Develop Yourself1 Des 2025

#291 - Open Source + Hard Work: A CTO’s Roadmap for Junior Developers

Amber argues that the biggest problem facing new developers isn’t coding ability…

It’s lack of real experience, and an over-reliance on feel-good advice that doesn’t translate into hireability.

We dig into:

Why contributing to real, medium-complexity open-source projects is the fastest path to becoming job-ready
Why most juniors aren’t actually hireable yet — and how to fix that
How toxic positivity on LinkedIn is misleading beginners
Why “passion” means nothing if it isn’t backed by proof-of-work
The kinds of projects and habits that actually impress hiring managers
The mindset shift every junior dev must make to survive today’s market
What Amber wishes she knew as a brand-new developer
How to stand out when 30,000 other bootcamp grads are competing for the same jobs

If you’re early in your software career — or mentoring someone who is — this conversation will challenge your assumptions, push you out of the fluff zone, and give you a clear, actionable roadmap to becoming the type of junior developer who actually gets hired.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Open Source Projects & Communities:

Dance-Chives Prototype (Amber’s breakdancing app project): https://github.com/BenTheChi/dance-chives-prototype
Build In Public community: https://buildinpublic.com/
Gridiron Survivor project: https://github.com/LetsGetTechnical/gridiron-survivor

Mentorship:

ADPList (free mentorship sessions): https://adplist.org/

Connect With Amber:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-adamson-a33a3860/

Send us a text

Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(346)

What Happens When Engineers Stop Writing Most of the Code?

Become an AI engineer in 45 days: https://parsity.io/ai-devLuke Miller, founder of DCNY, joins the Develop Yourself podcast to share how his 40+ person engineering team uses agentic engineering to bui...

5 Okt 40min

She Vibe Coded A Successful Business With Claude

Dallas Davenport is founder of Aivara, an AI automation marketing agency. We met in a Skool group when I offered to look at her app, and I fully expected a vibe-coded dumpster fire (I've dunked on ple...

28 Sep 29min

A step by step guide to building an AI-powered side project

Quite simply, I lay out EXACTLY what I'd build if I were trying to set myself up as an AI engineer. The type of project, the concepts and the tools to learn and why.I genuinely believe that in 2-3 yea...

21 Sep 15min

I Let AI Write My Code. Then I Read It...

Want to get into the top 10% of your engineering team by leveraging agentic engineering workflows? I'm planning a 2 day workshop here: https://form.typeform.com/to/EDuBEz4UI shipped a feature with AI ...

14 Sep 12min

The WORST AI Career Path: Meat Proxy

I'm opening 12 spots for a weekend workshop in October for devs who want to ship quality software with agents.Sign up here: https://form.typeform.com/to/EDuBEz4U"You're absolutely right, I should have...

7 Sep 17min

What Companies Hiring Forward-Deployed Engineers Actually Want

Become an AI Engineer at parsity.ioI recruit for AI roles on the side and I pulled real, live forward-deployed engineer postings and broke down exactly what they're screening for. Turns out it's not w...

31 Aug 17min

They Made Me Senior Because I Quit

We teach AI systems engineering at Parsity: parsity.ioIn this one I get into why senior is mostly a comp band with a name on it, the three things every senior actually needs to know/have, the big fish...

24 Aug 27min

The 2 Skills That Will Keep You Employed as a Developer

Become an AI engineer in 45 days. Join Parsity: https://parsity.ioBeing a "coder" is getting less and less about coding. I've been writing code for 12 years and I'm watching skills I worked hard for g...

17 Aug 7min