In today's episode, we bring back James Q Quick. Last time we talked about his best tips to land your first ever job as a developer. Today we talk about James' new startup and how he manages all his new tech adventures with being a parent and also provides some helpful insight as to why having an audience and personal connections in the industry is beneficial - but not strictly necessary to succeed.

We also talk about AWS, abstraction and the current (healing) state of layoffs, so don't lose hope if you're demotivated in your job search.

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Deals for Devs: https://www.dealsfordevs.com/

James' Website: https://www.jamesqquick.com/

James' Twitter: https://x.com/jamesqquick

James' Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JamesQQuick

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:55 On being a parent

04:28 Idiocracy

05:47 Deals for Devs

10:09 Comparison with Dixie Direct

12:22 How do you quantify the really high quality deals

15:57 The challenge with a two-sided marketplace

22:28 Doing stuff manually is actually pretty good

25:38 Having a personal connection helps A LOT

29:12 Zeta

34:05 The Web is being modeled on AWS

36:38 You shouldn't be learning one JavaScript framework

38:30 Know how to answer a question if you don't know the technology

41:43 When you learn to code, how much layers of abstraction you should go?

43:45 Should passion be required for a job in tech?

49:02 The state of layoffs

52:29 The ease of finding a job after a layoff when you're highly talented

55:58 Do you need an audience to find a job easily?

58:40 Developers of the world - Interviews in person

01:02:12 Where to find James