Before joining Le Wagon, what were you doing?
Creative at heart, I initially studied fashion design at the University of Edinburgh. While we were taught about designing a collection and making it, we were also taught a little graphic design and that is how I discovered a new passion. After receiving my fashion design diploma, I got hired to work for a Belgian menswear company, as a marketeer, production assistant, and fashion and graphic designer (many things indeed!). This was very rewarding as I got to learn new skills.
What pushed you to join and learn web development? Why the career change?
During the lockdown, I have decided to study UX design because I discovered a new passion: web design. After receiving my diploma, I realised that knowing how to code would really help me achieve my goals and would also be a real asset to my CV. I also wanted to learn front-end web development and learn how the back-end works as well.
What was your goal when applying to Le Wagon?
My goal was to learn web development in order to be able to understand how websites work and how they are created. I feel it's very important for designers to also be able to communicate with the developers.
How did your 9 weeks of bootcamp go?
Overall, my experience was great! The lectures were really well taught and we were accompanied all along the way with one-to-one explanations. So if something wasn't very clear during the class, we could always ask a teacher to explain it again and they would make sure that we understood everything.
I also got to meet a lot of great people, which was really nice in this period of covid lockdown.
Since graduating, what have you been up to?
After graduating in December, my job search went really well as I found a job in February as a junior graphic designer. Le Wagon is very well known and having a Web Development certificate from this school really helped me.
Tell us more about your role now
Now, I am a part-time freelancer and I work full time as a junior graphic designer. As part of my full-time job, I code and design newsletters for major Belgian brands, and I also design and code (front-end) websites.
As a freelancer, I am also the general manager of the Grand Cru Stejac Champagne.
A word of advice for anyone thinking of switching careers and going for the tech world?
Go for it, it's definitely worth it!
If you're looking for a career change, apply for our Summer bootcamps, starting on July 12th!
