S1 E33: The learning journey never actually stops (DJ)

Eddie: 00:00:06

Welcome to episode 33 of the web joy podcast.

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I'm your host eddie and in this podcast we interview guests about their origin story

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and what makes them excited and joyful to be part of the tech community i hope you

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enjoy today's episode the learning journey never actually stops with dj taylor

Eddie: 00:00:27

Well, I'm excited to have DJ here today.

Eddie: 00:00:30

Dj, let us know who you are, what you do, where you work, uh, the brief

Eddie: 00:00:36

introduction about yourself, if you will.

DJ: 00:00:38

Awesome.

DJ: 00:00:38

Yeah, Eddie, thanks for having me on.

DJ: 00:00:40

Yeah.

DJ: 00:00:40

My name is DJ Taylor.

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I live in Los Angeles.

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My wife and I have lived here for almost three years now.

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We really love it out here.

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I originally grew up in Texas and then also lived in Chicago,

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so kind of been all over.

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So now I am a, uh, software engineer.

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I work at a startup that is based in Austin, Texas.

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It's called First Dollar.

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I just finished my fourth month, so I'm, I'm still very new to Tech.

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Yeah.

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My first job and yeah, I'm loving it.

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I mean, I'm, I'm getting to do a little bit of everything in, in my role and it's,

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it's just everything that I had hoped for.

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What

Eddie: 00:01:16

kind of got you to the point of thinking about going into tech?

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Obviously this is a, a new thing that you're doing right.

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Four months into the job, what was kind of the thing that spurred.

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That direction

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for you?

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Yeah.

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You know, there's, there's really no way to avoid this, but honestly

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it was kind of the early days of the pandemic time was teaching and that

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presents its own challenges, of course.

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Um, but, you know, I, I was just kind of trying to branch out and see

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like what else out there as far as other career paths or possibilities.

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Yeah, I actually kind of stumbled upon this platform that was teaching music.

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That's kind of my background as well.

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I, I play instruments and taught music as well.

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But anyway, so it was, it was teaching music along with learning how to

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code like really basic JavaScript and like Python and that sort of thing.

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And I was like, oh, that seems really interesting.

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Let me just like check this out.

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Maybe my students would enjoy doing that.

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And what I found was even from my first little, you know, hel Hello World program,

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I was just like, oh, this is really cool.

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Let me keep on doing it on my own.

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And what I found over the last couple years was that my curiosity was just

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peaked and, and I was just trying to learn as much as I could and I was

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just so, so motivated to, to come back to that and like pretty much

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any moment of spare time that I had.

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So that was really kind of the biggest thing, was just kind of like

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giving me something to focus on.

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That was also enabling me to be creative and like work some of

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those same muscles that I was used to as a musician and as a teacher.

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So yeah.

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That's awesome.

Eddie: 00:02:42

You know that you've been sucked in when you can't get it out of your mind.

Eddie: 00:02:47

Right?

Eddie: 00:02:47

You're thinking about a project or you're thinking about the

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code you were just doing.

Eddie: 00:02:51

Totally.

Eddie: 00:02:51

When you're no longer doing it and you're like, oh, I've been bitten by the

DJ: 00:02:54

code bug . Totally.

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Yeah, and I really knew it.

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I'd been bitten.

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When I was having dreams about like problems and like some of them are

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stressful, some of them were fun, but like, yeah, if there was like a JavaScript

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problem that I couldn't figure out and like I'm stress dreaming it, but

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I was like, okay, yeah, I'm in now.

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There's no escape at that point.

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You're done.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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For sure.

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For sure.

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. Awesome.

Eddie: 00:03:17

Well, yeah, I guess kind of how did you go about getting into tech, right?

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Did you.

Eddie: 00:03:23

Self-teach.

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Did you use specific resources online?

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What did that kind of journey to learning technology development

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and ultimately getting a job look

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like?

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It was a little bit of everything.

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I would say.

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I don't know the percentage of people that start on free code camp, but

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I'm, I imagine it's pretty high.

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Like that was kind of my first exposure to just kind of basic.

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H T M L C S S, JavaScript kinds of things.

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And then from there, just kind of branching out, uh, to some

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different online platforms.

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At that point, it's still free.

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I eventually kind of got into some Udemy courses.

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I was like, you know, there's a ton of, uh, of resources here.

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So I, I did like one of the boot camps that is there and it's,

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again, it's all self-paced.

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You kind of like code along with the instructor, but that was really fun and.

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I really started thinking about like, okay, I, I want this to

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be my next step, my next move.

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So how can I best situate myself to do that?

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And so, you know, I just reached out to friends who I knew had made similar

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transitions in their careers and kind of got turned onto some bootcamps.

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And so I did my research there.

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and connected with actually a mutual, mutual friend of ours, Lauren Yu.

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Um, and she talked about the Flatiron School and that's

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kind of what I settled on.

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And what was interesting about that program was that at the time they had

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this offering that was self-paced.

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You know, it's a little bit different cuz I wasn't in like one specific cohort that

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was like working with 10 to 15 people.

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They basically just gave you the whole curriculum.

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You know, you have check-ins with instructors, but you know, you

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build your portfolio, you learn all the concepts, and then at the

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end you're able to graduate again.

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As a teacher, I had my summer completely open and I basically spent, I'd say

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like eight to 12 hours a day just in that curriculum as hard as I could.

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And yeah, really, really loved that.

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So yeah, I built my portfolio.

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Started like doing all the career stuff.

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I had like a job, like a coach who was basically mentoring

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me through the job hunt.

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Um, but I knew there was something missing.

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I was like, gosh, I feel like I have some seeds that are planted,

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but I feel like what I really need is like this, this like sense of

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working together with other people.

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And that's where the collab lab comes in.

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And I'm sure we'll talk about that later.

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But basically that was like an eight week program.

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I'm working with a team of developers as well as mentors

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and we're building this app.

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And you know, to me like that was definitely the final.

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Puzzle piece in terms of just tying everything to together,

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because being self-taught is great.

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I, I, I definitely advocate for that because there is so much out there.

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But you also do need that kind of teamwork and like how to work on a distributed team

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in the real world, cuz that's, you know, what I'm doing in my job now for sure.

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So, yeah, that's kind of how I got there.

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You know, it's, it's kind of cool because like the learning journey never actually

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stops because even in my job, like.

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So much that's coming at me.

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I'm learning stuff every day and that's definitely one of the things that I'm,

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that I'm loving about it as well, is that you can get comfortable for a little

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while, but like there's, there's gonna be something new to learn and to explore

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and that's just really exciting to me.

Eddie: 00:06:16

That statement that you said, the learning never stops

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like that is totally true.

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I mean, I have been in programming for over 15 years.

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I literally have never been able to stop learning.

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There's always something new.

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There's always some other way to do it.

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There's always a different approach, or it's like when you finally figure out

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the tech, then you have to start figuring out like you even, like you work with

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a new company on a new product, and you have to figure out, okay, well what?

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What do these customers care about as opposed to my last customers cared about

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and like, Even when you're not learning the tech, you're learning the industry.

Eddie: 00:06:50

Because when we change jobs, I mean, some people stay in like, I don't

Eddie: 00:06:54

know, big banking or I don't know what other industry you might stay in for

Eddie: 00:06:58

a long time, but really most of us go from industry to industry every time

Eddie: 00:07:03

we change jobs, which is just, I don't know, programming is like one of the

Eddie: 00:07:06

few jobs, I think, where you literally change industries with every job

DJ: 00:07:11

change.

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Absolutely.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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But I love that about, about being Yeah.

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A developer, you know, it's just like the, the skills are so transferrable and

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there's so many opportunities out there.

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I, I think that that's, that's just super cool to know that like

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your career can take you a bunch of different places, so that's great.

DJ: 00:07:30

Yeah.

Eddie: 00:07:30

We'll definitely touch on the collab lab more.

Eddie: 00:07:32

That's actually where you and I met, so lots of love there.

Eddie: 00:07:36

But yeah.

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Kind of next up, we typically, you know, talk about something that brings the

Eddie: 00:07:42

guest of the episode, which is you, our distinguished guest, you know, brings them

Eddie: 00:07:48

joy and sometimes it's apps or technology or communities or things like that.

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And so I was just curious like what is it that kind of brings

Eddie: 00:07:58

you joy that you wanted to talk

DJ: 00:07:59

about?

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I think I wanna hit on two things actually.

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I, I definitely wanna talk about kind of the connections that I've

DJ: 00:08:04

made along the way in my journey.

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Um, but I also wanna talk about like, we've been hitting on this,

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uh, a little bit before, but just like learning and curiosity and

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like what feeds us in that way.

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So, I mean, to start with community, like music in my background, like I just

DJ: 00:08:19

grew up playing music with people and being in ensembles and working together.

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And so I feel like that sense of community and collaboration is just so.

DJ: 00:08:27

It's so central to like who I want to be and, and how I wanna live my life.

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And I just love that.

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In the last, again, couple years, the, the connections that I've

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made, whether it's mentors or fellow developers who are also learning

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along the way, it's just been so cool.

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And I think about actually a couple of relationships that really I.

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Come full circle.

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Um, number one is Lauren.

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Again.

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We have mutual friends who go way back cuz she also has a,

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a music musical background.

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But, you know, she was kind of my first like influencer, if you will.

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Like I definitely looked up to the sense of courage that she had to

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make this leap and then to see her like really thriving in her role.

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It was just so cool.

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So I definitely like, Took her advice and definitely sought out like her,

DJ: 00:09:08

uh, inputs, uh, especially early on.

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And then actually the company that I worked for, basically the, the VP of

DJ: 00:09:14

engineering, my, my boss, I, I've known him since like, we were like 18 years

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old, like back in college, . Oh, wow.

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That's awesome.

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Yeah, we, we didn't keep in touch like after school so much.

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We kind of went our separate ways, but like, I think it was my first LinkedIn

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post, a mutual friend of ours liked it.

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And then, Mike, uh, he saw that post, he sent me a direct message in LinkedIn,

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was like, dj, it's so cool to see that you've like done this transition.

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Let's just catch up some time.

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I wanna hear how life is going.

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And you know, it just started off as very organic like connection.

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And in the back of my mind, like I knew, I was like, this would be the dream.

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Like I would love for this to be my first job just because knowing him, it

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being a smaller company so that I can really like focus on building relat.

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With other people on my team.

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It was just like, this is perfect.

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And it was hard, obviously like job, the job hunt is like scary

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and like very intimidating.

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But I kind of had this like thought in the back of my mind it was like, this

DJ: 00:10:09

is gonna work out and it's it, you know?

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So it was definitely this kind of full circle moment.

DJ: 00:10:14

And I think we need that sort of thing in, in our world today.

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You know, there's just a lot that's happening outside and to know that like,

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you know, we have our people, we have our.

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It's super important.

DJ: 00:10:26

Yeah, absolutely.

DJ: 00:10:27

That's definitely bringing me joy.

DJ: 00:10:29

But yeah, I also kinda wanna talk about like, again, learning a bit more.

DJ: 00:10:31

Like I think that the, um, kind of your intention and like the curiosity

DJ: 00:10:37

that I have had over these last couple years has been so, like, rejuvenating,

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you know, it's like, it's very possible to kind of get stuck in one

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mindset or one mode in your career.

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And I was definitely feeling that as a teacher.

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I was just like, I just.

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Like, I know I don't really wanna be doing this, but I don't know

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what else is out there, you know?

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And so to like really land on something that's like, again, that's

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so fulfilling and just has so many like possibilities, I just can't imagine

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what the last couple years would've been like without learning how to code

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and like going through this journey.

DJ: 00:11:06

So that's been really special to me as well.

Eddie: 00:11:08

No, I think, I think that's huge.

Eddie: 00:11:10

Like learning is such a key part of who we are.

Eddie: 00:11:15

Developers, and

DJ: 00:11:17

I just wanna

Eddie: 00:11:18

throw a shout out to a previous episode that people, you know, if you

Eddie: 00:11:22

didn't listen to this and you know you're coming in on this episode or the one

Eddie: 00:11:25

before it, one of our early episodes with Jason, we talk about kind of continuous.

Eddie: 00:11:31

Learning, and I think that's definitely like a big thing is developers,

Eddie: 00:11:37

is that we're always learning.

Eddie: 00:11:40

And I think that's one of the things that can help kind of

Eddie: 00:11:42

click and let you know that like you should be a developer, right?

Eddie: 00:11:46

If like you don't like learning, you probably shouldn't be a developer because

Eddie: 00:11:49

you're going to end up either very unhappy or you're gonna have to find like a job.

Eddie: 00:11:55

For example, like a lot of our banking systems are using some programming

Eddie: 00:11:59

languages from the eighties.

Eddie: 00:12:00

Like, okay, if you learn that programming language and go to the banks, like you

Eddie: 00:12:03

can probably stick in that job for a while and not have to learn something new.

Eddie: 00:12:07

But it's very rare that there are areas that aren't changing, then

Eddie: 00:12:10

aren't evolving, and that if you don't learn along with it, like

Eddie: 00:12:14

you'll either be miserable or have a a hard time on the job.

Eddie: 00:12:18

So I think that's definitely a key.

Eddie: 00:12:20

Character trait of developers.

Eddie: 00:12:22

So

DJ: 00:12:22

I love that.

DJ: 00:12:23

Totally.

DJ: 00:12:23

Yeah, and I think to piggyback on that, I mean this isn't about getting

DJ: 00:12:26

jobs, but I feel like having, I've sat on the other side of the table

DJ: 00:12:29

now and interviewed like a couple of candidates and it's like skill is great.

DJ: 00:12:33

You know, portfolio is great, but like you're also trying to gauge again,

DJ: 00:12:37

someone's desire to keep learning and like how willing they are to like take.

DJ: 00:12:41

And like, put themselves out there and be vulnerable, which is like a real thing.

DJ: 00:12:45

I mean, there's a, an engineer on my team who, you know, worked at

DJ: 00:12:48

Google for 10 years and like, just again has a lot of experience.

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But like his number one thing is like get used to the

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feeling of being uncomfortable.

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Right?

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And that's not like a bad thing, that's just like kind of a sign.

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There's gonna be stuff that you're gonna have to learn and like figure

DJ: 00:13:01

out and like work your way through.

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And that's just part of the day to day, you know, it's kind of a

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reality of it, but it can definitely be a really positive thing as well.

DJ: 00:13:09

Cause like you're never gonna.

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Hopefully into like this rut that like you're just kind of stuck.

DJ: 00:13:13

You know?

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Like of course that'll happen occasionally cuz that's just life.

DJ: 00:13:15

But like there are always those opportunities out there.

Eddie: 00:13:19

And that is interesting because that kind of reminds me

Eddie: 00:13:22

of a lot of people in the industry talk about imposter syndrome, right?

Eddie: 00:13:26

And a lot of times people feel.

Eddie: 00:13:29

Feel like imposters, right?

Eddie: 00:13:30

They have imposter syndrome.

Eddie: 00:13:31

They don't wanna tell anyone because they feel scared by it.

Eddie: 00:13:34

And what they don't realize is like everyone in the industry

Eddie: 00:13:37

has imposter syndrome, right?

Eddie: 00:13:39

Totally.

Eddie: 00:13:39

Yeah.

Eddie: 00:13:40

And it's so interesting because I think imposter syndrome, literally, the reason

Eddie: 00:13:44

it's so prevalent in our industry is because, Imposter syndrome thrives when

Eddie: 00:13:50

you are just outside your comfort zone.

Eddie: 00:13:52

And so as developers, we're always having to learn.

Eddie: 00:13:55

We're always having to, like your friend mentioned, right?

Eddie: 00:13:58

Like always having to be a little bit uncomfortable because we're doing

Eddie: 00:14:01

something we've never done before.

Eddie: 00:14:03

Sometimes we're doing something, the company has never been done before.

Eddie: 00:14:06

Sometimes you're doing something that literally hasn't been done.

Eddie: 00:14:11

Right.

Eddie: 00:14:12

And that creates imposter

DJ: 00:14:14

syndrome.

DJ: 00:14:14

Right.

DJ: 00:14:15

So interesting.

DJ: 00:14:15

Yeah.

DJ: 00:14:16

And that's like a very real thing.

DJ: 00:14:17

I mean, it depends on the day, but like I can totally relate to that.

DJ: 00:14:20

You know, it's just like, and of course I'm still like super early

DJ: 00:14:23

on in my career, but you definitely hear about more experienced folks

DJ: 00:14:26

feeling that and you know, it's just something to accept, I feel like,

DJ: 00:14:29

and then again, you, you figure out.

DJ: 00:14:32

You identify what that is and you're like, oh, there's definitely

DJ: 00:14:35

opportunities to grow here.

DJ: 00:14:36

You know?

DJ: 00:14:36

And that's kind of how you, I feel, like, funnel that energy, so.

DJ: 00:14:40

Absolutely.

Eddie: 00:14:41

Yeah.

Eddie: 00:14:41

And I think, like you said, I think most people who say that they haven't

Eddie: 00:14:44

felt imposter syndrome either, a, they don't really understand what people

Eddie: 00:14:48

are talking about, and so they don't identify it or b, They're lying.

Eddie: 00:14:53

Um, , you know what I mean?

Eddie: 00:14:54

Like, because like for a long time I wouldn't have necessarily identified,

Eddie: 00:14:58

oh, I've felt imposter syndrome until I really thought about it at times.

Eddie: 00:15:02

And it's like, it can be subtle, right?

Eddie: 00:15:04

It can be as subtle as like, you get really anxious when the

Eddie: 00:15:06

boss is like, Hey, let's chat.

Eddie: 00:15:09

And it's like, well, why am I nerd?

Eddie: 00:15:10

Like I've been working in tech for 10 years.

Eddie: 00:15:13

Why am I getting nervous that the boss wants to chat?

Eddie: 00:15:16

There's no reason I would be fired.

Eddie: 00:15:17

Right.

Eddie: 00:15:18

But like the back of your mind, you're like, I'm gonna get fired

DJ: 00:15:21

like . Yeah, I know.

DJ: 00:15:23

Yeah.

DJ: 00:15:23

You just never know.

DJ: 00:15:24

Like it's, it's crazy.

DJ: 00:15:26

. Yeah.

DJ: 00:15:27

, Eddie: going back to what

DJ: 00:15:29

made along the way, I think.

DJ: 00:15:31

That's such a, a key thing is that like, yes, we can build some things alone,

DJ: 00:15:37

but so much of what we build, right, it thrives on working with each other.

DJ: 00:15:41

It thrives on building relationships with those around us, and that kind

DJ: 00:15:46

of leaves us to, to the end, which is.

DJ: 00:15:49

I like to ask someone if there's anything that they, you know, have been

DJ: 00:15:53

involved in or that they've worked on that they'd like to share that they

DJ: 00:15:57

think the community might find helpful.

DJ: 00:15:58

I think what you have to share kind of aligns nicely with that.

DJ: 00:16:02

Totally.

DJ: 00:16:03

Yeah.

DJ: 00:16:03

It's how we know each other.

DJ: 00:16:04

It's how we got into all of this, and that is the collab lab.

DJ: 00:16:08

And it's kinda a lot to say, it's a little bit hard sometimes, but, uh,

DJ: 00:16:12

again, I, I definitely recommend.

DJ: 00:16:15

Anyone who is like, on the path to making this kind of career change

DJ: 00:16:18

or just on their learning journey to definitely check out Collab Lab.

DJ: 00:16:22

It's a, it's a program that's open developers all over the world.

DJ: 00:16:26

It's completely free and, you know, basically you, you apply and then

DJ: 00:16:31

if you're accepted into the program, you're, you know, assigned to a team.

DJ: 00:16:34

I think of like four developers, I guess it could be.

DJ: 00:16:37

And then you have anywhere from like two to four mentors who are in the

DJ: 00:16:40

industry, like they're working, you know, they have experience and you

DJ: 00:16:44

know, it's, it's very condensed.

DJ: 00:16:46

It's about eight weeks long, but they're super mindful of time, you

DJ: 00:16:49

know, cuz we have lives, uh, you know, people have jobs, et cetera.

DJ: 00:16:53

And so, you know, you're spending like four to six, maybe eight hours a week.

DJ: 00:16:57

Either, you know, syncing with your fellow developers or, you know,

DJ: 00:17:00

having standups with the entire team.

DJ: 00:17:02

And I just can't think of a better experience that I had over the course

DJ: 00:17:07

of my learning journey, honestly, not only to work with mentors and

DJ: 00:17:10

like get that direct feedback, um, but also to like pair program with.

DJ: 00:17:15

People who were like kind of near where I was in terms of my learning.

DJ: 00:17:19

Like it was just life changing.

DJ: 00:17:20

I, I totally mean that.

DJ: 00:17:22

And you know what was really cool about it was, you know, I actually,

DJ: 00:17:25

I got my job at first dollar in my second or third week of the collab lab.

DJ: 00:17:30

Like that's kind of how the timing worked.

DJ: 00:17:32

So I was kind of doing both at the same time, but even like in the

DJ: 00:17:37

couple of weeks prior to my job and then like as I was navigating both.

DJ: 00:17:41

The experiences were so similar in terms of, again, working on a team of

DJ: 00:17:45

de developers, you know, having these stories you're working on, similar

DJ: 00:17:49

to like what a product manager would give you, you know, in, in a sprint.

DJ: 00:17:53

And then like doing demos and being able to talk through like what you

DJ: 00:17:56

worked on and working through, you know, different challenges like.

DJ: 00:17:59

They were almost the same and, and I feel like it just gave me a ton of confidence,

DJ: 00:18:04

you know, going into my first job and then like also having collab lab on the side.

DJ: 00:18:08

It was just really, really meaningful.

DJ: 00:18:10

And again, talk about community.

DJ: 00:18:12

Like that community has so much love for each other and like

DJ: 00:18:16

they're working so hard to build up people trying to get into tech.

DJ: 00:18:20

I think that that's actually kind of rare in a way.

DJ: 00:18:23

I will say that like, again, people in tech are super helpful in general, but

DJ: 00:18:27

like, you know, with boot camps and that sort of thing, like at the end of

DJ: 00:18:30

the day, those are businesses, right?

DJ: 00:18:31

Like they're trying to make money.

DJ: 00:18:32

Like there's that factor, right?

DJ: 00:18:35

And this is all volunteer run.

DJ: 00:18:38

All the mentors are doing it in their free time as well.

DJ: 00:18:41

Yeah, I just think there's really something special about that.

DJ: 00:18:44

So definitely recommend checking it out.

DJ: 00:18:46

I definitely want to be a mentor someday.

DJ: 00:18:49

Like I haven't really had a chance to, uh, in the last couple of runs,

DJ: 00:18:52

but I definitely think that's gonna be something that I am, that I get into.

DJ: 00:18:56

So also, if you are a more experienced developer, check out being a mentor, cuz

DJ: 00:19:00

I know that they're, you know, definitely looking for folks who want to kind of add

DJ: 00:19:04

that to, you know, their, their activit.

DJ: 00:19:07

Yeah, absolutely.

Eddie: 00:19:08

You know, like DJ mentioned, like from my perspective, I was actually one

Eddie: 00:19:13

of the mentors on his team and coming from a place of being an engineering

Eddie: 00:19:18

manager to what you said, like it really felt like what you do in the day job.

Eddie: 00:19:23

You know, there's a team of four developers that are.

Eddie: 00:19:26

Working on things and like you don't want to micromanage, right?

Eddie: 00:19:30

You want people to be able to learn on their own, but then you're

Eddie: 00:19:33

trying to figure out how do I speak into and help encourage people?

Eddie: 00:19:38

So I think if anyone is thinking about doing like engineering

Eddie: 00:19:42

management and stuff, that's a great.

Eddie: 00:19:44

Like thing to be able to say, Hey, go do mentorship and

Eddie: 00:19:48

see how that clicks with you.

Eddie: 00:19:50

And if it really clicks and you're comfortable with it, then maybe, you know,

Eddie: 00:19:54

they're not the exact same job, but it gives you a little bit of a taste of it.

Eddie: 00:19:57

And if that works really well, then maybe you do want to like, Talk to your company

Eddie: 00:20:02

more about like heading in that direction and it, it helps your resume, right?

Eddie: 00:20:07

Yeah, absolutely.

Eddie: 00:20:08

Having the mentor.

Eddie: 00:20:09

So yeah, I think it's amazing because this community creates value for the

Eddie: 00:20:14

people that are developers, that are learning, for the mentors who are coming

Eddie: 00:20:19

in and figuring out, like we learn, everyone always talks about we learn

Eddie: 00:20:22

best when we're teaching others, right?

Eddie: 00:20:24

And so like, To your point, right?

Eddie: 00:20:26

Coming back in and being a mentor when it works with your schedule and everything

Eddie: 00:20:30

like that, helps you kind of up your game to figure out how to help coach

Eddie: 00:20:36

people, how to lead people through.

Eddie: 00:20:37

So I think it's an amazing kind of cyclical program that

Eddie: 00:20:41

just helps build things on

DJ: 00:20:43

both sides.

DJ: 00:20:44

Totally.

DJ: 00:20:45

Yeah.

DJ: 00:20:45

Yeah, yeah.

DJ: 00:20:45

And, and just like the passion people have, you know, like when there's Yeah.

DJ: 00:20:49

An opening for volunteer work, whether that's like working on the,

DJ: 00:20:52

the website or something like that.

DJ: 00:20:54

Like people are just so quick to like, jump in on Slack or Twitter or

DJ: 00:20:57

whatever and be like, I'm there for it.

DJ: 00:20:58

You know, I'm, I'm here to help.

DJ: 00:20:59

You know, so that's, yeah.

DJ: 00:21:01

That's just really, that's really cool to see.

DJ: 00:21:02

Yeah.

DJ: 00:21:03

And I also like really admire that people bring their unique stories and experiences

DJ: 00:21:08

with them and like definitely make that.

DJ: 00:21:10

Like a really important part of the program.

DJ: 00:21:12

You know, like there's, there's folks who are like really diving

DJ: 00:21:15

deep into things like accessibility, which again, stuff that kind of

DJ: 00:21:19

gets talked about, but not really.

DJ: 00:21:20

And like even in my experience, like limited experience, like that was

DJ: 00:21:24

definitely front of mind the entire time was how can we make things more

DJ: 00:21:27

accessible and like, what are the things we can do to improve that, you know?

DJ: 00:21:31

And I think that there's definitely, there's definitely room for

DJ: 00:21:33

more conversations around that.

DJ: 00:21:34

And, you know, just getting.

DJ: 00:21:36

Young developers and mentors, like thinking about that, like

DJ: 00:21:39

that's, I think that's gonna have a, a big impact for sure.

Eddie: 00:21:42

Absolutely.

Eddie: 00:21:43

Yeah.

Eddie: 00:21:43

I love, like you said, that it can kind of be an incubator for what

Eddie: 00:21:46

the next generation of engineering managers and developers, kind of how

Eddie: 00:21:52

they think and how they approach.

Eddie: 00:21:53

It's the way things should be done.

DJ: 00:21:55

Yeah, absolutely.

DJ: 00:21:56

Sweet.

Eddie: 00:21:57

Well, I will include a link to the collab lab in the show notes

Eddie: 00:22:00

if anyone wants to check it out.

Eddie: 00:22:02

And dj, thank you so much for coming on and joining the podcast.

Eddie: 00:22:06

Awesome.

DJ: 00:22:06

Yeah, thanks for having me, Eddie.

Eddie: 00:22:08

Thank you for joining us for episode 33, the learning journey

Eddie: 00:22:13

never actually stops with DJ Taylor.

Eddie: 00:22:16

You can find out more about DJ on his website, DJ Taylor codes.com.

Eddie: 00:22:22

You can find links to everything we talked about in this episode, as well as

Eddie: 00:22:26

a link to DJ's website in the show notes.

Eddie: 00:22:29

If you enjoyed this episode, why not helping others discover as well?

Eddie: 00:22:33

Give us a shout out on your favorite social media platform.

Eddie: 00:22:37

Maybe tag a friend or coworker that you think would enjoy that episode.

Eddie: 00:22:42

And don't forget to follow us.

Eddie: 00:22:43

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Eddie: 00:22:45

Or you can subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date every week.

Eddie: 00:22:49

Thank you for listening and have a great day.