James Q Quick shares how he got his start in tech and how a couple of job interview rejections turned into a bigger opportunity and ultimately a career path as an evangelist, speaker, and teacher.

SPONSORS

Pathwire / Mailgun / Mailjet

Pathwire is a powerful email API and intuitive email marketing solution that delivers over 250 billion emails a year for 400,000 companies around the world.

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Vercel

Vercel combines the best developer experience with an obsessive focus on end-user performance. Their platform enables frontend teams to do their best work. It is the best place to deploy any frontend app. Start by deploying with zero configuration to their global edge network. Scale dynamically to millions of pages without breaking a sweat.

For more information, visit Vercel.com

ZEAL is hiring!

Zeal is a computer software agency that delivers “the world’s most zealous” and custom solutions. The company plans and develops web and mobile applications that consistently help clients draw in customers, foster engagement, scale technologies, and ensure delivery.

Zeal believes that a business is “only as strong as” its team and cares about culture, values, a transparent process, leveling up, giving back, and providing excellent equipment. The company has staffers distributed throughout the United States, and as it continues to grow, Coding Zeal looks for collaborative, object-oriented, and organized individuals to apply for open roles.

For more information visit their site.

Show Notes

0:00 Introduction
0:54 Missed Opportunity in High School
1:24 Majoring in Computer Science
1:59 Building your First Mobile Application
5:42 First Technical Interview
7:55 Sponsor: Vercel / Next.js
8:58 Getting into JavaScript
9:14 Applying for Jobs
9:53 Technical Evangelist at Microsoft
10:41 Moving back to Memphis
10:57 Developer Bootcamp by Colt Steele on uDemy
11:42 Decisions and Setting the Trajectory of Your Life
14:07 Getting into Content Creation
16:23 Working at FedEx
17:27 Transitioning into Auth0
17:53 The Easiest Part about Content Creation
19:09 Learning Right Now
20:22 Automating Everything
21:45 Sponsor: Pathwire / Mailgun / Mailjet
22:37 Grab Bag, Question #1: How do you start a career in tech?
24:57 Grab Bag, Question #2: Is there a moment where you almost quit? What made you push through?
27:35 Sponsor: ZEAL
28:22 James's Picks: Testimonial.to
29:33 James's Plug: [James's YouTube Channel(http://youtube.com/c/jamesqquick)
29:38 James's Weekly newsletter
29:58 Amy's Pick: Descript
31:08 Amy's Plugin: SelfTeach.me YouTube Channel
31:56 Conclusion