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How to get the dream tech job you always wanted

Europe’s tech industry is booming, giving rise to a range of programming ‘bootcamps’ that offer tech literacy more quickly and affordably than traditional degree programs. The Local finds out more.

Published: 25 April 2017 08:40 CEST
How to get the dream tech job you always wanted
Ironhack programs are intense but rewarding. Photo: Ironhack

While unemployment rates remain staggeringly high across much of Europe, companies in the tech sector are struggling to fill vacancies due to a massive skills gap.

Almost half the EU population – 47 percent – lack proper digital skills, according to the European Commission, which estimates this will result in up to 700,000 unfilled jobs by 2020.

To combat the trend, coding bootcamps have been cropping up all over the world, and their popularity is only increasing. Seen as an alternative to traditional university degrees, they accelerate the learning process, often cramming two or three years-worth of learning into a short eight to twelve weeks.

They’re also heavily career focused, so graduates don’t have to worry about that ‘what am I going to do now’ dread that plagues many graduates of traditional university programs.

And one such bootcamp that combines top-notch coding know-how with a global perspective is Ironhack.

Started in Spain by two business school grads, Ironhack is an intensive bootcamp, running full-stack courses in web development and UX/UI design. The program now offers courses in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, and Miami and aims to place graduates in 100,000 unfilled IT jobs, while at the same time creating a more tech and code literate population.

Having these skills opens up a world of opportunities – and the opportunities are there, waiting to be taken.

The Web Development Program focuses on technologies like Node.js, Javascript, HTML5, Angular2, and CSS3. The course itself is nine weeks long, though students are required to do approximately 60 hours of remote pre-course prep. Graduates of the program either go on to become developers or take on more technical roles.

Find out more about Ironhack's Web Development Bootcamp

The UX/UI Design Program on the other hand, focuses on the more creative side of the tech world. Students learn how to improve the user experience (UX) – how a product ‘feels’ – so that things flow logically and naturally. And a big part of that is the layout and design of the user interface (UI).

With Ironhack’s UX/UI Design 8-week course, students learn how to use programs like Sketch and Balsamiq along with front-end frameworks like Bootstrap that will equip them to design the next breakout smartphone app.

Taught during the summer months, the bootcamps are perfect for someone wanting a career change, as well as recent graduates, entrepreneurs, and anyone else looking to get ahead.

“I was working a boring 9 to 5 job as a customer service agent and decided it was time for a change,” says Wilfred Rios, who graduated from the first Ironhack UX/UI class to graduate from Miami.

“About a month later, I landed my first internship; joining Ironhack was the best decision I ever made – it completely changed my life!”

Courtney Williams also graduated from the UX/UIDesign Program in Miami.

“There is a tremendous amount of information to absorb, perhaps too much, but the information is accessible even to complete non-techies like myself,” she explains.

Learn more about Ironhack's UX/UI Design Bootcamp

The courses may be demanding and intensive, but the two month slog always proves to be worth it.

“Ironhack provided me with a quality certificate showing employers that I have a strong foundation as a software engineer,” explains Karolin Siebert from Berlin, who enrolled in the Web Development Program.

Katalin says the bootcamp was a great idea for her personally – but adds it’s a lot of work, so you should know what you want out of it ahead of time.

“You have to know why and what you want to do with it. Otherwise, you’re not going to have enough drive or patience for the course,” she says.

And Ironhack is more than a school. Students are supported through and after their courses, with expert career advice and assistance to help them land jobs in the tech world.

Both programs are followed by a career/hiring week where students receive help with CVs, portfolios, and interview prep. In addition, students are introduced to companies in Ironhack’s extensive global partner network.

“During the course, some of the organisers would ask about our goals. I knew I wanted to be in Southern France,” Ironhack graduate Cat Burston explains.

“The Ironhack team then went through their contact list, found a group of startups based in Montpellier and came back to me with their details. I contacted a few of them and went in for an interview after the course had finished…and a couple of days later, one asked me when I could start!”

It’s that sort of support that has helped Ironhack attain an 86 percent placement rate for its graduates.

A personal touch also matters – just ask JavaScript/Ruby Developer Alvaro Jossue Castillo about the assistance he received from Ironhack Placements Manager Daniel Brito.

“Daniel helped us with our resumes and online presence, he prepared us for our future interviews and introduced us to many employers. He always kept me accountable and motivated to never give up,” Alvaro recalls.

“Ironhack is not only a bootcamp, it’s a life-changing experience and a family that will always be there for you,” he adds.

“It was through Ironhack that I discovered this passion and set a new dream for my professional career.”

Enrol in Ironhack's Web Development Program or UX/UI Design Program

This article was produced by The Local Client Studio and sponsored by Ironhack.

TECH

Cookie fight: Austrian activist in tough online privacy fight

Five years after Europe enacted sweeping data protection legislation, prominent online privacy activist Max Schrems says he still has a lot of work to do as tech giants keep dodging the rules.

Published: 16 May 2023 16:52 CEST
Cookie fight: Austrian activist in tough online privacy fight

The 35-year-old Austrian lawyer and his Vienna-based privacy campaign group NOYB (None Of Your Business) is currently handling no fewer than 800 complaints in various jurisdictions on behalf of internet users.

“For an average citizen, it’s almost impossible right now to enforce your rights”, Schrems told AFP. “For us as an organisation, it’s already a lot of work to do that” given the system’s complexity due to the regulators’ varying requirements, he added.

The 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes strict rules on how companies can use and store personal data, with the threat of huge fines for firms breaching them.

While hundreds of millions of euros in fines have been imposed following complaints filed by NOYB, Schrems said the GDPR is hardly ever enforced. And that’s a “big problem”, he added.

He said the disregard for fundamental rights such as data privacy is almost comparable to “a dictatorship”. “The difference between reality and the law is just momentous,” Schrems
added.

‘Annoying’ cookies

Instead of tackling the problems raised by the GDPR, companies resort to “window dressing” while framing the rules as an “annoying law” full of “crazy cookie banners”, according to Schrems.

Under the regulation, companies have been obliged to seek user consent to install “cookies” enabling browsers to save information about a user’s online habits to serve up highly targeted ads.

Industry data suggests only three percent of internet users actually approve of cookies, but more than 90 percent are pressured to consent due to a “deceptive design” which mostly features “accept” buttons.

Stymied by the absence of a simple “yes or no” option and overwhelmed by a deluge of pop-ups, users get so fed up that they simply give up, Schrems said. Contrary to the law’s intent, the burden is being “shifted to the individual consumer, who should figure it out”.

Even though society now realises the importance of the right to have private information be forgotten or removed from the internet, real control over personal data is still far-off, the activist said. But NOYB has been helping those who want to take back control by launching
privacy rights campaigns that led companies to adopt “reject” buttons.

 Shift of business model 

Regulators have imposed big penalties on companies that violated GDPR rules: Facebook owner Meta, whose European headquarters are in Dublin, was hit with fines totalling 390 million euros ($424 million) in January.

One reason why tech giants like Google or Meta as well as smaller companies choose against playing by the GDPR rules is because circumventing them pays off, Schrems said.

Thriving on the use of private data, tech behemoths make “10 to 20 times more money by violating the law, even if they get slapped with the maximum fine”, he added.

Contacted by AFP, both companies said they were working hard to make sure their practices complied with the regulations.

Schrems also accuses national regulators of either being indifferent or lacking the resources to seriously investigate complaints. “It’s a race to the bottom,” Schrems said. “Each country has its own way of not getting anything done”.

Buoyed by his past legal victories, Schrems looks to what he calls the “bold” EU Court of Justice to bring about change as it “usually is a beacon of hope in all of this”.

Meanwhile, the European Commission is considering a procedures regulation to underpin and clarify the GDPR.

In the long-run, however, the situation will only improve once large companies “fundamentally shift their business models”. But that would require companies to stop being “as crazy profitable as they are right now,” Schrems said.

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