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A packed hackathon, pizza boxes, and a room full of devs trading ideas—that’s where our conversation with Code & Coffee leaders Israel Santana and Charles Inwald begins. From there, we dive into what really moves a developer’s career forward today: community that shortens feedback loops, AI that accelerates but doesn’t replace judgment, and small public signals—talks, workshops, shipped demos—that compound into real opportunities.

We trace Izzy’s pivot from law to software and Charles’s evolution from attendee to program builder, then zoom out to the big questions: Can AI debug the bugs it creates? How do we keep creativity human when models remix what they’re fed? And what does a lean team augmented by agents look like when legacy systems still demand careful integration? Along the way, we get candid about disruption—entry-level roles tightening, senior expectations shifting—and lay out a practical playbook: build projects you can show, publish your learning journey, teach to uncover both your gaps and your communication skills, and network where people can vouch for you.

Ethics and diversity aren’t afterthoughts here. We discuss rotating venues to widen access, clear welcomes for every skill level, and a firm stance on privacy: collect less, anonymize by default, and never paste user PII into prompts without explicit consent. We push back on the claim that “you don’t need to know how to code,” making the case that security, reliability, and accountability still rest with humans—even when LLMs help draft the first version.

If you’re searching for momentum in a noisy market, this conversation offers direction—and an open door: codeandcoffee.org has chapters across the U.S. Bring your bugs, your ideas, and your curiosity.

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