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The freeCodeCamp Podcast

#115 From 36-year-old Mom to Developer with Phoebe Voong-Fadel

The freeCodeCamp Podcast

Quincy Larson

Education, Technology

5.0549 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2024

⏱️ 74 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Phoebe Voong-Fadel about her childhood as the daughter of refugees, and how she self-studied coding and became a professional developer at the age of 36.

Phoebe worked from age 12 at her parent's Chinese take-out restaurant. She was able to study history at the London School of Economics, before working in higher ed.

She left her job to raise two kids due to the high cost of childcare in the UK, and spent years self-studying coding before becoming a software developer at age 36.

I recorded this podcast live and I haven't edited it at all. I want to capture the feel of a real live conversation, with all the human quirks that entails. As with all my podcast episodes, I start by performing a classic bass line. Can you guess what song this bass line is from? It's from 1989.

Phoebe has earned multiple certifications from freeCodeCamp, and also published a number of articles on our publication.

How Phoebe went from stay-at-home mom to Front End Web Developer at age 36: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-i-went-from-stay-at-home-mum-to-front-end-web-developer-39724046692a/

Phoebe's review of Harvard CS50: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/cs50-course-review/

The BBC Take-away Kids documentary, which Phoebe said is what her childhood was like, working from age 12: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-47007812

Phoebe's website, with her portfolio and links to her socials: https://www.thecodinghamster.com/

You can watch a video version of my interview with Phoebe here: https://youtu.be/WomQr-jRO1c

If you've read this far, consider supporting our 501(c)(3) public charity, and aiding us in our mission to create more free learning resources for everyone: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

 

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back to the Free Code Camp podcast.

0:26.0

I'm Quincy Larson, teacher and founder of Free Code Camp.

0:29.1

And each week we bring you insight from developers, founders, and ambitious people getting into tech.

0:35.6

This week, we're talking with Phoebe Von Fidel.

0:39.3

She is a proud mother of two kids.

0:42.9

And at the age of 36, as a stay-at-home mom,

0:46.5

she learned to code and she got her first job as a developer.

0:51.5

Phoebe, welcome to the show.

0:53.5

Thank you for having me.

0:55.5

Yeah.

0:56.0

And real quick, I just want to do a quick shout out to the many supporters we have in the

1:02.6

Free Code Camp community.

1:03.8

We have more than 8,405 supporters who donate each month to Free Code Camp to support

1:09.5

our charity and by extension support

1:12.3

the Freecode Camp podcast. And of course, Phoebe, you are one of those people who supported

1:16.9

Freecode Camp. And we greatly appreciate it. You're welcome. Yeah. Well, Phoebe, we're going to get

1:25.2

into your career transition and the many really insightful

1:30.3

articles you've written for Free Code Camp about your journey and also your review of like

1:35.1

Harvard CS50 and like all the new stuff you're learning as far as like machine learning

1:39.9

and things like that continuing to refine your skills.

1:42.0

But I want to start by just going way back

1:45.2

to your childhood and the origin story of Phoebe von Fidel.

...

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