Le Wagon

I'm an graphic designer by training, after a few years abroad in a developing country, I decided to enroll at Le Wagon Bootcamp in Paris to get familiar with programming languages and broaden my range of skills.

This experience was even more enriching than I had imagined. The training is demanding and sometimes tough but I have always been able to rely on the goodwill and expertise of the great teaching staff.

Retrospectively, I am still amazed by the quantity of knowledge that I have gained in 9 weeks. I also built bonds with many students with various backgrounds from my batch and I think it is one of the great strengths of Le Wagon.

Since then, I work as a consultant for various companies and individuals. Not only as a graphic designer but now also as a developer.

People wonder how 9 weeks can change your life, le Wagon is how.

I graduated from Northwestern University, in Chicago last June with a major in neuroscience and have since been determined to become a doctor. However, I believe that the classic path to medicine lacks a tech aspect that I wanted to settle during my gap year. I was told about Le Wagon, a nine week intensive bootcamp that gives you the necessary skills to create your own projects using the right tools and workflow. In the medical world, it is believed that “computing capability can transcend what a human being could ever do in their lifetime”. Le Wagon teaches you how to teach your computer to learn with the most competent teachers you could hope for.

The different backgrounds that you encounter at Le Wagon make you grow as a person and teach you how to tackle different problems with a variety of interpretations and solutions. People don’t compete with each other, they only help you compete with the person you were the day before. Not only does Le Wagon give you the technical competence to accomplish your projects, but the environment fostered drives you to constantly improve. The staff is here for every single student every step of the way:  from helping create a dynamic environment between the students to presenting you with a myriad of opportunities to accomplish what you want(organized talks, meetings with startups etc..) to giving you advice on any help you could potentially need, and making themselves completely available. I have never worked with a team so dedicated to the success of the students.  You are taught to never give up but to fight harder to succeed.

Le Wagon gave me some of the technical skills that I wanted and taught me that nothing is impossible. I am now doing a bootcamp in machine learning and artificial intelligence (Data science), to combine it which the coding skills I learnt at le Wagon in order to bring that to the next step of my medical studies and to constantly help the medical world evolve in the right direction.

Le wagon doesn’t last 9 weeks, it lasts your whole life. You build very strong links with the people that you work with everyday and with the family that you’ve become part of. The staff stays constantly available: before, during and after to accompany you and make sure you have own the keys to your success, the alumnis are always willing to help, to give you advice and to share their stories: everyone is here to help. I’m extremely grateful for what Le Wagon has taught me, both technically and humanely and wish everyone to have such a life-changing experience.  Contact me if you have absolutely any question I could answer/help with. 

Network - the course is not the end. I was surprised to see the community of 4,000+ alumni so active online where people are willing to help each other on programming, career, even just a short visit to another city where Le Wagon campus is based in.

Curriculum - Each time we learn a new concept, they let you build things from scratch by yourself first so that you see what’s behind all the magic. Also, they advance the level pretty fast - we start building small apps from week 2! It was tough but definitely helped build an architectural mindset from the beginning.

All the learnings lead to product building, which I think is essential for a full stack developer. There is a sprint day on user journey, user flow, design, wireframe and we were given two weeks to build a mock product and a real one for demo day. Our project team learned and enjoyed the journey so much that we decided to carry on with the project to launch it after the program. I think it wouldn’t have been possible without the confidence and encouragement we got throughout the course.

Last but not least, Le Wagon has a campus in Bali! Even though this was one of the main reasons I chose Le Wagon, I didn’t imagine it would make such a difference. Nature, lifestyle and people in Bali made this experience so much more inspiring. I was able to pursue a balanced life between coding and healing.  We had yoga sessions outdoor regularly to get our poor brain and body burnt out by coding some rest. Being away from everything else, I could fully immerse into coding and the Bali team helped me adapt perfectly to Bali life and enjoy the experiences that I should not miss in here.

    I graduated from Telecom ParisTech but I was not very familiar with code as I haven't been practicing for years. After a 5-year experience in the catering business, I decided to re-learn to code (nearly) from scratch by choosing to enrol at Le Wagon. I took a great pleasure while I was quickly moving forward. The steady immersion in an environment  full of traps and spanners, the quality of the provided tools that is perfectly customised to the teaching of this practice, the great skills of the teachers and their ability to adapt to beginners to better help them to assimilate new concepts, the consistency of the teaching modules and their timeline, the nice work environment where the spirit of co-operation and comradeship is present from day 1, all these elements actively contributed to make me learn not only the basics enabling me to launch a decent web app on my own, but also make me acquire such a taste for coding that I could start a safe transition in web development, and only 2 months after the bootcamp I got hired as a junior developer in an very promising startup.

    I urge everybody to join a coding bootcamp once in a lifetime, even out of curiosity, to discover how the web, one of the most precious and used tools, works and Le Wagon has an unquestionable know-how to make this experience truly exciting.

Before Le Wagon I was working dead end jobs at minimum wage. I always had a passion for computers but I always failed to understand computer programming. Last year I was looking for coding bootcamps to join in Montreal. I found Le Wagon due to their reputation around the world, which made my decision on joining the bootcamp much easier. Once I started the bootcamp after 2 weeks, I was discouraged because each day I had something new to learn I felt like I couldn't keep up. By the time the fouth week came around I understood more and became confident that I can complete the bootcamp. Overall I'm glad I went through this experince and I would do it over again. Now I have the skills of a Full-Stack Developer to start my new career.

Before starting the bootcamp, I worked for years in international trade, mainly in supply chain management. In Brazil, Switzerland and France, I jumped from company to company several times until I realized that I was getting bored at work. But more than that, I needed to have autonomy in my work and not be limited to lengthy processes, hierarchies and meticulously delimited hours.

It became obvious to me that I needed not only to change my career, but to also learn something new that would not cease to stimulate me, in an innovative and dynamic field… then I heard about Le Wagon. Enrolling for the batch #220 was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.

They say the first 3 weeks are difficult, it’s actually worst than that. In the beginning, I thought that coding was after all maybe not for me! That’s when the pedagogical team and the environment played an incredible role, and everybody pushes you to go beyond your mental boundaries. Asking for a Teacher or an Assistant helps you to formulate the right questions and find your own solutions. The school’s methodology is very well developed and the learning curve does not stop rising. At the end of the second week, I remembered my first day there and I was amazed at the progress I had already made.

Being challenged and solving problems every day was one of the most exciting adventures I’ve ever experienced. It’s very intense, but rewarding when you see how much your brain can learn in 9 weeks.

Besides the different languages, many other skills I’ve learned and the projects I’ve been able to develop from scratch, I’m now part of a strong and empowering community.

More than that, thanks to Le Wagon, I now have the tools to define a whole new career and I regained the freedom to invest myself in what really motivates me.

A bit about myself, I studied economics and like a lot of my friends I started working at a bank to be surrounded by like-minded folks but I always had this proclivity for coding. I tried to make some time for it and learn it by myself. I learned a few things but felt very slow and unstructured like I didn’t understand how I could use what I learned in real-life. I could spend days learning something… or I could learn “how to learn” a language and be much more effective. After researching a few other bootcamps, that’s where Le Wagon-Montreal came into play.

What I really liked was the teaching methods. 1 to 2 hour lecture in the morning then you’re off in pairs trying to solve challenges and that’s where most of the learning occurs. When you challenge yourself daily to find answers to problems you develop what I consider the most important web development tool: Problem solving. Of course, there’s always someone to help in case you are stuck. That, for a month and a half is challenging but incredibly rewarding. In the end, you spend a few weeks applying what you learned in a team environment on a project of your choosing and learn how to pitch it!

Le Wagon exceeded my expectations on how much you can learn in just 9 weeks. I also liked that, unlike other bootcamps, it did not advertise itself as a hiring machine here to find you a job as soon as possible. It’s up to you to keep coding and decide what you want to do with it.

I plan on using Le Wagon’s resources and wide network of alumni and business connections to find a job that aligns with my objectives. I highly recommend this bootcamp.

 

After graduating from my degree in history, a true passion of mine, I started travelling the world with the objective of seeing with my own eyes what i’ve been learning in school for 3 years. My goal was actually to take a year off and then come back to Montreal to do my masters degree, in order to become a history teacher.

 

One year and dozens of countries later, I still hadn't seen enough and decided to keep travelling and forgot about the teacher career. Soon after this, I discovered another passion of mine: landscape photography. It began taking a lot of space in my life, so when I came back to Montreal after 3 years of travelling, it became my job.

 

One thing you need to know about me is that I LOVE to connect with people who I have interests in common. So alongside my freelance photography, I started organizing outdoor photography workshops, for people who wanted to take their photography skills to the next level. When the time came to make my website, I discovered a new (yes, another one) passion of mine: technology. It was like a new world appeared before my eyes. What was so appealing to me is that the tech world’s mission was to fix one problem at a time to make humans life not only easier, but also prettier, because of course, what I was more interested in was web design and digital art.

 

It then became obvious for me that I wanted to be part of this new and exciting world and that coding was what interested me the most, especially that it would be very useful for my workshops. That’s when I started doing research on how I could become a programer. A friend of mine talked to me about Le Wagon and gave me his friend’s contact who graduated from the previous batch. I definitely asked him a lot of questions, can 9 weeks really be enough for anyone to become a programmer? What if I NEVER wrote a single line of code before? Am I smart enough? I haven't been in school for so long… What he told me was to trust the program and that anyone could become a programer with a lot of dedication and motivation. Motivated I was so I embarked myself in this crazy adventure at Le Wagon.

 

I will be honest with you: I doubted. The first 2 weeks were so hard that I started asking myself if I really had what it takes to achieve my goal. Teachers, T.A’s and Alumnis were really reassuring though, telling me to trust not only the program but also myself and to just enjoy the ride. I sure did enjoy the ride! The staff, the social events and the friendships that came with the program were really what made the ride so enjoyable. Like I said I love to connect with people that have the same interest than me so le Wagon was perfect for that.

 

So there I was, learning how to code alongside 16 other people from all over the world. However, if you told me at the beginning of the program that my app was going to get picked for demo day and that I would actually be able to design and code the app I don't think I would have believed you. Yet it happened! I coded my very own app with my team and pitched it in front of a 100 people at the Demo day.

 

Now looking back at these very intense 9 weeks, what I can say is that it was certainly difficult, but so gratifying and I would start over anytime. I can now call myself a Full Stack developer and can get my hands on any junior dev job (not without a lot of preparation) or start my own project. Not bad for someone who never wrote a single line of code in her life!

 

I had always had a strong interest in code which started when I was watching my tech team developing our software in previous companies. Before launching my next ventures I had decided that this time I wanted to have the knowledge to code the product myself. I had heard about the course from friends in Paris who had done it in the past and was glad to find the class had also been opened in Barcelona.  

The course is really rich in terms of learning, but it is made in a way that everything is divided in daily courses and exercises which are easy to follow. And if there is anything you don’t understand straight away, the teacher and TAs are helping you with everything you need.

 

I would really recommend le Wagon course to anyone who either want to learn to code or simply become a better product owner by understanding what your engineers are working on.

After the Bootcamp,Emma,  Fred (a fellow le Wagon alumni) and I launched Amenitiz, a website-builder and digital management tool for the hospitality industry, and we’re now working with over 150 properties across Europe. Given the choice again, I would go back to le Wagon anytime, coding changed my life !

I was really intimidated to enter the Wagon! I thought I was not prepared enough, not well equipped, maybe too old, too different, do not deserve my place, etc... In fact, I asked myself too much (bullshit) questions!

Doing the Wagon's coding bootcamp was a revelation for me like destroying a wall that I had been building mentally for years and discovering skills I never thought I'd been able to master before!
It was hard to cope with different problems 10 hours a day every day, but the hardest thing was to fight against myself and fail while usually it's not an option for you. And one of the best part was a lot of other girls out there I could share my doubts with, it was a very supportive community!

This is a very intense but stimulating learning, you feel to exploit a new part of your brain remained dormant so far. If you doubt about yourself, you really have to trust the system, stay commited: a teacher, a TA, an alumni will always be at your side to reassure you about your potential, share his own experience with you, and prove to you that yes ... you can do it as well!

The pair-programming buddy, the Aperotalks with tech industry speakers, the Friday night beer off parties, the 10-day as a technical team project, the Office hours, etc... everything is carefully set up to improve your startup-up mindset, for networking and consolidating the community.

9 weeks later, I go out more confident, the opportunities to work seems endless.
And the aura of the Wagon follows you well after (with your Career Book at hand!) ... This is where you realize the chance to have been integrated into this great 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ family!

Before Le Wagon, I worked for years in logistics for a French retailer and someday I realised that I was searching an opportunity and a change of my professional life. I was used to data manuplation and was curious about coding my own application in my spear time.

So I tried to learn to code on online plateforms after work and in my weekends but it was far from efficient and I felt like wasting my time doing things that I didn't really understand. It was an frustrating coding experience until I decided to stop working and go for full-time bootcamp in Le Wagon. 

Here I spent 9 very intensive weeks that I never ever regretted with my motivated classmates, very good teachers Kelvin and Julien, and everyday helpful teaching assitants (during our coding time). It's with them that I managed to learn, and make mistakes.  

Today I know coding and I continue to code my own project with friends. And with what I learnt during these 9 weeks, I finally manage to learn other languages and technologies online myself. It opened a door to my life.

Going into University I was unsure what I wanted to do after but went straight into an Economics degree “to keep as many options open as possible”. Four years later, with my Economics Bachelor in hand and with one year of work experience, I knew two things. The first being that what I had done during my work experience was not for me and the second that I had no intentions of further theoretical learning of any subject.

I decided to give myself a year to try different things: making a career out of my passion for cooking, travelling and giving myself time to figure things out. Working in a restaurant kitchen for three months, it quickly became clear that cooking was a passion but not a career for me. During that time a friend of mine was at le Wagon. Having already heard of the bootcamp whilst at University, I started to consider it for myself. I spoke to three alumni, from three very different backgrounds and I was convinced!

Looking back, these 9 weeks were hands down the most intense and intellectually and socially stimulating that I can remember. It has been an incredible personal journey to be welcomed into the amazing group that is Le Wagon community. I have learnt hard skills that I really enjoy and feel I can apply in a professional environment and my future career. Sharing this experience with other students creates strong connections and strong friendships as a result.

I cannot recommend Le Wagon strongly enough. Everyone will tell you that the most difficult part is the first three weeks but, for me, the hardest part was leaving all the amazing people I met straight after the end of the 9 weeks. My only advice then would be to give yourself some time after le Wagon, as it is truly a life changing experience.