The Front End
By Rob Kendal
The Front EndDec 01, 2023
Simeron Taak talks freelancing, bootcamps, and her path to tech
Simeron Taak is a fulltime freelancer specialising in web design and development. She's had a great route into tech following a family background of graphic design.
Simeron shares her passion for technology, talks about her route into development, design qualifications, and the challenges that freelance life brings with it.
We also delve into coding bootcamps vs. degrees, and Simeron's experience with both of these approaches to learning web skills.
Anthony Main talks agency ownership, remote culture, and how to land a role in a winning mobile app agency
On this episode we're joined by Anthony Main, founder of The Distance, a top 5 mobile app development agency in York.
Anthony talks to us about his journey into tech from a CS degree to running a successful development agency for over 15 years!
We chat about changes in technology and business over that 15 years, how remote work is here to stay and why businesses need to adapt, as well as the importance of fostering a solid culture.
We also get some valuable advice from an agency owner on how someone can get started in a career in app development and what makes good job applications stand out.
Daniel Merriman talks about social sciences and ethics in tech
In this kick off episode of our fourth season we're joined by Daniel Merriman, an engineering manager from York.
Daniel talks about his route into tech via social sciences, the impact of sociology and the human element of tech that's sometimes forgotten, and the ethics of development and tech.
Matt Studdert, founder of Frontend Mentor, shares his passion for helping others to learn
After being recommended as a guest to the show by several twitter peeps, we’re so pleased to welcome Matt Studdert. Matt is a fellow UK developer and founder of the hugely popular Frontend Mentor, a coding skills levelling up platform used by close to 100,000 people to hone their skills in front end development.
Matt hails from a background in fitness and personal training and made the leap to dev life, and shares a passion for helping others get into development. He’s going to share his story and give us some tips on how and where to start with learning to be a developer.
Authors Brian Rinaldi and Raymond Camden talk about their love of the Jamstack and their upcoming book on the very same subject
Today’s show features not one but two whole guests! Brian Rinaldi, a developer advocate at StepZen, and Raymond Camden a lead developer evangelist working at HERE, a location technology company.
This Jamstack-loving pair have co-authored a book called The Jamstack Book, which is published by Manning and dives deep into the Jamstack and helps you build up a portfolio of Jamstack-architectured sites including a full-blown e-commerce store.
They're sharing their love of all things Jamstack and how you can get started by using their shiny new book!
Hassan El Mghari talks startups and lessons learned from running a community of almost a million users
For this final episode in the season Hassan El Mghari joins us to share his incredible journey from high-school student running multiple gaming communities totally almost a million users, founding a gaming marketing company, to pursuing a CS degree and learning full stack development. Hassan talks lessons learned, how to learn in public and the power of long-game effort.
Rob Kendal AMA Q&A - Your favourite developer questions answered
In this penultimate season 2 episode, I'm answering some of your most popular questions such as: What's better, React or Vue? Do I ever write dirty code to finish sooner? How do I start blogging and creating content? How do I start freelancing? And loads more....
Mark Baldino from Fuzzy Math talks UX and user-centered design
For episode 8 we're joined by Mark Baldino. Mark runs Fuzzy Math, a user experience design agency, and shares his founder's journey and how good UX can improve your business and how developers can get involved in the UX design process.
Netlify's Phil Hawksworth talks about modern front end development in the Jamstack, and his route into dev
Phil is a developer experience engineer at Netlify and spends his days helping developers to build a better, modern web within the Jamstack.
We discuss how Phil went from engineering to computer science, to delivering computers in a van, to (eventually) Netlify. He shares his thoughts on the Jamstack and how Netlify is leading the charge in hosting a modern web.
Louise Ogilvy talks getting hired in exciting emerging tech industries and writing your best CV
On this episode, Louise Ogilvy joins us to talk about getting hired in some exciting emerging tech industries such as
agritech. We talk about how to write a winning CV and work with recruiters to land your dream role.
Louise is a founder of recruitment agency Propeller Tech, which was launched to provide recruitment solutions to the
startup and early stage growth community.
Stephanie Stimac talks web standards, developer experience her journey to the Microsoft Edge team
Joining us today is the web’s very own web witch Stephanie Stimac. She's going to be sharing her journey from fashion and design into web standards and the Microsoft Edge team.
Stephanie is a design technologist and lives somewhere in-between the role of a designer and developer. With a background in digital design and many years of building things from wireframe to code, she finds herself currently working in the Microsoft Edge Developer Experiences team.
James Tucker talks life as a full stack dev and tips on starting out in development
In this fourth episode of season 2, James Tucker is joining us. James is a full stack developer based in Minneapolis currently working at Soona Studios. He loves Vue and Rails, and tweeting about tech, startups and big ideas.
James talks about his love of the web and how he moved from a potential career as a pastor into web development. He also shares some tips and advice on how to get started in development and his experiences to date.
Tom Hirst on running a successful freelancing business for over a decade
For this episode, freelancing legend Tom Hirst shares his journey into self-employment. Tom is based in Yorkshire and he's enjoyed a successful freelancing career for the past 11 years, specialising in WordPress development.
Tom also runs a mentorship program to help other aspiring freelancers to help get into the freelancing life and start their own successful self-employment careers.
Tom shares his super valuable freelancing tips, tricks and advice right here in episode 3 of season 2.
Pete Gallagher shares his experience with the Internet of Things and life as a freelancing developer
Coming in hot for the second episode of season 2, Microsoft MVP Pete Gallagher, is a developer, public speaker, Pluralsight Author and owner of software consultancy PJG Creations.
Peter White, an entrepreneur from York shares his experience with making things and entrepreneurship
For the very first episode in season 2, the inimitable Peter White, a developer, entrepreneur and maker based in York, talks all things entrepreneurship. We'll find out how he found his way through being a freelancing, part-time developer, product owner and maker of digital things.
Scott Spence talks VBA to front end dev, the JAM Stack and his love affair with Gatsby
For the final episode in season 1, Scott Spence, a good twitter friend, joins me to share his path into development from VBA analyst to front end coder. He's passionate about the JAM Stack and Gatsby JS and we chat about how a more streamlined, static driven web is rising up to improve both developer and user experiences alike.
Senior front end developer answers your burning development questions
A little bit of a different take for this episode as I take to the microphone to answer some of our listeners' most frequently asked questions. From freelancing, to portfolios, improving design skills and whether you need dev ops skills in the world of front end, I aim to give my most honest and helpful answers from my years of development experience.
Emma Bostian talks technical interviews, coding challenges and getting into engineering
In episode eight I'm joined by Emma Bostian, a prominent software engineer in the tech Twitter community who works at Spotify. Emma talks to us about the technical interview: the good, the bad, where it can be improved and how it can be useful in hiring the best developers. We also talk about increasing diversity in tech roles and how Emma got into software engineering.
From games journalism to web development, Tailwind CSS and utility-first styling
A whole seven episodes in and this time, we're talking with Ben Furfie about his background in games journalism that led into a career in web dev. We're also digging into the state of CSS, specifically Tailwind CSS and how a shift towards utility-driven styling can improve code maintainability and how it compares to methodologies such as BEM.
How to tailor your CV and getting hired during a global pandemic
This this sixth episode, Emily Beardshaw, a front end specialist recruiter, talks to us about the state of getting hired in today's front end market with everything that's going on with the global COVID pandemic.
She's also sharing how she went from philosophy and politics into recruitment, and how to tailor your CV to maximise your hiring chances.
From medieval history to a tech marketer, Bethan Vincent discusses hiring processes, women in tech, and her podcast The Brave
For episode 5, we have Bethan Vincent, a fellow podcaster from The Brave. On this fifth episode, Bethan and I discuss a range of topics including her winding career path, women in tech, the hiring process, and her very own podcast, The Brave.
Recruitment: how to get hired as a developer, how to work with a recruiter, and how to attract the best talent
Episode four features not one but two guests, Arjun Gillard and Simran Hundal, both very experienced recruiters with the firm, Understanding Recruitment.
On the show they're going to cover a range of 'getting hired' topics including: how to get hired as a developer; how to help recruiters to help you; why you should use a recruiter; how can employers engage with and attract the best software engineers; and the age old question of 'do you need a software development degree?'. All this and more in episode four.
Static code analysis, linting, introducing coding style guides and how to enforce them
In episode three we have Chris Bertrand, a senior fullstack developer with Aldermore bank. Chris has a wealth of coding experience across different technologies and is filling us in on static code analysis, code linting and software development policies; what they are, why they're a good thing, and how you can implement them in your own organisation.
The ups and downs of remote working, GitLab, and running a successful meetup
In this episode we're joined by Sam Beckham a Senior Front End Developer at GitLab. As a fellow all remote worker, Sam shares his experiences of life without an office, the good parts and the bad, as well as tips for those new to remote working.
He also introduces us to his popular monthly meetup, Front End NE, and offers his thoughts on starting and growing a regular meetup, attending them as a developer, and what you can get out of them.
Introduction, my origin story, and do you need a degree
In the very first episode of The Front End podcast, I give an introduction to the show, talk about my coding origin story and answer one of the most common questions I get asked about life as a developer: do you need a degree to get hired?
I also mention a few names and resources in this episode that I've linked to here, check them out:
You can find out more about me, Rob Kendal, on my personal website, or follow me on Twitter. For more about The Front End podcast, you can read more on robkendal.co.uk/the-front-end-podcast