Self-Taught Engineering, Boot Camps, and Veganism with Welch Canavan

Some engineers have a linear path to their careers, but most of them take unconventional routes to become a developer. For Welch Canavan, Principal Engineer II at Stitch Fix, his journey into coding was a complete accident.

Welch was thrown into coding after the entire senior team above him left the company. He had two choices, sink or swim. With very little coding experience, he decided to tackle the problem-solving on his own and pick up the pieces that the senior team left. That experience propelled him into his career today. According to Welch, once you are motivated enough to learn, you might not need to invest in a boot camp. He also touches on some important aspects of tech like the complexities of maintaining state in URLs and highlights the innovative solutions by T3 stack.

In this episode, Welch talks to Robbie and Chuck about his journey into becoming a self-taught engineer, his responsibilities at Stitch Fix, and how he quit veganism after 20 years.

Key Takeaways

• [01:11] - Introduction to Welch Canavan.
• [02:21] - A whiskey review: Ritual Zero Proof Whiskey Alternative.
• [07:11] - Tech hot takes.
• [11:26] - Self-taught web development.
• [20:46] - Chuck, Robbie, and Welch talk about the current state of boot camps.
• [23:59] - Welch’s current position at Stitch Fix.
• [32:35] - Why Welch is no longer a vegan after 20 years.
• [38:20] - Welch’s hobbies.
• [39:36] - What career would Welch pursue if he wasn’t in tech?
• [42:43] - Projects Welch is currently interested in.

Quotes

[13:05] - “I have been making websites as a hobby essentially since I was in middle school.” ~ Welch Canavan

[24:21] - “I kind of got a weird amount into my career without learning much about code.” ~ Welch Canavan

[29:56] - “I really am a big believer that the only worth in a progressively more senior engineer is their ability to teach other people.” ~ Welch Canavan

Links

• Welch Canavan
• Welch Canavan LinkedIn
• Vercel
• Stitch Fix
• National Geographic
• Ritual Zero Proof Whiskey Alternative
• Fresca
• Sony
• Tailwind CSS
• Core OS
• Jen Simmons
• Chris Coyer
• Shop Talk Radio
• React
• Mozilla Firefox
• Amazon
• Panasonic
• Ember JS
• Ruby of Rails
• Django

Connect with our hosts

• Robbie Wagner
• Chuck Carpenter
• Ship Shape

Subscribe and stay in touch

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Whiskey Web and Whatnot

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