The Bootcamp Diary, week 7: the finish line

Writing from Lisbon, our Digital Communications Officer has embarked on a nine-week coding odyssey, & he is taking us with him. With coding bootcamps popping up left & right, you may have considered one for yourself at some point. His journal entries lift the veil on these bootcamps & share his firsthand experience at Le Wagon, a leading crash course in coding for people of all backgrounds.

It´s busy here in Lisbon.

Or, I should say, it’s busy here at the bootcamp: I haven’t seen much of Lisbon since we spend all of our days coding.

Now, that also includes weekends, but that’s why we’re here! So, even with the sunny weather outside, we enjoy passing the time indoors at our computers.

It is really amazing to see how everything we have learned comes together as we work on actual projects.

Last week was rails and this week we created an Airbnb-style marketplace: https://picturemelewangon.herokuapp.com/

The goal was to test features and figure out how to set up our final projects, which begin next week and last for 10 days.

As of now, our group is planning to do a photo-sharing app for events that is easier to use than the platforms currently available, Google photos, Dropbox, etc.  

A couple months ago my knowledge of developing was vague and theoretical. Today, I can use code to build services! It’s exciting to reflect on all that I’ve learned during my time here. But the more I learn, the more I realize how much I still don’t know about coding. I suspect that the learning never ends, and that’s a good thing.

As in life, trial and error and troubleshooting seem to be the way forward – researching and learning as we go.  

Creating projects is much more difficult and time consuming than I ever expected, but it’s incredibly rewarding to see your code come to life and grow.

This bootcamp absolutely teaches you what it takes to be a developer, but also how to unleash your creativity while coding.

When I head back to Luxembourg in a couple weeks, I’m sure I will see our modern world with different eyes now that I have a better understanding of how it all works.

It’s time to get back to my final project. Wish me luck!

one movement, many minds