From Art School Drop-out to Microsoft Engineer with Shashi Lo [Podcast #170]

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Shashi Lo. He's a software engineer at Microsoft. He grew up the child of refugees. He wanted to start earning money and build his family so he abandoned his art school degree and taught himself how to program. He immediately hustled to land freelance development clients – something he still does today on top of his full time job and raising his 4 kids. We talk about: - Making ends meet doing freelance work - How to bootstrap your reputation toward getting a job in big tech - Mistakes he sees careers changers make - The pros and cons of working in big tech VS working at developer agencies Support for this podcast comes from a grant from Wix Studio. Wix Studio provides developers tools to rapidly build websites with everything out-of-the-box, then extend, replace, and break boundaries with code. Learn more at https://wixstudio.com. Support also comes from the 11,384 kind folks who support freeCodeCamp through a monthly donation. You can join these chill human beings and help our charity's mission by going to donate.freecodecamp.org Links we talk about during our conversation: - Shashi's conference talks and other podcast interviews: https://bento.me/shashilo Chapters 0:00:00 Teaser and Intro 0:00:32 Song - Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake Theme 0:02:54 The Art of Code Reviews 0:12:53 Shashi's Journey: From Laos to the U.S. 0:23:00 Navigating High School and Early Work Life 0:28:21 The Evolution of Web Design and Personal Passion 0:30:08 The Value of Education in Tech Careers 0:32:34 Intrinsic Motivation in Software Development 0:35:47 Balancing Work, Family, and Passion Projects 0:42:34 Effective Remote Work Strategies 0:48:21 Navigating the Job Market in Tech 0:53:54 Bridging the Skills Gap for Junior Developers 0:57:00 Navigating the Transition from Hackathons to Real-World Engineering 0:59:55 Understanding the Importance of Code Quality and Collaboration 1:02:56 The Value of Open S