My Journey at IT Academy: Transitioning to Frontend Development

In 2023 I had the opportunity to be part of IT Academy’s Java bootcamp, an experience that marked a before and after in my path as a developer. I arrived with basic programming knowledge, but with great desire to learn in a structured way and surrounded by people with the same goal: to become professionals in the tech sector.

The bootcamp was designed intensively, combining theory with lots of practice. From the start we worked on fundamental Java concepts, such as object-oriented programming, data structures, exception handling, and SOLID principles. Gradually we advanced to more complex topics like Spring Boot, JPA/Hibernate, and REST APIs, always with real projects to consolidate what we learned.

One of the most enriching parts was the teamwork. I learned to collaborate with Git and GitHub, to organize tasks with agile methodologies like Scrum, and to communicate clearly in a development environment. All of this gave me a realistic idea of what day-to-day life is like in a tech company.

At the end of the bootcamp we developed a final project as a group: a complete application built with Java and Spring Boot on the backend, with database connection and cloud deployment. It was a huge challenge, but also one of the most motivating experiences I’ve had.

Looking back, I can say that the bootcamp gave me not only the technical knowledge necessary to grow as a programmer, but also the confidence to continue learning new technologies and face bigger challenges. That year was key to making the leap into the world of frontend and full‑stack development, where I continue to specialize today.