How Freddy launched his career in tech as a Product Manager

After his internship at a FinTech startup, Freddy joined Le Wagon's web development bootcamp in order to further his tech knowledge. Learning all of the skills of a developer, he's now ready to lead his team and start his new career as a Product Manager at Monet.

"Le Wagon truly teaches you the mindset of working as a developer and learning how to code, giving you the right tools and path to ensure that you can adapt to other languages."

Hi Freddy, can you please introduce yourself?

Hi, I’m Freddy. I’m 23 years old and I’m from Nuremberg, Germany. Since graduating from Le Wagon, I’ve begun working as a Product Manager at Monet: a FinTech startup.

What were you doing before joining Le Wagon?

Before Le Wagon, I had just finished my bachelor's. I graduated in business informatics and studied innovation management. I felt as though I would like to take on some more technical studies after graduating, hence my decision to join Le Wagon’s web development course.

I had been a working student at this FinTech startup for six months prior to Le Wagon. After discussing my want to gain more technical skills with my manager, I joined the bootcamp in Amsterdam before heading back to work full-time as a Product Manager. As this role and field is more technical, learning these new skills at Le Wagon allowed me to start being more independent at work in a very short period of time.

What made you decide to do the bootcamp in Amsterdam?

I knew that I didn’t want to study in Germany. Part of the charm of Le Wagon is this ability to travel to a wide range of countries in order to take part in the course. After having looked at a few locations, I decided on Amsterdam. It’s a great city, the people are nice, and it’s a tech hub, meaning that it was a perfect location to upskill in.

What made you decide to do the web development bootcamp? What were your expected outcomes?

Although I studied economics, I like to be creative. Web development, in short, is basically creating websites or digital products. I really enjoyed the creative aspect of this and being able to build a fully functional product in such a short period of time. I know that nowadays, data science is a very sought after skillset, so who knows, maybe I’ll be back on campus sooner rather than later.

How was your experience at the bootcamp?

It was definitely intense. We had classes form 9-6 so it was as though you were working a full-time job. We learned a lot during these weeks, but it was also lots of fun. Everyone was there to learn at their own will, so there was this mutual respect, while still having this great community balance. Everyone was super motivated, everyone had fun all of the time, and there was always ping pong incase you needed a break.

What was your favourite aspect of the bootcamp?

Definitely the people. I also really enjoyed the JavaScript part of the course, as beforehand I didn’t have any contact at all with the language, so it was a very interesting part. Finally, the vibe was great. It truly felt like a startup and as I said previously, everyone was very chill and in the right mindset to enjoy themselves while remaining highly motivated and dedicated to learning.

Freddy and his classmates Carolina and Toby

How does the bootcamp format compare to your previous learning environments?

I’m much more of a hands-on learner. In my opinion, this bootcamp format has much better long-term outcomes. For example, you can easily skip lecture, memorize content and perform well on an exam in university, but then the content is quickly forgotten. This is not the case when you’re learning by doing. I would have much preferred if my university courses worked like this.

Can you tell us more about your new role as a Product Manager?

I’m now working as a Product Manager at a young startup and the product that we’re developing right now has been on the market only for a short period of time. This means that there’s lots of excitement around the work. There’s lots of product management, but also lots of developing involved. I can therefore use my new coding skills which was really important to me post-bootcamp. You need to practice coding to stay fit and improve, so I’m very happy to have the chance to do that in my role.

For the position itself, I really like the contrast between working on the code and getting into this product very deeply in the morning while having more of a meta view in the afternoon in order to manage and prioritize for the rest of the team.

Do you find that the bootcamp helps you in this new role?

Definitely. I actually do not use any of the same languages that we learnt in the bootcamp in my new role. Having said that, I’m pleased to say that I did not have any problems transitioning to this new language. Le Wagon truly teaches you the mindset of working as a developer and learning how to code, giving you the right tools and path to ensure that you can adapt to other languages.

What advice would you give to someone thinking of doing the web development bootcamp?

Just do it. If you’re thinking of joining the bootcamp but aren’t sure yet, there are many resources to give it a first try such as Le Wagon’s free introductory webinars. I’d also advise to start thinking about what you’d like the outcome of the bootcamp to be for you and even start thinking about your desired career path. Going into the bootcamp with this mentality is a great way to ensure success!