Advice For Beginners - Tech Skills, Applying for Jobs, Focus, Imposter Syndrome + More
Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats
Wes Bos
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2018
⏱️ 61 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Scott and Wes give their best advice for beginners, including tech skills, applying for jobs, focus, imposter syndrome, and more…
Coffeecup’s CSS Grid Builder Tool — Sponsor
Check out Coffeecup’s CSS Grid.cc builder tool and resources to learn, prototype and build next gen layouts with CSS Grid!
Freshbooks - Sponsor
Get a 30 day free trial of Freshbooks at freshbooks.com/syntax and put SYNTAX in the “How did you hear about us?” section.
Show Notes
4:46 - Advice for gaining new skills
- Patience and momentum are key
- You likely won’t get anywhere significant in two months
- Think about where you want to be in five years
- Start small
- Start with was excites you and let that drive your exploration
- Start writing code ASAP. Don’t worry about the right way, just get started.
17:15 - Advice for applying to jobs
- Apply for everything. Failing an interview is no big deal.
- Each interview is an opportunity to gain experience
- Putting yourself out there is huge - one blog post, YouTube video, or open source project will put you miles ahead
- Have an entrepreneurial mindset - you can negotiate money, hardware, vacation time, flexible schedule, etc. Don’t just google “average salary”
- Negotiate salaries and perks.
29:32 - Advice for knowing what to focus on
- What gets you jazzed? Find something cool and figure out how to recreate it.
- Find a problem and figure out how to solve it - build real things.
- Don’t focus on tech - tech is just a tool.
38:32 - Advice for impostor syndrome
- Listen to this podcast! ;)
- Almost everyone has it.
- Don’t worry about other people’s progress.
- You don’t need to know how to do everything, but you should be able to figure out how to learn.
46:45 - Misc advice
- Evaluate things for yourself - don’t blindly follow the loudest voices on the internet
- Focus on soft skills as well - time management, communication
- Get a mentor
- Health and Hobbies - don’t let yourself burnout
Links
Ă—Ă—Ă— SIIIIICK Ă—Ă—Ă— PIIIICKS Ă—Ă—Ă—
- Scott: Sony A7iii
- Wes: Zevia
Shameless Plugs
Tweet us your tasty treats!
- Scott’s Instagram
- LevelUpTutorials Instagram
- Wes’ Instagram
- Wes’ Twitter
- Wes’ Facebook
- Scott’s Twitter
- Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Syntax, the podcast with the tastiest web development treats out there. |
| 0:06.0 | Strap yourself in and get ready. |
| 0:08.0 | Here is Scott Tolinsky and West Boss. |
| 0:10.4 | Hello everybody and welcome to Syntax the podcast with the tastiest web development treats out there |
| 0:16.8 | My name is West Boss and with me as always is Scott Tullinsky. How you doing today Scott? |
| 0:21.8 | Hey doing good just got back from vaca I think we both just got back from a vacation so yeah yeah how was how is yours it was. I went swimming. It was hot as heck. People don't think that Canada gets hot, but it gets really, really hot in the summer and really, really cold in the winter. basically complaining year round but it was |
| 0:44.9 | amazing because I just like swam the entire week how about yours? |
| 0:48.0 | Nice oh yeah it was great it was it was as as relaxing as a vacation where a one-year-old can be. |
| 0:55.0 | So we did a lot of hiking, which was great because we borrowed this hiking backpack |
| 1:00.0 | from a friend that was like, just this big rig on my back so he could look over my shoulder. |
| 1:05.0 | Just put your baby in the bag. Yeah and so he had like sun protection he had a good view. |
| 1:10.0 | He had like a little cage around it in case someone was to like bite it and fall he'd be you know safe in that thing |
| 1:16.8 | Wouldn't collapse or something so it was a really like really sweet rig and uh yeah we did some really really long hikes one |
| 1:25.6 | it was just like five miles up a mountain and we were just walking up the |
| 1:29.9 | entire way and it was took all day and eventually got the top and we had some sick |
| 1:35.9 | views but it was luckily it was mostly shaded too and we're following rivers |
| 1:39.8 | the whole time so it was just like following waterfalls and rivers and and just |
| 1:44.1 | absolutely destroying ourselves it was it was a tough hike with a little child on your |
| 1:48.6 | back but no kidding was pretty much worth it so yeah ready to get back into it though ready for the week that's a workout |
| 1:56.5 | Oh yeah I'm still feeling it |
| 1:59.9 | Awesome so today we're talking all about advice for beginners and if you're not a beginner don't turn it off just yet because I'm sure as an intermediate advanced developer you get questions all the time from from beginners and it's nice to hear some I don't know maybe another couple |
| 2:16.0 | people's perspective on the issue so we'll be talking about advice for gaining skills |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wes Bos, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Wes Bos and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.