The Frontend Masters Podcast

In this episode of the Master.dev podcast, Dustin Tower, VP of Learning, sits down with Leah Thompson, DevRel and community engineer at Laravel and Twitch streamer (LeahTCodes), to talk about developer relations, learning in public, and how community can launch a tech career.Leah shares her non-traditional path into software: from a pure mathematics degree and a stint teaching high school math, to the free 100Devs bootcamp, to her first job as an HTML email developer. She explains how a free Laracon US ticket and a message to Taylor Otwell led to a job at Laravel just months later. Along the way, she talks about why teaching is the fastest way to learn, how streaming prepares you for conference speaking, and why being authentic is the key to building an audience.Leah also digs into the Laravel stack (React, Inertia, Laravel, and Tailwind), why Laravel's opinionated structure works so well with AI coding agents, how Laravel Boost helps close the context gap for models, and her advice for beginners learning to code in the age of AI.If you're interested in Laravel, developer relations, conference speaking, learning in public, AI-assisted development, or breaking into tech without a traditional CS degree, this conversation is full of practical insight and encouragement.#Laravel, #DevRel, #Inertia, #AI, #WebDevelopment, #LearnInPublic, #PodcastCheck out Leah's Master.dev Course: https://master.dev/courses/laravel/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=home_link&utm_campaign=leah-podcastFind Master.dev Online:Twitter: https://twitter.com/MasterDotDevLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/masterdotdev/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masterdotdevInstagram: https://instagram.com/FrontendMastersAbout Us: Master AI & Full Stack Development with in-depth, modern engineering courses. Our 300+ high-quality courses and 24 curated learning paths will guide you from mid-level to senior developer, frontend to backend, and everything between. Start your path to mastery today: https://master.dev/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=home_link&utm_campaign=leah-podcast

In this episode of the Master.dev podcast, Marc Grabanski sits down with Maxi Ferreira, staff frontend engineer at Help Scout and writer of the Front End at Scale newsletter, to talk about frontend architecture, from monolithic apps to micro frontends, and how AI is reshaping the way engineers think about system design.Maxi shares his take on when micro frontends actually make sense (and why most teams should start with a modular monolith instead), the ongoing debate between SPAs and MPAs, and how AI-assisted development is shifting the value of engineering work from implementation to architectural decision-making. He also opens up about his path from teaching himself to code in Argentina using Dreamweaver, to building Help Scout's original design system, to launching Front End at Scale as a way to explore frontend architecture more deeply.If you're interested in frontend architecture, micro frontends, AI-assisted development, design systems, or building a long-term engineering career, this conversation is full of practical insight and hard-won lessons. Check out Maxi's Master.dev Course: https://master.dev/courses/frontend-architecture/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=home_link&utm_campaign=maxi-podcastFind Master.dev Online:Twitter: https://twitter.com/MasterDotDevLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/masterdotdev/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masterdotdevInstagram: https://instagram.com/FrontendMastersAbout Us: Master AI & Full Stack Development with in-depth, modern engineering courses. Our 300+ high-quality courses and 24 curated learning paths will guide you from mid-level to senior developer, frontend to backend, and everything between. Start your path to mastery today: https://master.dev/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=home_link&utm_campaign=maxi-podcast

In this episode of the Master.dev podcast, Dustin Tauer sits down with Katia Gil Guzman, a developer experience engineer at OpenAI, to talk about her path from learning C and HTML as a kid to building software at Microsoft, founding her own SaaS startup, and working at the intersection of AI, developer tools, and creativity.Katia shares how early curiosity shaped her career, what she learned from working with early users of Azure Cognitive Services and mixed reality, and why the best products often come from your own expertise and passions. She also talks about the value of building for specific users you understand deeply — whether that means a niche industry, a dev tool, or something entirely different.If you’re interested in software engineering, startups, developer tools, AI, or have a creator mindset, this conversation is packed with practical insight and inspiration.#OpenAI #DeveloperExperience #SoftwareEngineering #Startups #AI #DeveloperTools #PodcastCheck out Katia’s Master.dev Course: https://master.dev/courses/codex/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=home_link&utm_campaign=katia-podcastFind Master.dev Online:Twitter: https://twitter.com/MasterDotDevLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/masterdotdev/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masterdotdevInstagram: https://instagram.com/FrontendMastersAbout Us: Master AI & Full Stack Development with in-depth, modern engineering courses. Our 300+ high-quality courses and 24 curated learning paths will guide you from mid-level to senior developer, frontend to backend, and everything between. Start your path to mastery today: https://master.dev/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=home_link&utm_campaign=katia-podcast

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Will Sentance - the beloved creator of "JavaScript: The Hard Parts" and one of Frontend Masters' most popular instructors!Will is so much more than a JavaScript expert. He's a passionate educator, former Codesmith CEO, Oxford Visiting Fellow, Lego enthusiast, and someone who genuinely believes everyone deserves access to great education. In this warm and honest chat, he shares his story, his teaching philosophy, and what excites him about the future of learning.  WILL'S ADVICE: "Find something in your day-to-day life you want to solve with code. The learning you'll get from solving real problems is worth 1000 tutorials."Will Sentance is the creator of "JavaScript: The Hard Parts" (one of Frontend Masters' most popular courses), former CEO of Codesmith, and current Visiting Fellow at Oxford University researching AI's impact on education. LEARN FROM WILL: Watch "JavaScript: The Hard Parts, v3" on Frontend Masters: https://frontendmasters.com/courses/javascript-hard-parts-v3 #softwareengineering #javascript #coding #AI #techeducation #careeradvice Frontend Masters Online:Twitter: https://twitter.com/FrontendMastersLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frontend-mastersFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FrontendMastersInstagram: https://instagram.com/FrontendMastersAbout Us: Advance your skills with 250+ in-depth, modern software engineering courses across frontend, backend, data, cloud, and AI taught by engineers who build real systems at scale. frontendmasters.com

What if the secret to landing your dream job wasn't grinding LeetCode, but building software for fun?Matias went from creating Counter-Strike levels as a kid in Buenos Aires to becoming a creative developer at Vercel—and his path was anything but traditional. Starting with graphic design, teaching himself Blender's old game engine, and eventually building an emoji programming language "just for fun," Matias proves that curiosity beats curriculum every time.In this conversation, we dive deep into:  - How childhood game modding led to a career in creative web development - The process behind building award-winning websites (Next.js Conf, Daylight Computer)   - Why WebGL and shaders are underutilized on the web- Building a multiplayer racing game in React (yes, really) - Going from zero to teaching Frontend Masters courses - The "useless projects" that became career-defining skills- Why WebGPU has him excited to play again  The golden thread: Keep experimenting with what excites you, not just what seems useful. That random shader experiment? That weird Webpack project? They might be exactly what lands you your next opportunity.Perfect for developers who feel guilty about their side projects, designers wanting to code, or anyone who thinks their unconventional path isn't "right" enough.#webdevelopment, #creativecoding, #webgl, #react, #vercel, #careertransition, #softwaredevelopmentCheck out Matias’s Frontend Masters Course: https://frontendmasters.com/courses/winning-websites/Frontend Masters Online:Twitter: https://twitter.com/FrontendMastersLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frontend-mastersFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/FrontendMastersInstagram: https://instagram.com/FrontendMastersAbout Us:Advance your skills with 250+ in-depth, modern software engineering courses across frontend, backend, data, cloud, and AI taught by engineers who build real systems at scale. frontendmasters.com