Boba Talk

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Nov 2025

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Sonny Li and Ellie Popoca demystify the world of coding and the tech industry over some bubble tea. Sometimes, they bring on amazing guests to drink boba with them. 🫶

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November 4, 2025Episode 1446 min

#14 How CS Students Are Landing AI Jobs in 2025 (Microsoft, Atlassian)

‼️ We hosted a CS Panel in the Codédex Discord server ‼️Curious about landing internships and full-time offers in big tech and banks, tips for post-grad, impact of AI in computer science, & how to navigate the job market in this economy?! 🤔Learn from two recent grads and a CS student:👩‍💻 Yna Pangilinan, Data Science Intern @ TD Bank🧑‍💻 Santiago Carena, Software Engineer @ Microsoft👩‍💻 Emma Tung, Software Engineer @ AtlassianBoba Talk:Host: Ellie PopocaProducer: Jay YowCodédex:We are a gamified learn-to-code platform with 1m+ happy learners. Made with <3 in Brooklyn, NY.Start your coding adventure: ⁠⁠codedex.io⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠@codedex.io⁠⁠Twitter: ⁠⁠@codedex_io

September 25, 2025Episode 1341 min

#13 Tyrus Yeo (Founding Engineer @ Ditto, CS @ UMich): From Hong Kong to NYC Startups: The 800-Word Email That Changed Everything

What does it take to go from coding your first “Hello World” in a college CS class to becoming a founding engineer at one of the hottest upcoming NYC consumer startup? In this episode of Boba Talk, Ellie sits down (in the Codédex office!) with Tyrus Yeo, a University of Michigan grad who left Hong Kong, dove headfirst into Computer Science, and carved his own path into the bubble of tech startups.They talk about the importance of taking that one intro coding class, what it’s like to hustle for that very first tech internship (including an 800-word midnight email!), how to figure out whether you’re mission-driven or tech-driven in your career, the gap between CS education and real-world software engineering, and things you can do to make lasting connections in college. From startup culture to learning React on the fly, this episode is a must-listen for CS students, new gen z grads, and anyone curious about tech and consumer startups.Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(01:29) Hong Kong to Ann Arbor (now Brooklyn!)(02:09) What is Ditto?(04:00) Neo the VC firm(05:24) Econ major and why every student should take one coding class(10:44) Sophomore summer internship / writing an 800-word email(14:28) Founding Engineer at Ditto: frontend changes, onboarding flow, product-first(18:18) Advice for students & grads(16:24) CS as a discipline vs. software engineering as a practice(21:49) Mission-driven vs. tech-driven(26:08) Untraditional path: Why the world needs more young people doing creative things(39:24) OutroEpisode links:🐺 UMich💙 Neo✨ Breezi🏡 The Midnight CollectiveKeep up with Tyrus:Twitter: ⁠@tyrus_yeoInstagram: @tyrus_yeoLinkedIn: ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/tyrus-yeoKeep up with Ditto:Website: ⁠⁠https://onditto.comInstagram: ⁠@dittolistsBoba Talk:Host: Ellie PopocaProducer: Jay YowVideographer: Naomi LeeVideo Editor: Sonny LiCodédex:We are a gamified learn-to-code platform with 1m+ happy learners. Made with <3 in Brooklyn, NY.Start your coding adventure: ⁠codedex.io⁠Instagram: ⁠@codedex.io⁠Twitter: ⁠@codedex_io

September 1, 2025Episode 1255 min

#12 Victoria Kirst (VP of Eng @ Glitch, Tech Lead @ Google): 13 Years in Software Engineering, Big Tech vs Startups, and Going All-In on Paper

The first episode recorded LIVE on the new Boba Talk couch! 🛋️Victoria Kirst, better known online as vrk, is a tech veteran (former VP of Engineering at Glitch, Tech Lead @ Google, Software Engineer @ The Browser Company) based in Brooklyn, NY. She's currently on a 2-year sabbatical exploring her love of paper through Pouch, her indie magazine, and her email newsletter. In this episode, Ellie sits down with Victoria to talk about her coding journey, from playing with MS Paint and building anime fansites to spending 7+ years at Google (twice!) working on Google Chrome, Google Maps, VR, transitioning to a people manager at Glitch, and joining one of the hottest startups in the recent years, The Browser Company, before leaving to pursue the medium of paper through the lens of cute handdrawn zines. So many great stories and gold nuggets, a must-listen for any code newbies and creative technologists.Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(01:30) Origin story with MS Paint and anime fansites(05:00) The Google Chrome team, Flash / Web APIs, Chromium(08:04) The vibe at Chrome team vs Maps team(10:03) Leaving Google; immigrant parent, taking a risk(13:02) Teaching CS at Stanford, math tutoring, advice for Gen Zs(16:45) Not liking school and going back to Google / Recurse Center(20:56) The second time at Google(22:30) Joining Glitch, a platform for building & hosting web apps(25:33) People managing at a startup / building trust(30:14) Trying a venture-backed startup(32:01) Fast-paced environment at The Browser Company(36:20) Sabbatical / leap of faith / the medium of paper(43:13) Pouch, a magazine for stationary lovers(45:52) Analog journal vs digital journal (47:54) Photo printing(53:04) Plug & outroEpisode links:🪟 Windows 3.1🎨 MS Paint🫰 Anime fansite💜 University of Washington🌐 Google Chrome📺 Flash video🧰 Web APIs🚀 Multi-Process Architecture🛜 Chromium🗺️ Google Maps🌈 CSS🧘 Recurse Center🎏 Glitch👤 Individual contributor (IC)🟦 The Browser Company💰 Ventured-backed startup📟 PagerDuty🧑🏻‍🏫 Executive coach🛢️ Amazon S3🧠 NP-Hard📝 Bullet journalKeep up with Victoria:Website: https://victoriakirst.comNewsletter: https://vrklovespaper.substack.comLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/victoriakirstKeep up with Pouch:Pouch: ⁠https://pouchmagazine.comInstagram: @pouch.studioBoba Talk:Host: Ellie PopocaProducer: Jay YowVideographer: Naomi LeeCodédex:We are a gamified learn-to-code platform with 1m+ happy learners. Made with <3 in Brooklyn, NY.Start your coding adventure: codedex.ioInstagram: @codedex.ioTwitter: @codedex_io

March 13, 2025Episode 1153 min

#11 Jenn Schiffer (Director of Community @ Glitch): The Internet's My Girl, Despite Everything

Jenn Schiffer is back! Jenn was the Director of Community at Glitch (acquired by Fastly) for seven years before taking a well-earned break. A beloved figure in the tech space for over a decade, Jenn has inspired countless developers and creatives with her work.She shared her incredible journey – from working at Outback Steakhouse and taking apart computers in South Brooklyn, to studying computer science and teaching at Montlair State University, and working at the NBA as a Software Developer and being involved with the Women's Prison Association, and ultimately, becoming the face of Glitch, shaping its vibrant community of 3 million developers. Simply put, she's one of the coolest people in tech. When Jenn sent her last email newsletter at Glitch in August, it truly marked the end of an era for our corner of the web.Needless to say, the Curriculum team at Codédex (Ellie, Julien, Sonny) are huge fans, so we couldn't pass up the chance to ask Jenn some of our burning questions. We chatted about the Glitch/Fastly acquisition, the art of email writing, generative AI, finding hobbies outside of work, YouTube and Pinterest, and why tech – despite all its highs and lows – is still cool as hell.Lastly, a massive thank you to Jenn for everything you've done for the community and for paving the way for us and Codédex. 🙏P.S. If you are intested in Creative Coding (art + tech), we have a ⁠Digital Garden⁠ Monthly Challenge that you can try out!Show Notes:(0:00) Intro(1:36) Life after Glitch(5:08) Joy of making things(8:56) CS in the 2000s and NBA Stats(16:15) The Glitch chapter(17:52) Staying independent(23:28) The art of newsletters(27:12) Public-facing roles(30:24) Women's Prison Association(35:02) Favorite part of the sabattical (40:40) Generative AI stance(45:57) YouTube, Pinterest, Are.na(50:10) Plug

February 18, 2025Episode 101 hr 5 min

#10 Jovanay Carter (Co-Founder @ The Dev Differencee & Google Recruiter): Resume & LinkedIn Profile Tips to Land More Interviews

This episode is a live recording from the Hacker House fireside chat on February 5th, 2025, in the Codédex community, kicking off our “Roast My Resume” February Monthly Challenge. 🔥We invited Jovanay Carter, Co-Founder of The Dev Difference & ex-Google Technical Recruiter (and former coworker!), who’s reviewed over 20,000+ resumes in her career. She shares insider tips on crafting standout resumes, optimizing LinkedIn profiles, networking strategically, how to get a referal, and everything in between to land more interviews in 2025.Stick around for the Q&A at the end, where we answered live questions from the community!Want to see more Boba Talk? Follow us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@boba_talk⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Twitter! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review — it really helps!Show Notes:(0:00) Intro(1:27) Lightning Round!(4:39) Becoming a tech recruiter(6:32) Moving to Google and hiring for Android, OS, Privacy(7:29) Pivoting to Software Engineering(9:41) Plug: Roast My Resume Challenge(9:54) Common pitfalls in resumes(11:42) Importance of a personal portfolio(14:26) The Experience Paradox for CS students(18:41) Skills section on a resume(22:52) Keywords on a LinkedIn profile(30:04) Landing a job at the Grace Hopper Conference(35:28) Advice on talking to a recruiter(36:56) Finding events via Luma(42:55) Asking for referals(44:02) The Dev Difference(50:26) @Valérie: What are common dealbreakers for recruiters?(53:03) @juanpabloduqueb: What are some entry-level roles in tech that are open to people without formal industry experience?(55:23) @AW: What’s the best way to approach a recruiter on LinkedIn without sounding desperate or generic?(59:54) @Samppiii: How can a CS student build a standout project that will catch the attention of recruiters and hiring managers?(1:00:39) @CoderBlue10: Which roles should we go for in the age of AI?(1:04:30) OutroEpisode links: 🗣️ The Dev Difference 🔥 Roast My Resume 🤖 Applicant Tracking System (ATS) 📄 Jovanay's Resume 👩‍💻 Grace Hopper Celebration 🧑🏾‍💻 AfroTech Conference 🗓️ Luma 💖 WECode Conference Keep up with Jovanay: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jovanay-carter Website: The Dev DifferenceBoba Talk: Host: Sonny Li Producer: Jay YowCodédex:The Boba Talk podcast has been brought to you by Codédex. We are a learn to code platform with 300K happy users. Based in Brooklyn, NY. Website: codedex.io Instagram: @codedex.io Twitter: @codedex_io

January 17, 2025Episode 91 hr 2 min

#9 Steve Chen (Founder @ Code & Coffee): From LAN Parties to Building a 50,000 Member Dev Community in 37 Cities

This episode is a live recording from the Hacker House fireside chat on December 14th, 2024, in the Codédex community during the Mini Holiday Hackathon. ❄️ We invited Steve Chen, Founder and Executive Director at Code & Coffee, to share his non-traditional path to tech — from growing up as a restaurant kid in the DC metro area, dropping out of college, and working as a food delivery driver, to joining a coding bootcamp in Florida, becoming a Software Engineer at Grubhub through a cold email, Head of Software Quality Automation at Framebridge, and running the biggest coding meetup in the U.S. after the pandemic (367 total events in 2024). Steve and Sonny traded notes on their Asian American upbringing, hours logged in Team Fortress and Dota 2, lessons learned from scaling a tech community IRL, and more. Towards the end of the episode, we also had a Q&A with questions from the audience. This episode is a must-listen if you’re trying to break into tech in 2025 as a bootcamp grad or self-taught developer. Want to see more Boba Talk? Follow us ⁠⁠⁠⁠@boba_talk⁠⁠⁠ on Twitter! If you like this episode, please leave a review! Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (1:21) Dropping out of college and coding bootcamp (3:01) Meetups, pandemic, Code & Coffee (8:32) Black sheep in the Asian household (10:21) Gaming nostalgia: Team Fortress and Dota 2 stories (15:34) Scaling a community, community rituals (Intro Circles) (23:25) From startup to Grubhub to Framebridge (28:17) Lessons learned from Code & Coffee (33:51) Non-traditional path to tech (41:10) Being someone that you want to work with and "How to Win Friends" (43:35) @Valérie: What's one piece of advice for your younger self? (47:13) @ValentineL: Are you expanding Code & Coffee to new countries? (56:33) @Hlin245: Have you had any identity struggles in tech? (60:05) @Milan: What are the requirements for QA testers? (61:03) Outro Episode links: ☕️ Code & Coffee 💣 Team Fortress 🗺️ Dota 2 🎮 LAN party 🍕 Grubhub 🖼️ Framebridge 🐥 Rubber duck debugging 👨🏼‍💻 Greg Isenberg 📕 How to Win Friends & Influence People Keep up with Steve: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stevechendc Sonar: sonarsource.com Boba Talk: Host: Sonny Li Videographer: Eric Romere Producer: Jay Yow Codédex: The Boba Talk podcast has been brought to you by Codédex. We are a learn to code platform with 250K+ happy users. Based in Brooklyn, NY. Website: codedex.io Twitter: @codedex_io Instagram: @codedex.io

November 28, 2024Episode 857 min

#8 Cat Zhou (Head of Data @ Twitter & BeReal): Data Science 101, Startups vs. Big Tech, and How to Break into Data

This episode is a live recording from a virtual Hacker House event on November 21st, 2024, in the Codédex community. 🏡 We invited our good friend and neighbor, Catherine Zhou, aka Cat, ex-Head of Data at Twitter and BeReal during these companies most pivotal years, to discuss her colorful career journey from working minimum wage at a gym and as a bike mechanic, all the way to JetBlue, Twitter, and BeReal. Cat shares her unique insights on the difference between working at a startup vs. big tech, what data looks like at a consumer platform with 25-250 million daily active users, the current job market, emergence of AI in Data Science, the importance of learning SQL to pass data interviews, and advice for all code newbies trying to break into data in 2025. Towards the end of the episode, we also had questions from the community! If you are trying to get your foot into the door as a Data Analyst and Data Scientist, there are too many gold nuggets and you do not want to miss this. Want to see more Boba Talk? Follow us ⁠⁠⁠@boba_talk⁠⁠ on Twitter! If you like this episode, please leave a review! Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (1:17) Working at Twitter and BeReal (2:29) What is Data Science? (7:20) Data Analyst vs. Data Scientist vs. Data Engineer (13:18) Tech Startups vs. Big Tech (17:46) Measuring data at Codédex (19:16) <- Gut calls - data-informed - data-driven -> (23:31) Tools to learn in Data Science: SQL, Python, R (27:44) SQL in Coding Interviews at Facebook, Reddit, Netflix (30:16) Emergence of AI in Data Science (31:55) Valérie: What's a piece of advice for someone at the start of their journey? (34:50) Samppii: What are some memorable projects at BeReal & Twitter? (37:05) Mel the Texas Hammer: How canone intersect data science with web dev? (39:21) Jessi: What was a big challenge with handling data? (42:03) Ritu: How to break into tech in 2025 without a degree? (46:00) Coder: Any routines in your day before you got into the industry? (50:17) Ruth: What type of data projects should I have on my resume/portfolio? (57:00) Outro Episode links: 🤳 BeReal 🚕 511 New York 📺 "Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy" (Netflix documentary) 🧪 ⁠A/B Testing⁠ 💡 HiPPO: Highest Paid Person's Opinion 📘 "Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiements" (Book) 🤖 Microsoft GitHub Copilot 🛢️ Learn SQL 📈 Tableau 📒 Jupyter Notebook 🐦 Jack Dorsey's Senate Hearing Boba Talk: Host: Sonny Li Videographer: Asiqur Rahman Videographer: Eric Romere Producer: Jay Yow Happy coding!

October 23, 2024Episode 732 min

#7: Jamie Rollison: From Linguistics to Android Dev, Internships at Intuit & Stripe, and College Life @ UIUC

In this episode, we sit down with Jamie Rollison, a senior at UIUC studying Computer Science, to discuss her unique journey from linguistics to Android development and how she landed internships at Intuit (fun story here!) and Stripe. Jamie shares insights on following her passions, building web and mobile apps at Hack4Impact, balancing college life, the cheating/grind culture, and navigating the competitive tech landscape. Whether you're a CS student, recent grad, or tech enthusiast, this episode has valuable takeaways about landing your first internships in tech! Ellie is today's host. ✨ Recorded IRL in our Dumbo office. And congrats on the returning offer, Jamie! See you in NYC next August. Want to see more Boba Talk? Follow us ⁠⁠@boba_talk⁠ on Twitter! If you like this episode, please leave a review! Show Notes: (0:00) Intro + Bobas (1:10) Building Apps at Hack4Impact (5:08) The 1st internship at Intuit (Mountain View) (7:43) The 2nd internship at Stripe (Seattle) (12:21) Recruitment Season: Google, Palantir, trading cos (15:57) Online Assessment (OA) (18:13) College grind at UIUC (20:11) Follow your passion in CS (22:20) Cheating culture & assignments on GitHub (28:24) Ellie's recap (30:05) Personal projects & hackathons (31:37) Outro (we are SO back!) Episode links: 🧡 ⁠⁠UIUC 🌍 Hack4Impact 📘 Intuit 🏦 Stripe Back 2 School Bash: ⁠YouTube Vlog Luma Keep up with Jamie: Instagram: ⁠@jamie.rollison LinkedIn: ⁠⁠linkedin.com/in/jamierollison Boba Talk: Host: Ellie Popoca Videographer: Naomi Lee Producer: Jay Yow Happy coding!

March 11, 2024Episode 649 min

#6: Juan Pa: Running Hackathons in Mexico City, Impact of AI in Education, and GitHub Student Developer Pack (Partnership Episode)

Codédex partnered with GitHub Education! 🙌 For this special episode, we invited Juan Pablo Flores, aka Juan Pa, Senior Program Manager at GitHub based in Seattle on the pod. Juan shared his origin story in this episode, from writing Java scripts (you read that right) on RuneScape, MapleStory, and FarmVille to organizing hackathons in Mexico City for Major League Hacking to finally moving to Seattle for GitHub. We discussed college hackathons, the importance of English for Mexican devs, whether or not Codédex should have Spanish translation, our first GitHub PRs, the impact of AI in education, GitHub Education, GitHub Campus Experts, how the partnership between Codédex and GitHub came to be, OpenAI's evolution over the years, how to measure community health, and what's ahead for GitHub (GitHub Field Day!). Shoutout to the whole GitHub Education team for believing in Codédex and the wonderful work they are doing for students! ⛺️ Want to see more Boba Talk? Follow us ⁠⁠⁠@boba_talk⁠⁠ on Twitter! If you like this episode, please leave a review! Show Notes: (00:00) Intro + Bobas (01:10) HackIllinois (02:15) Origin Story: RuneScape & MapleStory (05:20) Origin Story: First Hackathon (17:16) Dev Community in MXC / Language Barrier (18:11) Should Codédex have Spanish translation? (20:07) First Pull Request (PR) (22:22) GitHub Education (28:26) How Did Codédex Land the GitHub Edu Partnership (31:00) GitHub Student Developer Pack (33:30) Microsoft Super Bowl Ad & Impact of AI in Education (41:38) OpenAI's Evolution: Dota 2 to Now (43:03) Should Students Do Open-Source Projects (44:35) Hiring at GitHub Education & Community Health (47:45) Who are GitHub's competitors and what is GitHub's market? (@milan) (48:28) What's ahead that students & teachers should be excited about? (@ValentineL) Episode links: 🏫 ⁠⁠⁠HackIllinois ⛏️ ⁠RuneScape 🍁 ⁠MapleStory 🌐 ⁠⁠Google Developer Groups (GDG) ⚾️ Major League Hacking (MLH) 💜 MHacks 📈 Plausible ✍️ Rachel Nabors ⚛️ React Docs 🌱 First Pull Request ⛳️ GitHub Campus Exerts 🤖 Microsoft Game Day Commercial 🐙 GitHub Copilot 📄 Teaching CS50 with AI 🧑🏻‍🏫 TeachAI ☂️ GitHub Field Day GitHub Education 🤝 Codédex: Website: https://codedex.io/github-students Blog: https://codedex.io/blog/codedex-github-edu GitHub Student Developer Pack: https://education.github.com/pack Keep up with Juan: Twitter: ⁠@juanpflores_ GitHub: @juanpflores LinkedIn: ⁠@juanpflores94 Boba Talk: Co-Host: Sonny Li Co-Host: Lillian McVeigh Producer: Jay Yow Happy coding!

February 9, 2024Episode 518 min

#5: Codédex AMA: Game Dev, Flutter vs React Native, APIs, and Barcelona, Spain (IG Live)

This episode was recorded during our team offsite in Barcelona, Spain, where we did an AMA via Instagram Live on January 11th, 2024 in our Airbnb living room. It features all of our core team members: Sonny: Founder & Chief Vibes Officer Asiqur: Software Engineer Dharma: Software Engineer Brandon: Curriculum Lead Lillian: Head of Operations In this episode, a live audience asked us 13 questions ranging from our take on no-code, how to get into game development, Flutter vs React Native, and the best ways to learn APIs. Take a look at the timestamps to find questions that interest you! This episode goes out to our community! 2024 is gonna be epic. Want to see more Boba Talk? Follow us ⁠⁠⁠@boba_talk⁠⁠ on Twitter! If you like this episode, please leave a review! Show Notes: (00:00) Welcome (00:53) Team Intros (01:49) 1. What's it like to finally meeting the whole team? (@ann_era) (02:53) 2. What are the chances of no-code tools replacing coding? (@sethdesignz) (04:33) 3. What is better... learning to develop games OR to focus on a language and then learn to develop games? (@enchanted_gam3r) (05:35) 4. Are you hiring? (@le.flowerrpod) (06:12) 5. What are your thoughts on Flutter vs React Native? (@clever_coder01) (08:34) 6. Will there be a C# course? (@k.milan) (09:12) 7. Intermediate learners! What is Codédex's plan to help people who've gotten through the beginner courses? (@easerhersalad) (10:09) 8. What's your favorite food in Spain so far? (@choisauce) (11:55) 9. Will there be any new workshops hosted in the Discord server? (@myrthe.verheijden) (12:27) 10. What is your favorite word in Spanish? (@ambx_00) (13:08) 11. Where there be any new Challenge Packs? (@ann_era) (14:45) 12. When is the Python intermediate course dropping? (@kylerissocool11) (15:04) 13. What are useful APIs that I should learn after the basics of JavaScript? (@ties.vd.n) Episode links: 🎮 C# and Unity 🎮 C++ and Unreal 🪽 ⁠Flutter⁠ (Dart) ⚛️ React Native ⚙️ API Keep up with Codédex: Twitter: ⁠@codedex_io Instagram: ⁠@codedex.io Website: ⁠https://www.codedex.io Boba Talk: Co-Host: Sonny Li Co-Host: Lillian McVeigh Producer: Jay Yow Happy coding!