The start of the bootcamp is done and I have a lot to tell you 

My name is Axel, I am 32 years old and I am on my way to becoming a digital nomad. After some time of preparation and self-study, I decided to join a bootcamp at neue fische. How it came about, what experiences I've had so far in the field of web development and what lessons I've learned from them, I'll share with you here step by step.

How a web development bootcamp begins

We spent the first day mainly getting to know each other, getting an overview of the learning content and setting up our MacBooks/work devices. Furthermore, as I already reported, we discussed one of the most important topics, the mindset of a coder, which you should bring or acquire.

The team is very heterogeneous and I like that.

I was surprised about the colorful mix of the participants. There are university dropouts, ex-soldiers, people from the media industry, people who came straight out of school or directly graduated from high school. Some participants have also quit their jobs to break out of their daily routine and pursue a career in the digital industry.

What to bring for a web development bootcamp and what you have to live without

The bootcamp is a full-time affair and lasts three months. You have to be able to find the time and budget to work on coding consistently and without side jobs. Making money for a living on top of a bootcamp - that's not going to work. I gathered from Alexa's blog from the first camp that you also barely have time for hobbies, friends and family during those three months. My theory is that this part tends to get overlooked. As soon as the first problems appear and people realize that they really don't have time for their free time anymore, but have to learn, that's when things get serious.

What makes a good web development bootcamp?

How does the internet work? That's really good and relevant question. I really liked that we got an all-around on this, because every web developer should at least have a rudimentary knowledge of how the internet works, and that's before you learn the basics of web development. new fish handle it that way, and I like it.

The first topics of the bootcamp

So far so good. The first technical topics mainly included HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) basics. In the middle of the first week I got the first doubts. I was unsure if this bootcamp was the right one for me, since I more or less already had advanced knowledge and I didn't know if I had the patience to go through all those Basic topics again. I took the chance to compare my self-learned knowledge with the pro's. I can definitely imagine that it is really difficult for someone who has never heard of these technologies to understand them. Also, I thought to myself, hey, keep it cool! Use this opportunity to help people with content issues and also help them with mindset.

The web development bootcamp is not called that by chance

In my last post I wrote a bit critical and about my doubts if the bootcamp was the right choice for me. But they vanished into thin air right on the first day of the second week. We talked about the further course of content and I was surprised that we should start directly with topics like tooling (Git, Github, Terminal, SCSS, Advanced CSS and much more). At the latest now I realized that the name Bootcamp was not chosen by chance. We learn together and alone and with our head coach Jerry We learn in the community and everyone has to take that into consideration. Ultimately, however, everyone learns for themselves and must also independently rework the material they don't directly understand. Three months are limited, so the input is correspondingly high. Three months is a really short time to acquire all the skills and to learn all these technologies. In the middle of the week, I noticed Jerry picking up the pace. We learn in theory and accompany it with practice assignments. Afterwards, we review the assignments together, discussing various problems and approaches to solving them.

If someone encounters problems, a quick glance from Jerry over the code is enough and he immediately finds the error or can directly provide a professional individual solution. This is powerful and helps everyone not to get left behind. For me everything is still more or less repetition, nevertheless I take up much new and can extend my previous knowledge also with the Basics. Already in the second week the heads smoked in the camp and first doubts came up. When I notice this, I try to encourage. All developers have to go through that, I certainly still have to.

Bootcamp is group work - a great experience for me.

At the end of the second week, we started the first group work, where four of us each worked on the same code using the versioning software Git in Github. The goal is to get to know teamwork, to fix problems together, to find solutions and to show professionalism even if there are contrary assessments. We will encounter teamwork again and again in our daily work. For me as a self-taught developer, this is a great experience. I am improving my developer skills and have discovered for myself that I really enjoy helping others. It's a great feeling and, in contrast to the input you get when you're learning, you understand and consolidate the material in a completely different way when you're talking shop.