Le Wagon

I completed the 9 week Le Wagon bootcamp that started in June 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal.

It totally surpassed my expectations - I learnt far more than I thought I would, I made awesome friends and the alumni community was stronger and more global than I expected (I live in Sydney now and meet up with Le Wagoners here and everyone is super helpful on the alumni Slack channels).

I didn't do the course to change careers - I've been in finance for 10 years and I enjoy my job. I did the course because I wanted to create things and follow through on ideas. I love coding so much now that I am nonetheless contemplating a career change - either way it will be part of my life from here on.

My advice - (1) Ruby and web-apps are probably the best place to start. I was considering a mobile-app centered bootcamp but I'm glad I did Le Wagon fullstack because it empowered me with a solid understanding of a range of coding skills and concepts so it's easy for me to learn new languages and platforms. (2) Speak to alumni and the drivers of the location you are considering - the culture in the Lisbon bootcamp was perfect for me and I chose to study there specifically (I was living in New York at the time). Having a really good batch with enthusiastic teachers helps you get through the program (which can be intense at times - you have to learn super fast).

I've wanted to learn coding for 3 or 4 years, so one day I finally decided to quit my job and go for it! I looked trough several bootcamps and Le Wagon got my attention for two main reasons: compared to other trainings it's connected to real business life and it's "only" 9 weeks (I wanted to switch careers rapidly). Now I can say it, it went beyond my expectations. Le Wagon gave me a very operational package (when you end it, you can actually build something functionnal) and in these "only" 9 weeks I've learnt a lot of tools and languages: Ruby and Rails, SQL, Javascript, SCSS, Github, etc.

I was working in the operations team of a tech startup when I decided to join Le Wagon in Milan (batch #181) and it turned out being of my best decisions. 
In my previous role, I was constantly surrounded by developers and somehow fascinated by what they were doing. I did not have any relevant coding experience or knowledge at that time (I graduated in Management Engineer) and little by little I started to feel limited because of that, while my curiosity was keeping on increasing day after day. 
Changing career path is never an easy decision but at Le Wagon I felt supported from the very beginning and most important, I felt part of its huge, international and talented community from day one. 
The energy and passion of the teachers are contagious, and their support and advise during the lectures and the final project invaluable. The course is intense, and you have to deal with a huge amount of information and new concepts every day, but the lectures and exercises are well structured and tailored so that you don't feel lost or overwhelmed. 
And in case this happens, you have access to all the resources and help you might need to go back on track. You won't remain behind! 
I am fully satisfied with my journey at Le Wagon, and I now feel confident to start a new chapter of my life as a developer.

I decided to sign up for Le Wagon after spending a little less than 2 years in a chemical analysis lab. As it turned out, it was not the career path for me, despite devoting 4+ years in the study of life sciences. I needed to do something that challenged me more, that allowed me to think through a problem logically and creatively. Knowing many people in the field of software development, I felt that this was my future. My friend recommended Le Wagon, as it was a highly praised bootcamp and it allowed me to go study abroad a bit, which I love doing. So I set off to Amsterdam, with a limited knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

 

    After the 9 weeks there, I can do nothing but compliment the whole experience. From day one I saw how beautifully diverse our classroom was, not only in culture but in knowledge of the field. Some had already worked as developers, and others were completely new to coding altogether. It was clear from the first lesson that our teachers were not just there for a paycheck, but legitimately cared that you understood the topics, as many of them have gone through the same experience. The focus of Le Wagon, I felt, was not to just teach you how to code, but how to think like a coder. Answers were never given to you (despite the occasional pleading). Instead a teacher would sit down with you and you would both brainstorm together, as it often is in a real-life setting. You learn to be open with your confusions and questions, and to ask around and discuss with teachers and classmates. This is something many classrooms wish to have, but I have never seen it done as successfully as at Le Wagon. The days are long, and the challenges are challenging, and as a result you really get to know your classmates and teachers. I’ve made very close friends in this bootcamp, and I still stay in touch with them, despite living on the other side of the globe.

    During those nine weeks can confidently say I know Ruby on Rails, and have built several applications using the skills I learned in this course. I can also tell you that I had a great many stories and adventures that will stay with me forever. Doing the course did feel like that first step I needed towards my new life and career. I will deeply miss Le Wagon, and recommend it to anyone who’s looking for that first step towards their future.

Before joining le Wagon, I was working full time at a Bank and completing a bachelor degree in Software Engineering. Although I already had coding experience, I learned a lot of new valuable skills and explored new material during these nine rewarding weeks at Le Wagon.    The teachers are very knowledgeable and helpful and take time to ensure you understand the material that is being covered. The curriculum is well designed to teach you everything you need to be a full stack developer. The platform that Le Wagon students use every day is impressive and provides you with a wide range of resources and material that can also be very useful after the Bootcamp. I was even able to prepare for parts of my technical interviews by reviewing these resources made available by Le Wagon's platform.   The final project, which is completed during the last two weeks, gives you the opportunity to experience what it's like to bring a product to life from conception to final deployment.  The product design sprint was a great learning experience as it equips you with the tools needed to tackle real-life entrepreneurial challenges.    Following the completion of le Wagon Bootcamp, I was able to land a web development position at a great and reputable software company in Montreal. I am grateful for the valuable knowledge and experience that this program provided me and would encourage anyone who wants to change to a career in tech to join this excellent program.

After graduating in business three years ago, I started working as a project manager on innovative services and digital products for large companies. Working every day with designers and developers I realized that I lacked some technical knowledge, I felt like I was always asking dumb questions, or not understanding how much work was needed to build something.

I decided to go to Le Wagon to improve my technical skills…it was the best decision ever!

Le Wagon is an incredible experience. You learn so much in 9 weeks and meet amazing people.

What I liked the most was the classes' practical approach and exercises.

Every morning you learn new things that you apply in the afternoon to solve problems, even on the first day.

The lead teachers are always available, and you still can get help from the teaching assistants who are there every day.

The level is regularly increasing, you start with easy concepts then to building and launching a web app in the last weeks.

There is also an excellent mindset between all students, really friendly, we all helped each other a lot.

Almost every day we would have lunch together, and Friday dinner every 
week.

The alumni community is active as well, probably the best Slack on earth!

Le Wagon doesn’t make you a computer science engineer, but it definitively gives you the keys to keep learning and start a new career as a developer.

It is a robust and intensive nine-week bootcamp. You feel tired at the end of the day to the extent that your brain hurts, but the learning experience is so great. It is like you grow a new coding brain in 9 weeks.

I would do it again!

I am very thankful for my time at Le Wagon, and for the opportunities it has opened up for me. Whether you want to become a junior developper or as an entrepreneur launch your own project, or work as a freelance : Le Wagon team does everything they can to help get you achieve your goals 🎯

Teachers and lovely staff strive to create and maintain a unique environment where students can learn new technologies with the best practices and hone their programming skills in the best conditions 🌿 The courses are intense; be prepared to work hard. I learned a lot, very quickly and pair programming was a blast.

The best part about going to Le Wagon is the amazing group of students and the robust alumni community that you get to be part of, it’s the perfect place to meet brilliant people ✨After the Bootcamp you’re still connected to everyone through Slack.

I Would highly highly recommend Le Wagon to anyone wanting a career in tech, or anyone who want to build and launch new products with a lean startup mindset. If you are still indecisive : JUST DO IT.

After 5 years of business school I graduated with a specialization in luxury marketing. My internships led me to work in project and digital project management. after a while, I felt that something was missing. I needed to DO something, not just supervise or manage. I wanted to see the result of my work at the end of the day, for the best and the worst.

This 9 weeks at Le Wagon went so fast. It’s hard to realize how much knowledge you can assimilate in such a small amount of time. Every small victories leading to a urge to learn more. Also I think all the magic doesn’t come only from the learning thirst. Humanly speaking, it’s a blast of fresh air, It’s really amazing to be with all that people with different background, age, and share the same objectives.

I like to drive projects from their beginning to their very end and used to consider my missions through a business and a marketing vision, Le Wagon gave me the technical view I needed. I quickly had opportunities and had to decide if I’d rather work as a Product manager or as a Developper.
Today, I’m a working as Front-End Developper.

After working almost 10 years in a Hotel, I realised it was no longer for me. I was tired of working 10 to 14 hours per day, I barely had any time to enjoy my personal life and was mentally and physically exhausted. So, I had to make a decision and look for something different. After doing a bit of solo traveling, I realised what I really wanted in life, and that was to be free to travel wherever, work whenever and for whoever I want. After quite a lot of research, I found that Freelance Web Developer was the way to go as it combines my passion for traveling and new technologies. Looking deeper at what was needed to become a freelance developer, I thought to myself that this would take too much time to learn all by myself and would soon hit a brick wall so I then searched for coding bootcamps. It was then that I found Le Wagon, one of the best coding bootcamps in the world. At first, after reading all the reviews, it seemed too good to be true. But after talking and meeting with the founder in person in December 2017, and also seeing the location of Le Wagon Bali, I just had to take advantage of this opportunity and apply for the course. As of June 15th, 2018, I finally quit my job and flew off to Bali for two months to take part in what would be the best experience ever. Le Wagon Bali has given me all the basic tools needed for getting started as a full-stack web developer and more. For those interested in taking the same path, I highly recommend Le Wagon, Bali. The staff were outstanding, patient and were always available to help. This bootcamp has taught me Ruby, SQL, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, Rails, and many others. Due to the intensiveness of this course, it was pretty overwhelming at the beginning and almost felt like giving up but thankfully, with the help of teachers and other students, I didn’t feel alone in the struggle and was able to get through it and felt more confident about what I had learnt. The final weeks were the most interesting as this is where you get to see how much you’ve learnt, which by the way is an amazing feeling, by designing, implementing and shipping to production a clone of AirBnB and a Rails prototype of a project that you either pitch or join. What am I doing now? Well, I’m improving my skills by taking courses on Codecademy, reading books and creating my own projects.

My name is Stephane, and I’ll be 52 years old in a week. I have done many things in my life so far, including rock climbing (climbing and teaching), playing in a few bands for a number of years (none which you would have heard of), doing live sound for concerts for the last 20 years, teaching Qìgong... For the past 7 years, I’ve been studying and training in Chinese Medecine and Martial Arts.

Last spring, I had to make a decision about what I wanted to do, money-wise, for the next 15 years of my life. And I remembered how much fun I had a year ago, when I was setting up my girlfriend’s e-commerce store and needed to learn a bit of HTML and CSS to do so. The magic of Code! Being able to create stuff just like that was fascinating.

So I looked into programs and schools and found Le Wagon. Before investing time and money into a boot camp, I needed to make sure I was going in the right direction, and so I did the Build a Website from Scratch course on Codecademy. One night, looking up from my code and realizing 6 hours had passed by without me noticing, I knew I had found my new career.

Meeting Guillaume and seeing how serious Le Wagon is about what they do convinced me. And I have to say, the boot camp has been one of the greatest, most intense, knowledge-crammed, frustrating, elating and most awesome experience in my life! Yes, it is tough. Yes, it is confronting and yes, you’ll get discouraged (especially at the end of week 3).

But if you keep the pace, if you do your flash cards every day, if you gear up for a marathon and not a sprint, you’ll get through it. And I’ll bet you’ll feel extremely proud of your achievements on demo day (once the presentations are over). You won’t believe what you’ll be able to create after such a short period of time.

Right now, I am working on my first (and quite imposing) freelance project: migrating an e-commerce store to a new platform, setting up an LMS class and grouping all of it into a Rails application. Lots of time spent on Google so far ;0).

I'm also currently a TA for batch #188 in Montreal, a great opportunity I am deeply grateful for. Happy coding!

 I was reading a lot of good things but when the program started I was simply amazed. I did not expect such an ideal organization of the learning process. The platform we used during the bootcamp is really great and helps you to focus and find all the information in one place.
The educational process is a perfect balance of lectures and practical assignments as well as individual and group work. Which means the lectures are kept short, about 1,5 hours in the morning, which leaves the rest of the day for hands-on exercises. Also, you work in a buddy-system and collaborate with your classmates a lot, most of the time you are solving the challenges individually and that’s where the learning is happening. Of course, always under the guidance and with the help of cool and talented teachers who are there for you whenever you need them.
The last 3 weeks of the course we worked in teams building a working prototype and definitely gathered all the necessary skills to work independently in the future. Simply impossible to obtain this kind of knowledge studying by yourself online.
My new professional life started from the first day of the bootcamp and now with the necessary tools, I can continue by myself. At the time writing this it’s been 2 months since I graduated and I’m still learning every day. I work on my own projects and also became a co-founder of a small web-company.
The bootcamp not only teaches development skills but also boosts your entrepreneurship. It was really challenging but above all encouraging and rewarding.
And two words about Bali – it’s a magical island and my new Love. I hope to return soon and not only once.