“I really feel that I’ve made the right choice.”

Awesome people do come together in our Full-Stack Web & App Development course. In a series of interviews we are talking with them about their past, their experiences within the coding bootcamp and their dreams.

Today we talk with Niklas. After studying Political Science and English he wanted to give his career a new direction. He dipped his toe into some Youtube tutorials and finally decided to apply for a coding bootcamp. He didn’t regret it so far.

Hi Niklas, let’s start by introducing yourself. What do we need to know about you?
I am from Buchholz in der Nordheide (close to Hamburg). I am passionate about music, both as a listener and a musician (bass), love to exercise regularly and stay up to date on current affairs. I consider myself pretty open-minded and love learning about and trying out all sorts of new things. As regards my professional background, I studied Political Science and English and got my MA less than a year ago.

Have you had any touchpoints with programming earlier in your life?
Well, I’d entertained the idea of learning something about programming for some time now before starting this course. On the one hand, I like working in front of a computer and can concentrate well while looking at a screen for a long time. On the other hand, honestly, I am a bit of a nerd and thought that I might take this attribute of mine to a new, more technical and professional level.

Talking about the professional level, another factor is that I’d wanted to reorient myself in that regard for a long time now, all of which combined prompted me to talk to some friends of mine who are programmers to ask for some recommendations. I went ahead and checked out some online tutorials on YouTube to take my first steps into the world of programming. I started with a bit of Java but ultimately ended up in the domain of web development.

You’ve worked hard — I assume — to get your MA in Political Science and English. But the future within this ecosystem was not appealing to you?
Yes, that’s true. Well, on an intellectual level, studying Political Science was certainly pretty enlightening and satisfying to me. On the professional level though, to be honest, I’ve been rather dissatisfied with the job prospects of my particular course of study for a longer time now. I’d done a few odd and unfulfilling jobs here and there but all in all, I haven’t had anything like a true career to speak of so far.

So you decided to give your career a new direction. How did this process of finding the right solution for you look like?
I have always been that kind of person searching for a career path that would be lucrative enough, relatively secure and both challenging and fulfilling at the same time — like most of us, I guess. Talking to my friends and just plunging into the world of YouTube tutorials to test the waters helped me quite a bit to develop a love for coding.

I ultimately decided that I could no longer stay in a state of undecidedness and insecurity and decided to apply for some coding bootcamps in Hamburg. I didn’t want to study again for several years and felt that I would need professional guidance and resources to properly learn coding.

After a few weeks of coding bootcamp: Do expectations and reality match — or where are the biggest differences?
Well, I expected it to be tough. This is what the name “bootcamp” suggests, right? And it is pretty challenging for sure. It is not so much, at least to me, the pure amount of work that we have to do and there are certainly also more relaxed days in between. It is mostly that you often get confronted with rather difficult tasks and assignments that you may simply not be able to solve right away and which you may manage to wrap your head around while watching our instructor do a session of live coding and giving us the code afterward.

I’ve had some moments of utter frustration but you always have to remember that this is the case for most of the other participants as well and that the best course of action is to form a group with those people and tackle your problems together.

We are offering an online course experience from the very beginning. How does that feel for you and is there something you are missing?
I was surprised to be admitted to this course at such short notice, but I am overall pretty happy about it. For me, this experience has been great so far, despite all the ups and downs — which I guess are normal when you try to learn something new and as challenging such as the fundamentals of coding within the span of a few months.

And not just from a professional perspective, but also considering the current circumstances, I really feel that I’ve made the right choice to join this course. I like that I don’t have to commute, that I have more time to learn and still commit to my major pastimes/hobbies while meeting people from all across the globe!

You just mentioned it. The current time is special because of COVID-19. How does it affect you both as a student and in your private life?
Well, not that much, to be honest. There are a few constraints, of course: I like going to concerts, love meeting my friends and buddies every once in a while and it is a shame that I can’t meet my grandmother or travel due to safety precautions, to name a few examples. But overall, given that I am not exactly a person who is a party animal or “bar-hopper” who likes to go out very often, I am pretty okay with mostly staying at home and concentrating on the course at this point.

What do you have in mind doing after finishing the coding bootcamp?
As of yet, I don’t have a definite plan. First of all, I want to hone up my JavaScript and React skills to a certain level of technical confidence and aside from that, I am always eager to take in career advice from our instructor Aria and the other professionals in the WBS team. I am pretty sure that especially the trip to Berlin and the business meet-ups there will be quite helpful in this regard.

I love that as a programmer, at least from what I’ve heard and read so far, there are so many options as to how to carve out your particular career path or niche — may it be a traditional office job, online/remote work, working as a freelancer/entrepreneur. What I can say for sure is that I am pretty excited to write — and code — this new chapter of my life!