Basecamp Perspectives: Jürgen Flügel (57)
42 Wolfsburg finally opened its (virtual) doors for the first selection month on February 1st 2021. Together, 174 participants from 18 countries embarked on their 28-day coding adventure we refer to as Basecamp. Throughout this and the upcoming Basecamps, we talk to campers to hear their stories and we want to share them with the world. Our first featured camper is Jürgen (57), a tower of strength with his calm demeanour.
“One goal of mine is to learn my whole life. I don’t want to stop this.”
42 Wolfsburg: Who are you and why are you here?
Jürgen: Hello, I’m Jürgen Flügel, 57 years old from Leverkusen, Germany. I really searched for cool challenges after my career. I want to stay part of those who are driving digitalization and want to learn my whole life. My parents are lost with all this fancy stuff and I think there are many more at my age. If possible, I would like to help older people to dive into coding, but also help young children to get in touch with this fancy stuff.
Before I applied to 42 Wolfsburg, I worked 38 years for a large pharmaceutical company. I started with coding in PL/I, Cobol, Turbo Pascal and at last I was a so called application manager for applications used in Formulation Technology in Crop Science.
My main motivation for participating in the Basecamp is to keep learning stuff, which is very important for the future. You know, I am 57. One goal of mine is to learn my whole life. I don’t want to stop this. In the past I managed IT-projects, but without coding myself. I wrote user specifications and someone else turned this into something magical. Now I would like to do the magic or fancy stuff, whether it is ethical hacking, AI or web programming.
What has been your favorite thing so far during this experience?
I love to get in contact with all the students, speak English again, and do what I have done every day in my work life. It‘s nice to be in contact with so many young people. I am the eldest in this Basecamp. It’s great to learn new things.
One of the best sessions I had here was the session with the youngest guy, who is 18 years old, at this Basecamp. So nearly 40 years difference, wow. But nevertheless we have fun with the same things. Isn’t that great?! He told me that he finds it cool to do such stuff at my age, comparing me to his grandfather, where he could not imagine that he would do so. It made me a bit proud and it made me feel like age does not play any role here at 42 Wolfsburg which is awesome!
What are you most looking forward to and hoping to achieve after Basecamp?
Hopefully I pass the Basecamp. I never coded in C, but of course I have some knowledge. I would like to stay a member of this cool community. I am very interested in AI, but not only in the technical part, also the ethical part is full of challenges. I think in 40 years from now, we will have super intelligence. How will that work?
How would you explain this experience to someone who doesn’t know about 42 Wolfsburg?
It‘s a place where you can learn fancy stuff without the need of certificates. You only need to have fun with coding and digitalization. Then you are at the right place at 42Wolfsburg.
▷ You may see the word “Piscine” and “Basecamp” throughout 42 Wolfsburg’s website and social media, but what exactly are they? “Piscine” is French for “pool” and it is the only part of the admissions process at 42 Wolfsburg. It is an intensive 28-day coding challenge in which only motivation, willpower, and hard work will keep you afloat. Because of the current Covid-19 situation, we took health and safety precautions and decided to host our Piscines completely remote. Since nobody can ‘dive into’ the Piscine at the location in Wolfsburg, we adapted the remote version from 42 Sao Paulo, which is called “Basecamp”. Instead of a 28-day coding challenge, we have dedicated 1 week to community building where our campers get to know each other and 3 weeks to the intensive coding challenge.
Inspired by articles written by 42 US as well as Codam, in this interview series we talk to people who participated in our Basecamps. They share with us who they are and what brought them to 42 Wolfsburg.
