Le Wagon

I have been living in Japan for 5 years working as an English teacher but teaching myself coding on the side. I tried to switch careers multiple times with no luck until I found Le Wagon in Tokyo. 

Teachers are amazing. The program is hands-on with lectures and then building on what you learn through challenges and small projects throughout the day. The teachers take you through the concepts step by step. There are TAs (and the teachers) that help with the day's challenges if you need it. I was an incredible experience and I almost didn't want it to end.

Now, I'm a full-stack developer for a startup in Tokyo. I've built life-long friends through the program and have finally realized my dream to code professional all thanks to Le Wagon!

Le Wagon changed my life completely.
Honestly I couldn’t code really well, but this bootcamp tough me how I can manage my life if I really want which anyone didn’t teach me in the school and in my work. Actually it was more important than just only coding. To decide attending the bootcamp wasn’t really easy for me because I had good career and salary in Tokyo. But I just realised sometime we need to decide and make big change in our life otherwise our life will be same level and never learn anything. Now I have more independent mind set and I can manage my life by my self!

After working for a start-up for a couple of years I felt it was time for a change and I wanted to challenge myself by learning something completely new. I love travelling and to have flexibility in a job, so why not learn how to code? I didn’t have any experience in tech or coding at all and after hearing all the great things about Le Wagon Bali, I decided to quit my job and jump in with both feet to become a full stack web developer.

I got straight into the deep end and in the first few weeks I got to learn, amongst other things, Ruby, SQL and OOP which started coming together when we learnt the Rails framework. Not having any prior experience, I was afraid that I would end up thinking coding was too technical for me, or that I would not be good at it. By the time it got to the project weeks of the Bootcamp, I was really impressed with myself for being able to code real web-apps. Before the bootcamp I never imagined this possible.

After two weeks of non-stop coding for our project SkillSwap, we were able to finish on time and present it on Demo Day to the local teach community and digital nomads (watch the videoclip!). This is the feature I like the most about Le Wagon. It is very product-oriented and I believe it is quite unique in that sense. Not only can you be a junior developer when you graduate, you are also trained to be an entrepreneur and product owner to pitch a product, manage product design and project constraints, conduct business presentations, with the aim of launching your idea to the market. The feeling is incredibly rewarding and empowering.

I never imagined I would like coding this much and so will you.

I've been in IT for 20 years but far from the Web world (yes, there is a lot of stuff going on out of the www as well). Tired of all the burocracy of big groups and the never ending projects, I decided to look for something more dynamic. Then started looking for a web development bootcamp. At the beginning of my career I was a developer and I remembered how much I enjoyed coding, so decided to update my knowledge and move on to the web. I was looking for somethig dynamic, pragmatic and useful right away. No time for 6 months training plus time doing interships in companies. Had had my share of big companies.

I checked some other trainings and bootcamps in the Marseille area and Le Wagon spoke to me right away. Just by looking at their website you can see is dynamic. Being a globtrotter at heart and seeing that the bootcamp runs in so many countries just clicked.

Then the program. Training sessions in the morning, then practice all day long, then life code at the end of the day. Then two weeks developing a project. A lifely dynamic involved in the startup world. I assited then to one of their Demo Days and it just felt right. That's what I wanted to do, that's the bootcamp I want to join. It took a few months until I could finally join but I was not dissapointed at all. 

We were lucky enough in our promo to hit it off right away. 14 people, from 21 to 59 years old, very different backgrounds and experiences and so enriching. Later on, seeing other promos, I think that happens in every promo, in different ways, but the ambiance of Le Wagon just makes that in every promo there is a bit of a (temporary) family spirit going on. 

Ah, yes, we coded as well! I just had a blast every single day. It was hard, future Wagoners beware. It was exahausting but so worth it. The first week I was so excited and my brain was absorbing so many things that I could barely get to sleep at night. By the middle of the bootcamp you are exahusted, you start to beleive that you are not going to make it... there are ups and downs, but everyone tells you to hold on to it... wich you do and by the end everything is worth. 

The pedagory is good, being in IT I already knew many concepts, though not the languages, and the way things are explained and chained it just makes sense and everything ends up by clicking and fitting together.

Teachers are excellent, some have a lot of experience in the field, some others are Le Wagon's alumni. All of them are passionate and patient. They know how to teach and help. 

And then the Demo Day. It is so exciting to be able to show to about a hundred people what you just did with your team. We could not beleive we were able to do all of that in only 2 weeks. Only 9 weeks before we didn't know anything about it and there we were, showing to the world our project. 

When you finish your promo there is a bit of an "orphan" feeling, after all you are spliting with your (temporary) family and that is always difficult. But there are ways to work it out. Co working space, being a TA (which I am doing), or even becoming a teacher yourself later on (which I hope to do some day).

Le Wagon has s become part of my life now, I go to the co-working space, I make TA every now and then and the whole experience keeps up to my expectations. 

Hesitating about which way to go? Well, my advise is go to Le Wagon, hold on to the rails (pun intended) and enjoy! You won't regret it!

I’d like to preface this review by saying that I’m neither a “gusher” nor a “joiner.” I’m rarely openly impressed or complimentary; even less often do I place myself in situations where I am forced to interact with a bunch of strangers.

With that out of the way, I’d like to genuinely & uncharacteristically assert that my time at Le Wagon Barcelona was one of the most positive, self-actualizing, & unforgettable experiences of my life.

I, like perhaps a lot of you, was very nervous when considering a boot camp. I was already pretty far along in my first career and didn’t have the time or resources to pursue another bachelor’s degree. My fears with opting for a boot camp existed not only because I had practically zero coding experience, but also because I’d read horror stories about others investing in different boot camps only to come out feeling as though they didn’t know anything and ultimately being unprepared to enter the workforce or to start projects on their own. Luckily, the only thing I’d had to fear was fear itself. And semicolons.

Le Wagon was challenging in a way that I could never have expected nor that I can even try to articulate, but for every obstacle there was overwhelming support from both staff and other classmates. Aside from learning relevant and up-to-date subjects in a very organized, gamified way, I developed some amazing relationships with the people in my batch and the instructors; over a month later there are still some people that speak with on a daily basis! And - despite being extremely prone to imposter syndrome - I have found myself very confident in what I have learned at Le Wagon, so much so that I am currently working on my own freelance projects, personal website, and business plan for an app I’d like to develop.

So as someone who does not do this (no, seriously, I never do it), I cannot help but recommend Le Wagon if you’re looking to get a start in web development. The curriculum, learning environment, & ongoing support networks are truly unparalleled and I promise you will not be disappointed.

I was batch #02. It’s seems a long time ago now !
2014 you remember ?
At the time I wasn’t even aware how this bootcamp would change my life forever.
As a filmmaker I was even convinced that coding was not only a boring activity but also something very rigid. I couldn’t be more wrong.
What I learned at Le Wagon gave me super powers. The way they teach programming challenged my brain. Sometimes I even felt like I won’t make it, but the staff was awesome and they never let me down. At first, I struggled to understand the point and seeing the big picture. Learning, ruby, object oriented programming, building an ORM or an MVC from scratch wasn’t making no sense to me. It was like getting LEGO blocks without knowing what they would be useful for. But the staff was like they knew what they were doing, so I stayed confident and eventually a few weeks later I started to experiment a series of thoses orgasmic AHA moments.
Then I realised how creative programming could be.
Now, I’m a digital nomad. I live in a 12m long bus. Working fulltime remotely for a french EdTech company. I do frontend and backend stuff. I really love coding and the freedom this lifestyle gave me.

Sure if you come at Le Wagon you will learn to code the hard way but this is the right way.

    I’m a high school student and I decided to study abroad in America. I graduated my junior high school on March but my high school starts from September so I had plenty of time to do something what I like. That’s why I joined in Le Wagon’s programming boot camp.

    The first three weeks was the hardest for me, but the teachers taught me very carefully and were always ready to help. And as I continue learning coding, my skill became better and better. In the last project, I think I could contribute as a front-end programmer.

    I think I need more practice for back-end stuff. But in the last project, I think I could contribute as a front-end programmer and Le Wagon changed my life dramatically.

Before Le Wagon I was working as an apprenticeship coordinator in the construction industry. I was managing up to 45 apprentices. My partner is a data analyst so he invited me to start doing online courses and I was hooked. I knew I wanted to make a career in coding so decided to join Le Wagon. It was the best decision I could make! The staff is friendly, supportive and fun; they made it so easy to get through the cursus. As an end project we worked on a user-friendly timesheet system to help out my old company!

I have applied for the 42 coding school in Paris and was very thankful to have my background in Ruby to help me in that application process!

The meeting with the Wagon was for me important in my career. From the first moments I understood that I could be confident structured pedagogy, effective, thought, progressive, so reassuring, all in a beautiful, spacious in the heart of Marseille.

Be part of the Batch 141 Marseille feel to belong to a strong community, know that we will be able to work together, to exchange, to bring, that the wagon does not stop at the end of the training. It's a great human adventure and I loved the shared moments! exit climbing in the creeks, memorable football match at the stadium!

I have experienced this regular rhythm that alternates between course and pair programming and I have seen day after the knowledge is consolidated. Intensive work, and also time to regain energy: yoga hours. At Wagon we take care of us!

If you are motivated to learn, discover among available, competent, creative people Go for it!

My brother is a programmer and has been telling me for the past 12 years to start learning to code. Right. So I could have learned to code years ago but would I have liked it as much as I do now??

I attended Le Wagon in Tel Aviv Batch #150. Before that I worked for 3 years in a marketing company as an affiliate manager, and finally decided to quit. It was the right time to look for a new direction, to learn something new that I will love doing. I suddenly gave a second thought to learning to code. I started a few online courses but it wasn’t enough. I felt like I needed a learning environment.

After 4 months of self-learning, hours spent in coffee shops with friends, more Netflix that I could ever watch and numerous researches about coding courses, I stumbled upon Le Wagon website. I watched videos on Youtube about project pitches and I was very impressed by the result after only 2 months. After checking all the possible reviews - all very good - I decided to apply. My advice: do not waste your time and go to Le Wagon even if you have no skills whatsoever in coding.

In the first few weeks of the bootcamp, it’s hard but the teachers and TAs are super clear, really helpful and thorough. The lessons are super clear. Every day you get to practice what you’ve learned the same morning via multiple exercises. On top of that, you get a Live Code session at the end of the day that helps the knowledge acquired sink in. Towards the end of the bootcamp, you also have 2 projects to build in teams. My team and I created a project called www.CoinTrail.io, a platform that helps you track your portfolio across any exchanges. We are still working on it!

To sum it up, my experience with Le Wagon was a life changing one. I’ve learned in two months more that I would have alone in one year. I have met wonderful people from all around the world, from teachers to students. I’ve learned to work in teams, under pressure (get ready for the Final Project!!). Le Wagon gives you great tools to learn: video lectures, challenges, flashcards, course slides, useful links etc. The best thing is that you still have access to all of it once you’ve finished! As I’ve said before, do not waste time! Change your life, start coding!