A helpful hobby turned into a successful career

Corey Schafer grew up in Charleston, West Virginia. His grandparents went to Marshall, his parents went to Marshall, and his brother went to Marshall, so when it came time to decide where to go to college, his choice was simple — become a third-generation alumnus.

Corey began his computer science studies in the fall of 2005 and graduated in the spring of 2010. While on campus, he volunteered as a FIRST Robotics Mentor, participated in a team programming contest at the University of Kentucky and served as the Astronomy Club president.

After graduating, Corey worked a few programming jobs but kept noticing the same issue when he was trying to learn a new, difficult concept — a lot of programming concepts were difficult to understand.

So, Corey started making YouTube videos to explain difficult-to-learn concepts in a way that made sense to him.

The growth in the channel Corey experienced took time — after about three years, he remembers making enough money to buy a cup of coffee a day.

Now, Corey has 1.55 million subscribers and close to 300 video uploads on YouTube. His first video uploads are of his lab puppy playing, but then 12 years ago, he began posting tutorials for software developers, programmers and engineers.

His most popular videos are walkthroughs for the programming framework including Python, Django and git.

Amongst programming subreddits like r/learnpython, r/Python and r/Django, Corey’s tutorials are well-known for the way he makes information easier to understand.

Corey’s work is free to the public, accessible to people who may not be able to afford programming courses and a solid option for those who need to brush up on their skills.

All of his material is free and funded by advertising sales, but he also has a fan-supported Patreon account, where subscribers can support his free content if they choose.

Corey’s received messages from India, Kenya and the United Kingdom thanking him for explaining a difficult concept in an easy-to-understand way.

During his time at Marshall, one of Corey’s favorite professors was Joe Fuller, who still adjunct teaches in the Department of Computer Science.

And Corey’s got a newfound respect for professors like Fuller, due to the time it takes to put together courses.

“A 30-minute video will take me about a month of research before I even start recording. It takes a lot of effort to put together a course,” he said.

For current Marshall students, Corey recommends taking notes, asking good questions and remembering “aha” moments.