From broke musician to working dev. How college drop-out Ryan Furrer learned to code [Podcast #166]

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Ryan Furrer. He's a Front End Engineer working on tools that help companies monitor their buildings for energy usage, water leaks, and other environmental factors. Ryan dropped out of college and worked as a musician and violin instructor before teaching himself how to code, working freelance, and ultimately landing developer jobs. We talk about: - Life as a broke musician - Teaching yourself to code while working full-time - How Ryan had to move back in with his parents after a divorce - His 5-year journey to his first developer job Also, I want to thank the 11,384 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Or you can listen to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Be sure to follow the freeCodeCamp Podcast there so you'll get new episodes each Friday. Links we talk about during our conversation: Ryan's podcast, Web Dev Dialogues: https://www.webdevdialogues.com/episodes Ryan's website: https://www.ryanfurrer.com A freeCodeCamp course on the Astro front end development framework taught by freeCodeCamp podcast guest James Q Quick: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-the-astro-web-framework/ Chapters 0:00:00 Teaser 0:00:00 Intro and Song: Little Nemo The Dream Master - Mushroom Forest 0:00:00 Introduction to Ryan Furrer and Astro Framework 0:05:48 The Advantages of Astro Over React 0:08:30 Ryan's Journey into Front-End Development 0:11:32 The Transition from Music to Coding 0:14:39 Navigating College and Student Debt 0:17:42 The Reality of Teaching Music 0:20:21 Building a Private Music Teaching Studio 0:30:10 Building a Network for Music Teaching 0:32:38 Transitioning Careers: From Music to Buying 0:34:44 The Emotional Toll of Career Changes 0:38:35 Navigating Remote Work During a Pandemic 0:42:27 The Complexities of