The Ironhack Blog

Throughout the UX Design Bootcamp, we are faced with more than one project, each one requiring a search for themes and ideas. We will build our project little by little and, most likely, the first concept you had will evolve and iterate into a completely different idea from the initial one. All of this is part of the process and, in the end, it makes our projects well-built and useful to our target audience. When it comes to searching for topics or starting to develop them, we all go through a complicated phase of "this is not good enough" or "that idea is not good enough". Some find it easier than others to generate new ideas but, as you will learn, creativity is a muscle that needs to be trained . Don't let the search for an "incredible idea" consume what is really important: working with a theme that you identify with. Before talking about some techniques that will help you unblock your creativity in these moments, keep in mind that the most important thing when it comes to coming up with an idea is that you identify with the theme of the project. You are going to be the creator and developer , so it is essential to find a topic that you like and identify with since, for better or worse, you will live with that project for many hours. What does this mean? Analyze your hobbies, the things that make you happy, and also the things that you dislike. Dogs, cheeseburgers, yoga, online shopping, jazz, singing in the shower... it doesn't matter what comes into your head right now. You're in an exploratory phase, so acknowledge your tastes! Investigate and record them. Try to find a topic that, just by imagining yourself working on it, will make you want to put in a good amount of hours and a smile. If you already have the topic you'd like to work on, let's move on to the next step: brainstorming on that topic. How do you develop an idea and turn it into a UX project? The canvas on which you throw all your ideas must be extremely tolerant because, at this initial point, it's not about the quality of the ideas but the quantity. Let all the ideas come out, they can be dirty, badly written, or unfinished. You are in the idea generation phase and there are no bad ideas here. This phase is key to finding as many ideas as possible, among which you will probably find your final idea. As the process continues, look for new parts of the problem that you can transform into new and inspiring questions. Here are some UX  techniques for brainstorming that might work for you: Trigger Cards Trigger cards are used for developing the mental process of brainstorming. They all start with the question "What if...", which allows you to explore ideas beyond the obvious . They can be used alone or in a group. Each of the questions opens a path that is interesting to explore. Reverse Brainstorming Instead of following the traditional route of looking for solutions to a problem, look for ways to cause a problem 🔥. Think of ways to sink a process or make a particular goal impossible to achieve. In a typical brainstorming session, we would ask "how can I improve the user experience"; in a reverse brainstorming session, however, we would ask "what can I do to make the user experience so terrible that it causes my customers to walk away from my product/service". This is a very interesting way of using negative feelings as a tool for generating a positive solution to the problem. Divergent thinking This type of thinking is very common in children and as we mature, almost without realizing it, we begin to lose it #whatahugemistake. It's about creating different solutions to the same problem by generating many possible solutions. The result? Unexpected connections. Technically, according to the theory, these "solutions" must be ingenious but often they are not 🤦🏻‍♀️. We get better at this with practice. One way to feed and grow this kind of thinking is through synectic exercises. Mindmapping Mindmapping is a way of capturing ideas, exploring concepts, taking notes, and prioritizing information in a format that is easy to understand and retain. To follow this technique, simply write the problem/challenge in no more than 4 words and put that on your canvas, then ideate other words or phrases to that initial problem/challenge and put those on the canvas, then connect these to the original problem with lines. What will you get on the map at the end? Connections between ideas that did not appear to have a connection 🌀. Now that you have these UX techniques, enjoy the process, and don't make the common mistake of falling in love with everything you get in the first stage, I assure you that when you test them there will be many ideas you will have to say goodbye to. If you are interested in the UX/UI world, our UX/UI Design courses may suit you. Check them out at ironhack.com.

Freelance, digital nomad, digital maker, remote worker… Different names with the same goal: freedom. Working or studying on your own might be appealing but before going solo, there are some questions you should ask yourself — and answer honestly — to be prepared for the challenge. Disclaimer: It may include more struggles than a picture of yourself working on a beachside with the copy “Today’s office”. Are you realistic about what being a freelancer means? If you’re stuck in a job you don’t like or have to deal with a team that you don’t get along with, freelancing might sound like a miracle cure: it allows you to work from the convenience and safety of wherever you want. Be careful though. Being your own boss has as many downsides as perks. You will not only be a developer or a designer, you’ll also be your own CEO, accountant, salesperson… So you’ll have to balance among many duties that go beyond the nature of your job. And the question is: Is freedom more important to you than stability? Is there something valuable only you can do? This is a prerequisite that an alarming number of people seem to overlook. The first thing you need to do to become a digital maker is, as the name suggests, be able to make something digitally. Can you… Build a website from scratch? Design life-enhancing products? Identify patterns in numbers that no one else can see? If you’re not certain on what your craft is yet, do some soul searching, read this eye-opening post “How to pick a career (that actually fits you)” and identify what you want to focus on. Data Analytics, UX/UI Design, Web Development… Whatever you want. Learning remotely will give you already a fairly good impression of what it means to work in a remote environment. Can You Learn Freelance Skills Online? Even though there are no specific skills to become a freelancer, the best investment you could ever make is on learning new skills online. All you need to have is the will, determination and organization to learn and work on your own. Learning either soft or hard skills is a never ending process, and luckily, there is a wide variety of tools and courses available online that will help you get used to the remote environment. That will complement what you already do as a freelancer and will eventually create new opportunities to make a living. If you are wondering what’s the main difference between an online course and a remote bootcamp, we recommend you to read this post in which we analyze the main differences between these two . Are you experienced enough to work on your own? If you already know what your craft is and already have some experience doing it, do not relax, there’s still a long road ahead. Many bootcamp students come with the idea of freelancing right after they graduate, and unless they have a lot of previous experience, it’s not advisable to do so. Working in a team, either remotely or in-person, will help you improve faster. Even if your final goal is to work solo, don’t rush. Take the time to hone your skills and learn as much as you can from your mentors. Do you know enough potential clients? Another advantage of working for another company before you start your own project is that you’ll have the opportunity to network and meet potential clients and partners before you need them. Once you start your business, you’ll need somebody to hire your services and nobody probably will if they don’t know you or trust you. Want to accelerate this process? Attend meetups, conferences, workshops… and make the most of your community and alumni network . If you want to start practicing with some real freelance jobs, these websites might help you get started. Upwork Remote OK We Work Remotely Can you afford to go freelance? Having a desk in the coolest coworking in town and having the most eye-catching business cards is great… And expensive. Don’t splurge on unnecessary things until you have secured a few stable clients. If your current job allows, a good idea might be to start freelancing as a side business and only quit your job once you have enough clients to make a living on your own. There’s even a calculator to know when can you go full time with your side project . Read about the experiences of people who have done it, talk to real freelancers and digital nomads , and, most important of all, take the time to consider if this is really what you want or just an escape from what you don’t. And, if remote freelancing sounds like your gig, use your time wisely to learn as much as you can so you can provide the real value your clients will be seeking.

In recent decades, the technology industry has seen the most growth in areas of Artificial Intelligence and, more specifically, Machine Learning. In a world where data has become a highly prized commodity, Machine Learning has acquired enormous relevance in the current tech ecosystem. What is Machine learning for? The main purpose of machine learning is to provide machines with the ability to learn entirely by themselves, without the need for anyone to perfect their algorithms. The goal is that, like the human mind, they can improve their own processes so that they can perform the tasks that have been entrusted to them with an ever greater degree of precision. In order for machine learning to reach its ideal state, it is necessary to provide the machine with certain information either by supplying the necessary information through files loaded with a multitude of data or by allowing the machine to gather data through its own observations and even interact with the real world. This type of learning through data collection and interpretation has allowed them to advance from relatively simple tasks to more complex ones. Initially, they were prepared to filter emails or perform other daily actions, but over time they have been given greater computing power and today they are capable of analyzing much more complex tasks. Now they are capable of analyzing millions of medical diagnostic results which can, among other benefits, allow us to detect cancers more reliably; the can predict traffic patterns allowing us to plan routes with sufficient notice; they can even carry out architectural projects in real-time, just by recognizing a certain area. What types of algorithms exist in machine learning? In artificial intelligence or AI, there are three primary types of machine learning algorithms employed depending on how the machine will be trained and instructed to improve how its task performance. The end-goal is for the machine to execute actions in an increasingly optimized manner by refining patterns and behavior through continuous learning. The three main types of learning algorithms are Supervised, Unsupervised, and Reinforcement. In order to decide which type of machine learning is needed, it is fundamental to know precisely what the purpose is that we want to achieve by programming that artificial intellect. Machine Learning Algorithms – Towards Data Science Supervised Learning Algorithms This type of machine learning is about providing machines with prior information so that they have initial examples and can expand their knowledge over time. It is usually done by means of labels, meaning that when we program the machines we pass them properly labeled elements so that later they can continue labeling new elements without the need for human intervention. For example, we can pass the machine pictures of cars, buildings, traffic signs, or anything relevant to our task, then we tell it what each item is and how we want it to be interpreted. With these initial examples, the machine generates its own supply of knowledge so that it can continue to assign labels when it recognizes a car, a building, or a traffic sign. In this type of machine learning, the machines are not limited to being trained from images but can use various data types. If they are supplied with sounds or calligraphy data sets, they can learn to recognize voices or detect written patterns and associate them with a particular person. The possibilities stem entirely from the initial data that is supplied to the machine. Unsupervised Learning Algorithms In this case, the machine is not provided with any kind of previously labeled information about what it should recognize, meaning that it will not have an existing knowledge base. Instead, it is provided with data regarding the characteristics of the thing it is meant to identify and it would then have to learn to recognize those characteristics on its own. Essentially, this type of learning algorithm requires the machine to develop its own knowledge base from a limited data set. Believe it or not, this is closest to the way the human mind learns and develops. The machine learns to analyze groups using a method known as clustering. This is nothing more than grouping the elements according to a series of characteristics they have in common. Reinforcement Learning Algorithms This type of automatic learning is used when the aim is for systems to learn from acquired experiences. In these cases, when humans program the algorithm, they define what the final result should be without indicating the best way to achieve it. Thus, the machine is responsible for discovering how to achieve its goal. The machine is in charge of carrying out a series of tests in which it obtains errors and successes, learning from the latter and discarding those other actions which led to failure. In short, it detects patterns of success that it repeats over and over again to become increasingly efficient. Autonomous cars are a good example of this type of learning algorithm. Their task is very clear: take passengers to their intended destination. As the cars make more and more journeys, they discover better routes by identifying shortcuts, roads with fewer traffic lights, and more. This allows them to optimize their journeys and, therefore, do their work more efficiently. Machine Learning vs Deep Learning Although there are many who consider the two areas to be interchangeable, the truth is that Machine Learning and Deep Learning are very different disciplines. In broad terms, the latter is a kind of subset of machine learning, since its technical conception and its practical application are nothing more than a form of Machine Learning. This is why some people often confuse the two terms or use them interchangeably. Essentially, what Deep Learning does is to structure algorithms so that they form an artificial neural network, which allows it to both learn and make decisions autonomously. This is precisely where the main difference between the two technologies lies. For a machine programmed with some kind of Machine Learning, a human must amend errors made by the machine by adjusting the configuration to prevent it from failing again. However, a Deep Learning model can determine by itself if its task has been completed successfully or not, by utilizing its own neural network. In the end, as you can see, there are nearly endless possibilities that arise from the exponential growth of Machine Learning. This is why technology companies are increasingly seeking out candidates with extensive knowledge in Data Analytics. For those that are passionate about AI and Machine learning, the Ironhack Data Analytics Bootcamp serves as a gateway to advancement in this fascinating technological world. If you just want to look into the basics and start practicing, we have just the right webinar for you to review. powered by Crowdcast

What would tech be without great design? UX/UI Design is about solving problems and improving lives by making things easier for users through intuitive and appropriate design. And it doesn’t hurt to make it easy on the eyes either! Perhaps you’re looking for a great book to inspire you to be the best possible designer you can be. We’ve picked some of our favorites that’ll teach you the basics, show you some industry-standard best practices, and open your mind to new ways of thinking about design. 1. Brand Thinking And Other Noble Pursuits by Debbie Millman “The notion of the brand, like any concept that dominates markets and public consciousness, is a challenge to define. Is it a simple differentiator of the cereals in our cupboards, a manipulative brainwashing tool forced on us by corporations, or a creative triumph as capable as any art form of stimulating our emotions and intellect?” Many UX/UI Designers have a background in fine art, illustration, or graphic design. When you start designing for the tech world, it’s critical to understand the importance of brands. Even if you’re not designing the brand assets for the company, like their logo and color palette, you’ll be manipulating these elements to feature your designs. This is a great book to pick up if you’re about to start job-hunting for UX/UI Designer roles, and to help you become work-ready! Grab your copy 2. The Laws Of Simplicity by John Maeda “Ten laws of simplicity for business, technology, and design that teach us how to need less but get more. Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We're rebelling against technology that's too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte "read me" manuals. The iPod's clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that's simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do.” As a designer, one of the biggest things you’ll be doing is advocating for simplicity. You’ll have a lot of stakeholders who will have a million different requests for the company website, and a whole bunch of ideas for things that could ‘be cool to have.’ By understanding the laws of simplicity in design, you’ll be able to advocate for keeping things…simple! Because you’ll be able to properly express why not every button needs to be in the dropdown, and why having a thousand different landing pages isn’t the best idea. This book is an excellent choice for Junior Designers looking to take more ownership of their designs, and who are starting to work more with other departments. Grab your copy 3. Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton “​​The definitive guide to using typography in visual communication. Ellen Lupton provides clear and focused guidance on how letters, words, and paragraphs should be aligned, spaced, ordered, and shaped. The book covers all typography essentials, from typefaces and type families, to kerning and tracking, to using a grid. Visual examples show how to be inventive within systems of typographic form, including what the rules are, and how to break them.” Typography is a nuanced art. It’s easy to get wrong, and it’s one of the first things people notice if you do. This is a great read for UI designers of all levels. Get your copy 4. The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman “Design doesn't have to be complicated, which is why this guide to human-centered design shows that usability is just as important as aesthetics. Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious -- even liberating -- book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitrary relationships between controls and functions, coupled with a lack of feedback or other assistance and unreasonable demands on memorization.” As a UX/UI Designer, your primary goal is to make something that people can actually use. Whether it’s through smart wireframing or intuitive front-end design, you need to make apps and pages that people can actually navigate. Get your copy 5. Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design by Kat Holmes “Sometimes designed objects reject their users: a computer mouse that doesn't work for left-handed people, for example, or a touchscreen payment system that only works for people who read English phrases, have 20/20 vision, and use a credit card. Something as simple as color choices can render a product unusable for millions. These mismatches are the building blocks of exclusion. In Mismatch, Kat Holmes describes how design can lead to exclusion, and how design can also remedy exclusion. Inclusive design methods—designing objects with rather than for excluded users—can create elegant solutions that work well and benefit all.” The smallest things can make the biggest difference, and without carefully considering the needs of all of your users, a designer can accidentally create something that singles a select group of them out. Designing for inclusion is a great skill to learn as a designer, and one which is a core skill for the future of the tech industry. Read this book if you believe that building for everyone isn’t some added-bonus, but an integral part of your role as a designer. Get your copy 6. 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk “We design to elicit responses from people. We want them to buy something, read more, or take action of some kind. Designing without understanding what makes people act the way they do is like exploring a new city without a map: results will be haphazard, confusing, and inefficient. This book combines real science and research with practical examples to deliver a guide every designer needs. With this book you’ll design more intuitive and engaging apps, software, websites and products that match the way people think, decide and behave.” Not many people outside of the space know how important psychology is to the art of design. But you need to understand how people think if you’re going to be making something for them. Get your copy 7. The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair “From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso's blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from (whether Van Gogh's chrome yellow sunflowers or punk's fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilization. Across fashion and politics, art and war, the secret lives of color tell the vivid story of our culture.” Kassia St. Clair provides, in her words, “something between a potted history and a character sketch” for 75 shades of color that give a glimpse into the history and meaning of color across millennia, while raising awareness about how our interpretation of color itself is tied to our cultural understanding. If your designer brain dwells on why some social media networks choose blue as their color, or how the off-white shade of Apple computer cases helped forge such a unique brand identity, this is the book for you. Get your copy 8. How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy “Designers are quick to tell us about their sources of inspiration, but they are much less willing to reveal such critical matters as how to find work, how much they charge, and what to do when a client rejects three weeks of work and refuses to pay the bill. How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul addresses the concerns of young designers who want to earn a living by doing expressive and meaningful work, and who want to avoid becoming hired drones working on soulless projects. Written by a designer for designers, it combines practical advice with philosophical guidance to help young professionals embark on their careers.” There’s no one-size-fits-all for any given career, and Graphic Design is a path for the self-made. Adrian Shaughnessy’s best-seller includes practical career advice, expert wisdom on creative processes, industry know-how and concise strategies to succeed as a designer. Get your copy UX/UI Design is a broad field that touches many areas of expertise, from the technical side of customer experience to the most artistic face of user-centered design, and this selection of books will widen your perspective. If you itch for more, check out our UX/UI Design bootcamp !

From those that adore graphic design and want to take their passion a step further, unleashing their visual creations to a webpage's interface, to those who love snooping around in the underbelly of databases, API's or exploring the inner workings of servers; in other words, everything that users don't see. There’s a huge variety of reasons why someone might want to become a Web Developer. As such, depending on what they prefer to work on, they might specialise either in the front-end or back-end. Although technology is continuously evolving and the relationship between the two terms is ever-changing and difficult to establish, there is still a significant, inherent difference that separates them. The skills needed for either side often overlap, with versatile, general-purpose programming languages becoming more popular across all areas, but front-end and back-end developers use contrasting sets of skills and apply them in diverse ways, pursuing radically different objectives and priorities. Perspective is everything! Front-end development: tech with its makeup on As its name suggests, front-end development encompasses the configuration and design of everything that web surfers see when they use a website or app. It's the visual aspect of the job that tends to attract those developers with a keen interest for graphic design. These developers' task is to create interfaces that users will find as attractive as they do intuitive, making the user experience a much more gratifying one. As such, developers use three main tools, which are HTML, CSS and JavaScript . The latter has been gaining more and more ground in both front-end and back-end development, displacing other technologies such as JQuery, which is becoming obsolete. Other frameworks have even been created within JavaScript , such as React and Angular , which facilitate the job of a developer and can create components that are later replicated in other areas of the platform they’re building. Front-end development is often considered exclusively technical, but some areas have a strong graphic design component. Like UX/UI specialists, some front-end developers are proficient in other tools not traditionally used by developers, such as image editing programmes (one example might be Photoshop), or platforms such as Figma or Sketch that allow developers to create prototypes, preview navigation through the platform and test different concepts before finalising the development. Although UX and UI Design are well-defined areas that should not be confused with front-end development, there’s a significant overlap between both. Software development encompasses endless fields and functions; rather than a hard choice between a handful of defined job titles, developers have an unparalleled freedom to construct their own skill profile and forge their own unique professional path. As a front-end developer, your job is to use all these technologies and languages to construct the visuals and design of the app or website in question, in order to therefore generate a certain feeling among its users so they find the experience enjoyable and seamless, and want to come back. It's no easy feat. Back-end development: building the architecture Developers that choose to specialise in back-end development are often those that prefer to configure databases and work out how to optimise website functions, such as server performance (so that these can adequately handle the workload), or use the external resources like third party APIs. Ultimately, these developers deal with everything that's hidden from view to the users that visit a website or app and provide their data to register or make a purchase from that platform. Back-end developers use many different programming languages in their day-to-day life, from PHP to Ruby, Python, Java or even JavaScript. Their job is to make sure websites run smoothly and improve their response time. The responsibilities and influence of back-end developers have increased with the WORD of Web3 and the transition from simpler, static webpages and apps to more complex and dynamic websites, which are dependent on more resources and require constant updates. On top of this, they are usually well-versed in both relational databases, such as MySQL or Oracle, and non-relational databases, such as MongoDB. Full stack development: the best of both worlds! Can’t choose between front-end and back-end development? You wouldn't be the first one. If you enjoy interface design as much as areas like data management, you could steer your career path towards a job in full stack development. Although there's still some scepticism surrounding these profiles, given that it's considered better to specialise and become an expert in one area or another, the truth is that companies are increasingly investing in full stack developers that have a solid understanding of multiple areas and able to bring value to both the interface to be displayed in the browser and the infrastructure hidden below the surface. If you possess the skills and abilities as well as the wild curiosity needed to acquire the professional expertise in both back-end and front-end development, you might choose to sign up for the Web Development bootcamp at Ironhack. You'll learn about state-of-the-art technologies used in both front-end development, such as HTML5, Canvas, JavaScript or React, and back-end development; become familiar with Node.js; learn how to configure servers with Express, or databases with MongoDB. All these skills are highly sought-after by tech companies, giving you an edge when you come to accessing the job market and the world of development. Which one gets your development juices flowing? Front-end or back-end? Or perhaps you want to have your cake and eat it too; could full stack development be your calling?

Is this a new trend or a chance to upshift your career? You've probably heard the term mentioned more than once and you'll know it's somehow related to technology, development, a career shift, innovation and even design. And you wouldn't be wrong, but what actually is a tech bootcamp? Maybe something to do with camping in the woods? Or perhaps outdoor military-style training? Doesn't it have something to do with learning to programme in your garage? Cold, cold... Why are bootcamps becoming such a popular way of learning? The tech market is undeniably lacking in qualified professionals. So, to tackle this shortage, the education sector has devised a methodology that seeks to teach the key skills needed to satisfy this demand. It's not a question of learning for learning's sake, rather the methodology hones in on what companies are actually looking for in potential candidates. Essentially, that's what defines a bootcamp, a training programme that's known for: Intensive learning (very intensive) Short-term teaching (1-3 months) A focus on acquiring specific practical skills Learning by doing Participants don't need any former qualifications Packing into a few months what would traditionally takes years to learn Culminating in an individual project that you plan and write from scratch The main aim of a bootcamp is to prepare students to tackle and satisfy the real needs of the job market, allowing them to secure the job of their dreams without having to study a university degree or vocational training course. Companies are increasingly recruiting their talent from bootcamps, and it's no happy coincidence... But, where do I start? How do I go about taking my first steps in the tech industry? Let's be honest: the tech world holds an ocean of knowledge and it's not possible (or advisable) to try and learn everything at once, especially if you're just starting out. The best thing to do would be to pick a specific area and delve in deep. At Ironhack , we advocate the fields of study with the highest chances of employability: web development, UX/UI design and data analytics. But how to decide which one is right for you? In order to make this decision, it’s a good idea to conduct an in-depth analysis. Don't limit your choice to your potential chances of finding employment. It's important to find out what really interests, motivates and inspires you. If you want to start out with something simple and do some of your own research on web development, we recommend you take a look at CodeAcademy or Freecodecamp . If you want to have a more practical approach, we can also go on workshops or webinars. At the end of the day, the objective is to discover which field that really inspires you before you start to get your career off the ground. powered by Crowdcast This webinar is an example, we are always launching new content - either from Web Development, UX/UI Design, or Data Analytics. You can take a look at the upcoming webinars here . Why are bootcamps so popular? Bootcamps are a source of hope and offer a new direction for anyone who wants to turn their personal and professional lives around by specialising further or starting a new adventure in the tech industry. If you are determined to accelerate your learning and acquire new digital skills, take a look at the courses we offer . You should know that entrepreneurs are also fascinated by this way of learning, as it allows them to learn everything they need to know quickly and at an intense but efficient pace. Do you want to develop an app but have no clue about coding? Want to design your own marketplace? Need to learn more about a certain subject in order to face the challenges in your professional life? These are just some of the reasons you might want to sign up to a bootcamp. Will I have the same professional opportunities if I choose to do a university degree? In fact, you'll have the same or more specialist skills than someone with a university degree or vocational training qualification, although you should know there is a certain amount of theoretical knowledge that isn't taught at the bootcamp. The technology sector is very receptive to this kind of problem-solving profile and these days employers tend to be less focused on uni qualifications, which makes it easier for you to access the same opportunities on the job market. Ironhack promotes a skills-based employment philosophy that places a premium on professionalism and candidates' skills, a notion that is also increasingly observed by the top companies that approach us in search of talent to grow their teams. Remember: You get back what you put in. Although teachers are there to teach, without putting in some of the work independently, it's impossible to assimilate all the knowledge you need in such a short space of time. If you're looking for talent, Ironhack has a whole network of budding experts. Get in touch! So, can I change my life in 9 weeks? Without a doubt. No one said it would be easy, but it is possible. If you decide to join a bootcamp of this length, bear in mind you'll need to dedicate yourself to full-time study . Each bootcamp includes a practical project that you'll need to submit at the end of the course. In short: You learn a lot, but you'll have to give up a lot of your free time over the subsequent 9 weeks . If you do a bit of digging, you'll find testimonies from former Ironhack students who have gone from being firefighters to developers, from psychologists to UX designers and from architects to data analysts working in companies such as Google, Cabify and Accenture. What about if I have a job I can't give up right now? You can always choose to join one of our part-time bootcamps, which are taught two afternoons a week and on Saturdays. They are designed to help you juggle your personal and professional life whilst still providing you with intensive training. How does that sound? If after everything you've heard you're still thinking about joining a bootcamp, there are three questions you need to ask yourself before you make any final decisions : 1) Are you motivated enough? Remember we're talking about an intense work pace. Motivation will help get you through the difficult moments, pushing you to research, learn, meet deadlines and keep grinding for as long as it takes. teste 2) Are you good at teaching yourself? You'll also need to be able to learn independently. Bootcamp classes are hugely valuable and very comprehensive, but in order to become an expert in such a short space of time, you'll also need to broaden your knowledge on your own, as well as completing all your assignments and a final project. 3) Do you know how to work as part of a team? Bootcamps are not an individual experience. You'll be spending a lot of time with your classmates and it's important to have a team-oriented spirit and be open to collaboration. A bootcamp is not a university degree, nor is it some kind of entertainment . It's much more than that. If after delving into our philosophy you still want to turn your career around, or improve the one you already have and specialise in web development, design or data analytics , get in touch and change your life. This is your chance!

My Love for Technology From the moment I realized that math was the language universe used to reveal itself, I knew I wanted to be a physicist. Physics had an elegant and enigmatic way of answering the questions I had as a child, but due to the lack of infrastructure and opportunities for scientists in Nepal, I was considering studying abroad. But my decision was presented by a stack of reasons why I shouldn't. So I did what any right-minded math enthusiast would do: join engineering. After getting into engineering school, it slowly transitioned into the love of technology. The boundless possibilities of technology mixed with the delights of making things that people would find helpful make technology an irresistible career path . The creative aspect of building things of your own design and putting your effort into is really rewarding; when you run your program and it actually begins to work as you had imagined, it's an incredibly gratifying experience in and of itself. Even with these perks, the question still remains, "Why do women who are in the STEM field still hesitate to take technology as their career path?" In my last two years of high school (grades 11 and 12), our class had more than 50% of the girls who wanted a career in the STEM field, but only 10% of the girls chose engineering as their career path. Women in Tech The gender gap in technology is not only the problem faced by a specific country but it i s a global issue. The main reason could be because there are not many role models to look up to for women. After all, women who are successful in the tech space are the ones who inspire other women to join. In my engineering class, we were 9 women out of 48 students which is progress considering the school's previous history, but there is still a huge gender gap. Therefore, I am fortunate enough to pursue my career in the field of technology where being a woman was not much of a hindrance. There is still an even greater problem that prevails in Nepal - illiteracy . While the city is engulfed with modernization, there are still parts of Nepal that do not have proper access to education. In rural parts of Nepal, the potential of many children is untouched because they have no means to gain knowledge. Knowledge is the stepping stone that opens a plethora of possibilities and knowing those children will never be able to know their potential is heart-breaking. I had just finished my Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering and "The Algorithm is Female" was the perfect place for me to implement my technical skills. So I entered "The Algorithm is Female" hackathon focusing on the situation of education in Nepal because the motive of the hackathon revolved around solving the major problems that Nepal is facing. Throughout the hackathon, I got to meet the most amazing women who shared the same interests and had amazing technical knowledge. Through the hackathon, I got to be a part of Ironhack's Web Development Bootcamp . So it began, 9 weeks of intensive learning. It was one of the best experiences of my life. The first thing that struck me about Ironhack was the diversity: people from all over the place gathered in Barcelona . I got to meet all these amazing people belonging to different backgrounds careerwise and got to hear their bold stories about why they wanted to start their career in the tech world. There were times when the course felt a bit overwhelming, but the support of the amazing teacher and the TAs who worked extra hours was always there to guide us through. I cannot emphasize enough how much I appreciate their patience. The main highlight of the Bootcamp has to be the final project that we get to do where we have to implement everything we had learned throughout the Bootcamp. I decided to build a project where people can easily apply for the Spanish visa online , also helping connect with people in Spain before their visit. I decided to address this problem which I had personally faced while applying for Spanish visa and I also wanted to connect with Nepalese who were already living in Spain. As a developer, you want to build a product that gets used by thousands of people helping them to achieve their goals. Hence, I aspire to become a developer at a company where they respect diversity and are working towards solving a complex technical challenge. As for my academic goals, as a machine learning enthusiast, I want to pursue a career in data science and machine learning to hone my technical skills. My personal goal would be to contribute to the educational sector in Nepal because as the city areas are developing, there are rural parts of Nepal where not a lot of children have access to education. I am so grateful that Ironhack and Hemper brought the initiative which helped me to experience this Bootcamp and was generous enough to provide me with the full scholarship and covering all other expenses. Also, thanks to Code Rush who made the hackathon possible in Nepal. I cannot express my gratitude enough to Spotahome who kindly sponsored my accommodation in Barcelona even in this time of crisis. Lastly, I appreciate all the other companies and individuals who have helped me experience Spain. I am eternally thankful to all.

Ah, the million dollar question. There’s a lively debate around this topic that never seems to be settled once and for all. Companies will tell you one thing. Developers will defend something else. Designers will have different opinions depending on their experience... but the short answer is yes . If you want to know why, and how deep you should go into the learning rabbit hole, keep reading. Unicorns are not that special anymore Long gone are the days were being a designer with code knowledge was something to be surprised about. The designer market is more saturated every day, and adding some development skills is a great way to stay competitive. That doesn’t mean you should stop everything and go back to college for 4 years. An intensive course might be all you need to boost your profile and stand out from the crowd. Design for code, code for design You don’t design to keep your creations in Sketch or InVision. At some point you’ll want them to turn into real, usable products, won't you? Or you might have the best design ever but if it’s unbuildable, what good does it do to anyone? Keeping this in mind will save a lot of time — both to you and the rest of your team. With just a basic understanding of how your product is made you’ll be able to start thinking in components like a developer would . Not interested in winning the love of your dev team? OK, think about it this way. Do you want your design implementations to be pixel perfect? Understand how they will be built and you might get a chance. Learn to speak Developer If you’re reading this post, you’re probably a UX designer or want to become one. One of the key aspects of your job is being empathetic, right? Start by your own team. Having some technical knowledge, and having wrestled with your own coding challenges, will help you better understand what your developer colleagues do. As in any other field, making a little effort to speak the same language goes a long way. Be more independent As a designer, you are a creative person. Probably you have a project in mind that you would like to turn into a reality someday. Understanding how this process would work will be invaluable when setting up the scope and determining the project’s complexity. Depending on your idea you might even be able to build it all by yourself . Cross-train your mind As we established before, learning to code doesn’t mean you have to leave design behind and become a developer. That is just one of the many options. Even if you end up not using any of your coding knowledge, just the fact that you learned to think in a different way will help you in your main area of expertise: design. Adopting new mental models and paradigms helps us think outside the box. As Tim Harford says, and many great minds such as Einstein and Darwin believed ... “if we want to become better at what we do, maybe we should spend some time doing something else.”

We know learning online brings a lot of questions: Will I be able to keep up the pace being at home? Will I finish the course? Will Ironhack be worth it? We know learning online is not easy, but Ironhack’s live remote programs have very little in common with the traditional online courses . How would you feel if you could have all the benefits of an in-person course (the teachers, the classmates, hands on projects, etc.) plus the benefit of being wherever you want to be, every single day? Our Education Team has spent years developing and refining our virtual classroom, and today we want to show you how with this Remote Student Guide! If you are familiar with our bootcamp programs, you can be sure that Ironhack Remote is nothing but a live-online bootcamp . What you’ll find is a community-driven and collaborative experience for everyone. And like in any other class, you’ll be able to raise your hand, ask questions and collaborate with other students to solve real world tech problems. This experience will help you change careers and turbocharge your current professional trajectory from the comfort of your wherever you want to be. The Remote Student Guide will guide you through some of the most common asked questions of what it takes to be an Ironhacker. Download the guide to learn…. What is an immersive Bootcamp What you can plan to learn and achieve within Ironhack How the application process works CareerHack : How we’re going to help you get a job The Ironhack lifestyle Student reviews Ironhack Remote isn’t a typical online class. It’s accountability, community, and mentorship at the highest level from the comfort of your wherever you want to be. We are radically altering the career trajectory of our graduates by providing a world-class remote educational experience, tailored mentorship, and a global network of teammates and alumni! Don’t just take our word for it... “It is one of the best decisions that I have made to date. I enrolled with the intent to further my skills as a developer and put myself in a better position to enter the market as a professional but I walked away with so much more. Everyone is extremely hands on and will go above and beyond to ensure that your experience is one that promotes your success.” Daniel Soraluz - Web Development Full-Time Find out what it’s like to join our Remote program and become an Ironhack! Download the guide here: DOwload the guide

You’ve definitely heard of a hackathon but you’re probably wondering: what is a hackathon? What’s the point? Who goes to one? What are they like? In this article, we’ll cover all those questions (and more!) and give you ten tips to absolutely mastering your next hackathon. What is a Hackathon? Don’t worry: you won’t have to hack anything! A hackathon is a social coding event where computer programmers and others interested in the subject come together to try to solve problems. They can last from just one day to several and are a friendly, engaging atmosphere where teamwork and innovation are highly valued. And what’s the point?! Well, apart from the obvious benefit of meeting like-minded people and working together to solve a problem, hackathons serve to: Solve an existing problem that a team’s been facing Spark innovation and interest Use and learn from new technologies Build teamwork and overall confidence Network and meet like-minded professionals Learn from others Hackathons don’t have to be only with your company, though. The majority of hackathons are open to the public and you can join either with your team to tackle some of the bullet points we listed above or you can go alone–don’t worry, there will be other individuals who are looking to solve the problem and network. And hackathons are for everyone! Even if you have no coding or technical experience, you can still sign up for a hackathon and learn from those around you. How do hackathons work? This is how they work and what you have to look forward to when you head to your first one. Each hackathon can have its peculiarities and differences, of course, but the majority will loosely follow the same format: The organizer presents the problem that the hackers will try to solve. The organizer also introduces any rules/guidelines that participants will have to follow and explain how the results will be judged. After all, it’s time to get to work! Participants split into teams and start working on their solution. Once the predetermined time is up, which typically isn’t more than three days, groups will present their solutions to the judges. Winners are announced and usually awarded cash prizes. How can you prepare for a hackathon? Heading into a hackathon, you’ll probably be wondering how you can start getting ready for the challenge. And while organizers tend to be quite tight-lipped about the actual problem you’ll be asked to solve, you can do some preparation beforehand so you’re ready to get to work. Here’s what to do beforehand: Research the organizer Even if you don’t know the exact problem beforehand, some research on the organizer, their mission statement, their focus, and any previous hackathons they’ve led can help you start thinking about the right strategy before you’re in the thick of things. Decide the team’s roles Your team will be tasked with a complex problem in a short amount of time; if you head into the hackathon with roles already assigned, you’ll save valuable time and be able to get right to work. Practice building Some hackathons will request you use a specific software and others will let you do as you please; whatever the situation is, you’ll need to be able to work quickly. Practice creating templates beforehand and make sure you don’t waste time on things you could’ve learned beforehand. Now that you’re ready to take on your first (or maybe nth !) hackathon, let’s discuss some of our best tips and tricks to help you win that prize. 10 Tips for Hackathons Hackathon Tip #1: Dress for comfort Hackathons are long . We mean days long. You’ll want to use your brain to think about maximum productivity and the first step for maximum concentration is being comfortable . Plan for the fact that you’re going to be up all night; it’s going to be hard, so make yourself as comfortable as possible. Hackathon Tip #2: Be realistic Be realistic with your skill level and what you can do in the established time period. If you’re lacking in some area, find someone who can complement where you’re weaker. If you’re new to the field, go for the experience instead of the win. And if you show up without a team, look to join a team where you can learn from your teammates. Hackathon Tip #3: Choose your project cautiously When you’re thinking of your project, be realistic with the scope. Assume that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.  It’s better to do something well than not finishing something that was ambitious. Here’s a secret: most wins go to complete projects, even if they’re simpler. Hackathon Tip #4: Have your supplies ready It’s better to be over prepared than underprepared, right? You’ll be there for a while and using lots of brainpower. Bring snacks, a blanket, a pillow, energy drinks, your laptop, chargers, and anything else that will make the experience better. Hackathon Tip #5: Understand why you’re at a hackathon You’re there to do cool things and experiment outside of your normal tasks; at a hackathon, you’ll be putting yourself under pressure to execute code that doesn't allow you to slack off and procrastinate. Take advantage of this, try new things, and work hard. Hackathon Tip #6: UXers… Be familiar with front end development As a UX designer, it’s important to have some front end development knowledge. Even if you’re not good at implementing, you will be able to slide into the workflow and be able to hand off work easier, knowing when you’re getting in the way. Start with videos or tutorials, but just try and make basic web pages to familiarize yourself with the process. Hackathon Tip #7: Avoid being a team just to be on a team Only join teams that you are a good fit for; It’s better to be on your own than force yourself on a team where you’re not active because you’ll short yourself on the learning experience. Don’t be afraid to go solo. When choosing your team, make sure personality and talent fit. Hackathon Tip #8: Know the difference between Hacking vs Hackathon It’s a common misconception that “hacking” means you’re breaking into something. But hackathons are not that! The traditional definition is piecing something together by using creative thinking in a way that hasn’t been done before in a short period of time. BUTTON: HACKING Hackathon Tip #9: Find the low hanging fruit Low hanging fruit are easy implementations that wow judges and can help you place at hackathons. If there are API sponsors at the event, utilize their software! Even if your app isn’t the best, you can still win sponsored prizes for including them in your work. Hackathon Tip #10: Don’t freak out! Tensions get high at hackathons. Late nights and long hours can make anyone break. But trust me, you don’t want to be the one that freaks out and has a breakdown. Remember, this is all for fun and learning. If something doesn’t work, use your best resources to troubleshoot. Have we convinced you? Are you ready to head to your first hackathon? If you are, we can’t wait to hear how you do. And if you’re interested in polishing your skills a bit more before you dive into the world of hackathons, check out our web development bootcamp. You’ll be winning hackathons before long!

Our premise has always been that employability is not determined exclusively by your level of hard skills: soft skills, job-hunting skills and access to opportunities play a huge role in achieving a successful outcome. For this reason, over the last 5 years we’ve: Built a dedicated, specialized team of career coaches that support every student since they sign on until they get a job. Provided a wide range of job support services , including a whole extra week focused exclusively on soft skills and job-hunting development, and individual job-hunt support to every student throughout their journey Invested heavily in growing and nurturing the largest hiring partner network of any bootcamp in Europe with over 600 Global Hiring Partners, including top players like Google, Visa, Twitter or Magic Leap. Our results until now speak for themselves - 89% Placement Rate after 6 months for all students that graduated in 2018 - but we know if we want to be able to deliver outcomes at scale, specially during these tough times, we need to think bigger. This is why we’re very excited to introduce... Careerhack Careerhack is Ironhack’s Career Services Program. It is designed to help students identify their ideal outcome, and support them throughout the process so they reach it as fast as possible. The course runs parallel to our technical training and is divided into different stages that encompass the whole student journey. Stage 0 and 1 are focused on teaching the basic skills needed required in the digital ecosystem regardless of the desired outcome. It will be useful for freelancers, entrepreneurs and job-seekers alike. Stage 2 focuses exclusively on helping job seekers navigate the job search process. Check it out! 👇 Stage #0 | Discovery Ironhackers come from all walks of life. The discovery stage is designed to ensure students from different backgrounds come into the bootcamp having reflected on their values and objectives, and have a general understanding of the digital ecosystem and the possibilities that lie ahead of them. » Expect introspection exercises to identify your top values and skills, and some market research in order to clarify future possible outcomes. / To be completed during the Bootcamp Stage #1 | Digital Foundations All Ironhackers, regardless of their desired outcome, have one thing in common - they are looking to enter the digital market. The Digital Foundations stage is designed to prepare students to navigate the digital ecosystem - whether they’re looking for a job, intend to freelance or start their own venture. » Expect to work on crafting a compelling story, defining a personal brand statement and identifying channels to promote it: LinkedIn, CV, Networking events... / To be completed during the Bootcamp Stage #2 | Job Hunt As the name suggests, this stage is designed for anybody looking for a job. Like any good athlete, first we warm-up, then we race. • Phase #1: Career Warm-Up In the warm-up phase, students go through a full job hunting drill, covering every stage of a process, so they can replicate it once they start looking on their own. » Expect to learn how to generate leads, apply to jobs, master both technical and personal interviews and negotiate, accept or reject an offer. / To be completed during Career Week • Phase #2: Sprint Now we’re all warmed up. It’s game time! Throughout the job search, we provide weekly one on one guidance and support and access to our Hiring Partners through different channels. » Expect digital and physical check-in session, Fast-track Interviews, job offers and more. / Offered after the Bootcamp Want more information on Careerhack? You can check out our documentation here. Great! So… what’s new? A lot of stuff! On the coaching side, we’ve completely revamped our content and structure . Students perform introspection exercises and start building their personal brand early on. Through the bootcamp we help them translate that personal brand into their digital profiles such as CV and LinkedIn, and we devote a full week to go over a job sprint cycle, from generating leads, to applying, interviewing, negotiating and closing the offer. We’ve also invested in software that enables us to better track the progress of students throughout the job search process and provide specific feedback. The result is a much better student experience and level of support. The biggest change probably comes from the way we connect students and companies. Remember Hiring Fairs? Our main conduit to connect students and companies has always been hiring fairs. In these half-day events, we brought companies together with students in a speed-recruiting format: each student get’s 10-15 minutes with each company, and, if there’s interest, companies contact students afterwards to move onto the next stage in the selection process. Hiring Fairs have been a great success for us until now . There are many advantages to this format: students get to meet several companies face to face in a short period of time, companies can boost their employer branding and, most importantly, they lead to hires. However, we’ve always been conscious that they presented some inherent downsides that prevent us from maximizing the quality and quantity of opportunities we can offer students. The need for companies to attend physically for an extended period of time has prevented us from reaching more partners. We’ve received feedback that the short nature of the interviews doesn’t appeal to everyone. And it has always required a huge lift from our team to throw these events. This is why we transitioned to Fast-track Interviews. Fast-track Interviews Throughout the past year, we started evaluating ways to improve the connection between students and companies. Our first objective was to optimize the connection: instead of every company interviewing every student, we built a matchmaking algorithm and started pairing students with companies based on affinity. The results were incredible - students had less interviews, but they led to more hires, and a better experience for students and companies alike. Our second objective was trying to increase the pool of companies we could target by modifying our service. We started reaching out to employers and connecting them directly to students who were searching through email. Having no need to physically attend an event allowed us to appeal to a much wider audience, and pairing this together with our matchmaking algorithm led to similar, and sometimes better hiring ratios than our hiring fairs. And just like that the Fast-track Interview concept was born 💥 How do Fast-track Interviews work? Fast-track interviews are pretty straightforward. Whenever one of our partners needs to fill a job position, we collect their requirements and connect them directly via email with graduates who are actively searching and fit their needs. Companies commit to interview a minimum of 5 candidates, and we take into account factors such as technical skills, soft skills, location preferences and language to pair them. Some upsides: We are not constrained by geographical location , which opens a whole new pool of companies we can partner with. Companies don’t need to physically attend an event at a given moment in time, so we can adapt much better to their schedules. This leads to a higher number of interviews . Interviews are longer, and more qualified . No more 15-minute introductory interviews! Students get better qualified interviews spread out throughout their job search period. It allows us to focus on providing value to our students through services such as increased coaching support vs. spending time in event and logistics management. For obvious reasons, this has become our standard service throughout the COVID-19 pandemic . We’ve realized it improves student and company experience, broadens our hiring partner reach and ultimately leads to more hires, which is why we’ve decided to deprecate hiring fairs and continue with this format moving forward. What’s next? Keep getting better! We’re looking to roll out a mentorship program , increase our pool of hiring partners , improve our continuous technical learning content... In volatile times, remaining agile is key, so we will keep trying new services and approaches with one laser-focused objective in mind - improve the employability and support we offer our students so they can land their dream job as fast as possible 🚀 If you want to know more about how we've helped thousands of student land their dream job, check our Career Services .

We’ve collated a collection of cheat sheets for you to get to grips with the main libraries used in data science. They are grouped into the fields for which each library is designed: Basics, Databases, Data Manipulation, Data Visualization, Analysis, Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Basics If you're just starting out in the world of data science, it's important to understand how at least two of the basic libraries work: Python and NumPy. These two libraries are used throughout the entire development process. The third library, Scipy, is a mathematical tool that can handle more complex calculations than NumPy. Python basics Level: Beginner - Intermediate Area: Basics Description: Python is a standard library upon which the data science methodology has been developed. The way of tackling and structuring a project is inherited from how we work in Python. Source: DataQuest NumPy basics Level: Beginner - Intermediate Area: Basics Description: NumPy is the mathematical Python library par excellence (its name is taken from Numerical Python). It allows us to work more efficiently with vectors and matrices. Source: DataCamp Cheat sheet: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.datacamp.com/blog_assets/Numpy_Python_Cheat_Sheet.pdf SciPy Level: Advanced Area: Basics Description: The SciPy library has been developed to work with NumPy and is designed for more complex numerical calculations, more closely related to scientific computing. Source: DataCamp Cheat sheet: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.datacamp.com/blog_assets/Python_SciPy_Cheat_Sheet_Linear_Algebra.pdf Database Data can be stored in sets or, sometimes, in relational or non-relational databases that are imported into the working platform. SQL Level: Beginner - Intermediate Area: Relational databases Description: relational databases use a structure of separate tables that store data more efficiently and create relations between them using keys. SQL is the best language for querying data stored in these tables, thanks to its versatility. Source: sqltutorial Cheat sheet: https://www.sqltutorial.org/sql-cheat-sheet/ MongoDB Level: Beginner - Intermediate Area: Non-relational databases Description: non-relational databases are increasingly popular, especially due to the rise in big data companies and apps, as they make it possible to overcome the barriers of data structures posed by relational databases. MongoDB is the leader in distributed databases. Source: codecentric Cheat sheet: https://blog.codecentric.de/files/2012/12/MongoDB-CheatSheet-v1_0.pdf Data Manipulation Before getting started with data analytics, it's essential to organise the data set's information so that it's easier to perform the necessary analytical operations. This process is known as data manipulation. Pandas Level: Beginner - Intermediate Area: Data manipulation Description: Pandas is the library per excellence for processing data in DataFrames, in other words, it allows us to read records, manipulate data, group them and organise them in a way that facilitates our analysis. This cheat sheet shows you some essential steps to help you use the library. Source: DataCamp Cheat sheet: http://datacamp-community-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/dbed353d-2757-4617-8206-8767ab379ab3 Data Wrangling Level: Beginner - Intermediate Area: Data manipulation Description: Prior to conducting an analysis, it's important to clean the DataFrame and organise our data, since we sometimes find duplicate, void or invalid records. The process of cleaning the DataFrame so we can use it for our analysis is known as Data Cleaning or Data Wrangling. Source: pandas Cheat sheet: https://pandas.pydata.org/Pandas_Cheat_Sheet.pdf Data Visualization Data visualization is the graphic representation of data and is particularly important for conducting analyses or portraying analysis results, which can help us discover trends, outliers and patterns in the data. Matplotlib Level: Beginner Area: Data visualization Description: matplotlib is the first library that's been developed for map plotting and projections in Python. It offers a huge range of options for drawing graphs and personalising them, from the most simple to the most complicated of visualizations. Source: DataCamp Cheat sheet: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.datacamp.com/blog_assets/Python_Matplotlib_Cheat_Sheet.pdf Seaborn Level: Intermediate Area: Data Visualization Description: The Seaborn library is more advanced than matplotlib and was developed to facilitate the statistical analysis of data directly onto graphs. Source: DataCamp Cheat sheet: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.datacamp.com/blog_assets/Python_Seaborn_Cheat_Sheet.pdf Folium Level: Intermediate Area: Data visualization Description: Within the field of visualization, maps are a very useful form of representation that allows us to depict geospacial positioning and distances. Folium is a library that allows us to generate maps and easily depict data from a data set, rendering a representation such as a mapbox or OpenStreetMap and adding layers of visual data like cluster points or a heatmap. Source: AndrewChallis Machine Learning Machine learning algorithms allow us to make predictions based on available data. These are known either as regression or classification algorithms, depending on the type of data in question. These processes can be supervised or non-supervised, depending on whether the machine learning model is trained using labelled data, or not, which is known as 'ground truth'. Scikit-Learn Level: Advanced Area: Machine learning Description: Scikit-Learn is a library developed on top of SciPy and designed for data modelling: clustering, feature manipulation, outlier detection, model selection and validation. It is known for being robust and easy to integrate with other Python libraries. Source: DataCamp Cheat sheet: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.datacamp.com/blog_assets/Scikit_Learn_Cheat_Sheet_Python.pdf Deep Learning Within the field of machine learning, there is a more specific field known as deep learning, which uses artificial neural networks to make predictions. Keras Level: Advanced Area: Deep leaning Description: The Keras library is written in Python and is capable of running on top of CNTK, TensorFlow and Theano, making it possible to generate and evaluate neural network models. Source: DataCamp Cheat sheet: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.datacamp.com/blog_assets/Keras_Cheat_Sheet_Python.pdf Tensorflow Level: Advanced Area: Deep learning Description: This is a second-generation deep learning library developed by Google. It allows users to create models using an API with an inferior or superior abstraction layer, outlining mathematical operations or neural networks, depending on the user's preference. Source: Altoros Cheat sheet: https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/1*dtOZSuYDonyyBvEULpJALw.png PyTorch Level: Advanced Area: Deep learning Description: PyTorch is a deep learning library developed by Facebook. It is one of the newest libraries on the market and offers an interface for working with tensors at a more affordable price than TensorFlow or Keras, for example. Source: PyTorch Cheat sheet: https://pytorch.org/tutorials/beginner/ptcheat.html Natural Language Processing (NLP) Within the field of data science, language analysis is an area that's increasingly gaining ground, with algorithms that have been developed to help us analyse text. NLTK Level: Beginner - Intermediate Area: NLP Description: NLTK is one of the first libraries developed for natural language analysis and allows users to carry out processes such as tokenization, stemming (lemma analysis), character or word count, in order to read and understand the text under analysis. Source: Cheatography Cheat sheet: https://cheatography.com/murenei/cheat-sheets/natural-language-processing-with-python-and-nltk/ spaCy Level: Advanced Area: NLP Description: spaCy is a natural language processing library that analyses texts at difference levels: NER (name, entity, recognition), parser (syntactic analysis) or similarity, from a model trained in one language. It also allows us to create models from scratch with our own examples that recognises the entities we define. Source: DataCamp Cheat sheet: http://datacamp-community-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/29aa28bf-570a-4965-8f54-d6a541ae4e06 These cheat sheets contain each library's most useful functions and working methods to help you in your day-to-day development tasks. Happy Coding!

With more than 500 million downloads on the Google Play Store alone, and over 160 million active users each day, Snapchat caught the attention of mobile app and UI designers. What is it that this app has that compels an average user to spend anywhere between 25 to 30 minutes in the app every day? Yeah, the social network aspect is an important factor, but Snapchat’s engaging and user-friendly UI is a game changer and has contributed to this number of active users, too. Here are the secrets behind Snapchat’s UI. It Engages the User Immediately What happens when you install the app for the first time and open it? It swallows you immediately. After you launch it, it will open up and display your front camera. If you touch the screen, the special effects menu will open in the lower portion of your screen. Trying them all is the feature that swallows you whole the moment you try to experiment with it. Swipe left and you will be able to search for stories, find a friend, or share your username via other apps installed on your smartphone. Another left swipe and you will arrive on the Discover screen, where you can read news, interesting articles, and watch snaps of famous users. If you swipe right, you will launch the chat feature of the app. This screen also contains “Find Friends” and “Share your username” buttons. Swiping up will open up the Memory screen where you can take a look at all the snaps you took while using the app. If you pinch your starting screen, you will access the See the World feature and see Snaps of events and breaking news. Quite amazing, one must admit. Minimalism is Key Respecting the current trends in material design, Snap Inc. has made sure that their app looks simple yet awesome. All the features like chat, snap, special effect, memory, stories, search, rotate camera are accessible from the start screen. The button design is unique, yet it reflects the standard icons that people are already used to. Simply put, you won’t find yourself going through the app, wondering how to do this or how to do that. Everything is at the reach of your fingertips. A design certainly worth taking a look at. You can even consider this simplicity for when you decide to make your own website . The screen surface is used to its maximum and you won’t get the feeling that there are too many elements present in any of the screens. The Interface is Intuitive for the Target Demographic Snap Inc.’s target audience are teenagers. Well, anyone up to the age of 25. There are a lot of reviews by “older” users complaining about the complexity of the UI . This is not a coincidence; it is Snap Inc.’s intentional design. Young generations are used to smartphone apps and, if anything, Snapchat’s interface is as intuitive as one can be. As I mentioned in the first section, swiping and screen pressing are supported. And, every app’s function can be accessed by performing 2 actions at most. The platform integrates easily with other social media websites Share, Edit & Send are the two buttons you will see quite often when you take a picture with Snapchat. Sending it to a friend on Snap chat is very easy and sharing it via social media and other means remains equally easy, if not even easier. I have plenty of social media apps on my phone currently installed. In the picture above, you can see what happens when I click the share button in Snapchat. You can share your snaps literally everywhere. There is a Gamification Component to It Snapchat is an app where you can collect trophies and increase your score over time . When you access your profile on Snapchat, you can see the score under your name. It is basically showing how active you are inside the app (sent and received snaps) and how much time you spent in it. A certain status symbol in the Snapchat world, if I may say so myself. There is also a built-in trophy rewarding system. After reaching a specific milestone, you will get a trophy – a small badge that you can display on your profile. Everything is designed to engage users to interact with the interface more and stay in app for a longer period of time. It seems that the gamification and intuitive UI synergy works quite well for Snap Inc. These were the five secrets behind Snapchat’s engaging and user-friendly UI that we have discovered. Snap Inc. is working on improvements ‘round the clock and we should not be surprised if they bring some more changes and improvements in the near future. Looking forward to it!

Today, tech jobs are among the 10 most difficult positions to fill in Mexico. In response, Ironhack arrived to Mexico with the goal of helping to prepare the next generation of digital professionals. By 2019, Ironhack will have graduated more than 170 students and is proud to announce that 90% of graduates find jobs within 3 months of completing the bootcamp . Their emphasis on career building and student ROI, and their sophisticated and intensive Full Stack nine-week curriculum helped Ironhack to gain recognition as SwitchUp’s top bootcamp in Mexico. Ironhack uses the same methodology across 8 campuses in 7 countries. Each campus features a dedicated Outcomes Manager who works with students to achieve success on their terms. This person is responsible for providing personalized career support and nurturing relationships with leading tech companies to provide opportunities tailored to each student. This unique positioning between bootcamp and recruiting agency keeps Ironhack deeply connected with the job market, increasing graduate opportunities and ensuring their 10-week intensive program stays in sync with the direction of the industry. Ironhack Mexico City: A Closer Look Coupled with the growth of domestic startups, the arrival of international tech companies has turned Mexico City into the most important tech hub in Spanish-speaking Latin America. Though the need for more skilled developers is a common pain-point world wide, the problem is amplified in Mexico where, according to a study done by OCDE in 2017, only 17% of the population attends university. Additionally, few of those universities offer an updated web development curriculum to students. One of the biggest hurdles for universities in Mexico is that technology moves faster than the accreditation cycle, and it’s hard for universities to keep up with modern developer tools. Because of this, many aspiring web developers and UX designers are forced to learn necessary skills through meetups, workshops and hackathons. Fortunately, Mexico City certainly has no lack of community events, and, in 2016, Guadalajara’s Campus Party was recognized by Guinness Book of Records as the biggest hackathon in history in 2017 (later in 2018 the Hajj hackathon in Saudi Arabia took that title). Outside of developer circles, Mexico boasts a wide range of international and domestic startup accelerators whose programs and daily events enrich countless aspiring and serial entrepreneurs. Though the startup ecosystem is booming, a shortage of qualified full-stack developers and UX talent is a big hurdle for Mexican companies and pre-funded startups. The same is true for Small and Medium Companies, which hire 72% of the workforce in Mexico, according to Forbes Mexico. This demand is what inspired Ironhack to bring introduce its proven teaching and placement methodology to the region. “The benefit for our hiring partners is clear, but what really drives us is being able to create new opportunities for people as they level-up their careers,” says Julian Balderas the General Manager of Ironhack Mexico. “These individuals are now getting a return on their an investment from attending Ironhack…the clear winner is also the economy of Mexico, which stands to gain from more high-skilled employers helping companies build products that innovate.” Arguably, Ironhack will truly make a mark in Mexico when their grads gain the experience necessary to land the kinds of well-paid, senior tech roles that are notoriously hard for the industry to fill. “I was looking for a fast way to move into the tech industry and I can say my experience at Ironhack was life-changing. I’m now working as a Full-Stack Developer at Konfío, one of the most successful Fintech startups in Mexico. Ironhack also provided me with the tools to pitch my projects and collaborate with cross-functional teams. After only 6 months of working in my company, I’m now leading some technical projects and presenting them every week to the rest of the team.” said Betsai Mendoza, Ironhack graduate. If you would like to learn more about Ironhack in Mexico, please feel free to reach out to [email protected] . You can also see all the community events we do on our meetup page: www.meetup.com/Ironhack-Mexico

We initially started Ironhack for ourselves. We wanted to learn how to code. From the best teachers and using the best resources. All of this in an environment that was challenging, while being fun and supportive. And we were sure that, like us, many others had the same sentiment. So here we are. BUT WHY SPAIN? WHY NOW? Gonzo, my Spanish Co-Founder, will give his own answer to this question on a separate post which I suspect might be a bit more patriotic than mine. As a non-Spaniard, this is probably the question that I”m asked the most by friends and colleagues from outside of Spain (and actually, even by many Spaniards). I get it, I get it – the macro story is not so “hot” (I”d rather not call it a clusterf#ck). To us, however, this is the ideal environment to start an education company with an innovative model. When people realize the current trajectory is unsustainable and mindsets start to shift…it”s time to move in. Spain is also great in many ways: a lot of talent, it’s a hub for international students and there are a number of great resources for entrepreneurs that I haven”t seen anywhere else in the world (these resources are unfortunately incredibly poorly marketed to foreign entrepreneurs). 1. Reduce youth unemployment in Spain Most of us are aware of the insane figure of 50% unemployment in people under 30. Meanwhile, according to official figures, the IT/tech sector unemployment is in the single digits. We’ve spent the last few months talking to dozens of tech employers in Spain and the story is the same everywhere: “we are dying for technical talent!”. From our vantage point, tech unemployment is closer to 0%. There are tons of unfilled jobs. This disconnect is mind-blowing to us. The economy is clearly moving in a different direction and people need retraining. If there are no roads and bridges being built, that unemployed civil engineer should consider a new career as a software developer. If there are fewer newspapers in circulation, that print illustrator should consider a career as a User Interface designer for digital products. You get the point. We are confident this “calibration” of workforce skills and employer needs is doable and that people don’t need to go back to college and spend another 5 years to get retrained. In fact, even if they wanted to and had the resources to do so, they probably shouldn’t. Our view is that traditional higher ed institutions are doing a TERRIBLE job of educating people in these emerging technologies and roles. Many are teaching technologies from the 80s or way too focused on theory. Students are just not learning the skills that matter. Education startups like Ironhack have the potential to help in this transition, complement the traditional education institutions and add a bit of dynamism to the Spanish economy. 2. Close the tech skillgap in the EU Of course, Spain is not the only country facing this issue of scarcity of technical talent. For instance, despite the 26 million unemployed people across Europe, the European Commission estimates that there are 700,000 IT jobs unfilled in the EU. This number isexpected to grow 100,000 per year, while the number of skilled IT graduates is flat (or decreasing in some countries). At Ironhack we want to close that gap by producing new talent, as well as by “recycling” talent from other industries that have excess labor capacity. Having said that, we’re going to be selective. The people that we work with have to be passionate about programming and technology. We want students, teachers and partners who believe in continuous learning and see coding as a craft. The type of people that are committed to raising the level of code that comes out of Spain and Europe. 3. Promote coding / tech literacy For us, this issue is much larger than the professionals that are going to be coding every day. We think that for every developer, there is a need for 100 non-technical professionals that are code literate. We’re not only talking product people or other non-technical folks at startups, we’re thinking much broader than that. As technology becomes a more integral part of every industry, tech literacy is going to be crucial in all departments and at all levels of organizations. There’s been a healthy debate on blogs on whether this means that everyone has to learn how to code. Initially there was a lot of vigor on the “yes, everyone needs to learn” camp. Lately the pendulum has swung the other way and even a lot of techies are saying that coding is not for everyone. Does everyone need to learn the basics of coding? Probably not. The same way that not everyone needs to learn English or another second language. However, would we say that learning English opens a world of opportunities for personal and professional development? Absolutely. We feel that learning the fundamentals of coding has the same effect. It will make you a more versatile professional in an increasingly tech-centric world. It will give you a foundation that will allow you to use technology and innovate in your day-to-day in ways that previously you would have thought impossible. And the sooner you acquire these skills, the better. WE NEED YOUR HELP – WE CAN’T DO THIS ON OUR OWN These are lofty goals. And we know it. We’ve been fortunate to have the early support of a good number of people: developers, mentors and corporate partners who “get” the problems that we are trying to tackle and share our vision. We’re incredibly grateful for their contributions thus far and look forward to continuing working with them. Disagree with something (or everything) that I’ve said? Have ideas on how we could solve some of these issues? Get in touch ! We’re believers in the open-source movement and the wisdom of crowds, so we definitely value your input. This post was written by Ironhack co-founder Ariel Quiñones, in September of 2013.

My name is Marisa and I am an ex-student of Ironhack’s part-time course. Less relevant, but just as important to share, I’m also the Program Manager at Ironhack’s Miami campus . You see, one of the perks of working at Ironhack is that you get to take the courses for free. So, in January, I embarked on what I then thought would be my life-changing entrance into the world of code. As is probably obvious from the title, I didn’t last very long. These are things that everyone on the Ironhack team will tell you, but that no one likes to believe: The part-time course is HARD . The curriculum is by no means easy, but what’s really hard is that for 6 months, you spend two nights a week and all of your Saturday coding! This means no more Saturday beach trips with friends, or Tuesday happy hours at Blackbird (at least for the next 6 months) You have to do the homework . Seriously. The course alternates between lecture, pair programming exercises, and individual exercises. Most of the individual exercises are done at home. These assignments are your chance to find the gaps in your knowledge, review the material that challenged you, and perfect the skills you built in class. The course will give you what you give it. I’ll explain: In my class of 20 students, we had 3 instructors (1 lead and 2 TAs) and the constant support of Ironhack alumni and students. The people and the expertise are some of the biggest perks of taking an in-person course, and it pays to take advantage of them. Though I could cite a variety of factors that led me to dropping the course (I was distracted by moving into a new apartment, I had to miss class often to host Ironhack events, etc.), the reason I’m least likely to admit is this: I was not willing to put in the work. Though the part-time course is hard, I know now more than ever that if this is something you want and you’re willing to put in the work, it’s well worth it. I’ll put it in perspective: Since I dropped the part-time course, I’ve spent 2 Saturdays at the beach, and 4 Saturdays meticulously cleaning my apartment. In the meantime, my ex-classmates have learned to build out games like this . In another 3 months, I will have gone to the beach a few more times, and gone to a couple more happy hours. My ex-classmates will be building out things like an online wedding planner, the Uber for driveway parking, and an app to better monitor and control your mood (these are just a few examples of what past students have built). Beyond not being able to code my own web apps, I’ve also missed opportunities to manage new tech projects. Because learning to code isn’t just about becoming a software developer ; it’s about keeping up in this new world in which elementary school students are learning to code, and machines are replacing mundane human tasks. It’s about being a smarter entrepreneur and a better manager. (To learn more on this topic, read Ariel’s post in Entrepreneur Magazine .) Needless to say, I regret dropping the course. So, May 30th, I’ll return to the course with renewed commitment to learning to code, and this time, I’m going to give it my all. To read more student experiences from the part-time course, check out these testimonials here.

Part 3: A Product Specialist is (re)born It’s been eight weeks since Julia Miller finished the Coding Bootcamp at Ironhack Berlin . Now back at work as a Product Specialist at Zalando, she shares some of her reflections on the course, the challenges of being back in the ‘real world’ and how learning to code helped her become a better leader for her team. This is part three of a series that followed her journey throughout the course. (see part 1 & part 2 ) When Julia decided to enroll in the Ironhack Bootcamp about a year ago, with the support of Zalando, she may have slightly underestimated her return. Focused at the time on the challenges the course, she admits that she is surprised at “how much can change in three months”. However, as certainly proven during her time at Ironhack, Julia has never been one to be scared off by challenges. Her life is busy at the moment, (which she kind of likes), but her team at Zalando has also been extremely supportive in reintegrating her into the workflows. Besides, Julia has advanced as well and seeing her newfound knowledge applied ‘in the real world’ has given her a lot of energy. She can finally bear the fruits of her labour back at Zalando and see the positive outcome of her hard work and learnings, now put into practice. It’s all about alignment One of the main outcomes from the course that, according to Julia, has made her a stronger informal lead, is a better understanding of the general engineering workflow. One of the things she points out here, is the importance of discussions and coordination within the engineering team, something that she – and many product managers most likely – had vastly underestimated prior to learning how to code herself. A crucial insight here was that building software is not necessarily as straightforward a process as one might think. Julia tells how “learning to code myself made me realize that there is not one, but always at least three different ways of doing things.” For this reason, she explains, these initial discussions are an essential part of the building process and as Product Manager, this is something she now appreciates highly and takes into account when planning projects. “There is a lot of value in discussing things first. It’s a necessary step and extremely helpful for good implementation”, she says. Julia also notes that she has a better grasp of how to organize and build so-called “user stories”. As the individual building blocks of any application, Julia highlights the importance to create a process in which these “stories”, similar to Lego blocks, can be built and function somewhat separately from one another. This breaks down the coding process and allows the team to work in smaller bits that can be put together, without having to constantly coordinate. Of course, the challenge here is to ensure that, despite separate workflows, everyone remains on the same page. Julia refers to the bridge story (an incident where a Swiss/ German team were using different metrics to construct a bridge and ended up missing each other in the middle) as a classic example for the problems that can occur, if the different parts of a team are not aligned. After all, if one engineer is working on providing the data, and the other on showing it, it seems understandable why the two must work in close proximity and invest the time to make sure their parts work together. Knowing code also taught her that building a “story” is not something one necessarily can do alone. “What I underestimated before the camp, is that a user story can never be done by one person, but always has several people working on it”. Doing it herself showed her how  ‘pair-programming’ can not only serve as a form of quality control, but that having more than one person on a task also saves time since their accumulated knowledge can allow them to have to research less and move at a quicker pace. Besides, having people work in a team is always a good way to create a sense of accountability and commitment, and also keep up the spirits. Managing expectations Being able to code has also improved the management of her expectations towards the team. “One big learning from using Stack Overflow was the realization that my engineers don’t have to have the answer to every question I ask immediately” she explains. “In many cases, you just don’t know. You have to give it a think, or go and find out, and that’s perfectly fine”. For her, being an engineer is more about having the tools and knowledge to access the necessary information and knowing how to apply whatever problem somebody already solved to your specific use case. Her familiarity with the terminology has also been a huge advantage. “It’s much easier to follow discussions and ask the right questions when you speak the language”, she says “It also speeds up the conversation”. From small things like knowing that POST or GET means an endpoint where you can input or extract data from a database, to simply the general concept of API’s and all their surrounding lingo, Julia now has some of the base knowledge of an engineer, something she knew little about before the camp. Knowing these terms not only makes it easier for Julia to follow conversations, it also lightens the burden for her team, who, she explains, have gotten used to no longer having to “dumb everything down”. Nevertheless, Julia emphasizes that it is still good to keep certain boundaries. For although technically Julia could now get involved in the coding itself  (a lot of people even asked her if she was going to start co-coding or do small tasks) she quickly chose not to do. The reasons seemed apparent to her. “I like having areas of expertise, and coding is the engineering team’s expertise”, she explains. After all, as a Product Manager who is meant to guide the process, she believes that getting too involved into the coding processes is not necessarily great for the team spirit and their role as experts, either. “Just because I can build an element in React doesn’t mean I have to”. And although she does not try to let on to her expertise to much, she does express some pride in her newfound skill and ability to estimate processes correctly, in terms of length and effort. “I had several moments in the last few months, where we were discussing a feature, and I was thinking silently about what they would need to do. When I found out they came up with the exact same things that I had in mind, it was a really good feeling, because I knew it was 100% in line with my estimation”. She is also thrilled to see some of her coding knowledge of the React framework being directly applied outside of a school context. “For me, this is pretty cool to see what they are doing with that, and how it is being used in the real world”. Where the road will take her While Julia has a much better “gut feeling” for the length and complexity of the processes, actual coding will instead remain a hobby for now. And so to keep her skills alive, she has decided to build a website for her parents business. This little company, based in Weimar, works together with the Russian embassy in Leipzig to help people through the immensely opaque bureaucracy and paperwork processes involved in visiting Russia. With the plan to have it done by the end of the year, this project may not be the most complex task on her ability list, but nevertheless is a great opportunity to maintain her coding skills, while helping out her family. “They are super excited”, she says. “They wanted a website for quite some time, but it’s expensive, and since they don’t earn that much money, they are really happy that I can help them on this front.” Indeed, it seems the course at Ironhack has left a positive mark for both her professional as well as private life. And despite some personal preoccupations she was facing during the course, Julia met many “awesome and very open” people, some good friends with whom she is still in touch. Julia also continues to benefit from the Whatsapp group that the cohort formed and to these day exchange ideas about coding and other interesting topics and events on. Although she was sad to have the exciting time end, Julia is happy to be back at work as well. Her time away confirmed to her, that she is on the right path at Zalando, and she feels strengthened by her new learnings, to continue what she thinks she is best at – also in her new job leading a more technical product that is linked to data governance, which she will start soon. For her, it seems that her time at Ironhack Bootcamp away paid off without a doubt. And despite there being work and challenges involved, when others ask her, whether she would re-do this ‘sabbatical’ – yes, she indeed referred to the Bootcamp that way- had she known the time and effort involved, her answer comes without hesitation, “Absolutely. I would totally do it again”. written by B.P. and edited by K.K.

Elina Nenonen completed the most recent cohort of the Web Development Bootcamp in Barcelona and was one of the first students to be part of the new campus launch. Now that she’s back home in Finland, we spoke to her about her Ironhack experience and incredible final project. When and why did you decide to join Ironhack? I was working as a UX Designer, and started feeling that I would be able to do better and much more interactive work with designing if I could code at the same time. It would also be easier if I didn’t have to rely on others to implement what I’ve designed. I had been planning to learn web development for 3 years, but got nowhere with doing irregular online courses. One random day last October I decided it was the end of doing nothing about it, and started searching for bootcamps. I chose Ironhack because of its reviews and location, and applied to the March 2016 Web Development Bootcamp in Barcelona. What was the best of your bootcamp experience? In theory, I could have learned the same things online on my own, but I paid to be able to study with people who ended up being the best part about the whole experience. I needed people around to push me, to code with, to help me understand tricky concepts and to brainstorm ideas with. Besides being motivated by my peers, our teachers were extremely inspiring and engaging. They gave me lots of good ideas about next steps. For example, now that I’ve graduated from Ironhack, I’ve started playing playing with Arduino and to learn data visualisation with Javascript. The teaching assistants were also really important, it’s amazing to always have someone wiser than you available if you need help. Could you tell us a little bit about your web app? My website is called Waat, as people so many times are asking themselves “ Waat should I do with my life?” My aim is to provide information about what kinds of professions there are in different industries, and what people actually do in their jobs – and most importantly – how much they like what they’re doing. I also want to highlight what kinds of skills and tools are needed in each job. It could hopefully help students (or anyone) to make decisions about their future careers, and make them think about their future day-to-day jobs (instead of only university studies), and whether that’s a job they would actually enjoy doing. Now that you’ve graduated from Ironhack, would you recommend it to anyone? I would definitely recommend the Web Development Bootcamp to anyone who’s interested in full-stack development, especially if you’d like to land a job as a developer afterwards. However, I think it would be helpful for people who simply need better technical understanding in their job (or life in general), without necessarily wanting to become a developer. It’s also extremely useful for UX Designers, as there are too many designers out there who don’t know or care what HTML means. Understanding the data architecture is also essential for designers – it doesn’t make sense to design anything if you don’t know what’s feasible and what’s not. What kind of professional opportunities did you have after graduating from Ironhack? During and after the bootcamp I received several offers for start-up jobs and interviews in Barcelona, and got a new job at home in Finland (in a UX Design team where you can also design by coding). I was really surprised by the number of interesting start-ups I discovered during the bootcamp, and even felt like it might be nice to move to Barcelona at some point to work with one of them, even though that time isn’t right now. Any advice for the new generation of Ironhackers? Make coding as social as possible, problem solving with others is even more fun than on your own. Also, you’re not there to compete with anyone – by helping others and asking for help you learn so much more than by keeping your code to yourself. And if someone helps you, don’t just wait for them to find a solution – follow their approach to problem-solving, and learn how they debug. (There are plenty of debugging videos online too.) If working 12-14h/day doesn’t necessarily appeal to you, try to include different activities in your day. In the evenings when I was incapable of doing more coding, I started designing instead. And when I wasn’t able to do that anymore, I started watching online tutorials. It’s important to know that nobody will simply pour all the information into your head without you having to do anything – Bootcamp is hard work, but if you think it’s fun at the same time, web development is most likely your thing.

Despite students” exponential interest in pursuing Computer Science degrees, universities are struggling to keep up with the growing demand for employees with technical backgrounds. Coding bootcamps are rising in popularity in an attempt to bridge the gap, even for non-CS graduates. They offer an alternative approach to learning, less time commitment, more affordability and a bundle of perks, including individualized mentorship and job placement after completion. Although nothing can replace a college experience, here are a few reasons we”d argue that completing a coding bootcamp will give you a tech accolade you won”t earn in school: 1. Bootcamps teach the exact skills prospective employers are looking for now Coding bootcamps are usually partnered with organizations whose primary concern is the shortage of technical talent. Because of this, the material taught at bootcamps is always the most up-to-date and in-demand, as per employers needs. The hands-on teaching and guidance with online casino real projects prepares students to not just answer “What can you do?” but show it, as well. 2. Students receive job preparation for post-graduate opportunities Most coding bootcamps implement a period of job preparation for their students. They offer anything from assistance crafting resumes or portfolios, to practicing technical interviews and participating networking events. Oftentimes, students even get to meet directly with companies eager to recruit entry-level developers. 3. Coding bootcamps have a proven track record of success The main goal of coding bootcamps is to help students land a job in the technology industry after graduation, and according to a survey from Course Report , that goal is far from implausible. Course Report surveyed 665 graduates of 44 different bootcamps. Here is what they found: • Respondents reported an average salary increase of $18,000 or 38%, after graduating from a bootcamp. They were also more likely to be employed full-time. • 79% of bootcamp grads already had BA degrees. • The typical bootcamp student had a bachelor’s degree, and had never worked in software before . Nearly 40% were women. • Almost 40% of bootcamp students had no programming background before entering the program. • The average bootcamp tuition was about $11,852 . The numbers are impressive considering the relatively new methodology, and the amount of students who previously completed a college education. If you”re currently a college student, graduate, or simply a person who is looking for an alternate, surefire way to better prepare for the workforce, download our guide below to learn more.

When and why did you decide to join Ironhack? After studying computer engineering and spending six years as an Account Manager, I decided I wanted to return to the world of programming but I needed some refreshment before doing so. I was trying to re-learn some things on my own, but it was too slow and I realized I needed some external help that would speed up the process. That’s when I started looking into bootcamps. The camps I looked at were really basic and short (70 hours max). After a lot of research, I thought maybe this format was my best option. But the options in Europe were pretty limited, and I only really found them in England and Spain. They were pretty much the same, except England’s bootcamps were longer and relatively more expensive, the currency change was also offsetting and London isn’t necessarily the most affordable place to live. In the end, I chose Ironhack in Barcelona. Can you tell us a fun story about your time at the bootcamp? I don’t know if I have any specific moment worth highlighting, but this bootcamp was one of the best experiences of my life. You meet amazing people from all kinds of backgrounds, not necessarily in programming, and many of them have the same doubts and fears as you, and that’s really rewarding. What was the biggest lesson you learned? The many hours you spend practicing throughout the camp is a lesson in itself. You’ll run into problems but you’ll learn how to face them and fix them a lot quicker than if you were on your own. The fact that you have the constant support of the instructors and you’re always around your classmates makes the whole journey a lot easier. What kind of opportunities have you had after Ironhack and where has your professional career gone? I was a freelancer before and I decided to continue freelancing afterwards, but I’ve definitely gotten many offers through LinkedIn since graduating. Going to Ironhack’s events have helped me meet people and make contacts who are really valuable when you’re working as a freelancer. What does “learning” mean to you? In this world, if you’re not up to date with the new technologies and frameworks, you will fall behind. You need to continue learning. It’s a perpetual process. What does “innovation” mean to you? Innovation is about creating, modifying, dreaming, being constantly moving and evolving and never stopping learning new things. Any advice for the new generation of Ironhackers? It’s not an easy task. I’d recommend: Become familiar with the basics on your own, whether it be through programming books, video tutorials, blogs, etc. Work hard and take advantage of having your instructors and classmates available to help you. Don’t despair, you’re going to be learning a lot of information in very little time, so don’t worry about other people learning faster than you. Remember that everyone’s got their own pace. Disconnect and relax on the weekends, but not for too long.

When you learn programming, you don’t just learn to code websites and data systems. Programming is a broad, radical discipline, a weird hybrid between math and engineering with a singularly creative component. But it’s more than a way to get things done: programming is a whole frame of reference that empowers you to understand the world and change it! Programmers also have their own unique subculture, complete with shifting trends, controversial debates and differing opinions, and even their own cultural references and gags. Here are some of the things that you’ll only understand once you become a developer. 0. Unix >>>>>>> Windows The age-old Mac vs. PC debate is over. Actually, it was won long before either Mac or Windows was born by Mac’s ancestor, Unix. Programmers know that Unix and its descendants Mac, Linux, and BSD are much better than Windows for pretty much everything, especially development. I ntegrated D evelopment E nvironments (IDEs) are powerful tools that programmers use for writing and often compiling software. You can install an IDE on Windows, but as the old programming adage goes, “Unix is an IDE.” Everything about the way Mac, Linux, and BSD are designed makes them the perfect platforms for programmers to develop on. Plus, they have a wide range of tools either built in or easily available for free. 1. Compiling Is The Best Excuse So, do you feel like doing absolutely nothing for a while? Compile some software. It can take a long time, and there aren’t many employers that will try to make you work while your system is fully occupied building software. Sure, web development languages don’t usually have to be compiled, but if you find yourself working with a language like C++ that does, compiling can give you a nice unscheduled break. 2. The Command Line Is Awesome When you write code, you’re interacting directly with a computer. You’re speaking its language and giving it directions. Working in the command line is the same. Actually, everything you do in the command line is programming in a shell scripting language, usually Bash. Once you get used to the level of control that programming gives you, pointing and clicking just feels clunky and awkward. 3. Semicolons, Parentheses, and Brackets Are Pure Evil Picture that you’ve just spent all day perfectly crafting a piece of code hundreds of lines long. You painstakingly tuned the logic to ensure that all of the pieces flow together seamlessly. When you’re sure that everything’s just right, you go to run it. Boom! It doesn’t work at all. Now, you’re stuck looking back through everything over and over, trying to figure out why. That’s exactly the kind of nightmare that a missing or misplaced semicolon, parenthesis, or bracket can cause. Programmers have lost countless hours on them. 4. Laziness Is A Virtue Programmers understand that it’s impossible to do everything from scratch and that working harder isn’t always a good thing. In the coding world, “Work smarter not harder,” is a necessity. Bill Gates famously echoed this philosophy when he said, “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” Not only will laziness motivate you to design simple code, it will also encourage you to use other people’s code. Open source projects exist for a reason. They allow programmers to use each other’s work and avoid wasting time reinventing the wheel. 5. Comments Are Important And A Great Place For Dumb Messages Programmers know to appreciate comments. Comments in code let developers leave behind messages explaining how things work or warnings about tricky code. Comments can be a life saver, but anyone who has been programming for a while knows that they can also be a place to get creative. There are some interesting comments out there. A few are below, and you can find plenty more out there, like in this StackOverflow thread . stop(); // Hammertime! // drunk, fix later // Magic. Do not touch. /* You are not meant to understand this */ // hack for ie browser (assuming that ie is a browser) 6. No One Cares How It Works, As Long As It Does The world is held together with duct tape and crazy glue. It’s, unfortunately, common that developers have to solve so many problems with code that works but no one understands why. That’s just a fact of life as a programmer. Programmers write, rewrite, and tweak code repeatedly for years. Bugs arise, get solved, and sometimes, programmers need to rely on trial-and-error to get things working the right way. Any programmer will tell you that trial-and-error can lead to solutions that just magically work. 7. No, It’s Not Easy To Just Add/Change That Making changes and adding features sounds simple, but programmers know differently. Even some of the simplest features are the tip of a much larger and uglier iceberg. Code takes time to craft and test. Once you’ve worked as a programmer, you know how frustrating it can be when you’re asked to “make a quick change.” 8. What It Feels Like To Be A Wizard Starting out as a programmer is like getting that letter from Hogwarts that you’ve always wished would show up. In the beginning, everything is exciting, fantastic, and a little scary. You’re wielding powers beyond what the average person understands. When you tell people that you’re a programmer, they will be impressed, and they’re going to assume that you can do some pretty awesome things. As you work and build your experience, you will do awesome and impressive things. Not only will you surprise yourself with how the “spells” you write make such interesting things happen, the people that you share your work with will be genuinely blown away. In today’s world, programmers are the wizards that use their magic to build the technological wonders that everyone uses, but so few understand. 9. Bugs Are Like The Ones In Starship Troopers Bugs sound small, don’t they? Well, they’re not. Programmers know that bugs can be a big deal. Bugs can lurk mostly unnoticed in your code and cause mysterious problems that pop up at the worst times and in totally unpredictable ways. Bugs are hard to find, especially since they don’t necessarily cause programs to crash. Programmers spend weeks hunting bugs. Some developers even put out bug bounties to get help in finding these nasty code problems. 10. Programming Is The Best Logic Puzzle When you write code, you’re solving a puzzle. Unlike other logic puzzles like Sudoku, programming doesn’t have many rules. You can go in any direction and build virtually anything. The puzzle comes from knowing where you’re starting and knowing what you need to have in the end, then figuring out how to get there. There’s more than one solution and more than one way to put it together, so it’s both challenging and rewarding. It even lets you be creative. It’s no wonder why programming can be so addictive. 11. A Lot More Nerdy Jokes Programmers have their own subculture. Along with that comes programmer humor. Coders tend to incorporate their often dry and sarcastic sense of humor into their work and their conversations with other programmers. If you’re not already familiar, you got a glimpse of that with the comments earlier. There are even popular subreddits dedicated to programmer humor. And, don’t forget the classics like: “There are 10 types of people in the world. People who understand binary, and people who don’t.” 12. There Is No Spoon There needed to be an obligatory Matrix reference. Seriously, though, when you’re a programmer, you see through applications to the way things actually work. It’s hard for a programmer, especially an experienced one, to look at a program and not start picking apart how it was built. It makes you feel like you’re in on a secret, but you also can’t stop seeing through the illusion. 13. Why Video Games Take So Long To Come Out, And Why They’re Even More Awesome As a programmer, you know the insane amount of work that goes into building a large application. Games are some of the biggest programs there are now. Even simple web-based games require a ton of work to develop. Coders usually aren’t going to be complaining that a game took too long to develop unless it comes out a total mess. They have an appreciation for how much time the developers had to spend to get stable and complete enough to release. Games really are impressive! Coders know that absolutely everything that happens in a game had to be written and tested by someone; even the smallest things are a big deal to write. 14. The Feeling That You Can Make Anything There is an unbelievable sense of empowerment that comes with learning to code. Sure, you might feel totally lost when you’re starting out, but as you progress, the ideas start flying. There’s a reason that programmers tend to have loads of side projects on their Github pages. They come up with ideas for programs all the time and know they can actually make them. Sometimes it’s to solve a problem that they’re having. Other times, they just wish something existed. Either way, programmers feel like they can make just about anything, and they usually can. Did you find the hidden inside joke in this article? We’ve shown you a glimpse of what being a programmer is really like, with all its quirks and exciting moments, but the programming lifestyle is much more than that; we live in a connected world, and programmers have the ability to fundamentally change the world for everyone. Wanna jump in? Take a look at our Web Development bootcamp and master your world-bending coding skills!

If you are thinking about learning a programming language, or even want to become a (web) developer, there are basically two big, interrelated, hurdles that you need to overcome. The first is "which language should I learn? ", and the second " where do I even begin? " Considering the fact that the internet is not well known for reaching consensus (think of Godwin’s law), this article will help you get started. Asking The Right Questions You’re looking to learn a web programming language. That means you fall into one of two camps. Either you’re a new programmer looking to learn your first language, or you’re already a programmer looking to pick up something new. Regardless of where you stand, you have to ask yourself a few questions: Am I looking to learn this language to further my career? Will this language advance those goals? What companies are working with this language? Do I want to work with those companies? What kind of ecosystem does this language have? Do I enjoy working with this language? There are definitely more, but you can get a picture of the line of thinking you need going into this decision. It’s an important one, and you’re probably going to be spending a lot of time working with whichever language you choose. Why Should I Learn A Programming Language? Imagine you could not write or understand English, but live in an English-speaking country. It will be hard to find a job, or friends or even buy groceries. Code in that respect, is the predominant language of today: it simply governs most processes around us. Learning how to code therefore empowers you, and helps you to better understand and engage with the world around you. Secondly, when people say: “think like a programmer”, they refer to the ability to understand a problem and look at it from an alternative perspective. In other words, learning a programming language will teach you how to think. Similar to languages, code uses abstraction and metaphors to make sense of the complex processes that run sophisticated computer programs. In the end, learning a programming language teaches you how to be a better problem solver, which is a lifetime skill in itself. Last but not least, programmers have a very favourable market position. The software market has blown up and keeps on growing. There are about 27 jobs per developer and the average starting pay is around 35,500 euro per year¹. This means your chances are pretty high to find a well paid job to hone your skills further. Ok, it’s fairly straightforward that learning a programming language has quite a lot of advantages. But where and how do you start to learn one? What is HTML, CSS and JavaScript? HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. It basically tells you how a website is organised: what the content is, what the images on your website are and where your users can navigate to. In an hour or two of learning HTML, you’ll be able to write your first few lines of it. CSS , or Cascading Style Sheet is HTML’s best friend and gives it its flair. CSS is used for general styling of a webpage and for the layout. The syntax of CSS is also fairly simple once you understand the basics. JavaScript is HTML and CSS’s weird uncle. Whenever JavaScript comes to the party, everything starts to move and interact with one another. So think about JavaScript as the language that makes a web page dynamic. It helps you to login on social media, to share content, to make cool animations and even send messages. Why are they good to start with? (Or, one language to rule them all) As said, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the three languages essential for understanding the modern web. In particular JavaScript will make you highly employable, because it’s everywhere. All the big companies rely on it, such as Facebook, Uber, Airbnb and Instagram. <p">JavaScript can be used both on the front-end and back-end. This means that if you would like to learn how to make a beautiful web page that is animated and tells a compelling story; JavaScript is the one. If you’re interested in how a server operates and how data is stored: JavaScript is (still) the one. And if you want to learn both: it’s JavaScript again. The Top Contenders When it comes to web development, there are some clear favorites. These are all languages that have a strong history and are being put to use by top companies in the tech world. Any one of them could be a good choice, but which is best? PHP PHP is the original language of the Web. In the early days of dynamic content, PHP was the only real option. It was easy to get started with. It still is. PHP is also free and open source so you can get started without investing any money. When PHP was first released, that was rare. It’s easy to see why PHP caught on so quickly, but what about now? PHP is still easily the most popular language on the Web. Around 80% of websites are built with it, and it has a thriving community built around platforms like WordPress, Drupal, and Laravel. So, PHP is the clear winner, right? No. PHP has its problems, and they’re big ones. PHP is not the most well-designed language. It’s inconsistent, awkward, and generally pretty sloppy. To make matters worse, PHP’s friendly learning curve has made it a bastion for sloppy and unprofessional code. As a result, PHP has earned an unpleasant reputation as a difficult to maintain security nightmare. Popular PHP platforms, like WordPress, are frequent targets for attackers. PHP is no favorite in the startup world, so you’ll have a hard time finding work in a cutting edge environment. There is plenty of PHP work to be found, but it usually pays less than other languages, and chances are, you’ll be spending most of your time maintaining old codebases or slapping together quick and cheap websites. Ruby Ah Ruby, savior of developers everywhere. The end of PHP’s unquestioned dominance came with the development of Ruby on Rails. Rails enabled developers to build robust web applications quicker and more simply than ever before. It immediately started to win over developers. It wasn’t long before Rails dominated the startup world. It is in Ruby’s design goals to make the lives of developers easier, and it shows. Ruby is clean, simple, and easy to read. Ruby is a fully object-oriented language. Everything in Ruby is an object, even numbers. Ruby is also loaded with helper methods that can simplify your code. They can also feel strange to experienced programmers because it doesn’t conform to the same conventions as most other languages. Ruby also has its limitations. It executes slowly compared to many other languages. Combine that with the size of Rails as an application, and you’ve got potential scaling problems. Right now, Ruby is still strong, but it’s not as strong as it once was. Rails is no longer the de-facto choice for startups. It’s still very popular, but other options have caught up and eaten into its market share. Rails and Ruby still have a very strong ecosystem with loads of developers and jobs, but it’s also past the peak of its popularity. Python Python is a general purpose language. It is huge with Linux and the open source world, but developers use it for all sorts of projects. Python is known for being simple, straightforward, and logical. The Python way of doing things is often referred to as the “Zen of Python” because everything is usually calm and clear. Python has very few strange idiosyncrasies. In the web development world, Python powers some of the largest sites in the world . Interestingly enough, it never gained as widespread adoption as the likes of Ruby and PHP. Several great frameworks like Django, Flask, and Pyramid are built with Python. Like the language itself, they tend to value explicit configuration. The job market in Python is on the upswing, but only a small portion of that is in the web space. JavaScript It’s time to address the 800-pound gorilla. JavaScript is the modern web. It has the unique distinction of being the only web language that can be used on both the front and back end. JavaScript is easy to get started with. Its syntax isn’t as clean as Ruby or Python, but it is easy to understand. You can also experiment with JavaScript in the browser on the front end without having to worry about frameworks, servers, or any of the usual back-end concerns. NodeJS has changed the landscape. It’s versatile. NodeJS can be used as part of the MEAN stack, which works similarly to frameworks like Rails and Django. It can also be used to develop custom applications from the ground up. NodeJS has even edged into the desktop space by enabling the developer to make custom cross-platform clients for web applications. NodeJS makes use of asynchronous programming, allowing it to run much more quickly than many other back end options. JavaScript jobs are on the rise nearly everywhere, including startups. It’s important to consider that even applications with a back-end built in a different language still use JavaScript on the front. Which One? It’s hard to point to only one language and call it the “best.” What’s the best for one person may not be great for someone else. Programming languages are tools, and it’s important to use the best tool for each job. Using one tool for every job may not work so well. Only one of these languages can handle just about every job on the web. JavaScript is ubiquitous. If you’re planning on working in web development, you need to know some JavaScript. JavaScript is growing. NodeJS and the MEAN stack have revolutionized server side development, and adoption of back-end JavaScript is only increasing. So, if you’re looking to learn web development and the most used programming languages, look into our Web Development bootcamp . You won’t be disappointed!

Jimmy: Alright, so we are recording. Welcome back to another Ironhack Student Podcast , I am Jimmy. And in case you don’t know what Ironhack is we are a coding bootcamp and a UX/UI bootcamp so basically that means that if you have a curiosity to either level up your career, completely change directions of your career, recent graduate who wants to acquire a new skill or if you’re just kind of confused in what to do in life, this is something to consider. So basically, we take people from zero to 100 real quick. That means in a matter of nine weeks either coders or the UX/UI designers will go from basically no idea to junior developer or junior designer level. It sounds a little bit too good to be true but in reality, it’s just a lot of hard work for nine weeks, all day long, probably weekends included. And, yeah, that’s really the secret sauce, it’s basically you putting in the time and effort into taking yourself where you see your life and your career going. So we do our best on our side to put all the resources into your hands, but ultimately we can’t do it for you. So if you think that you’re up for it, go check out Ironhack, speak to us, we’re here to answer all of your questions. And if you ultimately decide to join us then awesome. So that’s the Ironhack spiel. Today I’m joined by Viktoria , Nicholas and Michiel ? Michiel: Michiel, yes. Jimmy: Ah, got it. Michiel: It’s a little difficult name, yeah. Jimmy: So basically there are three students in the coding bootcamp, they’re learning JavaScript. Why don’t you each introduce yourselves and tell me name, where you come from, and I want to know one thing that drove you to make this decision to join the bootcamp. Michiel: My name is Michiel, I’m from Holland, Amsterdam. I’ve been living in Barcelona now for almost two and a half years, and I was working here in Barcelona for 10 months before and it was a job that I didn’t really study for. But I want to stay here in Barcelona and I noticed that I missed a certain skill to get a better job here and— Jimmy: What were you doing? Michiel: I studied industrial engineering so I’ve been working four years as a consultant in Amsterdam as well— Jimmy: Ok. Michiel: When I came here I had to start over and did like sort of Google for work support, it was, more or less, call center work, work like that. And after 10 months, I’m like, ok, this is not why I studied and that made me look at other options. And that’s how I came to Ironhack, and I thought with the knowledge I have included with the knowledge of coding I would get a better job. “And after 10 months, I’m like, ok, this is not why I studied and that made me look at other options. And that’s how I came to Ironhack, and I thought with the knowledge I have included with the knowledge of coding I would get a better job.” -Michiel Jimmy: We’ll get more into that. Michiel: Ok. Jimmy: What about you, Nicholas? Nicholas: My name is Nicholas, I’m from Los Angeles, California. Why did I come to Ironhack? I’ve been thinking about this decision for about three years, been looking at a bunch of different bootcamps. Yeah, coding, I have a lot of ideas I want to develop and the main barrier is just having the hard skills to do that. I don’t have the money to hire a developer and pay them tens of thousands of dollars to develop my ideas. So there’s only one way and that’s learning, JavaScript, learning to code. So that’s why I’m here, mainly. “I don’t have the money to hire a developer and pay them tens of thousands of dollars to develop my ideas. So there’s only one way and that’s learning JavaScript, learning to code.” -Nicholas Jimmy: Awesome. Nicholas: And I hope to do that, I hope to use those skills to build new ideas for myself, for other people. Jimmy: Cool. Viktoria? Viktoria: Yeah, so yeah, I’m Viktoria. I’m from Germany and I actually have an entrepreneurial background and I studied Business Administration, so something completely different. And I have no pre-knowledge of coding whatsoever but I graduated last summer and I want to always have something to do with venture creation, startups, et cetera. But now I wanted to sit on the other side of the table and I was kind of in a transition phase, so I wanted to see the other side of the picture and actually get to know what it actually takes to be a coder. So that’s why I said, ok, I actually want to learn it now and that’s what I’m doing here. “I wanted to get to know what it actually takes to be a coder.” -Viktoria Jimmy: So, Michiel is a career changer. Michiel: Yeah, more or less. Jimmy: Nicholas, you’re looking into the entrepreneurial end, and Viktoria, you are kind of a blend? Viktoria: Kind of, yeah. Jimmy: Kind of— Viktoria: I would say so, yeah. Jimmy: Because are you looking to, you know, create an idea that you might have? Or you’re looking more into discovering the skill to be able to like better manage a project? Viktoria: Yeah, I believe that when you go into jobs and whatever you really see how important this side is and it’s going to stay with us forever. And it’s going to change somehow, maybe, as well, but it’s always going to be there so I know how important it is. And even if I actually do the programming myself or even if it’s just about product development, so it’s not a hundred percent coding, but still it’s there. So that’s— Jimmy: So before we get into the summary of your third week, I believe this is your third week, right? Viktoria: Yeah. Michiel: Yeah. Jimmy: So before we get into that summary, because I know that you’ll be presenting some projects, we’ll get into that in a bit. Why don’t you bring me up to speed on the past two weeks? Like from how you felt from the first day to the end of the first week, and what you were feeling at the end of the second week and then bring me into this third week so I kind of get a quick glimpse of what you’ve been learning and what that’s kind of meant to you. Michiel: I started off like …, I started at 9 o’clock in the morning with classes and then went on working until 1 o’clock at night, like the average, without a break. I did that for seven days and I learned so much and it really was going well. But the second week, I felt that I didn’t take any rest the first week so the second week was a bit more difficult and that made me decide to rest a bit in the second weekend. And I have to say the third week is going super well again because I have the energy to keep on going and I’m doing every day again until 12, 12:30 and then— “I started at 9 am with classes and then went on working until 10 pm at night, without a break.” -Michiel Jimmy: So how is your workload been to the point to where have you been able to rest up any or have been taking that, you know, have you been going really hard and just, you know, nine until midnight type of deal? Kind of explain to me how you’ve kind of been, you know, investing time into the bootcamp? Viktoria: Well, we’re investing a lot, lot, lot of time but then again you don’t really feel it during the day, it’s more like when you’re in bed you’re like, oh, wow, it was a long, long, day again. But you don’t really feel it during the day, but on the weekends sometimes I go, ok, I need to rest. But beforehand we knew what was coming, right? They said at the start it’s going to be a very, very, large workload. So my expectations were accordingly, kind of. It is a lot, no doubt, but actually, I really enjoyed—although it’s so much work, I really enjoy it and I don’t get bored or I don’t get super frustrated. You always get that at some point but it’s fun. “Although it’s so much work, I really enjoy it and I don’t get bored. I do get super frustrated. You always get that at some point, but it’s fun.” -Viktoria Jimmy: So what about you, Nicholas? Nicholas: It’s a constant oscillation between this maddening frustration and complete relief when you overcome a problem. It’s really fulfilling, actually. Like Viktoria said, you don’t really notice it during day, you’re very focused on the code and the exercises and your cohort, the people around, you really make the experience a lot better. It’s a lot of fun to come in here every day, as challenging and hard as it is. “It’s a constant oscillation between this maddening frustration and complete relief when you overcome a problem. It’s really fulfilling, actually.” -Nicholas Jimmy: You know, from my point of view, it’s been interesting to see how practically I don’t have a feeling that very many people, if at all, even show up late to class. Viktoria: No. Jimmy: And that’s pretty cool because it usually happens as the bootcamp weeks start ticking away, the late arrivers start kind of increasing in volume. But after three weeks it’s interesting to see that that hasn’t—at least not from my point of view, it hasn’t happened. How do you see that? Viktoria: Yeah, I agree. I think we don’t have any late comers. Michiel: No, I think also, everybody that came here and does the course want to do it— Viktoria: Exactly. Michiel: You know, and does it with his full hundred percent and then—yeah, then you don’t come late, of course, you want to be there because it’s important to be there. Jimmy: Are there things that—is it how you expected, is it how you envisioned from the curriculum all the way down to the intensity? Nicholas: It’s not for me, and only in the sense that I didn’t think—I was very doubtful that I would be able to move to the exercises and just really keep up at all. And there are times where I haven’t kept up, like I haven’t finished all the exercises but—like this current week is showing, at least myself, is that that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is just pressing forward, trying new things, constantly trying, solving problems. And this project that we’re working on has really allowed us to synthesize everything we’ve done over the past two or three weeks. “The most important thing is just pressing forward, trying new things, constantly trying, solving problems. And this project that we’re working on has really allowed us to synthesize everything we’ve done over the past two or three weeks.” -Nicholas Jimmy: So it was, more or less, what you expected or not at all what you expected? Nicholas: The level of intensity is what I expected. Viktoria: Yeah. Nicholas: Which, Viktoria said, is helpful that there was an expectation there of that intensity. But in terms of the sort of class dynamic and just the general feeling during the day it’s different. Jimmy: So what’s one thing that maybe has caught you by surprise? That you’re like, this was nowhere in the interview process or on the website or anywhere else? Is there anything that comes to mind? Viktoria: I wouldn’t say I have any surprises, the thing is I knew beforehand it’s going to be super hard and a hard workload. But for everything else I didn’t even set myself any expectations because if they’re not met then you’re just, like, sad or frustrated. So I just said, you know what, I’m just going to go there now and see what happens and I was very positively surprised. Jimmy: I’m always curious to know why, you know, you’ve all obviously decided to sign up to a bootcamp and it’s probably one of the most intensive learning environments, but were you doing something on your own at home or was this kind of your introduction into learning to code? How did you transition into this as far as your kind of education? Were you already doing something or is this kind of you jumping into the deep end? Michiel: For me it was jumping into the deep end, I had started coding just before December, I think, or in December. Jimmy: Ok. Michiel: To do the pre-work for Ironhack, actually. Viktoria: Yeah, I was exactly the same [laugh]. Michiel: Like, yeah. Viktoria: Yeah, I was exactly the same, no experience beforehand, nothing. Jimmy: So, what about you Nicholas? Nicholas: The only experience that I had had was on Codecademy, playing around with HTML and some JavaScript, Ruby, but that was not enough to really bring ideas together. “The only experience that I had had was on Codecademy, playing around with HTML and some JavaScript, Ruby, but that was not enough to really bring ideas together.” -Nicholas Jimmy: This is interesting because normally I have seen a lot of people that, you know, there was already kind of like an underlying interest that this bootcamp just kind of intensify. But going from zero to the deep end, just jumping in, I guess I would want to try and figure out how you decided to make that decision. Because there’s a million options to learn, you know, there’s books, there’s Codecademy, there’s tutorials, there’s You Tube, there’s—God, right now to learn to code there’s a million ways to learn that don’t cost anything or practically anything. So what was kind of that feeling and emotion to say, yeah, I need to do this for my life? Viktoria: Like for me, of course, I’ve seen a few things on Codecademy before but first, I never really had the time to really jump into it. And, as I said, I’m in a transition phase so now was the perfect timing. But also it was something completely different to what I did before so I thought I might as well just try it and see because it was just something I had no clue about so it was kind of exciting to get to know and to see if I’m actually capable of doing it or not. Jimmy: And what about you guys? Nicholas: I think the main thing was frustration with the other sort of self-learning resources that are out there, I knew that coming here would catapult that, it would really expedite that process in a big way. And if you’re serious about learning how to code and you want instruction from experienced developers who can answer your questions immediately, who can help you work through the problems, your team mates help you work through the problems, then the bootcamp is sort of the perfect way to do that. “If you’re serious about learning how to code and you want instruction from experienced developers who can answer your questions immediately, who can help you work through the problems, your teammates also help you work through the problems, then the bootcamp is sort of the perfect way to do that.” -Nicholas Jimmy: It’s definitely hardcore, at least for your three, the way that you’ve kind of just decided to go head first into this. So, end of week three, what are you going to present right now? Michiel: We all had to make a game— Jimmy: Ok. Michiel: So I made a Scrabble game and it’s just like the normal Scrabble. The challenging thing in making this was the calculation of the words and you need to check from every direction if there are multiple words on the board. So that cost me almost two days to fix that, but not all frustration but now it’s done so— Viktoria: It’s a good thing. Michiel: It’s good? Yeah, yeah. Jimmy: It works? Michiel: It works, yeah. Jimmy: It works, there you go. Michiel: Yeah, yeah. Jimmy: What about you, Nicholas? Nicholas: My game is Cards Against Humanity, which is a game I’ve always enjoyed playing— Jimmy: Ok. Nicholas: But I’ve never owned myself so I thought it would be fun to put that in an online format and make it visually fun to play. Jimmy: Oh, that’s cool. Nicholas: So, yeah. Again, the game is—synthesized a lot of technologies that I was not comfortable with the first two weeks, but now I understand through mistakes and problem solving. Viktoria: Yeah, so I made a Blackjack game, so if you asked me on Monday how my two weeks were here I would have probably answered completely different. Because I was so frustrated on Monday because I actually wanted to do a Battleship game. But then I realized, ok, my skills are not that well formed for that yet, but now I’m happy with my Blackjack game. Jimmy: Are your games somewhere publicly available? Michiel: GitHub. Viktoria: GitHub. Jimmy: Yeah, let people know your GitHub and that way I also remember it for afterwards. Viktoria: [Laugh]. Jimmy: What are your GitHub handles? Michiel: My GitHub name is MichielAD. Nicholas: Mine you definitely won’t forget because it’s Universesurfer. Jimmy: Universesurfer? Viktoria: [Laughing]. Nicholas: One word. Jimmy: All together. Nicholas: Yeah. Viktoria: And mine is Vickycodes. Jimmy: Alright. So did you expect to be able to build something like this in three weeks? Viktoria: No, definitely not. Nicholas: We’ve built it in one week, which is—which no, I would not have expected that. I think for all of us, all of our games on the surface they look really simple, like with the Blackjack and the Scrabble and even the Cards Against Humanity, it looks really simple and very easy to do. But if you start peeling away the layers and look at the code, it’s increasingly complex. I would not have— “What we’ve built it in one week… I would not have expected that. I think for all of us, all of our games on the surface they look really simple, like with the Blackjack and the Scrabble and even the Cards Against Humanity, it looks really simple and very easy to do. But if you start peeling away the layers and look at the code, it’s increasingly complex.” -Nicholas Jimmy: It must give you a totally new respect for— Viktoria: Exactly. I thought that. Jimmy: All of these websites that we just take for granted. Viktoria: Yeah. Nicholas: Yeah, absolutely. Jimmy: I remember I had a conversation with the lead instructor in Miami, Misat, and he was just explaining to me kind of the JavaScript and where it’s found. It was mind blowing, it’s everywhere, it’s literally everything. If anything does something halfway useful online, it’s JavaScript powered. So yeah, I all of a sudden started looking at that little AirBnB reservation menu with a whole new respect. I’m like, holy crap, that’s intense. So for you how has that been? How has that experience been of learning this language? Do you like it? Do you see it as beneficial, what are your feelings with that? Viktoria: Well for me, for example, I don’t have any comparison to other programming languages. But definitely from the point of the fact that I actually get to know a coding language is already very enhancing. And as you said, you really view things from another perspective like different websites, you know, you really get the feeling of it like what it really took. And I think nowadays, people say like yeah, well programmers and coders like when you ask someone to do something, it should be done quite quickly and should be super easy. Which you would think. But then again, not for everything there are frameworks and stuff so it’s not that easy as it sounds. So I took away from myself and yeah— Jimmy: What about you guys? Michiel: Well for me, it’s more like the things that you took for granted and looked very simple. Like, for instance, when I chose Scrabble, I go, oh, I can make that. But once you start you start realizing that there’s a lot more behind the games or the websites. So in that sense it’s an eye opener, for sure. Nicholas: What they both said, yeah. Jimmy: So, for you, like with the entrepreneurial angle, with the stuff that you’ve been learning so far, have your ideas kind of shifted? Have you found that beginning to learn to code has changed the direction of your ideas? Nicholas: I can feel that shift but it’s kind of subtle and I don’t think I’d be able to put a finger on it and define it right now. I have one particular idea that I want to develop and hopefully start working on here. So I want to keep with that idea. But I do feel the possibilities open up, not every idea is going to work, it’s likely not going to work. So when the next idea comes around if the first one didn’t work, then there’s a foundation there to build it and understand the technology and move forward. Jimmy: This is awesome. This is really kind of the biggest value out of jumping into the deep end is that you’re going to cram into nine weeks years’ worth of learning. Frankly it’s hard to sit yourself down and get that discipline to every day, even an hour, even an hour, it’s hard. And I think that the price tag on a course like this tends to shew people off and they’re like, oh, I can do this on my own, I can do it at home, I can go get some tutorials from books, you know, go to Udemy, Codecademy. But in the end it’s basically you’re paying for yourself to work full time on your education. And then the added benefits at the end or you have a whole system that’s also going to support you for the job placement, always being there by your side. So now, moving forward, do you know what’s coming up for you guys next week? Viktoria: I don’t even know, is it— Jimmy: There is a next week. Viktoria: Backend? Is it backend? I don’t know exactly. Not sure. Michiel: I think we’ve been too focused on our bubble. Viktoria: We just go from day to day, from week to week. Jimmy: That’s interesting, that’s curious. It’s like, next week, we’ll figure that out on Monday. Viktoria: Exactly. Nicholas: Exactly, yeah. Jimmy: So any final, let’s say, advice, a last bit of advice for anyone that might be considering an experience like this? Do it, don’t do it, what should they think about, what should they absolutely have a hundred percent clear? from each one of you, what would be that one bit that you would share with someone listening? Viktoria: I think my advice would be like if you plan to do it, you really need to do or want to do a hundred percent time and need to be willing to stay at one place for two months. Because there’s literally no time to go away [laugh]. Nicholas: Yeah, I would echo that and say that just because it’s hard, and it is hard, that’s not a good reason to not do something. So if you’re thinking about it, or if you have thought about it over and over again, then I think that sort of your mind is telling you that you should just do it and dive in and see what happens. Michiel: Yeah, I think I can relate to that a little bit as well because I was also not a hundred percent sure. But I think the most important part is that you really want it and if you’re not a hundred percent sure I think you should just do it and go for it. For me it’s been amazing so far. Jimmy: That’s definitely true, I forget where I heard this saying but it’s like; no one can ever take away what you’ve learned. Viktoria: Exactly. Jimmy: They can take away all the other stuff, they can take away all of the tangible hard goods, but doing something like this, whether it’s with Ironhack or with another bootcamp somewhere else, ultimately it’s you giving yourself a craft and a skill that, unless there’s a gigantic solar flare and all the electricity on the planet just disappears, this is going to be in demand for a very, very, very long time. So congratulations on being here, thanks a lot for the time. And we’ll touch base again before the course is up and you can tell me if it’s still a good choice. Viktoria: Ok. Jimmy: Alright, thanks a lot. Good luck on the project. Michiel: Thank you. Nicholas: Thank you. Viktoria: Thank you.

In August 2018, I was an Ironhack student. Prior to this, I’d done almost no coding. I'd tried to learn on my own but would always become stuck or unmotivated. In March 2018, I attended a WeCode workshop where I learned the very basics of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. After the event and speaking to Ironhack staff/alumni, I applied for the course and was given access to the prework. I spent a lot of time doing the prework and online code challenge on codewars because I wanted to be prepared. I also attended two hackshow (where students who have just finished the bootcamp present their final projects) prior to starting the course to see what was possible. After both of the hackshows, I was so excited to start . It was incredible getting to see what students could build after nine weeks of coding. Ironhack Student I LOVED my time as a student; however, it was really tough and some days were more difficult than others. Knowing that everyone else in the class was going through the same thing and the fantastic teaching team really made it easier to keep going. During class, there would be a mixture of lessons and exercises; some exercises would be individual, but most exercises would be paired. For each paired exercise, students would be assigned to work with someone different which was beneficial: everyone at Ironhack has a different background and everyone has their own strengths. During the bootcamp, there were three projects. Project 1 is a browser based game created using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; Project 2 is a full stack application (using Node.js); Project 3 is a full stack application using Node.js and React. As a student, Project 2 was my favorite project. I really enjoyed learning about the backend and how everything linked together; it was interesting to cover the basics of security, learning how data was stored and how to retrieve it. TAs at Ironhack One week after the bootcamp finished, I started as a TA  and imposter system was real. I wasn’t sure where to start helping and wasn’t confident I could explain course concepts. But after three cohorts, I’ve learned a lot and accepted that it’s okay not to know everything. Here are a few things I’ve learned as a TA: Everyone is able to code. It doesn’t matter what your background is or how old you are. If you’re willing to put the time and effort into coding, it’s possible. You don’t need a fancy computer and you can learn from home if you can’t commit to an in-person bootcamp . Building things is the best way to learn. Building something that you want to create is important because you’re more likely to go back to it. You’ll constantly be learning; this means you can constantly improve what you’re building. Don’t be afraid to break your code. Breaking your code is one of the best ways to learn and understand what is happing. Trial and error is an important part of knowing how to solve a problem Explaining a complicated concept in a simple way really helps you understand it Learning never stops . You’ll always need to look up how to solve a problem. There will always be things that you don’t understand and asking for help is encouraged. You have complete freedom over what you learn . If you’re interested in something specific, find some articles, build something to practice it, or attend events. Programming is a really broad field and you’re never going to know everything so take the time to pick what you’re truly interested in. Taking breaks is important. If you’re stuck and unable to solve a problem, taking a break from the computer can be really helpful. Coming back to it after 10 minutes with a clear mindset can really help. Use github to track your progress . You’ll be able to review the code that you’ve done previously to see how much you’ve improved and if you’re looking for a job, it will show employers what you’re capable of doing. You can even host a static site on github for free. Attending events is a cool way of getting to meet people who are working in the industry. You’ll meet people of all levels and can learn a lot from them. I’ve seen so many people go through the Ironhack bootcamp. It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it. You get to meet some really cool people who all have different backgrounds and people you normally wouldn’t get to meet; you get to build up a support network from not only the people you learned with, but also with previous students and future students. There is no right or wrong way when when it comes to learning to code. It just takes time, effort, and dedication.