In November 2019, Talent Garden Innovation School launched its first Full Time Bootcamps. Shabnaz Akter is a participant in the very first CodeMaster Bootcamp in Vienna. In the interview, she talks about how she came across the Innovation School, about the course in general and which modules she likes best.
1. What is your background and how did you find out about the Talent Garden Innovation School?
I have done my Bachelor in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Then I started my career first as an Assistant Designer and then as a Designer for a consultancy firm within HVAC back in Bangladesh. In 2017, I moved to Vienna and started to study for my MSc in Telecommunication Engineering at Technical University of Vienna, Austria. Later on, I felt passionate about Coding and started looking for the best place to learn it. I found Talent Garden on Facebook and applied for the CodeMaster Bootcamp. What made this journey even easier was that I was granted the Scholarship.
2. Which Bootcamp are you attending - tell us a bit about it!
I am doing CodeMaster Bootcamp at Talent Garden Innovation School. We are focusing on Frontend Web development, We are learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript, API integrations, Bootstrap. We are learning one of the most popular frameworks 'React'. We are learning a lot in Talent Garden not only Coding but also a lot of activities that will help us to find a Job or Internship after the course, e.g. through career days and assessment centers. In one sentence: Talent Garden Innovation School is teaching students in an innovative way.
3. Describe the Bootcamp...
The CodeMaster Bootcamp focuses on high-impact learning and teaches only the skills that will prove to be most relevant in the real-world. This program focuses intensely to provide their participants with exactly these skills that they will need to be a successful coder in the professional world.
The time frame of the Bootcamp is relatively short when compared to traditional training, as a four-year degree from the university. In order to make this work, all non-essential skills are cut from the curriculum.
This means that the CodeMaster Bootcamp is ideal for people who want to obtain the technical skills that will help them become employable in the world of coding in a very short period of time.
4. ...and with one Emoji
✌️
5. Which Module(s) did you like best and why? What did you learn about?
I like JavaScript the most because it’s the first (and so far only) scripting language that I’ve really learned enough to feel comfortable with. Despite the framework war that many developers have created, I found the number of frameworks and libraries created in JavaScript fantastic- they all have their advantages and disadvantages, and one will be better suited for your solution than others.
6. Besides the classroom sessions, what else did you like best about the Bootcamp and why?
Besides the classroom sessions, what I liked most about the Bootcamp are the career days. Most of the courses only provide the actual course, but in Talent Garden Innovation School we also had the possibility to attend career days with different tech-companies and also did some first interviews. We have learned how to present ourselves to a company. We gathered knowledge and questionnaires that might be asked by our future employees. In my point of view, the career days really add that extra value to the Bootcamp.
7. Which time was the most intensive of the twelve weeks?
For me, the first few weeks were the most intense as I come from a different career background. But later on, I was able to keep up with the things we learned and it was a great journey with people from different cultures and career backgrounds in the same tech platform.
8. Tell us about one thing that you learned in the Bootcamp which totally blew your mind.
I was always wondering what's going on behind the scenes when some error is found in a system. But now I have the basic concept of lots of things related to Frontend Coding and am also familiar with the things happening "behind the scenes". So knowing what's going on, is actually mind-blowing to me. And it always makes me feel happy when I discover things that I didn't know before.
9. Which advice would you give to someone who is thinking about joining the Talent Garden Innovation School?
The advice I can give is that joining the Talent Garden Innovation School will be one of the best decisions you can do to make the career path more nice and easy. If you are thinking about joining one of the Bootcamps, please come to the campus and see the spirit - then you can decide for yourself if it is the right decision.
10. Is there anything else you want to tell us?
The only thing I would say is that having a basic knowledge of coding makes the journey throughout the CodeMaster Bootcamp much easier.
Thank you so much, Shabnaz, for this interview!
