Iris’ Career Change: From Hospitality to Frontend Developer

Hello, I’m Iris and I’m 30 years old. I’m originally from the Netherlands and I’m currently living in Harlem. I used to work in the hospitality sector, but about one and a half years ago, I changed my career with Le Wagon. I completed the full-time Web Development Bootcamp back in January 2020 and the rest is history.

I used to work in hospitality management for about four years. I always really enjoyed it, I’m a very social person and I like creating nice experiences and ensuring that people are having a good time. With this being said, after a while, I missed that sort of a challenge with my career. In the search for a more challenging role in terms of thought process and problem solving, I discovered coding. Having always been very interested in tech and having quite a few friends working in the tech sector, it was sort of a no-brainer. I was able to learn all about the industry and the different kinds of experiences from my friends. Having easily been convinced, I began to learn some basic coding on my own. I decided that this was the exact sort of challenge that I wanted to take on next. After that, I enrolled with Le Wagon and I haven’t looked back since! 

I was very open minded. I knew that I wanted to change careers, but I wasn’t 100% certain which direction I wanted to take. I actually really enjoyed coming into the bootcamp with very little knowledge on the course load and the industry as it ensured that I was very open minded with every aspect, allowing me to enjoy every part of the learning process. 

Honestly, I loved my experience from the beginning until the end. The bootcamp experience gave me so much energy and ensured me that I was making the right choice when it came to my career. Of course it was difficult at times, but I truly loved the learning process and getting more and more results was very rewarding. Having said this, it was all worth it in the end. As long as you trust the process and keep going, you will be okay. 

My main goal was to change careers and land a job in tech. I wanted to make sure that I’d gain enough knowledge to succeed in this new field. I also wanted to get a better understanding of the entire world of tech. When you change professions you sort of change worlds: new roles, new languages, etc. Finally, I of course wanted to make sure that I learned a lot. Le Wagon definitely prepared me for this.

Well, as I changed careers completely, so Le Wagon quite literally helped me launch my career in tech. Aside from this, I really liked the format of the bootcamp, allowing me to learn and work in teams, which was great for communication skills. I also learn how to code from scratch and how to create a project from A to Z.

When I finished the bootcamp, it was the beginning of Covid in the Netherlands and we were in lockdown. Many companies had a hiring stop, so it was a little bit more difficult than usual to launch a new career. My biggest piece of advice is that before you start looking for a job, make sure that you have a good idea of what type of company you’d like to work at and then make sure to be proactive with your approach. 

With this being said, I actually took this approach myself and reached out directly to Bunq, a mobile banking application. I expressed that I really liked the company and demonstrated an interest in working with them. They then hired me as a Junior Developer. 

On the search to find a role with a little bit more support, I began a new role at Media.Monks, a creative digital agency. I’ve now been working here for a year and the culture is great! In this new role, I began completely online, which was strange at the beginning. As many others, I had to meet my new colleagues via Google Meet, I created my at home office and I needed to take on this new challenge in a completely new way of working. With this being said, I found a way to make this work and have managed to receive the support that I needed to thrive in this new environment. It pushed me as well to be more independent, so this of course wasn’t all bad. I like the option to work remotely, but as mentioned previously, I’m quite a social person. I therefore do like the social part of working and it’s nice to have a little bit of discussion with your team in person. Working with Media.Monks has been a great experience so far and I’ve grown and learned so much. 

I really like being able to create new things as well as the fast pace environment. You will never stop learning in this field which is something that I love about tech. 

At Media.Monks, I work as a Front-End Developer. I work on a variety of projects, depending on what I’m assigned to. We work with a ticket system, so we get assigned tickets or tasks and then we begin researching the task, discover how to tackle it and make a plan to complete it. 

During the last year that I’ve been working at Media.Monks, I’ve been able to work on a variety of different projects. What I’m the most proud of is the growth that I’ve accomplished within this short period of time. It’s also a really satisfying feeling to finish a project from A to Z. 

If you’re thinking about it, just go for it. It will give you so much joy, knowledge and power. I’d also say that alumni are the best point of contact as they’ve gone through the experience first hand. Finally, just make sure that you enjoy the ride!