Social committee member Liv Reinhold introduces herself:
The bootcamp graduate handles hardship cases in the repayment phase.
Liv has discovered her passion for programming on the job and was looking for an intensive crash course. Since there were no tech bootcamps in her home country Denmark, she spontaneously moved to Berlin.
In 2019, I was responsible for improving the intranet of a Danish university. I realised that an understanding of the source code would make my work much easier. Therefore, I started to take online programming courses. Quickly, I wanted to learn more than those courses can offer.
The Danish education system is great, we even get paid to study. But at the time I was already in the middle of “adult life” and a 3-year Bachelor course was simply out of the question. Finally, I found shorter programming courses in Germany.
I decided to attend a web development bootcamp at WBS in Berlin. It started in February 2020 – just before Covid hit. In retrospect, Covid was actually good for my bootcamp success: The course was extremely intense, the lockdown meant I had few distractions and could concentrate on my studies. It worked so well that WBS hired me directly after the course. I jokingly say that the bootcamp was the longest application process of my life.
Now I am back in Denmark and have started a job as a consultant in the tech sector at the beginning of 2022. My focus is on project management and I also get to apply my programming skills. In between, I worked for the Danish administration and processed applications for Covid emergency aid. I was able to contribute my administrative knowledge directly to the Social Committee of CHANCEN eG: Our hardship form is based on my experience in Denmark.
When the Social Committee was introduced, we started on the proverbial greenfield. Fortunately, there were no hardship cases at first, which allowed us to develop processes. I bring in the perspective of the non-German members. The meetings were time-consuming, especially at the beginning, but also rewarding: In the Social Committee, I learned how to productively engage in emotionally sensitive discussions – a skill that will also be useful to me in other areas of life.
In our meetings, we make balanced decisions which take into account the interests of the repayers as well as those of the overall cooperative. The fact that we support graduates in difficult situations makes me feel good. I myself have also benefited from the flexible repayment of the ISA in times of unemployment.
