Alumni's top 4 reasons to join a UX/UI bootcamp

Zainab currently lives in Iraq and graduated with a degree in environmental engineering last August. But she soon realized there weren’t many jobs in environmental engineering in Iraq, so Zainab decided to plunge into UX/UI design as she felt there was more of a future in the digital economy.

Zainab applied and got accepted to the Re:Coded UX/UI design bootcamp not knowing quite what to expect from the classes, her classmates or even herself. She was just looking for a place and a career where she would fit, and ultimately she found that at Re:Coded.

This is her experience from the bootcamp and her reasons for why others should join too.

1. UX/UI jobs

Zainab had originally planned to move out of Iraq with her degree in Environmental Engineering but ultimately decided to stay. Unfortunately, this left her with a degree that wasn’t in demand in Iraq. When looking at different career paths, Zainab was drawn to tech from the beginning.

The digital economy is rising, especially after Covid. There are job postings all over Telegram and most of the advertisements were for UX/UI design, coders, or developers.

The same pattern is found in Turkey. On the day of writing this article there were 559 jobs listed on the Turkish Kariyer.net with ‘User Experience’ in the title and 812 on LinkedIn. Similarly, you will find 255 ads with ‘UX/UI Designer’ as the search term on Kariyer.net and 280 UX/UI related jobs in Turkey on Glassdoor.

That’s no surprise. In 2019, the Turkish Employment Agency IŞKUR reported a 30% talent gap in the tech industry in Turkey highlighting the need for new talents to the sector and the digital economy has proven to be one of the most resilient sectors during the pandemic with tech companies still growing as people increasingly live, enjoy, consume and learn from home.

2. Learning by doing in UX/UI

While universities have computer science programs, there are a few reasons why Zainab didn’t think that would be the right way to kick off her path to a career in the digital economy.

Universities don’t keep up with modern approaches to teaching.

Instead she took a chance on the Re:Coded bootcamp and ultimately found an environment that suited her better. Re:Coded classes are learning-by-doing in a live classroom with motivated teachers and students who are all there for the same purpose and with the same desire to learn. That really kept her going.

"When I study things on my own, I always just give up. When I’m alone, I don’t have motivation to continue, but I found my motivation every time I came back to the bootcamp classroom. Khadijah [Re:Coded trainer] is the best motivational speaker, I just thought, ‘Oh my god, I can’t let this woman go.’"

3. UX/UI soft skills

When thinking about the most difficult things about the bootcamp, Zainab surprisingly reflects on something she hadn’t expected when she first signed up for the Bootcamp.

"UI, Figma… these things are secondary. I went in expecting easy work, but the deadlines were the deadliest for me. We finished one assignment and then had another in just a few days, but it’s all for a reason. By the end of the bootcamp, I was the time manager and I had to make sure everyone did their tasks on time."

Time management is just one of the added skills taught in the bootcamp. The digital economy is by nature more global with international clients and staff working across borders. That puts emphasis on soft skills and your ability to work in a team. The high-pressure environment is not only designed to teach you the right technical skills, but also teach you how to work professionally - something companies are looking for just as much, when they choose who to hire. Other than time management, Zainab also learned teamwork and public speaking as she worked with her classmates in Capstone projects before presenting their work at Graduation.

"When I started the bootcamp, I was the most introverted person ever, but I learned to stand up and present without a trembling voice. There was a huge difference even just between the first project and second project."

4. UX/UI community

Like many others, Zainab struggled with imposter syndrome - that thing where you’re convinced that you’re not good enough and don’t belong among your peers. Little did Zainab know, but her peers in class were going through the exact same thing, so they could support each other.

"I didn’t expect to connect with anyone in the bootcamp, but I came out of it with so many friends. I didn’t expect to see people with the same interests and hopes as me."

UX/UI’s focus on the user experience, the human experience, also helped Zainab form relationships with the people around her.

"When one of us thought it was hard, everyone was there to help out and motivate each other. You see everyone’s passion, and specifically with UX/UI, you’re studying human-centered design and we talk a lot about our feelings and empathy, which plays into building a community."