Meet Andrea - Icecream Seller turns Webdeveloper

From a ice cream store manager to web developer in 12 weeks;
Have a coffee with... Andrea!

We chatted with fun-loving Andrea, who did her web development bootcamp with us last year. After science and catering, Andrea was in the mood for something new - and tells us how she used the pandemic to set off for those same new shores! Andrea is now a Junior Frontend Developer at our corporate partner Eventim and super happy in her new job! With a lot of warmth she tells you and us about her experiences.

Why did you join neue fische?

2020 was a formative year for everyone, I think. I've been slightly intellectually underwhelmed for a while as the manager of several ice cream stores, mainly because I come from a completely different field, namely classical philology and the university research that goes with it. As much as working in ice cream stores and gastronomy in general is fun, it is physically demanding, holidays and weekends are not free, and you are always very tied down in terms of time and place, especially in positions of greater responsibility. The pandemic briefly paralyzed the entire restaurant industry, and I took the opportunity to set out for new shores. I've always been interested in IT, I like to play games, half of my friends work in web development and IT. So I already knew roughly what I was getting myself into, after it was suggested to me by the same circle of friends to get involved in such a bootcamp, with the perspective of a completely new career field for me. Without any programming experience, but with a lot of curiosity and an education voucher, I went directly to neue fische after a short research. Their website, reputation and also the preparatory interviews convinced me the most.

What was your biggest challenge?

I learned programming from scratch - starting with the simplest HTML tag and a few CSS basics, 9 weeks later I suddenly had the ability to build my own, functioning app with a complex JavaScript framework. That didn't just happen, there is a lot of learning, diligence, little sleep, about 900h of screen time, a few abandonment attempts and a few more gray hairs behind it, there is not much time for leisure or family. Nevertheless, the three months flew by and the learning or understanding actually came along stringently and reliably, through sole focus and the tireless teaching (and motivation) of the coaches and in the team. This time was very exhausting, but it's called bootcamp, no one expected a walk in the park. The result, however, is unexpectedly absurdly good!

What did you like most about the bootcamp?

The organization of the bootcamp was well planned from start to finish and timed almost to perfection with the experiences of the past years, that was very impressive. For all and any concerns of a student there were (trained) contact persons who were available at any time and extremely helpful despite being remote. The selection of the tech stack to be learned, including React and Cypress, is modern and adapted to the requirements of future jobs, even introduction to agile working and git workflow were applied from the beginning in the bootcamp, something you rarely find even in computer science studies. The icing on the cake was then the in-house partner management to bring the graduates directly together with potential and selected employers.

How did you get started on the job?

I was lucky enough not to have to apply for a job - neue fische partners and recruiters, including international ones, approach you personally as soon as you have "something to do with IT" on your CV. I wasn't aware of this before the bootcamp and I was really positively surprised to be able to choose where I would like to work and continue learning. I ended up at EVENTIM Solutions in Bremen. I'm not the first bootcamp graduate there and I was welcomed there very warmly and with a lot of puppy protection, learning new things with my sponsor every day, their tech stack, which was also new to me, and their product. As a junior frontend developer, I feel challenged there, which is what I want, because there is an endless amount to discover and learn. In the meantime, my tasks are bugfixing, QA, testing and co-developing new features, while I'm also practicing on a small project of my own. It's amazing how fast it all goes and how much fun it is! However, my team is also an exceptionally great one. :)

What was your highlight moment during or after the bootcamp?

In the end, it was one highlight after the other, because it was all new and exciting and also nerve-racking. The pride of officially presenting my own app, and of course those of my fellow students, in front of other students, former graduates, the neue fische team and potential employers was just the grand finale. 

How was the cooperation with the other students?

We were probably the best study group, our "booties". From the beginning, there was a great sense of cohesion, although we were a very diverse and heterogeneous group: we helped each other selflessly, coded the nights away (or simply talked about private problems and joys), set up a Discord channel that is still actively used today, shared skills, openly discussed uncertainties and organized remote cooking evenings. We were supportive of each other, which was very good during this draining time. We even met for a wonderful day in Hamburg, as we wanted to see each other live and in color for once and otherwise sat remotely at our desks all over Germany. To this day we are in contact, both privately and as a network for professional and personal development, and every now and then we still have our remote cooking evenings.