Laura Thorson From GitHub: This Is How You Master the Mindset of a Programmer

🎙 About the episode Meet Laura Thorson 🇺🇸! Laura is a Program Manager at GitHub and has previously worked at Facebook, Twitter, and Salesforce. She broke into tech after attending the first-ever coding bootcamp in history and has only ever gotten jobs through LinkedIn. So... there's a lot we can learn from her! In this episode, Laura talks about her career path and how he went from not knowing what coding was to working in high-profile tech companies. You will hear how she approaches LinkedIn and what was the one piece of advice she got from a recruiter that enabled her to get back into tech after a four-year hiatus. You'll also hear how she got a second chance at Facebook after bombing a job interview - and it only took sending a single email! Laura and Alex also talk about best practices for job interviews, why you should stalk your interviewers, and what to do about impostor syndrome at a new job. Ultimately, Laura reveals how, no matter how you learn to code, the technologies you know come and go - and what you should focus on instead. 🔗 Connect with Laura 👩‍💼 Linkedin 🌐 Website 🐦 Twitter 👨‍🚀 GitHub ⏰ Timestamps Laura studied oboe, then English, and then enrolled in the first bootcamp in history! (02:05) How Laura knew made sure she wanted to code before paying for the bootcamp (05:26) On bootcamps vs. learning on your own (06:35) What was the first ever bootcamp like? (07:55) Community break: We got some new reviews on Apple Podcast! Plus, your tweets from last week. (10:06) Laura’s career in tech: it all started when Salesforce reached out to her on LinkedIn (12:44) Laura’s role at Twitter (14:07) How Laura bombed her interview at Facebook but got another chance after sending an email to the hiring manager (15:08) At Facebook, Laura worked on the Live Video API (18:32) How Laura approaches LinkedIn (19:49) Why Laura’s LinkedIn bio is written in the third person (21:37) How to use your LinkedIn about section (23:19) Why you should send follow-up emails and research your interviewers so you can ask them better questions (25:21) If you’re going to ask a question, be prepared, BUT LISTEN (27:42) When you interview, every touchpoint is an opportunity for them to assess whether you’re the right culture fit (29:22) The killer LinkedIn advice Laura learned the hard way (30:18) What to do with your LinkedIn (and portfolio) if you don’t have relevant coding experience (32:05) Interviewers will do homework on you (33:33) Quick-fire questions: Ruby, Taylor Swift, water, and AI (35:11) Laura’s career journey at GitHub (38:47) Why your most valuable asset is not the coding language you’ve learned (41:29) Imposter syndrome? Don’t overcompensate but talk to a peer or mentor (44:28) 🧰 Resources Mentioned Erica Brescia on Twitter Scrimba Podcast with Shannon Brown ⭐️ Leave a Review If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5-star review here and tell us who you want to see on the next podcast. You can also Tweet Alex from Scrimba at @bookercodes and tell them what lessons you learned from the episode so they can thank you personally for tuning in 🙏 Or tell Jan the Producer he has butchered your name here.