Hey Rachel,

Australian here, I'm always interested in hearing about the path other Aussies have taken to land dev jobs in the States and elsewhere. How'd you get your start? Did you do a lot of dev work in Aus before making the move? What's the market like over there for Australians?

Cheers,
Mitch

Last night at the meetup in L.A., you talked about the four stages you go through when you're creating animations. Have you written about that in one of your blog posts or elsewhere? I'd like to learn more about the process you were talking about... I wasn't quick enough to take notes.

Hi Rachel,

I'm an aussie! I studied engineering but have been unable to get a gig in my area (aerospace) but have been doing more and more front end work. It can be frustrating to try and put myself out there (and a little bit intimidating). What has been your best return on investment in terms of building you reputation as a great front-end dev?

Thanks

I would love to know how you started coding and why? And what kind of frameworks you like using? I love your work! cant wait to see what you come up with next!

When I use a small browser window open demo-01,animation will become intensive.But when the window to maximize the size of canvas to adjust,and the area of particle animations will not change.its area is the size of a small window.

Hello @rachsmithcodes, I think you are wonderful. I wonder that your work principles. So I wonder that your excellence secrets. I don' t understand some things. We are fault about time management or our focusing areas. Should every developer or every designer have a product of her/him own?
Thank you!

From an emailer [anonymous]

I wanted to get your opinion on something as I have a hard time making a connection with other Web Developers in my area... This is my first time reaching out to someone who's "made it" in the Web Development community, and I'd like to know your take on the importance of formal education in the Web Development. I'm a completely self-taught (or whatever you want to call soaking in all of the information from incredible individuals like yourself) freelancing Web Developer for numerous small businesses in my area, but I don't have a formal degree... There are plenty of companies out there who say that you don't need a degree for Web Development to get a job in the industry (Blizzard, and Riot Games to name a few that I know of), and I feel that the internet has such a wealth of knowledge that it shouldn't be mandatory to get a formal education for it. That being said, I'm curious to get your take on the topic, as you have worked at a few very large names in the industry. Did the places you work require a degree? And if they didn't how heavily did it weigh on getting hired? Since Web Development is such a transparent industry (where you can easily read someone's code and see their understanding of a subject), I just can't justify spending so much money on education, but I certainly would if that is what it takes to get a job at a prominent Web Development company.

Hello. :)

My name is Silas (Sea-las or See-las) :)

I’m from Brazil.

Do you mind if we chat a little? :)

Hi Rachel,
as you are an expert on JS, I was wondering if you are familiar with JS implementation to blockchains – what does it mean that you can build a JavaScript app on top of blockchain, more precise on top of LISK platform? Is LISK like React? Uhh :-)
Here is a LISK diagram that helps little: https://imgur.com/a/dc6ZA

Happy New Year and thank you for your time,
Tadej

A dashing gentleman named Chris suggested I reach out and see if you would be gracious enough to do a lightning talk at an upcoming meetup we're having :). Please let me know if this is possible as we would absolutely love to have you!

Meetup Link
Codepen Link

What's up Rachel!

Appreciate you having this forum to spark discussions.

Much like yourself I wasn't in programming until I was in it. My background is in the social sciences.

Ten years later I'm hopelessly addicted. These days I spend most of my time designing systems, data pipelines and building microservices.

Its always been my goal to work from home full time. I recently started doing it on a scheduled basis one day a week and I absolutely love it. My work isn't really amenable to going beyond 1 or 2 days per week. I've noticed that it's very veru difficult to find solid opportunities with reputable companies. How did you find yourself able to do it so early on in your career? Where did you find opportunities?

Thanks so much.

Hey Rach,

I've got 3 questions (had 2 but thought of another one while typing this, hopefully it won't increase again):

1. Are there any plans to add more social features to CodePen? One I frequently think of is being notified when people I follow at least post a new Pen. Has anyone else requested this?

2. This one is limited by the editor powering the CodePen editor I think, but anyway. Any plans to allow creating pens consisting of multiple files? I think CodeAcademy has this feature in their tutorials. Could be useful if the Pen outgrows its initial window.

3. How on Earth did you get to work with CodePen?! I don't see a Careers section on the page and when I asked last time on Twitter, I was only told that no places are available. So what is your story regarding this haha.

Thank you!

Greetings:

I'm trying to add a line of links under the

header in the index file so I can kill the empty space and keep people from being confused. However, when I do it doesn't show up. When I encompassed it within the

tag all the bad things you could possibly imagine happening happened. I've gone slightly blind wandering through the CSS files but I don't see any limitations on the amount of text that can be used. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Bill

How to apply animations using only CSS and Javascript. No in-built libraries should be used.

Do you have example how you made sketch.london?
I want to learn to do something like this, but did not found any explanation

Hi Rachel,

I've been having trouble with nujucks on codepen. Can you take a look at my project? I tried to follow yours called Nunjucks includes. Here's my project https://codepen.io/miagenovese/project/editor/DkPVJE

Basically, I'm trying to use the _header.njk in my maps.html.

Thanks so much for reading :)

Mia

Hey Rachel,

Thanks for setting this up! Great to have all the answers in public like this.

I was curious what has you most excited at the moment, from progress in Web GL to who knows what.

Hello, my name is Lichin.
recently I saw the spin color stroke project on codepen,
and I try to do some change on it: http://codepen.io/lichin-lin/details/NdpaLa/ (i really like it haha!)
I am here to ask if it`s okay to use your javascript code in anywhere (animation part) ?
or I need to write my own code :D !
anyway, this is really a beautiful js practice!!!

Hi Rachel,

As a developer, I was wondering what you consider important in an online portfolio? I've always been told to highlight write-ups of large projects, but I've noticed that many developers tend to put blog posts front-and-center. What's your opinion on this?

Thanks,
Ben Wilcox

P.S.
Great idea using GitHub issues as a platform for AMAs!

Hey, Rachel! I'm a big fan. I have a tiny podcast where I talk to amazing peeps about how they got to where they are now, what their day-to-day life is like, and what their habits are. Also we just talk about life and not take things seriously. :)

I have two episodes so far at https://soundcloud.com/friendstalkfrontend if you want to get a feel for it.

So! I was wondering: would you be down to be interviewed for an hour? I think peeps will learn a lot from you esp since you talk about things like https://rachsmith.com/2016/career-fomo and https://rachsmith.com/2016/agency-to-remote-1-year-later <3

Thank you so much for reading!

Your Twitter page uses an interesting title describing you as a "Web Janitor". Does that mean you are skilled in HTML bleach, CSS Lysol, and can get Javascript stains out of those hard to reach places?

Hi, I am using your animated background headers' 1st example. I am having a bit of trouble implementing it. My issue is that your code works fine on desktop but when it comes to mobile it was disturbing my design, so I want to remove it. Can you please tell me the way to keep it on the desktop and remove it on mobile? :)

Hi Rachel!

I met you in September at the Web Dev Show & Tell mixer held at NationBuilder and have been meaning to get in touch with you sooner. I have a group of high school programmers that I think would be interested in hearing you talk about your work with CodePen and your journey getting there.

Would you be interested in coming by to speak to our students? We would be thrilled to arrange something with you if you were up to it!

Thanks,
Briana Dacoscos

P.S. We are based in Pasadena!

Hey Rachel I had a quick question about a pattern I saw you use in this example:

function Circle(x,y,rad,color) {
    var _this = this;

    // constructor
    (function() {
        _this.x = x || null;
        _this.y = y || null;
        _this.radius = rad || null;
        _this.color = color || null;
    })();

    this.draw = function(ctx) {
        if(!_this.x || !_this.y || _this.radius || _this.color) {
            console.error('Circle requires an x, y, radius and color');
            return;
        }
        ctx.beginPath();
        ctx.arc(_this.x, _this.y, _this.radius, 0, 2 * Math.PI, false);
        ctx.fillStyle = _this.color;
        ctx.fill();
    }
}

What in the world is going on with the constructor here? For the life of me I can't figure out what pattern this is and what problem it's solving.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of your tutorials over at codepen.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

-- Dan

Hi Rach!

I just wrapped up a 12 week coding bootcamp in SF, and my final project is something similar to CodePen.

I was wondering if you had any free time if you could check it out and offer some feedback!
(I have no intent or desire to pursue this project as anything beyond a learning experience/portfolio piece, but understand if you're bound by some sort of non-compete or contract clause that prevents this.)

One of the main features of my web app is real-time collaboration, and I was wondering if you and the other engineers at CodePen have ever discussed adding that as a feature. I dug around on CodePen's website, and I wasn't able to find anything mentioning jobs (at CodePen, anyway) and it seems like you guys are a really small team (approachable!) so I thought it would be cool to reach out directly.

The app is hosted on Heroku at:
https://sharkbyte.herokuapp.com/

And the demo login is
User: admin
Pass: password

I have a podcast called Coder Catchup which you can find at http://codercatchup.com/ or on twitter https://twitter.com/codercatchup and I am approaching Episode 100 of the weekly podcast series I am doing.

The podcast is about spreading information to anyone who works on the web, things that may hopefully improve their career or open up other opportunities or thought processes.

For episode 100 I am seeking out various people in the web community and asking if they would mind answering 5 question that will be read out on the episode.

Would you mind answering these questions for me?

• If you were starting fresh, what would you primarily focus on? (e.g. as a new web designer/developer)
• What is one piece of advice you think is most important for web developers/designers going forward?
• What would you do to get out of a slump or plateau with your web career?
• What is 1 thing you would like to see web developers/designers doing more of?
• One piece of advice of your choosing

Hi Rachel,
I want some suggestions on from where i can practice more intuitive java-script Problems.
From where i can know about the new JS library which are hot in the market .
If possible Please provide the link in the reply .
Also i also make up my mind to learn the back end languages also .So, PHP and My-SQL is sufficient ?

• Thanks

Hi Rachel,

Recently listened to you on this podcast, and was wondering if you are setup directly as an employee of CodePen US, or you have your own Company, and if there are any gotchas related to tax and benefits (e.g., superannuation, leave and such) that you have to watch out for.

Thanks.

E.

Hello Rachel!

I came across your work from your appearance on the Versioning show (the first one I've listened to) and I was really interested in what you do. I graduated with a Computing Science major around 3 years ago, and decided a few months ago that I wanted to focus on becoming a Frontend Developer. Like you, I have a slight design background, but essentially I do enjoy design and all the things it brings with coding, which was why I wanted to become a Frontend Developer and my interest in your work.

Right now, I'm in a place where I'm not really sure what type of companies I should look into finding jobs for in which to really build up experience in building great design and user experience frontend layouts. I recall from the show that you worked at an advertisement agency, so would you say those types of companies would help the most? I'd appreciate even actual company names for me to look into.

Thanks!

Hi!!!
This is something I'm dealing with right now. I currently work for a city government my first "professional" web developer position been here going on 6 months. But I'm starting to hate my job since I'm the youngest in the department by at least 10 years you can imagine how I get treated. I love what I do just not where I'm doing it at and the people above me. I want to get out before I start hating what I love to do.

I want to work with like minded people i want to work in a team not be the Lone Ranger. I want to be creatively criticized not put down.

So I've been applying to many web developer / front-end positions but always get the same old your good just not good enough for us even for entry/junior level positions. I always send my resume and website link (victorollervidez.com) with recent project examples but still no luck 😑. (Just started putting together my new site this past weekend so it is a bit incomplete)

Is there a trick to landing a remote position?

I'm asking about remote because where I live web developers are practically non existent and not in demand for some reason.

Thank You
~Victor

Hi rachel
I'm 3rd year B.tech student after my graduation i want to become web wizard like you.I currently know HTML CSS3 JS/jQuery (approx intermediate stage) want to make cool projects and also want to work in company like CODEPEN. Any guidance where should i look further to learn. also a personal question how to remember all the tags elements and styling & any further information to guide me to this field or make my resume better....
Sorry, but i have lots of questions for a Developer because i want to become a developer..
Please suggest link where i can fork project on github or watch them. Can you share your achievements till yet if you like.
Link for my resume:-
qwe.docx
Hope so, you will guide me.
Thanks in advance.

Hello Rachel,

My name is Alex and I used to run the Pastry Box Project: https://the-pastry-box-project.net/

The Pastry Box is collaborative blog which has published one text everyday since January 1st 2012. We closed on December 31st, after four years of hard work.

I've launched a new publishing project. It's called "How did you start coding?".

https://superyesmore.com/publication/how-did-you-start-coding-486219196f7a99515f31f5edbce83841

It's all in the title. I'm going to ask bright minds to share with the world how they started coding. One text will be published every week throughout 2016.

Would you be interested in contributing a piece to the project?

All the best.

Alex
@alexduloz

Hey Reachel!
I'm thinking seriously on moving to US next year. Since you've moved to LA yourself can I have your opinion on my work? Basically here is what I can: http://agafnik.com/testchambers/ what chances do I have?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Rachel,

There are many awesome resources available to learn almost everything: HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Ruby, etc... but where to start learning WebGL and "advanced" canvas things? There are many interesting resources, like ThreeJS, pixi js and easeljs but they seems much less developer friendly (always have the feeling that you need a strong math/3D background and animation skills to get into it).

Codepens are awesome but sometimes lacks clarity.

Hey Rachel,

I've been seeing some of your code pens (amazing) and i was wondering if you do online JS tutoring?
I am trying to master some of my skills.

Thanks,
Gonzalo

Hi Rach,

Using React what library do you use for animations? The biggest pain point for me is to animate multiple child components where the child components have to pass it's self reference back to the parent component. For simple transitions, I use CSS (styled-components) but for the more complicated animations like the situation I mentioned I use gsap. Would love to know your approach.

Thank you!
Gar

Hi!

I'd like to use your "Thank you you're awesome" svg (and link proper attribution). So, I downloaded the repo and ran index.html but it doesn't work. It seems the HTML is disconnected from the CSS and JS even though they're all in the same folder just as downloaded. Do I have to do anything first ?

This is what I get:

Thanks!
Seif

It would be really helpful if it includes everything from hardware to software and other handy tools. :)

Hi,

I am your big fan on web, I need to see the animated Header for america which you posted on codepen.Can you please share the code,so I can edit for my demo.

Thanks

How long did it take you to fully grasp JS? I've been working on an Ember app for a few months now, with little improvement. Am I just a slow learner or is this something some people initially struggle with? Rather, did you specifically struggle with JavaScript at all and/or how long did it take to overcome it, for lack of a better word.

Hi Rachel,

A well known problem in this job is the famous impostor syndrome. My question is simple: have you ever felt like an impostor? If so, how do you deal with it? As a (web) developer, our colleagues are every persons in the world with a computer and an internet connection.

Thanks :)

Using the CodePen plugin and shortcode doesn't result in the rotating text as intended, instead, I get a view of the pen as seen the CodePen website with a window showing the HTML, CSS and Javascript on the left and a window on the right with the rotating text. Screenshot attached.

I tried adding the HTML, CSS and Javascript manually, into a post but that didn't work either.

Can you please suggest what I can do to make this pen work in WordPress? I'm loving your clever Rotating Text pen and think it's deliciously fabulous. Thanks so much for sharing - I'm really keen to make it work.

All the BEST, hope you enjoy a lovely day!

Hey Rachel. @sdras (who spoke at React Rally last year and did a killer job) recommended you as someone rad doing rad React things at CodePen. Are you interested in speaking this year? If so, what is a good way to follow up? (http://reactrally.com and http://speak.reactrally.com has some details)

Hello, I saw your example of animation, and I wanna to understand how you create just the line and point of first animation because I wanna to learn canvas animation.

https://tympanus.net/codrops/2014/09/23/animated-background-headers/