Memories of Batch #382’s Web Development Bootcamp, with Celso Benidio

I would definitely say that joining Le Wagon in Istanbul was a cornerstone in my life and an eye-opening experience. When I joined the program, I was working for a company in China that supports the digital transformation processes of large corporations. At the same time I was preparing for my MBA, when I realized that doing a coding bootcamp had been on my “to do list” for a long time. So it was about time to tick it off my list!

The experience was amazing in terms of the content itself and the amount of things we were able to learn in only 9 weeks. The program is incredibly well designed, and the instructors really know what they are doing. They were hands-on when they had to be, and left us to our own devices when necessary. Overall the whole process of learning at the bootcamp was very smooth.

 

I was definitely expecting the bootcamp to be intense, but not necessarily fully productive. I feel like all the hours we were putting into it made complete sense. The way the challenges and the topics are designed, it’s done in a cumulative way, so on a daily basis we are building on the previous days and weeks learnings. It always felt as though there was momentum going forward and we were building layers upon layers of knowledge.

 

My point of view was very business and finance oriented, but my work has always required me to analyse and collaborate with technology companies and technology-based solutions. As a result, not knowing how to code was limiting my work, and I had the intuition that I should understand more about innovation and technology from a technical perspective.

It was only after the bootcamp that I was truly able to understand the vast potentialities of technology, and the things that people who have a background in tech can achieve together. Knowing what I know today, I would have done this a lot earlier, as early as possible in my career, and maybe even directly after university if Le Wagon had existed by then.

When coding we have to be absolutely accurate in what we write, the logic, the elements of the formulas, the commas, the semicolons…otherwise our code will simply not work. Because of the bootcamp, today when I’m developing some tasks, even as simple as explaining an idea on power point, I’m still trying to make sure the whole logic throughout the deck is absolutely correct, simple and related. I’m intuitively "testing my own code" and as a result, I feel I’m able to make more things more effectively. I also feel more autonomous in a way, as now my first intuition when I am presented with a new technology I need to use, is to try to learn it in depth or at least have an understanding of how it works from a technical perspective. This is a mindset I’ve internalized on a whole new level after only 9 weeks of bootcamp.

 

 

Before the bootcamp, I already knew I was a curious person, but it was mostly within the topics I was already comfortable with such as business strategy, innovation or entrepreneurship. But there were other things that somehow scared me, things I didn’t know, like coding something, or learning a new technical skill. Having done the bootcamp, I’ve overcome those fears, and I will continue to use my curiosity to learn something new, especially in technology. I will apply my natural curiosity to better understand how things work behind the scenes and expand my fields of interest. 

 

Le Wagon’s learning platform enables us to continue learning because we can redo all the challenges from the bootcamp to perfect our skills or cover any knowledge gaps. Plus we get access to 100s of hours of extra content including free tutorials for additional programming languages. There are also promotional offers for third-party services with discounts on a variety of things, especially helpful for founders! 

 

During the bootcamp my startup idea got chosen so I was able to build a MVP (minimum viable product) and lead our team during the last two weeks. As a result, it is much more clear to me that I will eventually start my own company, perhaps as a natural extension of my curiosity. Having done the bootcamp I feel I have now a much better understanding about the early stages of building tech products, including how the teams get together, what they have to build first, and how they should present their products to investors or external partners.  

 

Again, in terms of mindset, I now have enough knowledge to analyze and comprehend the difficulty of building something. Whatever technology-based project I want to do in the future, I will be able to break it down into smaller parts. There were many things that were a novelty for me, including how quickly a prototype can actually get built, especially when you are still in the validation phase. All of this has helped me understand better the value of great code and great tech teams. In the future, I’ll always make sure I have both besides me.

 

Le Wagon’s global alumni community is very active, and very large, with almost 9,000 graduates all over the world. Given that we all share a passion for tech and learning, the kind of things you can build together are also very interesting. I feel strongly that I will never feel alone if I visit any of the 39 cities where Le wagon has a campus, whether it is Istanbul, Berlin, or London. I can always reach out to the alumni community there. In fact, just the other day, I found a graduate of Le Wagon on the platform who was also doing the same MBA program as me at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. After reaching out to him on Le Wagon’s Slack channel, we had a very nice and productive conversation. It turns out he was the President of the Students Technology Hub of the MBA, a leadership role I might also take this year. Small world!

 

As I look forward to my next educational challenge, an MBA, it really strikes me just how important it is to learn how to code. I think more academic institutions should offer coding lessons as a core part of their curriculum, in the same way they emphasize the importance of learning English, leadership, accounting, or marketing skills.