Le Wagon

I had always been interested in becoming a programmer, but it seemed like an impenetrable industry with a steep learning curve and conflicting advice on the best way to get into it. Like many people trying to teach themselves to code, I spent countless years being stuck in “tutorial purgatory”. I lost count of how many beginner courses I completed, but I just couldn’t see how it would translate into an actual career. I lacked any direction or roadmap and didn’t have a network of peers that I could turn to for advice.

The other problem was not knowing how to code within a team. What’s the general etiquette? What tools are used? How are projects divided up amongst team members? It was the day-to-day of working in the industry that online courses were not giving me. Add to that the fact that I was stuck in a job that left me feeling exhausted and stressed that I simply did not have the energy to continue my learning at a sustained rate.

I decided to take the plunge, quit my job, and enrol at Le Wagon (batch #190). I can honestly say, it’s been one of the best decisions of my entire life.

Within the first week, I had already surpassed what had taken me 3 years of self-study to achieve. I am going to be completely frank, this course is intense! I strongly advise anyone taking this course to make sure that they have no other commitments whilst it’s running. This will be the hardest you will have worked for a long time.

I was taken aback by how slick the entire setup was. Their teaching platform (called Kitt) is hands down one of the most well designed and impressive sites I have ever seen. You have access to all of the lectures in case you miss a day (although definitely try not to miss any days if possible!), and this access extends to after you complete the batch (more on this later).

The teachers are all extremely knowledgable and very patient, especially with some of the harder concepts. The teaching assistants also were a great help, with a lot of them being recent Le Wagon graduates.

But the most important question is what is life after the batch like? Will you actually get a job in development. Well, almost all of the fellow students I speak to have already got jobs or have been offered jobs. I myself was offered a teaching assistant role at Le Wagon itself. This has been great as it’s eased the pressure a bit whilst searching for a job. As I write this now, I am scheduled to have an interview later this afternoon, so it’s definitely improved my job prospects.

The best thing post-course is the support you get afterwards. You still get access to all the learning material (you could do the entire course again in video form if you like). But you also get access to a massive Slack community for alumni. This was one of the missing pieces for me, I now have that group of peers that I can call upon that I didn’t have before.

Whether or not Le Wagon is right for you depends on your circumstances. The amount of effort you put into it is what determines what you get out of it. I can only speak for my own personal experience, but what I was looking for was a clean break away from my old job and to dive straight into a new career. Whilst I am still job hunting at the moment, I can safely say that I will not be going back to my old career!

I always had, somewhere in my mind, the idea to, one day, create my startup, run my own company.
So I decided to start my journey with an International Business School (That’s what most people do). At the end of the Business School, I had to fulfil a 6 months internship, where I met recently graduated people from Le Wagon. They showed me what is coding and told me about Le Wagon and how amazing it is during and after the 3 months courses.

After this, I wanted to learn to code, this would be the next step for me to build my future. After the bootcamp, I would be able to understand and read code, and get ready to start new experiences as a developer.

Coding was fun, really fun, it’s such an amazing experience, whatever your background is!
I’m using computer everyday of my life, and for anything, and at the beginning, I thought coding would be super easy.
To be honest, it wasn’t hard, it was enjoyable every single day, every single minute, but it was far from what I was expecting. And the reality is that, even with almost 0 computer knowledge, who ever you are and wherever you are from, you can do it and change your life.
Also, we had such an amazing batch, people were so nice, teachers and teachers assistants were awesome! Without forgetting our lovely and amazing community manager Avalon!

Having a coding buddy everyday is the best thing to learn coding. If you’re stuck, your buddy will help you, or you can help him. Both of you united, you can face any challenge (almost, any challenges, some are pretty hard ahah).

Learning to code was also a really great experience because, you know, Barcelona. We had exceptionally sunny October, November and December, weather was pretty beautiful and people in Barcelona are really nice. There are so many activities to do apart from coding, during your free time, there is no time to bother!

The advice I would give, and the one that was given to me the very first day when I asked for one : “Do you flashcards!” - If you don’t know what it is, you will know it soon enough!
Also, don’t try too hard. If you’re stuck on an exercise, it’s a normal thing, you’re here to learn, and you will, in the end, know how to do it. So if you’re stuck more than 45min/1hour, ask your buddy, or ask a teacher, they will help you. But do not ask immediately, you have to try by yourself if you want to learn, and how proud of you you will be once you find the solution by your own, trust me, amazing feeling!

One sentence to describe my experience : Le Wagon was the best thing I could have done in my life so far, and it truly changed my life and my future.
Enjoy every moments Wagonners and future Wagonners!

Despite working as a translator, I had a background in IT prior to coming to Le Wagon (mostly programming Windows applications and Linux scripts on my own time). For me Le Wagon was a transition to web development, so I perhaps cannot speak to the difficulty of the course as objectively as those for who coding is a brand new experience. Nonetheless, my time at Le Wagon London was time well spent.

The hours are long, and the amount of content daunting, but the unconditional support provided by the teachers and assistants, many of which are ex-alumni who have gone through it all themselves, help make the 9 weeks go by in a flash. The general atmosphere in the office gives you a good sense of what it's like to be a part of a startup, and during the last 3 weeks you get to be part of the process of designing an app from scratch all the way to production.

Finishing the course is not easy. It's a lot of information to assimilate in a relatively short time-frame, which can be exhausting. But getting through it is extremely rewarding and something you won't soon forget. All in all, after being a part of batch 190 in London, I can safely say it was well worth it.

I signed up for Le Wagon after having taught myself to code for the previous four months. At the time, I was mainly interested in formalizing my knowledge and expanding my network. I expected the bootcamp to be fun (and had heard as much from a few alumni), but I didn’t expect to learn *that* much that I hadn’t already covered in my own studies.

As it turns out, I was definitely wrong about that last part. I learned *way* more during my two months at Le Wagon than I had during the preceding fourth months of self-directed learning. The course has a great structure, a heap of helpful resources and, most important of all, a super-enthusiastic group of teachers who really care about your development.

I felt confident applying for jobs after finishing the bootcamp and ended up finding full-time work as a software engineer within two weeks of graduation. So, in short, I can say with all sincerity that my Le Wagon experience exceeded expectations (and my expectations were already high). Would most definitely recommend

My Le Wagon Batch 199 Barcelona journey started somewhat unexpectedly. Having worked in corporate purchasing and program management for almost 10 years since graduating college, I never thought that I would make such a drastic career change. However when I realized that at 33 I was stuck in the never-ending 8 to 5 leading to eventual retirement without any realization of my dreams, it was a fairly easy decision. It was now or never. 

All my life I had ideas for websites and apps and that’s all they were, just ideas. Learning to code gave me the tools to make those ideas reality. It gave me the confidence to be able to tackle any feature that I would like to add to my website. 

There were so many highlights to this amazing experience. The people really made it special. The teachers were top notch and I was lucky to have an absolutely incredible batch. We worked very hard during the week at class, but also were able to explore the amazing Barcelona together on weekends and let loose a bit!  

Barcelona is a great place, with so much culture. Every weekend there is something different to do. I don’t remember a single weekend or day when I could not find something fun to do in my somewhat limited free time. There is the beach, parks, and just an unlimited amount of little bars and restaurants that anyone would be able to find something they enjoy!

My advice to future students would be to really enjoy the experience because it goes by very very fast. Monday through Friday, really concentrate on the classwork. Don’t miss ANY days. It is very easy to fall behind if you do. Watch the lectures on KITT the night before if you can. But also, really explore Barcelona on the weekends. If you put in the work during the week, you will have plenty of time on the weekends to explore and get to know this amazing city. Get to know your classmates. you will go through a lot with them. But really, ENJOY the experience. There is nothing quite like it that you will do in your life. You will meet people with different backgrounds from all around the world, learn new things, try new food. This is just step one of a long and beautiful journey, but a very important one. So enjoy it!

Le Wagon gave me the tools and confidence to tackle my dreams, make some amazing friends along the way, and what happens next is up to me!

I'm a alumni leWagon from the batch #188 in Montreal.
I use to be an engineer in the aircraft industry, after 4 years of experiment I've drooped my job in France to come in Montreal, following a master degree in environment. 
I decided to change my life by following Lewagon training and it was the best decision in my life.
How can I sum up my experience? Learning a lot! Discovering a passion. Meeting amazing people. Finding in myself i'm maybe less stupid that I was thinking. 
This experiment just gave me more confidence and new perspectives for the future. More modern and exiting.
Now I think I can build a career which make me proud and open to me a lot of new directions and field.

By the way! I'm actually assistant teacher for LeWagon Montreal and it's a very nice experience. 

TL;DR :

I more than loved my Le Wagon experience. From both human and learning sides, it was the best 9 weeks ever. The teachers are 300% dedicated, the whole staff, in fact, acts that way.

Having a self-taught background and working as a graphic designer & webdesigner, I wanted to upgrade my tech skills, I ended up not only sith a solid development knowledge, but also with more confidence, learnt how to speak in front of a bunch of people to present a product, how to work with other people on a project…
In a few words : amazing experience.
Le Wagon FTW. <3

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For those who wants to read the whole text I published on my blog about that amazing experience, here it is.

1er octobre.

Autour de la grande table en bois, pas très loin des croissants et des chocolatines de bienvenue, les nouveaux 22 se jaugent. Il est encore tôt et on nous a bien dit de ne pas arriver en retard, à 8h30, on ferme les portes, tant pis pour vous. On est tous là, bien sûr, mi-excités, mi-fatigués - on perd vite l’habitude du rythme scolaire.

Après quelques cafés (les premiers d’une longue, très longue série, je pense avoir éclaté mon record de consommation de caféine pendant cette période-là), on s’est installés en classe, avec cette ambiance de premier jour, ces nouvelles habitudes que l’on va commencer à se fabriquer sans trop savoir encore jusqu’où elles iront. Ma place, deuxième table à gauche, place du milieu. J. à ma gauche, A. à ma droite. Ce sera comme ça tous les matins, tous les soirs, alternant ainsi les heures de cours tantôt très studieuses, tous très concentrés, fronçant des sourcils sur des concepts un peu compliqués encore, qui nous paraissent flous, abstraits, lointains ; tantôt d’une insolente déconcentration, fous-rires et gribouillis sur les cahiers, gloussement sur des blagues pas si drôles, mais après une journée passée à coder, qui nous en aurait voulu, de rigoler bêtement comme cela.

30 novembre, 18h.

Dans la salle, on a installé beaucoup de chaises, on vient de tester le son au micro. C. à côté de moi répète le bal des actions sur le clavier, précieusement minuté, pendant je présenterai l’application que l’on a fini de développer. Depuis quelques heures déjà, on est tous prêts, stressés et fébriles, à l’idée de raconter en quelques minutes le travail des 10 derniers jours. Je suis morte de peur. Au cours de ces deux mois, j’ai gagné en confiance en moi, mais je reste terrorisée à l’idée de parler - en anglais - devant toute cette foule de gens, pour présenter le projet dont j’ai porté l’idée, le projet que nous avons construit tous les quatre, en partant d’une feuille blanche.

Assis sur la grande table qui nous a vus crier de joie quand tout fonctionnait, qui nous a vu taper des poings quand, oh, j’ai tout cassé, assis sur cette table, on balance des pieds en attendant. Certains ont déjà ouvert une bière, d’autres préfèrent se ronger les ongles. C. s’est fait un thé « I really feel British when I do that ».

Les visages amis s’installent dans la salle, et puis c’est à nous. 5 minutes pour convaincre, 5 minutes pour prouver à toutes ces personnes, juste là devant, que nous sommes vraiment des full-stack dev.

Et puis entre ces deux moments, 2 mois, 9 semaines. 9 semaines de six-sept-huit-neuf cafés par jour, de cookies avoine-chocolat du 8ème étage, de bières le vendredi soir (les premières semaines, et puis de bières à partir du mardi soir, après), de yeux fatigués le matin pour le cours de la journée, de yeux perdus qui répondent d’eux-mêmes à la question « do you understand ? », de sourires victorieux quand c’est bon, je suis capable d’expliquer ce que je viens de faire. 9 semaines de messages en continu sur Slack, 9 semaines de sommeil oublié, de Sublime Text ouvert en permanence. de vie rêvée en lignes de commandes sur le terminal.

9 semaines d’amitiés, aussi - parfois un peu plus, mais mes sous-entendus s’arrêteront là -, de petite bulle fermée, entre nous, on se serre les coudes, on apprend ensemble, à coder et à travailler, à expliquer, à se planter, à recommencer ; 9 semaines de lamentations autour de la machine à café, 9 semaines de yeux cernés. 9 semaines à part, entre les murs vitrés de La Gar, à se demander si vraiment, à la fin, on comprendra ce qu’il faut mettre dans le model ou dans le controller.

La deuxième semaine, il y avait un apéro (on a beaucoup pris l’apéro pendant ces 9 semaines) où les alumni venaient nous parler un petit peu. Tous étaient d’accord sur la même chose, Le Wagon avait été l’une des plus belles aventures de leur vie. Je rigolais doucement au début, bien sûr que j’en attendais beaucoup, de cette formation, mais tout de même, je trouvais que c’était un peu exagéré, en deux mois, il ne peut pas se passer tant de choses.

7 semaines après, je suis convaincue de la même chose.

On leur a déjà dit, et je ne suis toujours pas à l’aise avec les grandes déclarations d’amour, mais tout de même, je voulais écrire noir sur blanc, une dernière fois, mon infinie gratitude pour l’ensemble des profs et de l’équipe du Wagon Montréal. Je n’avais jamais vu autant de passion, de dévouement et d’entraide comme cela et cela n’aurait vraiment pas été pareil sans eux.

I used to work in communications. I felt a bit stuck in my work, couldn't see any possibilities of evolution, I wasn't learning anything new and I was losing all motivation. I had the feeling coding would be something I would love doing, but I didn't want to go back into long studies and wasn't sure where to start.

Then a friend of mine told me about Le Wagon. This bootcamp had everything I was looking for: a clearly defined learning path, passionate teachers always available to help, and many great co-students to learn with! Thanks to Le Wagon, I've learned many valuable skills in computer programming of course, but also in team work.

Today I'm on a new career path that I really love and where I can keep on learning new things everyday. What I especially appreciate from Le Wagon is that once the bootcamp is over, they still keep in touch with you and help you look for a job. It feels like being part of a family!

I had not studied any programming language before I joined LeWagon.

Since we only had nine weeks to become a programmer, the class went very fast.

At first it was difficult for me to understand the lessons held in English since I had never lived in any English-speaking countries.

What do you think about it after reading my situation? Do you think it seems difficult to get programming knowledge for me?

So did I. I worried about whether I could follow the classmates.

But after these 9 weeks, I know I should not have worried about anything.

There were teachers and assistants who were very good at teaching.

Moreover, classmates were enthusiastic to get skills, so they motivated me.

Now, I can make web apps since I get skills of Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and so on.

This camp is good to get skills in only nine weeks!

For the lazy ones 😉:
+ Well structured days with lecture, coding with a buddy and live coding session.
+ Large learning platform: videos of the lectures to rewatch, learning cards, cheatsheets, tasks with solutions, etc. 
+ Good and competent teachers
+ Interesting classmates from all around the world, of different ages, with different professional backgrounds

--> Net Promoter Score 10/10

A bit more detailed 🧐:
My background: After working for several years as an account manager for several companies, I came to a point in my life where I had to decide whether I wanted to continue or whether I wanted to develop in a new direction. Coding and programming have always interested me, but I have somehow never found the right entry. Through a friend I came across Le Wagon and then got over quitting my job and visiting the boot camp.

I visited the batch in autumn 2018 with about 40 others. At the beginning I thought that there were too many people, but the lessons were always very smooth. With the "buddy system" you work with a different classmate every day anyway. In general, everything is very well structured. The day starts with a lecture, then you work with the buddy on various tasks. You basically work independently, but if you can't get any further, you can fall back on the buddy. This system has a very exciting dynamic, because sometimes I understood a concept better and thus helped the buddy and sometimes vice versa. By explaining it, you learn a lot yourself. In the evening follows a live coding session in class.

The learning platform is very well structured with all the tasks (built-in solutions), videos and slides of the lectures, flashcards, etc. (Of course you still have access after the course). 

Some teachers are Le Wagon Alumnis, but all are competent and more than capable. For more complicated topics (e.g. SQL) there are also external experts who teach.

• I learned more useful things in 9 weeks than in 4 years of university😛! ...It was a very good decision!

Le Wagon has been a sort of cathartic career changing experience for me. I had no idea that I was able to learn so many valuable skills in such a short time-frame. Having studied completely different subjects for the past 7 years, I thought that coding would be a very difficult challenge. Alas, the teachers in Berlin proved me otherwise. Le Wagon's methods are simple, to the point and quite clear about where they are heading towards during the 9-week program. You learn all the basics to become a good web developer through a completely hands-on approach. You write your code, you test it, you break it, and you have those 10 seconds of bliss when it finally works. Then you move on to the next exercise and to the same process all over again. All of this punctuated with interesting talks and insights that the staff organize in a weekly basis. It is incredibly interesting and really helps you if you’re not familiar with the whole tech scene.

The staff is incredibly friendly and always willing to teach you and help you with whatever you need. From the driver to the teachers, everyone is very accessible and friendly. This really made Le Wagon stand out for me, I felt like I didn't want to leave the bootcamp at the end of each day. Make no mistake, doing a bootcamp is a handful of work, but Le Wagon manages to create a excellent work environment for everyone, which made the whole learning experience a lot more enjoyable than I thought.

All of this culminates in the last 3 weeks when you work with a closed team of 3 to 4 people on your final project. It is a true taste of working in a team project, filled with the highs and lows you might expect. The teachers are even more involved than before, helping each team to design their apps. People will get stressed, your team will break new ground when it comes to coding skills and you'll learn a lot of new, specific things during the last part of the bootcamp, all of this according to what you plan on doing. Then, on the final day, you and your team demonstrate what you built to everyone, and you marvel not necessarily at the app you created, but at how everything came together in the end (sometimes against all odds) and you managed to finish everything you set out to do.

Le Wagon? 10/10, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. I have learned valuable coding and teamwork skills that will certainly help me a lot in the years to come as I dive into a whole different field of work.