They spend the first part of the conversation discussing how Sherece managed to overcome her extremely low confidence to not just progress through the core curriculum, but to even enroll amid self-doubt and fear of failure. Though she was an incredibly curious and eager-to-learn child, life circumstances meant that Sherece lost this part of herself for many years. After developing an interest in software and spending several years dabbling in the prep course, she finally took on Launch School.

Sherece is approaching the end of a successful core curriculum experience with a transformed self-image and a renewed passion for learning and pushing her limits. She shares valuable insights into the initial difficulties of Launch School, as well as the challenges encountered along the way, like the personal development needed to confidently lead SPOT sessions and overcoming a 'Not Yet'.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

They spend the first part of the episode discussing Daniel's winding journey to Launch School in which he left a successful career behind. Daniel quit his job to pursue Launch School full-time, driven by a long-held vision to create an application that would later become Hack Chinese. Unlike many students who pursue Capstone, Daniel was focused on the mastery-based core curriculum to build a solid foundation, equipping himself with the skills necessary to bring his idea to life.

During the rest of the episode, Daniel shares the process of developing Hack Chinese, a language-learning platform designed to help users master Chinese characters through spaced repetition. Daniel was determined to be the sole developer, choosing to forgo venture backing and take on the project independently, even though it meant several years of work before success. He explains his desire to maintain complete sole proprietary and the satisfaction he finds in personally crafting every aspect of Hack Chinese.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Patrick also shares some of the more difficult hurdles he's faced. His initial plan and schedule for moving through the core curriculum were too rigorous, resulting in burnout and ultimately a false start where he paused his subscription while adjusting his expectations. After successfully restarting, as with many students, life happens and he must pause his subscription again. While most students hope for a very linear journey through Launch School, it's not always possible and this episode gives great insight into being flexible and allowing yourself the grace to take breaks.

We hope you enjoy the episode and also have a rest when you need it!

In this episode, Brandi has a conversation with Karis about Smooth Start. Karis is part of the Launch School staff and is largely responsible for creating Smooth Start, an introductory program to help students overcome common hurdles that are often faced at the early stages of Launch School.

They discuss why Smooth Start was created and new students' struggles, whether they're in the prep course trying to gauge how to take the plunge into the core curriculum, or fresh into the core curriculum, nervous about taking their first assessment.

Karis shares the week-to-week schedule that Smooth Start students get to participate in, along with how the agenda has changed over the various cohorts based on feedback from students and leads.

Finally, we get a sneak peek at what's to come with Smooth Start 5. Karis explains what's new in this cohort and how you can get involved.

They spend the first part of the episode discussing Missy's transition into software. She comes from a background in fine arts and went through several difficult, low paying, and, as she described, dead-end jobs. Even so, the decision to leave fine arts and transition into software development was challenging. She gives a very candid and level-headed perspective on the ups and downs of the core curriculum, Capstone, and the job hunt.

During the rest of the episode, Missy shares what it's like to work for New Relic, a massive company with over 500 engineers. She's part of a small team of 6 working on internal tools for the company, where she spends a lot of time debugging and relying on the fundamentals that she built at Launch School. She also gives insight into how she fits into the company as a Launch School grad and what her day to day is like.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

He also gives insight into overcoming a 'Not Yet' on his first coding challenge interview, even though he was technically prepared. He cites the support that he received from peers as a critical component of his ability to persevere. Nick is a great example of someone who came in uncertain, with low confidence, and became a pillar in the Launch School community as a SPOT lead, a Smooth Start lead, and over two-thirds of the way through the core curriculum. He's an excellent example of the transformation that can happen at Launch School.

We hope you'll have a listen!

Working at a corporate giant like Starbucks, Felicia is in an ever-changing environment where she's constantly required to learn new tools. She shares how drawing from mental models and foundations that she built at Launch School helps her continue to learn and thrive in her company. This episode gives great insight into how having a lifelong learning mentality can lead to opportunities, resulting in not just high-paying jobs, but a gratifying and healthy career too. Whether you're a few days into the core curriculum, or about to start your job hunt, you're likely to learn something from Felicia.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

We reached out to Katelyn to see if she wanted to share her story after she wrote and shared an article about her experience receiving a 'Not Yet' on an assessment. Every student has a different approach when they don't pass an assessment, but most approaches don't involve telling everyone in the community how and why it happened, in hopes of helping others. We wanted to hear from her!

They discuss her 'Not Yet' and what changes she made to her study habits. Katelyn also discusses her approach to having an online presence, and how she's taken as many opportunities as possible to work on her soft skills in conjunction with the technical skills she's learning from the coursework.

This is a great episode for gaining insight into what you can expect from your first few courses at Launch School, and the learning curve that many students face as they find their footing.

Alex had a full career before he transitioned into machine learning. He has a PhD in history and spent over 15 years doing research in Afghanistan. When he was ready for a change, he found Launch School and spent over three years going through core and Capstone. He shares his experience participating in Capstone from Pakistan, where he had a nocturnal schedule to work with his team. He also gives perspective on doing a job hunt in Europe.

For much of the interview, they discuss the state of the machine learning field. Alex is working as an ML Engineer at ZenML, on an open-source code base. They touch on what it's like working in a relatively new field and how Alex has incorporated into his team.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Chris starts the episode with a recap of the story of Launch School, and how his journey into teaching software over 10 years ago led to the Launch School curriculum as we know it now. This story explains how the curriculum is chosen and why adding assessments was a necessary step in the evolution of his teaching platform.

The story of Launch School gives a lot of insight into why things are the way they are now, but there were still questions to be answered. Chris spends the last hour of the episode answering questions that we see again and again, whether it's from current students, potential students, or those who've chosen a different path for their education journey.

This episode highlights how intentional every piece of Launch School is. It's an educational system built with an engineering mindset. We hope you come away with a better understanding of Launch School, and as always, we're happy to answer your questions or hear your ideas.

1:19 - The History of Launch School
22:43 - Why do students have to participate in interview assessments?
28:40 - Why is there a limit on the number of ‘Not Yet’s a student can get?
36:11 - Why is the standard or required grade to pass an assessment so high?
43:45 - Why can’t students test out of the core curriculum if they already have experience?
55:15 - How do you decide what content and the level of difficulty of the core curriculum?
58:51 - Why doesn’t the Launch School curriculum have a portfolio?
1:02:59 - Why are the community guidelines so strict?
1:08:15 - Why isn’t there any support to help core grads get jobs?

Now, she's working on the Delta Live Tables team at Databricks in a hybrid, but mostly in-person role. She talks about the connection she can see in hindsight from the early grind of the core curriculum, through her efforts in Capstone, to where she is now as a professional engineer working on a team. She has great advice for current students who feel unsure of their abilities.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Trisha opens up about receiving a 'Not Yet', a non-passing grade, on her first assessment over a year ago. She talks about the aftermath of doubt and insecurity. Trisha's trajectory changed drastically when she immersed herself into the community, finding a supportive group of peers to help her stay motivated, push her technically, and gauge her readiness for assessments.

This is a positive first-hand account of how your study habits can make or break your success at Launch School.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Jon was part of the 2019 fall cohort and began his job hunt at the start of Covid. Between being based in Ohio and the challenges that came with Covid, Jon had a tough job hunt. He shares insight into the experience of landing his first role during this time. After almost two years, Jon moved on to Datadog, where he works alongside ex-FAANG engineers.

The conversation also touches on his day-to-day at work, the technical details of working as a site reliability engineer, and the experience of joining a public company where the customer base is fellow software engineers.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

The SPOT, which stands for Study, Practice, Overlearn, Teach, is a student-led community within Launch School that facilitates virtual study sessions for every course in the Core Curriculum. They discuss the deterrents that often stop students from utilizing the space, such as being unaware that it exists, feeling inadequate to participate, or being intimidated by stepping into an existing community. In addition to encouraging students to attend SPOT sessions, they discuss what it means to be a 'SPOT Lead', and how it can push you even further as a student and leader.

They also discuss and show off GatherTown, the virtual study space where you can quite literally 'bump into' your peers. As a virtual school, it takes effort to deisolate your studies. GatherTown is a great place to go, whether you're joining a study group, meeting with a peer, or hanging out near others as accountability buddies.

Have a listen, and we hope to see you in GatherTown!

Benjamin was a high school math teacher for 12 years. After becoming a father, he decided he was ready for a career change. He talks about how he decided to study at Launch School and the considerations this involved, given his prioritization of parenthood. Later on, he talks about what it's like to have ADHD and the strategies he employs to be a successful student. Benjamin juggles a busy life and gives great insight into the sacrifices and hurdles many students face on their journey to mastery.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Her Launch School journey was a relatively long one, spending about 2 years working through the core curriculum as a mostly full-time student, with some of her time dedicated to being a TA. After Capstone, it's no surprise that Ginni ended up with a company just as passionate about writing as she is, now working on a small team developing a text editing interface that integrates AI to help writers write. Ginni gives great insight into what it's like to apply for jobs as someone without any prior experience in tech as well as a refreshing perspective on the tough job market. As someone used to donning many hats, it's clear that Ginni is open to new experiences and putting in the work it takes to do a job well, and her time through Launch School, Capstone, and now her new career, are no exceptions.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Because the Capstone Salaries page is discussed in depth it might be a good idea to have 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
Salaries Page Discussion
Conclusion & Karis Sign-off
Announcements

Show Notes

• Capstone Salaries Page
• Article: Our New 2021 Salaries Page
• Winter holiday forum announcement
• Do you want to be a TA? Information Post
• Capstone Presentation 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

to listen to the podcast click on the play button above the RSS and SHARE buttons

Introduction
Chris' Takeaways
Bytes: Community's Biggest Takeaways this year
Conclusion
Annoucements

Show Notes

• Capstone Presentation Signups
• Introduction to JavaScript Book - New Content
• Programming Essentials Workshops Page
• Capstone Salaries Page
• Launch School Shop

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

Show Notes

• LS181 Assessment Update
• Launch School Exercises Update
• Capstone Video Recording Presentations
• SPOTs Gather Town Introduction Video
• Women's Group May 15th meetup post

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

Intro
Agenda
Felicia's Interview with Chris
Felicia's Interview with Carolina
Women's Group Employer Speaker Series
Rodney's Tech Talk on GatsbyJS
New Assessment details: RB189/JS189
Answer your Questions on Air: Core Graduates
Karis' Interview with previous co-host Mandy
Reminders & Outro

Show Notes

• Felicia's Interview with Chris
• Felicia's Interview with Carolina
• Women's Group Employer Speaker Series
• Rodney's Tech Talk on GatsbyJS
• New Assessment details: RB189/JS189 post
• Core Curriculum Results post
• New Practice Problems for RB109 and JS109 Interviews post
• Introduction to Command Line Book exercise videos
• JS239 Interviews are now deprecated post
• Peer-led Seminar: JavaScript Testing
• Capstone Project Presentations Signup Posts:
  • QMantis
  • Hypha
  • Waypost
  • Artemis
• SPOTs Gather Town Information
• Women's Group 24th April meetup post

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

Introduction - 0:00
Agenda - 4:33
Buddy System for Female Students - 5:10
Felicia's Interview with Karis - 8:58
Chelsea's Article (Lessons From First Half of Core) - 12:25
Felicia's Video About How She Prepares For Assessments - 14:55
Katarina's Article (We are Made of Stories) - 16:25
Ethan's Article (Variable Scope and Access in Ruby) - 19:08
Importance of Teaching/Explaining Concepts - 19:54
New Assessment (RB/JS 185) - 21:01
Update to JS239 (and Why Courses Get Updated) - 24:57
Peer-Led Professional Git Seminar - 28:28
Start of Interview with Callie (Her Experience After Capstone) - 31:57
Callie's Advice for Current Core/Capstone Students - 40:52
What Callie Misses About Launch School - 43:27
Callie's Advice for Hosting Launch School Podcast - 45:40
Reminders & Outro - 48:48

Show Notes
Articles and Interviews:

• Felicia’s video: Interview with Karis
• Chelsea’s Article: “Lessons from the first half of Core”
• Felicia’s video: How she prepares for assessments and interviews
• Katarina’s Article: “We are made of Stories”
• Ethan’s Article: “Variable Scope and Access in Ruby”

New and updated assessment Information:

• New assessment RB185 and JS185
• Update to JS239 assessment

Professional Git Seminar Post:

• Professional Git Peer-Led Seminar

Daylight savings notice:

• Daylight Savings Launch School Post

Next Womens Meetup notice:

• Women’s Group Meetup April 3rd 2022 Post

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

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).

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/a_full_week_of_content_on_study_habits_tools_and/

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.

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.

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!

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.