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Jason Lengstorf shares his story, plus job-search, content-creation, and JAMstack tips

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Jason Lengstorf wanted to be a rockstar

I think he got there, just not literally like he originally envisioned.

Jason is a Gatsby and IBM Alumni, and now he's the Principal Developer Experience Engineer for Netlify.

He also hosts his fantastic livestream show Learn with Jason where he learns new technologies on the spot from his guests.

Seems like a successful guy, right?

But Jason didn't set out to be a developer

He wanted to be a musician. So what happened?

Jason started out with music, trying to make it big by hitting the road with his band mates and playing shows.

Jason made pizza, sold vacuums, and worked a lot of other dead-end jobs to keep himself afloat. Jason also managed his band; he booked gigs, designed posters, and ran promotions. Despite his hard work, his rockstar dreams didn't pan out.

All wasn't lost though.

Those management skills ended up translating incredibly well into running a web agency. That lead to speaking, blogging, and eventually working at IBM.

It's crazy how different everyone's journey is into tech.

This week we get the full story on Jason's origins. Plus we talk about content-creation, the JAMstack, and discuss how to get a job in the tech industry as a new developer.

Show Notes:

  • 0:58 - Intro

  • 4:33 - Being in a band
  • 6:52 - How did Jason go from being in a band to coding and working for IBM?

  • 9:20 - Jason sold vacuums? Working Dead-end jobs.

    • Wait, Eddie did too?
  • 17:19 - Getting hired at IBM
  • 20:55 - How did Jason get started speaking?
  • 23:00 - The "snowball" effect
  • 24:47 - How Jason feels about his own fame
  • 27:03 - Jason's first article and getting published on CSS-tricks
  • 28:35 - Jason's advice for blogging

  • 33:35 - How did Jason become a developer advocate?

    • Gatsby and JAMstack
  • 45:29 - What Jason does now on the Netlify Developer Experience Team

  • 51:05 - Netlify Functions

    • Serverless
    • AWS Lambda vs Netlify Functions
    • Netlify CLI

  • 56:56 - "Working in Public" and getting hired as a junior dev

    • Learn in public by Swyx
    • So good they can't ignore you - Book
    • "Don't carpet-bomb the whole industry with your resume" 🤣

  • 1:04:52 - What do you look for in a company when you're applying for a job?

    • Be your own advocate

  • 1:14:46 - Where to find Jason on the internet

  • 1:16:57 - Nerd Minute!

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Wed, January 22, 2020, 1:00 PM UTC