Episode 27 – Jess Chadwick shows us how to succeed without a Computer Science degree

Jess’s Bio:
Jess Chadwick is a software developer and technologist with over fifteen years of development experience ranging from embedded devices in start-ups to enterprise-scale solutions in Fortune 25s. He is an ASPInsider and a magazine and book author with O’Reilly publishing, as well as several courses on Lynda.com including Up and Running with ASP.NET 5. Jess is actively involved in the development community, regularly speaking at user groups and conferences as well as co-lead of the NJDOTNET Central New Jersey .NET user group.
Episode Highlights and Show Notes:
Arsalan: Today we have Jess Chadwick with us. Jess, how are you?
Jess: I’m doing alright and glad to be here.
Arsalan: I’m really happy that you’re here because you’re very experienced. You have done a lot of work and would like to learn about you and from you, but first I’d like to ask you to describe yourself.
Jess: I call myself a web developer and technologist. I know I’m flat out stealing that from Scott Hanselman because that’s how he describes himself. But, honestly, the first time I heard that from Hanselman, it described me. I’m a web developer by trade by day, but I’m also a technologist. I’m very much into using technology and it just so happens that web development is my current passion.  It’s how I’ve been making my living for the past almost 20 years now. I’m also pretty big into the community as well. I also consider myself a community leader and I like to give technical presentations. I like to give back to the community.
Arsalan: Do you code every day?
Jess: I do code every day. I work at a big enterprise. I’m not really aloud to say where exactly I work on a podcast, but you can look me up on LinkedIn. It’s on there. My title is manager, but I was hired to be a very hands-on technical manager. So I am coding every day. When I began with this organization, they were looking to move into the client side world and they wanted to do it right. When I came onboard they basically asked me if I wanted to be on the production team or the infrastructure team, building frameworks that the rest of the product teams use.
Jess: I chose the production team because I wanted to be on the front lines putting out code and dealing with real world problems. So, I spend a significant amount of time writing code daily that goes into production. Then, at night I come home and write some more code. But that’s more of those to-do apps. So I dip my toes in both. I use my nights to exercise the new technologies. I’m in a big enterprise and I don’t necessarily always get the chance to use the latest and greatest. So, I stay on top of things at night with the pet projects that I have.
Arsalan: I hear you and obviously you don’t have a family so that works out, right?
Jess: No, I put family first. When I was looking for a job the commute was the number one thing because then I could get home and see my family as often as possible. I have two young girls, ages two and half and almost six. So, they go to bed relatively early. My wife is a teacher. So, she goes to bed relatively early too. But, I am a night owl. So, I stay up until 2:00 and sometimes 3:00 in the morning. I can work pretty well on between 4 and 6 hours of sleep. It’s because I love this stuff that I can put in the extra time. I make it a priority to spend time with family and also take time out for myself as well.
Arsalan: I think you are my twin. I also have two girls. They are ages 5 and 1 and a half and my wife is a professor, so she’s also a teacher. Do you remember your first encounter with programming?
Jess: Vaguely. I remember coding all the time as a teenager. I can’t really pinpoint the first time that I really started coding, but I do remember that my dad was a developer when I was young. He began as a construction worker and a cabinet maker, but then picked up some books and got into developing. So,

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