Eugenia’s life-changing experience at Le Wagon

Hello, my name is Eugenia and I moved to Amsterdam about a year ago with the purpose to build my career. I graduated from Le Wagon’s web development bootcamp in March 2022 and landed a role as a Junior Developer shortly after. 

I used to have a linear life. Straight after school, I went to college. After college, I went to university. I then worked in various sectors including childcare, events management, hospitality, manufacturing and sales. Then in my late 20s, I had a massive life quake and I transitioned into a nonlinear life. I left my secure job and home to go on a long backpacking trip in Southeast Asia. There, I lived in various places and switched jobs. At the time, I started to shape myself into a digital nomad. Firstly, I picked up some video editing skills, then I went into UX and UI design and finally I got into front-end coding.

My husband and I were on the hunt for a new place to settle down. When doing so, the number one priority was what I wanted to do with my career and what location would help get me to where I wanted to go. With that in mind, the Netherlands was at the top of our list as it's known in the world of tech.

We were also looking for a place to live longterm where we could combine our passion for travelling and also build out our careers. I therefore decided to undergo the bootcamp here in Amsterdam.

I needed some sort of a spark in my career and I was trying to learn things by myself, but I never had a significant boost. Thus, I decided that an intensive bootcamp was the perfect next step in order to get the results that I was looking for. I then chose to undergo the web development bootcamp as it was the rational next step with my background in UX and UI design and it aligned with the career path that I projected for myself. 

Le Wagon was such an amazing experience. It really brought the change that I was looking for in my life. I was among highly knowledgable and professional teachers who helped me understand web development. This, along with the practical skillset acquired by constantly coding, brought me to a Full-stack Developer by the end of the 9 weeks. I had created two full projects and completed all of the stages of the software development lifecycle. The journey was amazing. 

Additionally, the supplementary career week at the end of the bootcamp truly over exceeded my expectations. It served me very well for the next step which was finding a new role as a developer. During this week, I got lots of feedback from the Le Wagon team and community and my network expanded drastically, truly making me feel as though I belong to the IT community.

There are quite a few aspects of the bootcamp that stood out to me. First of all, the teachers and the students at Le Wagon as they helped me to build the right mindset. The students from my batch formed a really special bond and we were always there to help one another. The teachers taught in such a special manner, as they were conducting lectures in a conversational and interactive way, making the learning experience all that much better. They were also always making sure that each one of us got the help that we needed. Also, within my batch, every single one of us was doing the bootcamp to change careers. We were all facing major changes in our lives, making this sense of support so much more valuable. The bootcamp really helped me build this agile mentality to cope with the changes going on in my life. I saw the change as a source of growth rather than something frightening. 

Second of all, Le Wagon’s structured curriculum. It really helps me now at my work because the way in which the teacher explained different concepts was truly in depth, including the context of what we were learning. Due to this structure, I now have a schema in my head, enabling me to think in a certain way. I’m confident that I can now contribute in my role at work as I know these new topics and how they are connected. The structured curriculum has made a huge impact on my professional life. 

Third of all, I am very grateful for the various payment options that Le Wagon offers. Because of this, I was able to make this change in my life and switch careers without the additional stress of financing my learning at once.  

Finally, the projects that we built were great experiences. By the end of the bootcamp, I had two full-stack projects in my portfolio. This achievement really boosted my confidence and gave me a sense of achievement. Because of these projects, I started to truly think of myself as a web developer.

I was always a self learner and always studying by myself. Having this sense of community was a huge bonus for me. I have never had such a significant boost in my career then after completing the web development bootcamp. 

I believe that I was very well prepared by Le Wagon, making my whole experience of landing my first role in tech one that was very smooth. I was very confident, with the experience that I had gained and the stories that I had heard, that I would land a job. 

I’m now a Junior Developer at Deloitte and I’m in the cloud engineering team. As part of a cloud engineering team, I am currently building an AWS-based infrastructure and coding on Python and Golang. On a daily basis I work on web security, computer resources and architecture, and APIs. There will be lots to learn, but again, because of the bootcamp, I feel that it’s easy to pick up another language and to switch. It’s challenging now, but I’m very much looking forward to everything that I’ll be learning. 

Just do it. In web development, this is the basis. I think it’s important to note that the bootcamp was never easy for me, but it took me to a better place. My main takeaway from the bootcamp isn’t the skills or experience that I got, but who I've become.