Lewagon — Learning how to code in Rio de Janeiro

I started to code — first with an app on my iphone — after work. I did not think about becoming a coder, I was just interested in doing it and I felt a little bored and unsatisfied at work. So i started learning Javascript with an app but could not make any real progress. A friend suggested doing the harvard CS50 online class, which I started but then dropped after the third lecture. The job was getting more stressful again and I was running out of time — and more importantly — nerves to find the discipline to code after work. I also saw absolutely no chance in getting to a level that would open up career opportunities in coding this way and my whole learning approach was too aimless. Note: This is extremely important in the whole process of learning how to code— lay out a clear plan as moving forward on these tracks keeps you motivated.

So after becoming more and more bored and frustrated in my job, I decided to quit. After a bit of research, I stumbled upon the lewagon coding bootcamp. It promised to “change your life” through learning to code in an intense bootcamp lasting 3 months. The reviews where very good and the online rankings suggested it was one of the top bootcamps for still a quite fair price of 5k-8k dollars, depending on the city you chose. I chose Rio de Janeiro.

It had always been a dream of mine to travel to south america, brazil being on the very top of that list. So I signed up, transferred 5k $ and booked a last minute flight heading to brazil 5 days later. The night before I left, I consulted a brazilian friend of mine, to check last minute — if I had probably made a huge mistake. I had realized that Rio de Janeiro was one of the most dangerous cities in the world and even brazilians from the capital Sao Paolo would not set foot on Rio soil as it was perceived as being extremely risky and brutal. In fact, my brazilian friend confirmed these worrying news to me but, I guess as she knew I had already booked the flight and course, she said that I would be doing fine. It did not really made me feel any better.

So I was quite nervous when I left for the airport, asking myself if this was a little to bold move this time. 10 flight hours and a taxi ride later I passed famous Copacabana and arrived in my airbnb. It was dark and raining heavily and I was absolutely paranoid of getting robbed right away. I was questioning every decision I had ever made and was super nervous for what was to come. The next morning, I realized I was actually living in the most fancy area of a well developed, vibrant metropolis and not the favela I thought it was the night before. First thing I did was heading to the beach. When I arrived at Ipanema beach, famous for Antônio Carlos Jobims Song “The girl from ipanema”, I was now questioning every decision I had ever made before making the decision to fly to brazil. It was the by far most beautiful spot I had ever seen — and I had seen many places before.

The following day the bootcamp started. I was very nervous, especially of who I would be attending class with. I felt like a fraud as I had almost no coding knowledge but turned out to be totally fine as everyone was a beginner and everyone was feeling nervous just as I did. It resulted being an amazing bunch of people and I was about to make lasting friendships during the weeks and months that were to come.

We started setting up our computers with the help of our teachers to lay the ground for the tutorials and coding sessions. We then began our first lecture. The bootcamp is structured into two main blocks. The first six weeks are for studying the basics and becoming familiar with the workflow as well as coding more and more independently, while the second part is project weeks, where you form sub-groups and develop your own web-application. The days are again structured itself, this time in three parts — it starts with a lesson where a teacher stands in front of the batch and explains a new concept, technology etc. Following, everyone solves coding challenges by himself, which means you get small tasks to finish while you can always ask one of the teachers for help. You are also assigned a buddy among the other students, who you can ask for help or you offer help yourself. Each day ends with a “live-coding-session” which means one of the students is solving a little trickier task while having the other students and the teacher follow his screen.

At the beginning I was quite worried if I would be able to keep up with the schedule. 10 hours of coding every day, 5 days a week sounded really tough to me. In fact, it was totally fine and time runs down quickly. From the very beginning, I was enjoying it so much that I simply did not want it to ever end. Not to mention the city itself — which I totally fell in love with. I ended up going to the beach every morning taking a run before going to class. It felt too good to be true.

after week six, we formed groups and agreed on our project. This was a more stressful time as there were tensions within our group. The teachers told us that this was quite normal and we found a way to deal it. Even though it was more stressful, we also learned a lot more. What might even be more important than learning hard skills in coding languages and computer science concepts, is learning how to work in a team, use git and github and search for solutions online by yourself. This is the most important part of being a coder — knowing how to google for the correct answer to your problem. You also learn the SCRUM method, how to quickly set up an MVP, a basic but functioning version of your project.

The group phase is amazing and we were quite proud of our project at the end. On the last day, we presented it to a group of people that were invited by the lewagon team such as startuppers, investors or employees of small, local tech companies.

It is honestly remarkable how much you learn during these nine weeks. And everything they state on their website, the techniques that they teach you, the concepts and frameworks that you learn are true. The only thing that they are way too aggressively promoting is the effect it has on your career. In fact, it is really tricky to land a job as a junior developer. You need to work really hard on your portfolio after finishing the course and keep completing online classes to dive into other languages and frameworks. If you are reading this article you are either about to make a career change or are already half way into coding. I can really suggest lewagon to you, especially if you want to combine it with spending time in another country. But one thing to note is that you should make a clear plan on how to proceed after finishing the bootcamp. It is important to lay a route of what next steps to take, what frameworks to learn and most importantly where and how to apply.

I hope I haven’t put you off the journey.

Thank you for reading :)