Le Wagon

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.

During my 4 years experience in the start-up ecosystem, I’ve been dreaming of coding and taking part in the developers’ round-tables. However, my lack of technical skills was a barrier to my participation and it seemed like an unreachable dream until I discovered Le Wagon through my friends who experienced the same frustrations.

During the 9 weeks of intensive training, the teachers did a phenomenal job as they drove the program with passion and great guidance to arm me with technical skills. Not only I am now able to working with my technical team but I can also develop my own web applications.

Enrolling at Le Wagon also means joining a growing community of passionate developers from all around the world who are feeding the network on daily basis and sharing knowledge.

The people I met, the experience I had and the skills I acquired were above my expectations. After Le Wagon, I decided to keep on coding and grow as a full stack developer.

Le Wagon has a very friendly environment, open to students coming from all around the world. I started programming in India in 2015 and then, in 2017, I came to Canada (Montreal) to continue my studies. Before starting the bootcamp with Le Wagon in 2019, I was studying in a private university in Montréal, the "Institut Supérieur d’Informatique", where I completed my AEC (Certificate of Collegial Studies). After that, I had two options: I was accepted at University (UQAM) for a technical program, or I could do Le Wagon. I thought a lot and evaluated both options and decided go with Le Wagon. I chose Le Wagon because of the learning environment but ESPECIALLY the fact that they use Ruby on Rails. Also, I preferred the fact that I would be studying 9 intensive weeks practicing instead of doing 3 years of theory at University. I do not regret my weeks spent at bootcamp, I learned a lot, it opened my eyes, it allowed me to really understand the world of programming. If I had to do this again, I do it again with a GREAT PLEASURE. The last 2 weeks of the bootcamp were very rewarding for me because I was able to apply what I had learned during the 7 weeks. My project, ”Hike Away”, was very interesting to create: it allows people to travel and discover other worlds. It can be checked here: http://www.hikeaway.ca/

My forties crisis? One thing is certain, I wanted to change my life. I worked more than 60 hours a week, sometimes even at night, without counting, for a company that was looking for its business model. Health concerns have led me to question my lifestyle and commitment. We used web agencies and developers, but the result was not up to our expectations. Creating a simple landing page for the launch of a service seemed out of reach to me. There was some mystery and fascination with the code. There are many online resources for learning. I had started a few years ago to learn the basics with Codecademy. However, learning alone in front of a screen requires will and commitment. I did not even go after the first week.

As a perfectionist, I like things to be done according to the rules. Writers learn the rules of the language, before freeing themselves from them to create masterpieces. I had to learn the basics to move forward. That's why I opted for a shortcut, to integrate a bootcamp that has proven its worth, with a well-defined methodology. The one of Le Wagon is proven. The motto is explicit : 'change your life, learn to code'. So I decided to make a leap of faith, my goal was not to become a developer, but to understand the mindset and the "working process".

I had been warned from the first day: it would be difficult, do not compare yourself to others, each progressing at his own pace. Optimistic by nature, I had not measured the extent of these warnings. Go back to the place of a student, take a class in the morning, and then continue with exercises the rest of the day, get stuck in front of an error message, try to understand why, and solve the error, move on to the next one. New concepts every day, then exercises, every day. For nine weeks. But it is worth it. Actually, thinking backward, it seems obvious: facing a complex problem, you divide it into smaller parts, and keep resolving each one. Simple to say, the execution takes time. I learned to step back on the issue, and to consider the different options. Now with this experience I can face a problem without fear, and keep confident. My first experience: debugging a website made with wordpress, the client was looking for an expert. A friend of mine sent me the request and told me to accept the challenge, and to fake it until I make it. Well I made it.

Today I am launching my web agency, targeting the Chinese market, and helping companies who want to brand overseas. In the meantime, I can bootstrap with freelance gigs with my new skills. I can discuss web marketing and web strategy with my clients, asking senior developers to help me in the process, I keep learning every day, still face error messages, but fearless and confident...

Would I recommend Le Wagon? 110%, would I do it again? Definitely. And more : I would go back to my twenties and kick my ass to learn to code.

My next challenge: be fluent in mandarin.

Who knows what my fifties crisis will lead me to..

After 3 years spent developing the business activity of a startup in the smart cities field (OPnGO), I decided to follow the coding bootcamp Le Wagon to develop my technical skills.

Indeed, during my experience at OPnGO, I saw a start-up grow from 3 to 70 people in 30 months and I had to deal with scalability issues, especially on topics related to marketing. It occurred to me that it was not always easy to understand the problems of a technical team of 30 people and to interact with them. Moreover, it seemed to me that this lack of understanding could make my arbitration decisions less relevant, especially when defining the technical roadmap of the product. Finally, I quickly realized that becoming autonomous on the development of front-end improvements could represent a huge advantage in terms of responsiveness, especially with respect to tech teams that are often overloaded in the growth phase.

The wagon perfectly met my expectations and even exceeded them by making me discover a network of alumni active and very supportive. The wagon will remain a very strong experience in my life and I know it will count in the way I approach my next challenges. Indeed, thanks to these new skills, I intend to integrate a new startup and to cross new stages of development.