all. Now in April 2020, we’re in the middle of quarantine and shelter-in-place rules, and all employers are interviewing remotely. I think remote jobs will only become more prevalent, especially in software, and I hope this conversation shows that there are also amazing engineering-centric remote jobs within the reach of Launch School graduates.

I asked Gabe, Ben, and Arthur to come on the podcast today to share their story about how they, as a group, are supporting and helping each other through the Core curriculum and talk about the importance of community. To me, they’ve cracked the code with regards to mastery-based learning. There are so many positives to mastery-based learning and if you’ve been listening to the podcast and following what we’re doing at Launch School, you know the results we’re seeing and how employers are responding to our graduates and of course seen our outrageous salaries. But what we don’t talk about very often is what a lonely process it can be to study in a mastery-based way. In this episode, we’ll shed some light in how you can get the best of both worlds. How you can have a community and have a group-based support structure while also reaping the benefits of mastery-based learning.

I catch up with Sasha Prodan, who describes her multi-year journey to her high-paying software engineering role. Sasha arrived in the US as an immigrant, worked retail jobs to support herself, and spent 3 years completing her transition to a software engineering role in San Francisco.

Capstone graduate and frequent Launch School Tech Talk speaker, Julius Zerwick comes on the podcast to chat about his Software Engineer job at DigitalOcean, software salaries in NYC, the importance of soft skills, pros/cons of coding bootcamp vs Launch School, and his upcoming book Make Sense of Distributed Systems from Manning.

In this first episode of Season 2 of the Launch School podcast, I chat with Capstone graduate Tannr Allard about his reflections on going from leaving college to a $120K job to working in blockchain development.

In this episode, we speak with Letladi Sebesho, a South African developer who recently completed all (well, most) of the Launch School courses. He talks about how Launch School compares with his computer science courses, his job hunt process, and also how he's been doing now that he's been working for a few months. 

In this episode, Jay Shenk talks about changing career goals from an aspiring clarinetist to a programmer and how he applies what he learned as a trained musician to programming. Jay’s been at Launch School for around a year and shares some advice and tips around how to make the most out of your Launch School experience.

Terry Lee came on the podcast today to talk about her experience so far at Launch School. Terry has been at Launch School for about a year and has aced every assessment so far. She talks about her previous career as a product manager, getting laid off, and then doubling down on her own education. We also talked about her recent participation at a hackathon and how she contributed despite not knowing the technology stack being used.

Naveed is has been learning at Launch School for around a year and has been an outstanding student so far. He's nearing the end of the curriculum and stopped by the podcast today to share his story. We talked about the unique challenges of Mastery-based Learning from a remote village in Pakistan. He has to deal with issues ranging from consistent internet connectivity to pricing -- you won't believe what he's had to do to pay for his subscription to Launch School. 

Darren Burgess stopped by the podcast to talk about his experience at Launch School. Before starting at Launch School, he spent many years as a Filemaker Pro developer and even attended a different coding “bootcamp”. We talked about the learning process he’s been on and why he almost left Launch School.

Rachel is currently in the "Advanced" phase of the program, having completed all back end and front end courses. She stopped by to share her experience so far at Launch School. We talked about:  her art and philosophy background and how that's affected her programming journey balancing Launch School with a fulltime job Women Who Code and women in tech her experience going through the Advanced courses the importance of gaining confidence in what you do

In this interview, Tommy Caruso shares with us his strategy of balancing a family, kids, finishing up his Computer Science degree, and Launch School all at the same time. Oh, and he’s also interning in his spare time. We had a great time chatting about time management, study habits, and the sacrifice it takes to really learn things to depth. Listeners may also be interested in his take on comparing his Computer Sciences courses with that of Launch School.

One of our students, Karl Lingiah, took time to answer some questions and talk about his journey so far at Launch School. He shares his ideas on learning in general, and specifically what his experience has been so far at Launch School. Note: we had a sub-optimal internet connection, so the audio is not the best, but the full talk is still worth a listen.