Stories

I was born in Israel and after 14 years I moved to Ukraine. When the war started there I moved again, this time to Germany. While I had finished my Master’s degree in Ukraine, it wasn’t considered valid in Germany. I knew I needed qualifications which is why I joined DCI to get an education in programming. With all the hype around coding, I decided to look at some online courses. In my previous coding school a friend of mine told me that he had done an integration course with DCI. He recommended it and so I got started. I enjoyed the one year programme because you have the time to take everything step by step and you can definitely get a great foundation during a full year. DCI is about practical learning. You have projects to do and you can test your knowledge. Teachers care about their students and take an active interest in their development. In other schools, they often just give materials related to the topic and leave you to it. 

Programming is a single universal language and for someone who has moved country a lot, language is often the first problem you face. Coding offers you an opportunity to be understood and have practical skills no matter where you are. Now, I want to bring awareness for women in this industry and I also want to use my skills for non-profit work and social impact. I want to do something that matters and makes a difference.

"My childhood dream of becoming a Developer was fulfilled by doing a course at DCI. Today I am backend developer at Blinkist and I couldn't be happier."

"We were impressed by the level of knowledge and skills they achieved in only nine months of course. We were immediately convinced of their potential and offered three students an internship. As interns at Exozet, they have shown that they combine an in-depth programming knowledge with a high level of motivation and the ability to solve problems quickly."

“I’m so pleased to be starting my career as a Full-Stack Developer after only 12 months of learning at DCI.”

I moved to Berlin to join my family here and living in this city is a big challenge for me. I had the impression that everything would look beautiful and would be really well-organised, but after a couple of months I realized it wasn’t that way at all.

The first challenge I had to face was learning the language and my wife was a great help for me in that area. Despite learning German, I still struggled to find a decent job. I quickly learned that there are good opportunities in the IT industry here. I started looking for a way to get the skills I needed to work. I was lucky to hear about DCI, which has been the perfect match for me. I learned Web Development which is a highly valued skill and am now working in the industry.

I come from a small village named Habuba Kabira near Aleppo in Syria. I’m 30 years old and I graduated in 2011 from Teshreen university faculty of Arts and Humanities in the English Literature department. My dream was to get a Master degree in English Literature. Unfortunately, the war in Syria began and I could not fulfil my dream. As a hobby, I began to learn programming when I was 23 years old and got good enough to turn the hobby into a job. The scene in Aleppo between 2011-2013 wasn’t as bad as it is today nonetheless we were still isolated from the outside world, there were no means of communication; no telephones, mobile phones or even the internet.

When a satellite Internet was bought for the village, there was a need to build a limited network. This allowed some internet service and families could communicate with their relatives and get news from around the world. Yet once ISIS arrived, use of the internet was totally prohibited. The pressure began to mount and it became increasingly impossible to bear. I made up my mind to leave the village and start a new life away from the war.

In August 2015, I arrived in Berlin and waited for about four months to get my residency documents. I began attending language school and after eight months finished my B2 course in German. At that time, I was introduced to DCI and it was exactly what I was looking for! I already had a little experience and DCI helped me to expand that. I didn’t have to start from the beginning to start my own future career. Germany had already given me what I needed to start over and one way to return the favour was to find a good job to be able to be able to help others who also need it.

"The course at DCI was so immersive and detailed and I learned everything I needed to kick off my career in Web Development."

When I came to Berlin in 2015, I had no degree from university, because I couldn’t finish my studies in Damascus. I was always interested in programming. I started a course, where I could learn the basics of programming in about 130 hours. After finishing this course, I improved my German language skills to a B1 level. A friend of mine told me about the “Devugee-program” at DCI. It was the beginning of the program, so I took part in the first course ever. Within the course, which took about nine months, I learned a lot about coding, mainly the basics of each programming language. I was always interested in the web development industry and after my first programming course I started some projects on my own - I built my own website, my flatmates website and apps for friends. I learned really quickly just by doing practical work on my own.

I wanted to become a Programmer, because in this business, you’ll never stop developing. In many other careers, you learn something and just keep on doing it. But in programming, you never stop learning. At university, you learn the basics, and sometimes really obsolete things, like methods that no one uses anymore. It’s often too broad and you don’t learn specifics, just really general programming basics. At the end of university studies, you won’t be able to apply those skills and build something on your own, because you have a theoretical overview, but you not much specific practice.

In the DCI courses, we had a schedule, and we were learning how to actually code and maintain ten different programming languages. We went through every single language in detail, with a lot of exercises. Additionally, our teacher was really good. The way he taught us things topic by topic, was really helpful. He also taught me how to learn by myself, which is really valuable because you need to develop your programming skills continuously. After finishing the course, I am now able to build Web Apps. If I have an idea in mind, for example for a website or an app, I can just make it happen. DCI gave me  the freedom to translate my ideas into something real.

At the end of my course at DCI, I did a three-month internship at sofatutor , a Berlin start-up which was building a learning platform for students. I’m working in the tech department as a Frontend Developer, building new features, working on mobile apps and fixing bugs. When I first met the people at sofa tutor, I instantly liked the company, I enjoyed my work and the atmosphere there. They also liked what I was doing - so they offered me a job as a frontend developer and I’m still working here now! This job is my first work experience and what really motivates me at this company, is that it offers an education. I’m implementing something which is really useful for other people, especially for children.

When I arrived in Berlin in 2015 I was 40 years old. I graduated in Electronic Engineering from the University of Damascus back in 1991 and came to Germany to seek refuge for my wife, my children and myself. It is difficult to find a job in Berlin, especially if you don’t speak the language and don’t work in the digital industry. However, Berlin is also the biggest startup hub in Europe and therefore there is a big demand for developers and digital marketing experts. I found out about DCI in 2016 and took part in the Web Development Course. I really liked the approach of the teachers and the structure. It was intense, practical and heavily focused on skill-building. DCI teaches you how to become competitive and competent in this field.