What did you do before you started at Ubiqum Code Academy?

I was unemployed for a while and I was thinking whether I wanted to stay in Luxembourg or not and as I had some free time, I started to think about doing something completely different. My background was in law and I was working for the European Institutions as a legal translator. However, if I had wanted to stay in Luxembourg, I would have had to train in financial law. As I was not happy in that field, I knew I had to make a radical change in my professional life.

At first, when I thought about programming, I didn’t think it was possible to retrain and go into this field, but then I heard about the intensive programs and decided to go down this path.

Why did Ubiqum stand out as the best option?

Before signing up for Ubiqum, I did a 4-week intensive program in Lithuania to see if I really liked programming. Because of course, it was a big change for me and an important financial investment so I wanted to know if I would really enjoy it.

The first time I wrote some programming and saw the result, it was awesome! You get hooked. After that, I looked for a longer intensive program in Barcelona and found Ubiqum. I chose it because, for me, 5 months was the perfect length. I needed advice and real support as this was all new to me and I knew that short courses would not be enough.

When I researched more about the methodology and how it had been implemented for 10 years, first in the US and now in Europe, I thought, “I can trust this method. It has worked for many people for many years, so why not for me?”

What was your main concern when you started the program?

It’s a very broad field and there are many things I don’t know yet. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to understand it all or that it would be too complicated. I thought, “How is it possible to learn all this in only 5 months?”. But after only 2 weeks, I was talking to my classmates and we were remembering how at the beginning of the course we didn’t even know how to write HTML programming well. We were already seeing after 2 weeks how much progress we had made!

Do you think our “Learning by Doing” methodology has been effective?

It was very easy to understand the material using this methodology; it’s amazing. From the first day, you work in a very practical way; everything flowed very well. I can compare my experience in Ubiqum, using this “Learning by Doing” methodology to the one I had in the Lithuanian program which was much more based on theory, and you can see that the Ubiqum method really works. It is very important to see how you progress and notice tangible results from the beginning.

Why would you recommend Ubiqum?

For all that I have mentioned combined. It’s the method that really works and anyone can do it. Here you have a very good environment and tutors that you really matter to; they are there for us. I think I was very lucky to have the tutors I had; they helped us when we had problems and motivated us at the same time. When you change careers, you need people who can see your potential and inspire you to go on and do more. The people who work at Ubiqum do exactly this and they are just as important as the method.

What would you say to a complete beginner? Or to someone who is contemplating a career change?

I’ve been in your position; I can imagine what you’re going through. If you are as fascinated by programming as I am and you have the motivation, you can do whatever you want.

How did you find the process of finding a job?

It was very fast, I didn’t expect it. Of course, I put a lot of effort into it, but I was surprised that I found a job so quickly. There is so much demand for web developers and programmers that I received several offers and it was great to be able to choose the one I wanted.