YouTube interview-style video featuring Phil Choi (a 35-year-old programmer who changed careers around age 29) discussing being recently laid off, his programming career (~6–7 years), startup experience, personal life (met wife at a coding meetup; has a 17–18 month old child), and starting a YouTube channel and mentorship/community work. The tone is candid and reflective, covering career transition, emotional impact of layoff, personal growth, and the practical/psychological challenges of putting oneself out publicly online.
Chapters
I just got laid off. I just got home. Been working on the same project for the past 15, 16 months. Went through over 10 developers, ended up with a team of five. Had some designers outsourced. It felt right at the end it was going correct, but it ended.
What's up? This is our hundredth video. It's been a long, long, long journey. I was, like, trying to look good for the content today, so I didn't wear a big jacket, and I'm regretting it now. There's a lot of sacrifice. There's a lot of unknowns, you know, going into the unknowns. I think we, you know, we use that term now. You know, it's crazy because I never even thought I would do YouTube. Yes. I've always, you know, like, the mind is always in your head, like, oh, like, wouldn't it be sick if I'm a YouTuber? You know, like, it would be sick to pick up a camera and start filming. It's always like the question, like, do I really want to put myself out there for that much effort? You know?
So my name is Phil. I've been programming for around six or seven years. I'm 35. I changed careers when I was around 29. Worked at Plenty of startups, started some startups, you know, succeeded here and there, failed here and there. I went through a lot. I turned my life around with the programming and coding.
And I remember the first video I put up, you know, I just got laid off. I mean, Minnie and I just looked at the statistics the other day. It's like, like, who gets that? You know, that's why, like, we always think, like, you know, we're kind of chosen, you know, and like, people work at YouTube, like, for, like, years and don't get that kind of like 100,000 view video or whatever, you know, and we did. So it would be like. Like a slap in the face if we didn't do it. I remember you were interning at our. At our company, Right. I don't know. Things were getting kind of stressful. A couple months after, I just. I was on the train, I saw your video. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember I called you that same day. Yeah. I was like, how do you do the YouTube? You know? Yeah, yeah. And you're like, you know, I can come by and exercise with you. And I was like, yeah, if you need your fitness content, you can, like, exercise in my gym. Yeah. I think, like, the next day was a day off or something. Yeah, or something like that. So we went to go work out and Stuff. And then. And then you told me to shoot a video right as I got laid off. And I guess that kind of embodied, like, a bunch of emotions. Got laid off, you know, and then I was like, what the do I do? Yeah, you know, I did a couple odd jobs, you know, like, little freelancing works. Did some. That's about it, actually. And then I did the mentoring, and that kept us afloat. And this 2025, I feel like, you know, this is like, from that first video on, like, the end of June to our 100th video. Now at the end of the year is five months of streak grinding, right? Yeah. Yeah, right? Yeah. Maybe six months. Wait, I don't. Wait, am I doing it right? Six months. Six months.
Yeah.
There's a programmer right there. There's a programmer Next. JS developer. We should have talked to him. Hey, dude, what kind of projects are you working on?
Met my wife at a coding meetup. Got married recently. Have a kid of 17, 18 months.
That's the ice skating rink in City Hall. That's the place I took my first. My. My wife on our first date, writing my first line of code. I didn't know, like, I would be good at it, you know? The one thing about coding, though, is you can pick it up for free, right? One thing about YouTube is you can start with for free. Basically, you have a phone. Like, sports and stuff like that. You have to actually commit before you even know.
Like, say you want to do boxing.
You got to buy gloves, some shoes, guitar. You got to buy a guitar, you know? But these things, all. It takes her time, and the only thing you have to lose is your time, right? And also, it's scary to put yourself out there. Like, the one I think about coding is when people code and you show your source code and stuff, people can see how you think. People can see how clean you code. People can tell a lot about you when you're coding, right. Just through your code. Same with YouTube. You kind of have to put yourself out there, you know, and people can tell what kind of personality you have. You know what I mean? I like to put on, like, a front. Like, you know, I don't try. I trust. Like, I don't care. Programmer.
Get to wear whatever I want.
I barely shower, but actually I shower every day.
But.
You know, like, I. I try to make my code really neat. Yeah. You know, I try to make, you know, like, make my computer really easy to work on. Just shows you a lot about your personality. Coding, whether it be coding, whether it be shooting this YouTube thing, and it's a lot of unknowns. Are people going to accept this? Are people. You know, like, there's no right or wrong to these kind of things, right? And it's just about creating your own path and creating your own rights. Can you believe this is a Brazilian barbecue place? And then a Brazilian waxing right there? Dude. Dude, we never even got the fucking cake, bro. I know.
I thought it wasn't gonna be me. It wasn't gonna be me, but now it is me.
So my breakthrough moment of, like, when I kind of. Because I swear, like, those first YouTube videos, I felt so awkward, you know, like, talking to an inanimate object. Some kind of things I only tell people after I've hung out with them. Maybe like, five or six times after, like, I don't know, maybe 40th or 50th video.
I had to get put in jail. I was doing a lot of drugs.
My parents got divorced.
My dad won't even talk to me. I was thick, skinny. I wish I could go back to my dad, but he would not see me. He had, like, a restraining order against me.
And I just talked to the camera like, it was you behind when I talk to the camera, like, now, like, I just. Since I've met so many people in the Discord community, I just feel like I can open up to, you know, you. Because, like, we're not here to judge. We're not here to, like. Like, especially the Discord community. You can kind of tell, like, no one's trying to, like, be over each other or anything like this. And that's, like, the beauty of it. It's just sharing and caring. Sharing and, like, kind of like just acknowledging, like, oh, yeah, that's what you're doing. Cool. And it's not like, trying to, like, one up each other. Like, this is why I know, well, I'm doing this. We don't have any of that kind of stuff. It's like, I'm doing this. That's cool. I'm doing this. But if you need help doing that, you know, I can help. You said it last year. We're not here just to take part. We're here to take over. It really just feels like I'm talking to, like, just chilling or Paradoxo. J. Deebs. Not like anyone. Anderson, Goh. And, you know, all the mentees I spend time with, too. It's not just teaching them, like, trying to give him my knowledge or whatever. It's like conversing and having a good time. Dude, Jambalaya. What I made for you. That one. Holy. Right there. I hope you think so.
You know, I always think it's about the progress and not the result. I'm gonna just go on this adventure of finding a new job, starting this YouTube, just being super open and honest about my situation and what I'm doing.
Breakthrough moment in coding, when I knew I could do it, was I came up with a solution. Alex, the instructor, really good programmer. I remember I was like, I just learned, like, the slice method for arrays. So I. I kept on using it, even though I didn't need to use it, but I just forced it into this algorithm. And he was like, well, it's only going to work one time. And then he kept on doing it, and he was like, oh, it works every single time. And I was like, oh, yeah, I'm smart.
No.
And I think even before I went from camp, I always had these, like, things where I tried to learn how to code. I remember one time I even traded, like, English lessons for coding. C sharp. But that was, like, really long ago. And it was like a programmer at. He was a programmer at. In the army base, Korean army. I knew if I put my mind to it, I didn't quit. I would be. I'd be fine. First, you're supposed to not feel good about it. Just knew I put my head down. Keep going. Something will open up, you know? All right. They have no cake shop here, bro. Or we can just, like, eat food and then go to get donuts. Yeah. I feel like everything is falling into place perfectly.
I think it'll be fun, and I'll just start something new, and it'll become something useful for me and maybe useful for. If I have any viewers. It'll be fun there, too. I hope it'll help me just as much as it'll help you guys. All right, later.
