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The Scrimba Podcast

Don't Be Afraid to Take Breaks, but Make Sure to Keep Going: Juggling Learning to Code and a Full-time Job with Scrimba Student Marleigh

🎙 About the episode


Meet Marleigh Morgan 🇺🇸! Marleigh is a recently hired graphic designer turned developer. She has always wanted to learn to code, and she tried to study computer science but gave up after it turned out that, at her university, she was supposed to write Java on paper. During the pandemic, she picked up coding again. Two years later, she changed careers!

In this episode, Marleigh will teach you how to balance learning to code with having a full-time job. She also talks about online communities and how to benefit from them, the importance of developing independent projects for your portfolio, and why you shouldn't be afraid to take breaks when you need them. She also shares how she eventually changed career paths within the company she was already working at and how she knew she was ready to apply for jobs.

🔗 Connect with Marleigh

⏰ Timestamps

  • Marleigh was interested in coding, but gave up after her university wanted her to write Java on paper (01:27)
  • Marleigh went back to coding after changing majors and working as a designer for ten years (02:22)
  • What made Marleigh pick up programming again (03:57)
  • The importance of being consistent (06:05)
  • How Marleigh learned coding alongside a full-time job (06:28)
  • Marleigh's advice for everybody learning to code alongside work (07:41)
  • The difference in mindset between learning to code as a hobby and learning to code as a career path (10:05)
  • Ad break: Next week, it's Stephanie Chiu!
  • How specifically Marleigh learned to code (14:34)
  • Do you ever feel ready to apply for jobs? (16:44)
  • Remote vs on-site work for junior developers (17:55)
  • Marleigh is a Scrimba Community Hero with over 2000 messages on our discord server. Here's how she discovered the Scrimba Community (19:33)
  • Why being in a developer community is important when you're starting out (20:50)
  • Job applications don't always pan out - here's how Marleigh knew when to take a step back and tweak her resume (21:13)
  • Marley eventually ended up changing careers internally - here's how it happened (23:10)
  • Did they grill Marleigh about her coding skills? (27:33)
  • The perks of being in the Scrimba community while job searching (28:41)
  • It's okay to take breaks! (30:37)


🧰 Resources Mentioned

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