Based in San Francisco, Hackbright Academy is focused on teaching women how to code. We’re recording several interviews with Hackbright graduates including our guest today, Chloe Condon.
Growing up in a family of artists in the Bay Area, Chloe ended up working at startups by day and performing as a theater actress by night. Prior to her current role as a Developer Evangelist at Codefresh, Chloe held a number of jobs including an Account Executive at Yelp and an office manager role at another startup.
In one of her previous jobs working as an Executive Assistant to the CEO of NewCo, she attended an event that changed her life and put her on a trajectory to study software engineering through Hackbright Academy.
About:
Years in Tech | 5 |
Home Town | Bay Area |
Current Job | Tech Evangelist |
Date Recorded | 3/26/2016 |
Show Notes:
[01:35] Chloe narrates about the turning point that got her interested to software engineering and eventually working at a tech company doing sales by day and theater by night.
[05:52] Chloe talks about her journey to learning coding, applying to scholarships, and ultimately joining Hackbright Academy.
[08:13] Resources Chloe tapped into to get into Hackbright, dealing with the impostor syndrome and overcoming it
[10: 33] A brief overview of the interview process at Hackbright Academy and how she prepared herself for it.
[15:35] Chloe stresses the importance of incorporating exercise and eating clean in your routine to maintain your sanity and some blog articles she has written on Medium.
[19:40] Chloe describes their Demo Night at Hackbright, where they presented their own apps to companies and how to find your gimmick that makes you stand out.
[22:20] Chloe talks about the idea behind the first post she wrote, Consider the Bootcamp Grad, which tackles issues about getting hired as someone with a nontraditional background.
[25:05] Having “cold applied” to almost 80-90% of jobs she got 1-2 interviews with (pretty uncommon), Chloe realized her network didn’t serve her as well as she thought it would.
[27:20] Chloe shares the power of re-branding yourself that can significantly increase your response rate.
[29:50] What is a Developer Evangelist? What the role entails, salary, how she leveraged her theater experience to get into the role, and her advice if you’re interested in this role
[36:55] Chloe talks about Ben Parr’s book, Captivology, and strategies to capture people’s attention
[41:46] Chloe’s hopes for tech and her advocacy for bootcamp grads and people with nontraditional backgrounds
Contact Info:
Chloe Condon
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chloecondon
Medium:https://medium.com/@chloecondon
Email address: misschloecondon@gmail.com
Twitter: @chloecondon
Articles & Mentioned Resources:
Learning Resources
We Are a Developer Evangelist and You Can Too
Captivology by Ben Parr
TEDtalks : The Superhero Pose by Amy Cuddy
Personal Projects/Partnerships:
You Will Survive (Pro-Tips on How to Survive a Coding Bootcamp)