Bootcamp finished - now it really starts!

Apply new knowledge and constantly improve skills

I'm Janina, 38 years old and started the web development bootcamp of neue fische as an absolute beginner. I will report about my experiences and progress during my bootcamp time here in this blog.

As I write these lines, the Web Developer Bootcamp is already behind me. I can't quite believe it yet, because the three months flew by. Now it's time to take a look back: What did we experience at the bootcamp? What skills did we learn? And what will we take with us into (professional) life?

The bootcamp review

One thing is clear: Above all, we will take a lot of new knowledge with us. Every day, new input was waiting for us, which we deepened on the following weekend. However, we also learned that pure programming is not everything. It is also important to organize oneself well and to be able to work with agile methods. That's why we learned how agile software development works in a Scrum workshop, for example: The workshop had a very playful structure and was therefore great fun. With the help of Lego bricks, we learned how to implement the specifications of a product manager in individual sprints. The importance of communication within the team became clearer from sprint to sprint. We achieved our goals faster and better, and working together was a lot of fun. 

We also got an insight into Sketch. We used this graphics tool to create our first wireframes for our apps. In this context, I also found the visit of Sven, who works as an art director at polargold, particularly interesting: He gave us a great insight into his work and gave us tips around the design of our digital journeyman piece. Polargold was not the only company that introduced itself to us: Very different practitioners gave us very concrete impressions of what requirements freshly graduated junior developers can expect in the different areas and what we can expect approximately when we start after the end of the bootcamp. At this point, it was incredibly nice for me to hear that we really do have very good chances on the job market with our newly acquired skills.

My capstone project

I used the last few weeks to go over all the content in greater depth and then apply it to my final project - my digital capstone project. This time gave me another real boost, because what I had understood well in theory in class with our head coach Jerry, I could now apply once again. React, JavaScript and Co. are becoming easier and easier for me to handle. Even the more difficult topics for me, such as backend and MongoDB, are becoming clearer with each passing day - and are also part of my journeyman's piece. Even after finishing the bootcamp, I have the ambition to expand my skills every day - be it through 'learning by doing' or through coding tutorials from the net.

My capstone project is about finding official dog places in a city. Users can view the places on sample photos and save them on a favorites list. Initially, I'm developing this solution for Hamburg, but later I'll expand the service to all of Germany. So it is necessary for me not only to implement the topics we have been taught in the last weeks, but also to work for example with a Google API (application programming interface, which allows communication with Google services and their integration into other services), so that I can not only display the dog places, but later also calculate a route.

My conclusion about neue fische

I came to the neue fische web developer bootcamp without any prior knowledge. This makes me all the more impressed with what I was taught in such a short time. The most important skill I take away is that I can build on this knowledge and expand it myself. Even after officially graduating, I continue to expand my web app and work on it a lot in the evenings or weekends. And that's not just because the status "finished" doesn't really exist, but also because it's incredible fun and there's a sense of achievement every day.
Behind us lies an exciting time and I will especially miss working with "my" people from the course. The first conversations are already behind me and the positive reactions are simply overwhelming. But I'm equally looking forward to what's in store for me now: a new start in an exciting company where I can further expand my knowledge. Maybe I'll report about that as well... ;-)

Until then!