The digital world has opened up countless doors of opportunity for coders to develop their skills and up their coding game. There are Youtube channels dedicated to development, blogs, live streamed conferences, and then there are podcasts. The latter have literally blown up in popularity over the past years, especially amongst the coding community. What’s great about podcasts is that they don’t necessarily need your full attention – you can download them and listen to them while you’re taking a jog, while you’re driving or during your morning commute. It’s an awesome way to make sure your brain is always engaged in some form of learning activity – particularly in your formative years as a coder. We searched the interwebs and came up with a list of podcasts for software developers that we highly recommend.
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Software Engineering Daily
What’s not to love about a podcast series with an “About” page that the founder signs off as: “If you are a software engineer, and you are not listening to Software Engineering Daily, I want to know why?” With that level of confidence, it best be something to write home about. And it is. Software Engineering Daily features daily interviews about technical topics, by experts in their field. Previous guests have included CEO and Founder of Diffbot, Mike Tung, as well as Evan Gilman, the co-author of Zero Trust Networks. This podcast series is a treasure trove of brilliant content, curated in a way that will expose coders to a wide range of fields. Software Engineering Daily founder, Jeff Meyerson’s value proposition is that after every episode, you should feel like you are 1% better at understanding how software works. Be consistent about listening to these podcasts; by dedicating a relatively small amount of time to honing your skills, you’ll improve one podcast at a time.
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JavaScript Jabber
JavaScript is one of the first programming languages that most coders are exposed to when they enter the field. And there’s a good reason for that. The barrier to entry is extremely low – all you need is a suitable browser and you can start producing real, tangible results with relatively little code. This programming language has become so ubiquitous that there’s an entire podcast series dedicated to mastering it. It’s called JavaScript Jabber and it’s part of a media company called Devchat.tv – a website dedicated to empowering programmers through online learning. JavaScript Jabber features a panel of coders discussing front-end development, the latest trends, advice on how to make career moves in the industry, and frameworks. While you may not immediately grasp the high-level terms in certain podcasts, the series caters to a variety of different levels.
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This Developer’s Life
Sometimes as a coder, the technical stuff is the last thing you want to hear about. You want to be able to subscribe to content that mixes it up a bit – that throws in some life stuff, that talks to the highs and lows of life as a coder. If you relate, then The Developer’s Life podcasts are waiting to entertain, inform and inspire you. Based on the podcast, this American life, the owners of this podcast series have added their unique spin on things. Topics range from typeface design and tech entrepreneurship to more outlandish topics like space (asking questions like, “why aren’t we on Mars yet?”) and why some developers in the industry seem hell-bent on being mean to newcomers. So worth the subscription.
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Entreprogrammers: The Podcast for Developerneurs
Sometimes coders enter the industry with a business goal in mind. At the convergence between the digital world and the business world, there are so many unknowns. Sometimes you may wish you had a blow-by-blow account of what it’s like to start a business as a coder, the teething issues you face and how to keep solving your way to success. Enter Entreprogrammers: The Podcast for Developerneurs. These podcasts are created by four developers-turned-entrepreneurs who give their audience the inside scoop on the world of a dev-based business. These four rather entertaining friends share their experiences in a no-holds-barred kind of way, including challenges like not getting paid on time, the slog of constant travelling and how to convert audiences to customers.
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Developer Tea
The first thing that might strike you about the Developer Tea podcast is the simplicity of its website’s user interface. It’s bold, it’s scrollable, it’s simple – no frills, no fuss. And that same philosophy is captured by the style and content of all its podcasts. Developer Tea was created by Jonathan Cutrell, the co-founder of Spec and developer at Clearbit. To date, it’s had over 7 million downloads and it’s going strong. With the existing topics and sheer brilliance of the guests that are featured, it’s easy to understand why it’s so popular. Its mission is to “help driven developers connect to their ultimate purpose and excel at their work so that they can positively impact the people they influence.” What’s not to love about that?
Many listeners believe that with podcasts, they find content that they wouldn’t find anywhere else. And research proves that this belief is true. There are golden nuggets that come through in conversation that simply cannot be gleaned from other ways of garnering content. And therein lies the magic of the podcast. We’d love to hear more about what you’re listening to as a coder. Tweet us and let us know.
Want to join the global community of coders but don’t quite know how to start? Try one of our online coding bootcamps – we’ll make sure you put your best foot forward.
