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Have you ever wondered how far one can come as a developer in a few months of intensive study and practice? In this article, we will introduce you to some of our student works from previous Demo Days.

Demo Day is a day at the end of the fullstack web development bootcamp for the students to present their final group project to our senior developers and business team. It is also a great opportunity to apply tech knowledge in a real-life project and learn how programmers work as a team in the development field.

The projects—built in the final 2 weeks of the entire course—ranged from apps aimed at solving community problems, social platforms to facilitate better communication within and between people, educational tools, as well as a surprisingly addictive game. While the projects each tackled very different objectives, all displayed a tremendous amount of both creativity and technical skill. Below, we feature seven highlights—check them out!

🐾 Pet Venture by Dev Bootcamp batch 11

Pet Venture is a social media platform to build a pet-friendly community and connect people together through pet meetups.

Main features include:

-Users can build profiles for their pets, rate peers and their pets, or leave comments for the event

-Users can host a pet walk on the platform, and create their own custom walking route to share with fellow users. They can easily pin multiple places and stop-off points based on their current location.

-Web AR (Augmented Reality on the Web)! When users locate a unique QR code, they will be able to collect a free reward and see cute animations!

(Github Link)

🏫 School Portal by Dev Bootcamp batch 14

The school portal is a management tool for both teachers to manage classes and students to enrich learning experiences.

Main features include:

-Teachers can create posts in their assigned courses with links to external files and set assignment due dates, as well as upload a profile image.

-Students can enroll in different courses from the course list, check the latest class announcements, download course materials and upload homeworks.

-Admins can make courses, assign teachers and students, as well as create the user accounts themselves.

(Github Link)

📸 Prophoto by Dev Bootcamp batch 15

ProPhoto is a platform for photographers to share their works and for everyone to download or buy high-quality photos online.

Main features include:

-An online transaction system where users can buy virtual coins via credit cards or bank transfers

-A profile page where artists can upload their photographs and set values for their works, and users can download purchased artworks or re-charge their coins.

-A search bar where users can easily find artworks by keywords

-An optional sign in method with Google accounts

(Github Link)

🛏️ RoomEZ by Dev Bootcamp batch 16

RoomEZ is a short-term housing rental service platform for users to share and book their rooms online. Users can use filters in location, price, and room type to search for a suitable space and will be able to see the places on the kakao map.

(Github Link)

✍️ Dear Diary by Dev Bootcamp batch 17

Dear Diary is a journaling application for users to record their daily life online. Users can easily keep track of their emotions, activities, events, and ideas on this safe and private digital place.

Main features include:
-A timeline of the journals, where users can see all the notes by time order

-An optional sign in method with Google and Kakao accounts

-A map of users’ visited places, a calendar of events, and an album to manage uploaded photos.

(Github Link)

🕹️ <div>’ Mon by Dev Bootcamp batch 18

<div>’ Mon is a trading card game where the player starts with a shuffled deck and on their turn, draws and plays cards to attack the opponent (computer) and reduce its health points to zero before the computer can do the same to the player. The player can also choose to increase the game’s difficulty level, and log in as an admin to manage the player information.

🛣️ On My Way by Dev Nightly

On My Way is an entertainment and location-based app that encourages people to walk out to explore nature and landmarks. The users can choose different fun challenges in various locations to receive rewards.

The main features include:

-A location-checking system to see whether the user is on the same location as the challenge

-A leaderboard to see top players’ points

-A management page where admins can edit users, challenges, and locations.

-An optional sign in method with Google accounts.

(Github Link)

Before attending wcoding, Tiffany Pang was a Customer Service Specialist. She is now a proud graduate of wcoding’s Dev Bootcamp 16th batch, and recently she has successfully pivoted her career as a Technical Product Manager at a B2B catering platform startup in Korea!

What did you do before wcoding and what led you to wcoding campus?

Originally I studied hospitality and tourism and worked in a hotel in New York. Then I came to Korea and worked as a Global Operation & Customer Service Specialist at a Korean gaming company for the past 2 years.

In my last job, I felt a bit lost in my career because it’s nothing related to hospitality anymore and I found myself not interested in the job anymore so I wanted to look for other options that can be beneficial to my future career.

I was in between doing a Master Degree in Hospitality or doing a Bootcamp to learn web development and coding. Finally, I decided to do the Bootcamp because I thought coding could open more doors for me. Plus, I feel coding can be a useful skill to me, even if I didn’t become a great developer in the end, I can still use it for something else or find other roles in the Tech industry.

What made you choose wcoding campus as a way to change your career, rather than going back to college, or teaching yourself?

First of all, like many people, I’m not a really good self-learner. 😂 I prefer an environment where I am learning and collaborating with peers, with interactions and encouragement from the teacher. Also, I feel it’s important to have an instructor who understands how to guide and keep students on the right path, instead of us finding many online resources that we don’t know what to do with.

Timewise, it’s also cost-effective and makes more sense to do a bootcamp rather than a whole Bachelor’s degree.

I heard that you are also active as a content creator on Youtube. Can you share with us a day of a Content Creator while Learning at wcoding Dev Bootcamp?

I haven’t really been doing Youtube consistently, Youtube is just a hobby to record my life in Korea. During the bootcamp, since the course itself is already quite intensive (Weekdays, 10 am to 5 pm), I didn’t have that much time to think about it.

Most of the days when in the class, at night, I was either studying or resting. During the weekend, I went to study with my friends. Usually I studied coding, reviewed or did the projects, but sometimes, I spared some time to edit videos and took it as my break time from coding. 😂

Tiffany’s Daily Schedule:

8:45 am: Wake up

9:50 am: Arrive at wcoding and start the class

12:30 pm: Lunch

1:30 pm: Afternoon session

5:00 pm: Review session with Teaching Assistant or go home

6:00 pm: Dinner

7:00 pm~: Homework time – Work on projects or reading materials for the next day

What were some of your favorite projects that you built where you were in the program?

My favorite project is a secret chat messenger that we made together in class. Originally, we only did a ‘log-in function’ practice, and then we developed it as a messenger program, and finally we combined them together. I felt this project was more useful compared to other projects like mini games because chatting and log-in functions are in all websites and apps nowadays. So I actually felt these features are something that I can contribute to future projects if I work in web or app development companies.

What would you say was the biggest challenge in your journey of learning to code?

Before, I enjoyed making websites prettier (in design aspects) when I created a new project. However, even though I enjoy doing it, I’ve learned that’s not all there is to making an actually functional website. So, if I think back now, I think the ‘problem solving mindset’ and the ‘logic parts’ of the code has been the biggest challenge for me.

I remember that it was the first week of learning JavaScript where all the complicated coding logics came in, and as a first-time learner, it was quite confusing. But I got familiar with it once I practiced more and it actually became easier to pick up other programming languages as I already had an idea of how the syntax and logic parts of the codes work.

Many people said that the tech industry lacks diversity, how do you think about it? As a female programmer, what advice do you have for other women thinking about making a career change and attending a bootcamp?

I know lots of my female friends and acquaintances that are actually doing great as a software developer and I see other friends who finish the bootcamp are doing great, even the teacher I had at wcoding was a female as well!

However, I’m sure there are issues like this and that’s why there are organizations like Women Who Code that are advocating for the change up for the field. But I saw so many great examples that don’t let the lack of diversity stand in their way if they’re a woman, I would say if you see a problem with something, that’s even more of a reason to do something about it and show others that they can do it too!

Nowadays, coding bootcamps are becoming a comparatively economic and realistic option for people looking for better opportunities to work in tech. Becoming a developer means you are more likely to work flexibly, get a higher salary and other benefits than you can imagine. So how can it not be attractive, especially if you can make your ‘dreams’ come true in just 3 to 6 months?

However, knowing what to expect and what to prepare before taking action is essential before investing thousands of dollars in any bootcamp.

Below are some tips that can help you get the right expectation from a coding bootcamp and ensure you get a great experience and result from the program.

1. Set Up Your Goals

Figure out your goals before signing up for a bootcamp is obviously a good idea. For example, some people take the course for self-development, and some want to re-skill themselves towards a more ‘digital’ profession. However, most people who come to join a coding bootcamp are pretty serious about changing their careers. If your goal is to be a job-ready developer after the bootcamp, you should definitely prepare yourself to accept the challenges ahead and dedicate a lot of time and effort to practicing your skills. When you meet obstacles on your coding journey, always remind yourself of your goals and why you are doing this! Your purpose of joining a bootcamp should be a solid motivation to support you overcome the day-to-day difficulties and frustration you probably will encounter during the course.

There are also various possibilities for you after graduation from a bootcamp. For example, you can become a front-end, back-end, full-stack programmer, a web developer, or an app developer. Even if you don’t have outstanding tech skills, you can also potentially apply the knowledge that you gained with your previous professional background to other related fields such as project management, digital marketing, product management, UX/UI design, and DevOps. Therefore, setting up your goals and discovering your potential career path before joining a bootcamp can help you and save you time in the job transitioning process.

2. Check Your Schedules

Joining a bootcamp means you will technically become a full-time student and will have to learn lots of things in a relatively short time. As it is the same with most things in life, nothing comes for free, and with ‘gain’ there usually is ‘pain’, so make sure that you are ready to dedicate time to it!

Also, having time for review and practice is crucial. For sure, participating in every class is an essential factor in your success, but so is the time you spend outside of the course, especially on coding exercises and projects. Don’t think coding is easy, and you can learn everything in one day. Instead of just sitting for the lectures or watching tutorials, it’s better to take some quality time to self digest the course materials, practice it, and become confident in your skills.

3. Learn by Doing

If you think learning to code is just sitting down and listening to lectures, best you think again. The goal of most coding bootcamps is to train and prepare programmers to get their hands dirty and actually ‘build’ websites, apps, and software and get paid for their work in IT companies. However, becoming skilled in programming is not just about memorizing lines of codes and phrases. It requires a lot of practice and trying, so you should prepare yourself to ‘learn by doing’ before taking the course.

Writing codes and testing them, doing code reviews with your peers, and building projects are things you will do most of your time in a bootcamp.

4. Test the Waters

It is always a good idea to start with something lighter to really make sure that you actually like what you are potentially getting into. If you are not ready to make such a big commitment to a coding bootcamp, but want to start somewhere, you can try some introductory coding courses online as your first step. There are many accessible sources that you can use, so feel free to take some of them to test if you are suitable to go deeper with a coding bootcamp.

Plus, it’s always a plus if you have some basic knowledge about coding before the bootcamp starts. You can easily pick up the concepts later in the course and even uplevel your skills since you are more familiar with what you have learned.

5. Find Additional Values

Most coding bootcamps provide career services for their graduates, such as CV polishing, mock interviews, and portfolio building. In addition, they usually have in-house experienced developers who can help you become literally an ‘outstanding’ candidate from the crowd when sending out job applications.

Another advantage is that coding bootcamps usually or should have a strong network within the IT community that helps you connect with alumni, tech companies, and potential hiring partners from different industries. So, when you look for coding bootcamps, remember to check the additional values that they can bring to you since their network would indeed come in handy when applying for your first IT job!

Be sure to check out the coding bootcamps currently offered by wcoding!

One of the questions that have been frequently asked is ‘Why Should I take an English coding bootcamp in Seoul Korea?’ Well, here are 5 benefits of learning programming in Korea!

1) Learn to code in a leading tech hub in Asia

Korea has been striving to build itself as a global leader in the tech industry since the 1960s. Nowadays, you can see many tech products made in Korea, and lots of internationally well-known tech companies such as Samsung, LG, SK, Hyundai, Naver, and Kakao, which are only some of the many world-leading IT companies from Korea.

The highly developed tech industry of course brings a high demand for developers. IT specialists and tech talents are always in need in almost every industry, so it’s definitely a good place for people who are eager to look for a new opportunity and challenge in IT!

2) Get to experience K-culture and K-food

Who’s not a fan of Korean food and Korean culture? Soju, kimchi, grilled pork belly (삼겹살), fish cake (어묵) and there are much more delicious Korean cuisines that are waiting for you to explore!

You can also experience Korean culture by visiting traditional royal palaces, joining a temple stay, or going to k-pop concerts and events! The best thing is that you can learn competitive and international coding skills while enjoying all those activities in Korea!

3) Travel in an International & tourist-friendly country

Seoul and Busan have both been selected as international tourism cities in Korea. The convenient subway system, easy-to-access tourist attractions, clean and cheap accommodations, and free resources for tourists have made Korea a very popular travel destination in Asia.

4) Save Tuition

One of the biggest advantages to joining an English coding bootcamp in Korea is that the tuition is much more economical than the bootcamps in the US. The average tuition is around 7,000-7,500 USD for a 9-12 week bootcamp in Korea, but the same program can cost students up to 15,000-16,000 USD in the US.

Plus, the living expense in Korea is 1.5-2X lower than in the States. So, why not explore Korea while learning new skills in affordable bootcamps with the same up-to-date contents and standards as the ones back home?

5) Connect with a vibrant startup ecosystem

Korea has one of the most active startup scenes in the world. To attract more foreign talents to Korea, the Korean government has been and is establishing a lot of startup incubation centers or government funded startup programs to help forigen entrepreneurs kick-start their business in Korea. For example, Seoul Startup Hub, Seoul Global Startup Center and K-Startup Grand Challenge are some of the famous accelerators that are purely focused to help foreign startups in Korea. Also, there is the Pangyo Techno Valley, which is a tech hub for more than 1,000 IT companies, promising SMEs and startups. It is growing fast and aims to become the Korean Silicon Valley.

As the fourth-largest economy and one of the leading tech hubs in Asia, Korea has already attracted lots of international professionals to come and develop their careers in its ecosystem. With all the resources and benefits, it can definitely become a sweet place for you, if you are willing to give it a try!

The IT industry is an open community. There’s no security guard checking your computer science degree before letting you in. Nor do you have to be a self-taught programming wizard like Bill Gates or Elon Musk to be successful. To get started in this growing industry, all you need — no matter your background or current career — is curiosity, resilience, and the foundations of coding.

Foundations are the keys that grant access to IT. The better you know the fundamentals, the easier it is to learn other programming languages and more advanced concepts. Or to use a string of metaphors: you have to walk before you run; float before you swim; and boil water before attempting grandmother’s beef stew.

But where can you learn these fundamentals? Sifting through unfiltered information online is inefficient. And returning to university is an incredible time and monetary investment. How can you be sure you’re receiving a worthwhile education that will prepare you for a career in IT?

The answer to these rhetorical questions is coding bootcamps. Coding bootcamps provide several months of intense, practical, project-based training. Instructors are industry professionals with years of experience.

They teach the most essential, practical basics — scalable skills applicable to the job market. You won’t be copying or pasting lines of code or passively listening to droning lectures on theory. Instead, you’ll be encouraged to apply the fundamentals to real projects and to think like a developer to solve issues you will face on the job.

A career change is only a bootcamp away. With a solid grasp of the fundamentals, professionals from bakers to educators have changed their careers and their lives. You can too. If you’re still on the fence, just remember:

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

If you’re ready to get started, wcoding can help. Our 12-week fullstack intensive bootcamp makes programmers. And our career counseling will sharpen your spear for the job hunt.