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