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Potluck - Career Switch at 33 × Cover Letters × Kids × Learning Quickly × More!

It’s another potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about career changes, preprocessors, moving, “the gap”, hip hop and more!

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Show Notes

1:54 - Q: I am 33 with a wife and two young daughters, and am trying to change careers. My job pays $80,000 a year, but I hate it. My wife is ok with me doing university, but she wants me to stay at the job I don’t like. Should I stand my ground? Any tips on achieving my goals to make me happy, but also keep my family happy?

10:10 - Q: What is your advice to very junior/junior devs in writing cover letters for jobs? I wonder what to say without sounding canned and fake.

14:35 - Q: Scott, what was the stack you were using at Ford?

17:09 - Q: Other than reading the docs, how do you guys go about learning/trying out new technologies? Do you rebuild similar applications or pick out individual features you think are “sIcK”?

22:32 - Q: Is it always necessary to use setState in react when storing data (for example, a form input) even if you don’t intend on re-rendering the page, or can you get away without using state?

25:04 - Q: Development has a stereotype for being a young person’s game. As someone who started their career out of university, I often wonder how long I can sling divs for? Do you think you could make it to retirement age or do you think the game will change out from under you?

30:34 - Q: Scott, you’ve mentioned you love hip hop. Would you be willing to share any playlists of your all-time favorite hip hop artists?

32:08 - Q: What are your thoughts on HTML pre-processors? If you use one, which one(s) do you prefer and why?

36:04 - Q: What advice would you have for someone considering to “level up” their career by moving from a city with few tech jobs to a city with more opportunity for tech jobs? What are some of the biggest things to consider when moving possibly cross-country to further a career?

42:11 - Q: What are your recommendations in terms of resources for first time dads (and moms) like books, podcasts, etc. and generally good co-parenting advice for working professionals?

46:45 - Q: Loved the show with Travis. Had a question about “the gap”. Similar to design ambitions/taste surpassing current skill, when did you feel like your code had “grown up” and that you could actually DO what you envisioned with Javascript?

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