Boot camp to sum.cumo

Marie (von der Wehl) started at the end of last year at sum.cumo as frontend developer. She talks about her training at neue fische, the experiences she gained during this time, but also about the challenges she faced and last but not least how she felt about starting at sum.cumo.

"During my time at neue fische I was already looking for potential companies to start my career as a developer. Since at that time there were already two neue-fische graduates working for sum.cumo, I became aware of the company and was further encouraged in my plans by the informative and appealing homepage. Especially the articles on the application topics gave me a good idea of how the application process works and what I could pay attention to when applying. I found this transparency very pleasant and I did not know it from other companies.
The homepage also gave me a good insight into the spirit that is lived at sum.cumo. I liked it from the start and I had the impression that I would fit in quite well.

Are 3 months of training sufficient?

During my time at neue fische I was unsure how far one can cope with the skills learned there in the "right developer world". On the one hand, as much knowledge as possible is imparted in the three months, on the other hand it is only three months. But to work as a developer, you need skills in the corresponding programming languages as well as many other skills. At neue fische we try to simulate the project everyday life in the software development, but it is again quite different from the real workday. During various job interviews I could see a very different view of the Bootcamp graduates. I found the majority of the interviews very challenging, I had to show great gratitude that companies would make me an offer at all. My competences from the boot camp were generally considered to be rather low. In the conversation with sum.cumo it was completely different. Right from the start, they told me that they are very satisfied with the performance of the neue-fische-participants and that they appreciate them for completing the bootcamp. In addition, I found the entire application process to be very well organised, transparent and fair, so I left the interview with a positive feeling.

Openness and transparency at sum.cumo

What particularly impressed me when I joined sum.cumo was the warmth and openness with which the colleagues welcomed me. In the first few weeks, colleagues from other teams or departments approached me and introduced themselves personally, offered help and asked questions.
What I also find very positive is that sum.cumo does not have any rigid hierarchies or deadlocked structures and that every team member is encouraged to give feedback and contribute their own opinion. I really had the feeling from day one that I was a full member and that my opinions and ideas are valued and desired.

At sum.cumo, new employees and especially beginners are given time to arrive and learn new content at their own pace. I was able to learn best and get used to the new technologies by working on concrete small tasks for the project. At first it was unusual for me that I was not under time pressure when working on these tasks. In a coding boot camp like neue fische, where as much material as possible is taught in a short time, coding tasks often have to be solved under high time pressure. I got so used to this that I had to learn again to work on tasks in peace, research background information, read documentation and take notes. In addition, I was able to understand and remember much more through direct practical application.
This way of working, with the focus on quality and sustainability, has been particularly positive in my time at sum.cumo.

The start of your professional life as a developer

In my project it was a little bit difficult to get tasks in the first time, because the project was in its initial phase and there were a lot of conceptual tasks to do. In this case it helped me to work in pairing and to get to know which aspects experienced developers take into account in the basic architecture of a project.

I have come to the conclusion that good developers are not characterized by a perfect mastery of a small number of technologies, but that a quick familiarization with new topics and concepts is much more important. This includes the ability to get a quick overview of new topics, set priorities, perseverance and above all motivation, but also interest and fun. In my team I was given the freedom to pick out tickets from the current sprint myself, so I always had the opportunity to learn something new. Since we had learned and used React as a framework at neue fische, I was unsure at the beginning if I would be able to get into Vue quickly. But I soon realized that this was not a problem at all. If you know JavaScript/ TypeScript and understand basic programming concepts, you can easily get used to new frameworks.

Continuous development

In addition to working in my team, I had a one-hour appointment once a week with Sven (Wagner), the head of frontend development in the JavaScript department, where we paired up and talked about all kinds of aspects of web development. This was really helpful for me, since there was more time to clarify questions besides the daily project work. Sven was also able to take a closer look at my code and give me direct tips. Since the focus of neue fische was more on programming itself, many technical aspects were still very new to me. So this appointment helped me to find my way around the project better.

All in all, I look back on the past six months at sum.cumo with absolute satisfaction. I have been able to learn a lot, both about the technologies and about project- and company-internal structures and processes. I feel very comfortable, both in my current team and within the entire crew. But above all, I really enjoy what I do in my everyday work and I'm very excited about what I'll experience at sum.cumo in the future!

You can find out even more in the episode of the Working Draft podcast, which Marie hosted last month.