"Learning to work remotely is a skill that you need to have in today's day and age. Companies are making the change to remote work, so the idea of learning remotely isn't any different."
Hi Florencia, can you please introduce yourself?
Hello, I'm Florencia and I'm originally from Buenos Aires. I studied industrial engineering and began my career about 10 years ago. I first started working in the travel industry at an airline where I was optimizing revenues and then made the shift into the tech industry where I started as a business analyst. About a year and a half ago, I switched to working as a product manager, where I began to work more closely with tech teams.
Had you already had some coding knowledge before joining the Bootcamp?
Not really, I had done one class in university, but it was very basic and this was about ten years ago. With this being said, I liked the logic aspect of coding, but I knew that there was so much more to learn and that I wanted to learn it.
What pushed you to want to learn Web Development?
I've had the idea in the back of my mind for about ten years now. When I was in university, I went to engineering school so I worked with many software engineers, including my best friend who influenced me to learn to code. Throughout my studies, I always had this gut feeling that I may had chosen the wrong path. As the years went by, bootcamps began to appear and that's when I knew, this was the perfect solution for me.
At the time, it felt like a really big risk to sign up for a bootcamp. I was living in Barcelona, so being in a foreign country on top of needing to leave my job felt like a really big risk. Skip forward to last year, I found myself settled in the city and I now had the option to do the bootcamp in a part-time format. I knew that this would be a big commitment as I'm still working full-time, but it gave me this possibility to unblock myself from trying something that I knew I'd love.
What were the best parts during the Bootcamp (so far)?
That's a difficult one. For me, this whole experience has been great. I've enjoyed every class, but the best part was when we started with Ruby as this is when I suddenly saw that I could do things and see results.
Now that we're starting project weeks, where we're building our final web applications, we get this great sense of accomplishment as well. Seeing everything come together is extremely satisfying!
As satisfying as this experience is, it can be quite tiring at some points. With this being said, having a good support system has been so important to me. I get this in my personal life, but also with the teachers and TAs. They're so understanding and supportive, but still give you the right amount of push to make sure that you get those desired outcomes.
How would you describe the remote Bootcamp? How is your experience so far?
To be completely honest, at first I was a little bit skeptical with the remote format as I wasn't 100% certain what the setup would be. Having said that, the system is really well thought out and I'm very happy with how everything is going. I especially like having the support that I feel is necessary regardless of being remote. There's so much support with the buddy system, where you work on challenges with a parter, as well as with the ticketing system, to go through problems or questions with the teaching staff. I'm also pleasantly surprised of how well you get to know everyone in the batch as you work with everyone at some point or another. For me, I don't even notice that this experience is a remote one. Learning to work remotely is a skill that you need to have in today's day and age. Companies are making the change to remote work, so the idea of learning remotely isn't any different.
What are you planning to do once the Bootcamp is over?
I'm really enjoying the bootcamp. With the start of project weeks, I'm very much looking forward to seeing how the projects go and to get a better idea of what coding is like on a day-to-day basis. As far as where I see myself in the future, I'm really happy in my current role working as a product manager and having this background will give me a whole new understanding and approach to working with developers. Le Wagon has been an amazing learning experience for me and I can't wait to see what's in store for the future.
What is one piece of advice you would give anyone thinking about joining the remote bootcamp?
If you're thinking of doing the bootcamp part-time, you really need to be invested. You're not only signing up for yourself, but you're working collaboratively with your classmates. I would also say to enjoy the process as much as you can. Try to get help from your support systems and if you're stuck on something, that's okay. When the teachers say to trust the process, they're right.
Thank you, Florencia!
