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“I’d suggest two things […] 1. Play the numbers game […] 2. Network meaningfully”

— @bryandevideas

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Welcome to the series and let’s get started. In your recent posts, @bryandevideas, you have talked about your health journey this year. Can you talk about why that is important for devs and how you managed to lose 70lbs this year?

Glad to participate! And I hope I’m able to help. As developers, we depend on many things in order to do our jobs well, but I will talk about two: Stamina and focus. What we eat and how well our body functions deeply affect these two. There’s strong scientific consensus that poor eating contributes to mental fog, lack of energy and irritability. In February of this year I found myself in the ER and soon after diagnosed with diabetes. 👇🏼

5 months have passed since my diagnosis and not only have I lowered my glucose from 357 (the night of the ER) to a steady 70-90, but also have been taken off the meds and told that although diabetes is not curable, my exams (blood and others) look as if I don’t have diabetes. I’ve also, expectedly, have found myself being able to stick longer to hard problems, complete tasks with better quality and still have energy for my family and hobbies after a long day of work.(Continues 👇🏼)

I think all the facts above are more important than just the weight loss but I know people might want to know more about how I lost 70lbs so here’s the things I did:- Walked/Ran a minimum of 14k miles (up to 20K) per day. – Two meals a day: At noon and 7pm. Nothing in between except coffee or water. – Cut carbs to 20g-40g per day. – Weight lifting, 2 muscle groups per day. I’m happy to clarify if anyone has any questions about this!

In 2023 what gets you most excited about software development?

Generally, i am excited that there are rumors about the market improving by the last quarter and throughout 2024. Apparently there will be lots of openings and big tech hiring. That makes me excited for all the people who have gotten laid off and for the beginners who haven’t had a break yet! I know how it feels to do your best and still get rejected for reasons outside your control.

More personally, I am excited because I, along with my family, will try the digital nomad life starting soon!

Yes, tech workers have been hit hard in 2023. Hoping the tech hiring turns around in 2024, What are some tips you would give to new devs struggling to break into this field.

At the beginning of my junior year in college I had:

• 0 internships lined up
• 20 applications sent
• 2 interviews
• 20 rejections
• 0 friends at tech companies

I’d suggest two things based on what I did to fix this:

1. Play the numbers game: I decided to flood recruiters with my applications. Attend as many conferences, career fairs and recruiting events as possible and leave my resume with anyone who would take it. I had a goal of applications per week.
2. Network meaningfully I found alumni that worked at companies that I thought were interesting and kept in touch as much as possible without making it weird. I talk to most of them to this day, even tho I don’t need a job anymore. I asked them questions about their jobs, tech stack, day to day and I asked for mentorship. I also had reminders set up to interact with them.

I did these two things (many more too, but these were crucial) and by the beginning of my Senior year I had:

• 100 applications sent (about 95 rejected or ignored)
• ~15 Interviews
• Lots of meaningful connections in the Industry
• 1 internship already completed
• 2 more internships lined up
• 2 Full time offers even tho I hadn’t graduated.

What do you mean by digital nomad life? Walk us thru some of your hopes for this adventure.

I’ll be spending ~2 years abroad working remotely for a tech company in the US. I’m hoping to visit many countries in South America and who knows maybe Europe and Asia too.

It won’t be a vacation because I’ll be working but my wife and I thought this is the time to enjoy life. While we are young, fit and energetic. Our son lives traveling too and is trilingual, so he’s excited!

Can you give a quick overview of code smells, for people who might not know what they are. And the share a link to your recent blog post

Sure thing! Code smells are patterns in code that indicate deeper problems or weaknesses, even if the code still functions. They signal that there may be opportunities to refactor or restructure things to make the code more maintainable and readable. In my article I show 7 of the most common ones and how to address them: bryandevideas.tech/refac…

What are the current tools in your day to day development?

Lately I’ve been using Cody AI to dois check my code or find alternative solutions or common performance pitfalls. It’s also great for generating unit tests. It has de extensions/plugins for Websform and VsCode.

What are a few resources you would recommend to someone looking to get into a development career? These can be Websites? Blog? People? Books? Videos?

My favorite website this year for design patterns and refactoring: refactoring.guru/desig…

Favorite Books this year: Deep Work by Cal Newport and Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt.

This wraps up the third Threads Dev Interview. How can people find you elsewhere online?

Thanks! This was entertaining and I hope someone benefits. You can find all my Links for blog articles, mentoring and other social media here: linktr.ee/bryan…

See the original interview on Threads.