Have you ever heard of Le Wagon before becoming Community Manager?
Yes, I was already interested in learning programming and got to know Le Wagon looking up bootcamps on Google. At the time I thought bootcamp only existed abroad, but one day I joined one of those sites that rank bootcamps and they had a test where you could get to know what was the best bootcamp for you. That's how I found out there was a Le Wagon in Rio.
Initially I thought I wouldn't be able to afford the course, but I kept watching, looking at social medias, and then one day when they posted a job opening, I decided to apply and ended up joining the team.
How was your time at Le Wagon?
I started working at Le Wagon as Community Manager at the beginning of 2020. Initially I only followed Rio itself, but when the pandemic started, we decided to integrate things more and I started helping other Brazilian cities too.
In July, I started doing the part-time Web Development bootcamp and in January I left Le Wagon to start my career as a dev.
Why did you choose the Web Development bootcamp?
I've been interested in web development since I was a teenager, when I made templates for my blog and friends' blogs, but I ended up going to Design when I went to college. When I decided to change my career, programming was the first thing I thought of.
Initially I tried to learn on my own, with tutorials and online courses but it didn't seem like things were getting into my head. I was able to follow tutorials but had difficulty building something on my own. So I wanted to do the bootcamp to really get immersed in the world of programming and because I knew I would have a lot more support in my learning.
And what did you think was the coolest thing about Bootcamp?
Not wanting to sound to flattering, but I loved the whole experience! It was very important to me, not only because I learned technical skills but also because I joined the bootcamp after a very difficult period in my life and learning to program helped me to regain my self-esteem.
But if I had to choose a moment, I think it would be when we started to really develop group projects. It's really cool to build something from scratch and see it work. That's when you start to feel like a developer.
How did you feel working at Le Wagon?
For me it was great. It opened my mind to a lot of different possibilities that the tech industry offers. In addition, as I organized the events, I had the opportunity to meet several startup CEO's, learn a little more about the industry. Almost extra preparation beyond the programming skills itself!
I also worked with super talented people and I learned a lot from them.
After studying and working with Le Wagon, what job did you get?
I currently work in Stone's Banking area, programming in Elixir! It was really surprising for me to end up working at fintech and in the backend team, something I never imagined but I'm loving it!
It was kind of shocking to come straight from the bootcamp to a company with millions of customers. One day I was doing my Le Wagon project with my classmates and the next one, I was learning to navigate a giant codebase, a new language for myself and knowing that any code I wrote would be used by millions of users. Was I afraid? Yes, but it's been a great learning opportunity.
Do you feel there are skills you could only have learned with Le Wagon?
Yes! At Le Wagon every student has the opportunity to make a project pitch and then the class chooses their favorites and they are developed. This process in itself is quite interesting, because even if you don't want to develop a real product, you end up training ways to "sell" your ideas.
Therefore my project was choosen and for that I became the "tech lead" of my team. I learned a lot on how to code with a team, and that was a cool fact to quote on the jobs interviews too.
Thank you very much, Julia! It's cool know more about someone that had the opportunity to know about Le Wagon so well.
