The upside of a remote bootcamp
My experience with a fully remote UX bootcamp
A week after the United States went into lockdown for the Coronavirus pandemic, I began a six month UX/UI Design Bootcamp. It was something brand new to me — I was a preschool teacher up until July of 2020, and prior to that I studied psychology and earned a Bachelor’s degree in it. I moved to New York City and felt that there was something more out there for me. After a couple of years of feeling stuck, I decided to do something about it and applied to a UX bootcamp. I aligned with the research aspect of User Experience, and wanted to challenge myself on the design side of things.
I began the bootcamp online — as was expected prior to any inklings of a pandemic. The first few months of the bootcamp would be held online, and then in-person learning would ensue for the last few months. I was most excited about that aspect — learning alongside others that were similar to me as well as very different. I was looking forward to being hands on in a new learning environment.
Nonetheless, the first few months of the bootcamp continued online and I was enjoying it. Granted, I was not in the comfort of my own apartment creating a new routine — I was living with my partner and his family far outside of the epicenter that was New York City. It was a lot to juggle, on top of also working as a teacher and creating online virtual content for my students.
I was busy, but the busyness was good. I felt productive and motivated. The live lectures were really nice, the breakout rooms were fun. The program was not very large, so we all got to know each other pretty well virtually. Around May, I was still holding out hope that I would get to meet everyone in person one day soon. Unfortunately, that day never came, but I tried making the best of the situation regardless.
We had daily check in meetings first thing in the morning as well as a nightly goodbye discussing what we had done each day. We worked in small teams of three or four during our projects and sprints, and utilized Zoom a lot. I learned how to utilize Figma, Mural and Miro and work collaboratively while remote. I worked with teammates who were in Thailand, on the West Coast and in Chicago. I was able to seriously hone my time management skills and learn how to get comfortable talking through my laptop screen.
I was able to come out of this bootcamp with not only User Experience and User Interface knowledge and experience, but a lot of life experience too. Which is something I did not envision would happen, especially during a pandemic, virtually. There was a lot of good that came from this experience, which I’m grateful for.
Check back in next week, where I’ll go through the not-so-good side to a fully remote UX bootcamp experience…
