CodeNewbie

CodeNewbie is a long-form interview show, not a panel or narrative format: each episode is a one-on-one conversation between host Saron Yitbarek and a single guest about how they got into coding or a tech-adjacent career. Guests come from varied starting points — failed university majors, teaching careers, tech support, Apple Genius Bar retail work — rather than traditional computer science backgrounds. A recurring thread across recent seasons is machine learning and AI as a second career, with guests explaining what the work actually involves day to day (mostly Python and data manipulation, per several guests, not advanced math) and naming specific resources like fast.ai, Hugging Face pre-trained models, and Coursera specializations. Other episodes turn toward career strategy once inside the industry, covering how roles and culture differ across Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, and how networking (cold emails, Twitter DMs) opened doors. The show also covers non-degree paths into development, including FreeCodeCamp, teacher loan forgiveness programs used to fund CS degrees, and boot camps like Tech Elevator. Saron has occasionally interviewed people close to her, including her husband and Storygraph co-founder Rob Frelow. The tone is conversational and encouraging, with hosts and guests normalizing struggle — boot camp students crying over first projects, years of failed attempts before a breakthrough — rather than presenting polished success stories. Each episode closes with a concrete takeaway aimed at someone earlier in their own journey. The show benefits listeners who are considering a career change into tech or AI specifically, more than working engineers looking for deep technical content.