Summary of The Power of Advocating for Yourself with Charlie Gerard, Senior Developer Advocate at Stripe

00:00:00 - 00:35:00

Charlie Gerard is a senior developer advocate at Stripe who focuses on making the company's open source software more accessible. He shares his advice on how to advocate for yourself, emphasizing the importance of having a variety of skills and working on projects that interest you.

• 00:00:00 Charlie Gerard discusses the power of advocating for oneself, emphasizing the importance of having a variety of skills and working on projects that interest the individual. She also discusses her work as a senior developer advocate at Stripe, where she is focused on making the company's open source software more accessible to the public.
• 00:05:00 Charlie Gerard shares that he became interested in coding when he saw how developers were using code to create interactive webpages. Although he was not very good at drawing, he found that learning coding helped him to understand how websites work. He eventually became a developer advocate at Stripe, where he focuses on sharing knowledge and writing code that is easy to read.
• 00:10:00 Charlie Gerard advises developers to "make it work and then figure out how to refactor it." He also suggests following a "proper rule" for coding, but notes that this may not always be necessary.
• 00:15:00 Charlie Gerard discusses his favorite question to answer - "What's your favorite programming pun?" - and shares his opinion on how overrated or underrated he believes the developer community can be. He also discusses Stripe's decision to hire him, praising his patriotism and noting that he is a "star." Finally, he provides a random segment from his repertoire.
• 00:20:00 Charlie Gerard provides advice on how to get started in software development, focusing on the importance of not believing the hype and avoiding bad advice. He suggests focusing on what is important to you and not being influenced by what others are saying.
• 00:25:00 Charlie Gerard discusses the importance of advocating for yourself and how to do so effectively. He cites the example of adding ransomware to a Node.js module as an example of how easy it is to exploit vulnerabilities in software.
• 00:30:00 Charlie Gerard discusses the importance of advocating for oneself, and how doing so can lead to deeper learning and understanding. He also offers advice on how to approach learning new technologies, and how not to be afraid to experiment.
• 00:35:00 Charlie Gerard discusses how to advocate for yourself and how to find resources to help you. He also mentions that he is on Twitter and Remote and Oss Capital, and that he likes memes.