Le Wagon

Before I started at Le Wagon I had been running a travel blog for several years. During that time, I became frustrated with my inability to add new features to the blog without relying on a developer. I also have plenty of ideas for new projects within the travel industry, but again, without the technical knowhow or serious investment, they were very difficult to get off the ground. 

I stumbled onto Le Wagon coding school earlier this year and decided if I was ever going to take my ideas further I was going to need to learn to code. It happened to be one of the best training decisions I ever made. The course is intense, there is a lot of information to take in within a short space of time, but they took me from no knowledge of coding to being able to build a website in 9 weeks. 

Each morning starts with a new lecture, after which you spend the rest of the day practicing those skills in well-designed exercises. The teachers and assistants were all first class. Knowledgeable, patient, and eager to help every student understand every element of the course.  The course is well structured and by the time you reach the final project in the last two weeks, each student has the ability to work on both the front and back end. Our team of four created a web application that simulated a recipe app. 

This included a tinder-style swiper which learnt the ingredients you did and didn't like and offered recipes based on your tastes. Since finishing the course, I'm now working on my new project, a travel company which creates short food tours led by chefs. I'm currently writing this from Bangkok where we've created the first tour and I'm working on building the website. I really couldn't recommend this course highly enough to anyone who wants a change of career or anyone who wants to model their own ideas.

Well, passed those 9 weeks and a couple of months after my experience on LeWagon's bootcamp, I can definitely endorse their slogan "Change your life: learn to code". At least for me, it really changed my life.   As a background, I'm a business graduated, who spent many years working on the industry as a marketing executive. From traditional marketing I moved to digital marketing and that's pretty much when I decided to quit the industry and start a career as an entrepreneur on the tech market.   By that time, I honestly wasn't aware how much the lack of technical skills would cost me. Time showed me that a idea, a vision, business knowledge, money and contacts might not be enough to build a great tech company. Yes, you can find technical partners, you can hire people, but how can you lead a business if you don't know what is under the hood?   As a stubborn entrepreneur, a couple of bad experiences wouldn't put me down... I just didn't find the right partner yet, I thought.    What about learning to code?  Are you nuts???? Have you seen those codes, that black crazy screen, this is not for me! This is for engineers, mathematicians, scientists... I'm just a creative business guy.   But well, after struggling a bit more I heard about this bootcamp stuff and started to consider it as an option.   Not that I blindly joined it. Before signing in for this two months journey, I watched a few demodays, I cold mailed some random people that took the course and asked for feedbacks. I even went to one of their events before I made up my mind.... ok, let's go for it!   Now, the only regret I have is to have waited so long for it.   LeWagon's course, material, structure, teachers, colleagues etc, they all overcame my expectations. They really take the right path to introduce some non-technical guy like myself to programing from the basics to be able to build an actual product for the market. I do believe that Ruby on Rails is a great choice as a programing language/framework for this program, as now we can rely on a big and active community of programmers to support our progress moving on.   Today although working with programmers much more experienced than me in my team, I'm being able to lead the development of our product, understanding what are our alternatives, the best choices, while actually helping coding our next features.   As a final advice, if you are thinking about taking the LeWagon bootcamp, think no further, just go for it, I promise, you won't regret!

The "change your life, learn to code" headline might sound like an overstatement, but it's not. Le Wagon is allowing me to change my life and to get closer to my goals.

Programming was never a strange thing to me. I attended Engineering School, where I learned some C and Assembly. Working on financial markets for the last 11 years got me some VBA skills.

But web programming was way ahead of my understanding.

Before Le Wagon I tried to read some books, to follow some tutorials, to watch some videos. The information was so diffused that it took months to get me from zero to almost nothing. Alone and not having too much time on my hands, it was very hard to know what to read and where to focus.

When I learned about Le Wagon, I felt that it was for me.

It doesn't matter if you know some programming or if you have never seen a single line of code at all. If you feel that you would be closer to your goals if you had the ability to code a web app, you have the fit to attend Le Wagon.

The last 2 weeks of the course, when you join a team to build a real application (my team built the mvp of a headhunter marketplace), have the power to show you what you can do in real life.

The curriculum is results driven and will get you from 0 to 1 in an unbelievable short time. The teaching platform is amazing. After the 9 weeks, you'll have all the essentials to follow ahead by your own feet.

Now, after Le Wagon, I'm co-founding a energy trading company. Despite this being a more 'traditional' company (by not being part of the startup world), Le Wagon is allowing us to leverage the potential of our new company: I'm building a back office web platform - something that's not common for this kind of business.

Don't get intimidated if you don't have familiarity with coding. If you love tech and have the urge to build stuff, Le Wagon can help you.

I came across Le Wagon in a somewhat random, unintentional way. I once had a long layover and I joined a digital entrepreneurship meet up organised by Le Wagon. When I met the team and the batch students, I immediately fell in love with their vibe. Since that moment on, the idea of signing up for Le Wagon was seeded in my mind.

I am a psychologist by training, and I have mostly worked in human resources as a consultant. Nevertheless, I have always been a technology enthusiast. I wanted to steer my career towards the tech field, either as an entrepreneur or as a consultant. In order to be effective when working with developers, I thought doing a coding bootcamp would give me the right foundation. I decided to join Le Wagon in Barcelona, and it was the perfect match for me - While the course gives you a rock-solid background in coding, the focus on agility and acquiring the skills to launch your own projects as fast as possible is always present throughout the curriculum.

What I did not expect is that Le Wagon would also spark a passion for coding. I had zero background in coding prior to the bootcamp, and I was amazed at what I was able to build in a team after only 9 weeks. The positive atmosphere, the constant challenge in combination with the attentive support of the teaching staff equipped me to become self-driven as a junior developer by the end of the process.

After finishing, I can say that Le Wagon is way more than a coding course. You will interact with a variety of highly skilled professors, you will join a community of talented people from all sorts of backgrounds, and you will have an incredible alumni network to tap into whether you are looking for a developer job, freelance opportunities or kicking off your own venture. When I look at how much I’ve learned, and the opportunities that I now have in front of me, I can only say that going through Le Wagon has been the best career-changing decision I could have taken.
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Over the past year, I have been trying to learn how to code using online resources. Unfortunately, I was overwhelmed by the amount of topics that I needed to cover as well as the extensive documentation that was necessary for each subject. When I found out that it is really time consuming to learn on my own, I decided to look for other ways. I began searching for coding bootcamps nearby, I was impressed by the amount of skills they promised but I was skeptical as well. The first website I came across was Switchup which ranked different bootcamps by order. Le Wagon was ranked first and it had positive reviews all around. It caught my attention and I decided to find out more. I went on their website and I started watching the previous demo days, watching these videos is what made Le Wagon stand out for me. It was proof of what people where able to achieve at the end of the bootcamp. I decided to apply, and when I saw that they had a program in Barcelona, I was instantly hooked, I had always wanted to go to Spain and this was the perfect opportunity.

On the first day of the bootcamp, I was really nervous about my decision, moving to a new city, being stuck with the same people for 9 weeks, I just didn’t know if it was all worth it. However, after the first week, I was convinced. We had learned so much in the first 5 days that made me know for sure that I had made the right decision. If you have doubts about doing Le Wagon, Just go for it. There is so much to learn and many experiences to be had. Le wagon is a lot more than just coding, it is about community, travel, entrepreneurship, teamwork, product development, project management, etc… You learn a variety of skills that together make you standout when applying for your next job. It opens your eyes to the tech world and gives you the necessary skills to succeed in it. Along the way, you make sincere friendships with likeminded people that can expand your networks and help you find professional opportunities.

The program itself is well structured and organized. The first half is divided into two major sections, you first learn the fundamental skills of a backend programmer, and then you learn the frontend. The second half is about putting it all together and creating different products. The last two weeks are by far the most challenging, but definitely the most rewarding. You team up with different students and create your own products from beginning to end. Reaching the end of the bootcamp is the toughest part. Everyone was emotional on the last day and it was very hard to say good bye. However, we were all looking forward for what we have to come and ready to take on new challenges. It is truly as they advertise: learn to code, change your life.

Because of Le Wagon, I am a confident coder. Leaving Barcelona and Le Wagon was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. If you are on the fence about doing this course, I can only say that you will not regret it one bit. You will learn coding and how to work with a variety of different people, which are skills you can use for years to come.

I was sitting in my computer science class one day when my teacher started talking about studying abroad. Immediately I texted my dad about the two-week trip my teacher discussed during class. He shot that idea down saying it looked more like a vacation than real education and told me he would, however, be open to a coding boot camp. I didn’t even know coding boot camps existed so I Googled “best coding boot camps” and Le Wagon popped up near the top of the list. I was interested in traveling abroad and the Le Wagon hit both items on the check list (coding and international travel).

I was very nervous before our first Le Wagon Lecture.  My roommate Courtney and I tripled checked our backpacks because we were so nervous. When we walked into class we were greeted by all the teachers who were very friendly and by Gus who we knew from our interviews. After our first lecture, we dove right into our coding challenge and it was go, go, go for the next nine weeks. 

The Le Wagon teachers are not only great coders, but are also great people. They made us feel welcome from day one and were also nice enough to meet up with us after class either to help us with coding or simply to grab a beer and talk about how the day went. The thing I’ll miss most about the experience is going out with the other students after class. We loved going to Placa del Sol, drinking beers and eating patatas bravas, and talking about how the day went.

 Their slogan “learn to code change your life” says it all and is true. Whether you’re going to be a coder after boot camp, going back to school, or going back to your old job, this experience was really life changing. In nine weeks I got to work with 23 different people from all kinds of different backgrounds, and for me that was something special. I made friendships that I’m sure will last a lifetime.

I love my two months at Le Wagon Paris learning how to code from scratch. There are two main reasons for that: 

- The training is great, the teacher are operational and provide pragmatic advice. So it is super effective to learn in only 9 weeks there. 

- It is a lot about people there, the human experience is unique. 

To discover more, I encourage you to have a look at the article I wrote on the subject (it is just a 3 min read)

I am passionate to learn and create, and studied business in University.  I travelled around the world to discover the spectrum of culture and ways of life.  In all my travels and past projects I always found a ‘golden door’ that gave me access to a new world of knowledge, people and experiences: Languages.

After my travels I settled in Amsterdam with two primary drivers in mind: technology and sustainability.  I had enrolled in classes online (MOOC) related to these two subjects as well as Blockchain.  By diving into Blockchain I realised how powerful technology can be used for positive and sustainable change in business and the broader world.  I became aware of how coding is the universal language of our digital world: so I decided I must learn.

I started looking for a coding school and chose le Wagon in Amsterdam for its reputation, the community and its entrepreneurial mindset.

Teachers and teacher assistants are highly motivated to share their knowledge and competencies. The pedagogy is well driven and allows you to be part of the beautiful world of developers, entrepreneurs and change-makers. 

For the final project, we built a chatbot that enables citizens to report a problem or suggest an idea within your own city. Our startup - Citydotzen (http://citydotzen.com) - got selected by the incubator program “Startup in Residence” driven by the province North Holland. Over the next 6 months we will grow our chatbot and develop our startup.

Before entering Le Wagon, I worked as a marketing manager for an e-commerce website for 3 years. It was a first approach of the web world to me, but I wanted to go further and learn how to code.
 
Le Wagon allowed me to learn how to make a website without having to re-enter the studying system for several years. I learned the basis of HTML, CSS, jQuery, SQL, Ruby, Ruby and Rails, etc. But the bootcamp is not just about learning several languages one after another, it's all about understanding the structure of a modern website and choosing the good language to do the right thing. Le Wagon also gives us the tips to learn by ourselves other programming languages and the best practices to build up a web application.
 
It really loved that experience and it gave me the will to be a good developer. I am currently learning how to use Vanilla JS by myself with a friend/co-worker I met at Le Wagon, and we are going to learn React JS right after. I'm also looking for freelance opportunities as a developer. Le Wagon's former students network should allow me to find good chances quite quickly.

I have this basic theory on a job that after 6 months you know what you are doing, if you don’t have the opportunity to learn new things in your job, considered it over. So after a business school in Paris and more than a year in a US firm, I chose to quit in order to fulfill the need to learn new things and also, actually build stuff.

I had the chance to be part of the creation of a startup in my studies, all those web principles that you may have heard of, but that you don’t study in Business school, such as MVP, prototyping, UX/UI and of course web development. Those concepts are well-documented on the internet if you wanna get a deep dive into it, but I don’t think you will really understand them until you actually use it in a practical way. This experience was intellectually insane for me, I wanted to know more and also get my hands in the code.

This is what Le Wagon teaches you, a practical approach to build stuff, from the idea to its launch, as well as an overwhelming web knowledge.

The overall experience is life-changing. I was part of the Batch#48 in Paris, not only that Le Wagon team is inspiring, welcoming and knowledgeable, you also learn to code with dynamic and motivated classmates, people who are truly dedicated to learn which makes the bootcamp truly enjoyable.

I would recommend it anytime.

To start with, the bootcamp was definitely worth it. If you would have asked me at the start what I believe I would be able to do at the end, I would by far not have believed I would have learnt that much.

 

Before starting the course, I studied Mechanical Engineering, therefore the logic based thinking and even programming was nothing I was completely new to. Still, it is a different world of programming when one is at university. At Le Wagon, I thought the teaching was very product oriented. It gives the lectures and exercises a purpose and a motivation to learn and code for multiple hours 5 days a week for 9 weeks straight. Thinking back, I cannot believe having spent that much time at a computer day in day out and I still enjoyed it.

 

Le Wagon in Lisbon also gives you a whole environment within the startup scene, where you feel like you are part of the dynamic. Regular talks with StartUp CEOs, CTOs or Founders encourage you to pursue your own idea, to put effort into something that probably is out of your comfort zone. Le Wagon also is a network of people that are ready to help each other, give advice and valuable feedback.

 

The group of students of the batch for me one of the most important factors of the course. Everyone comes from a different background, a different country or a different stage in their lives. Though one thing they all had in common was the thrill and enthusiasm to learn something new and get out of their comfort zone. So we might have been very different people but we had a strong common point. This lead to regular dinner parties, weekends at the beach or just a good after work beer. The atmosphere and the support within the batch is one key element that drives you through these intense 9 weeks.

 

Even though I am going back to study and will not straight jump into the developer's world, it was one of the best decisions of my gap year. It opened a new world of possibilities for me, it set the path for a never ending learning process in programming and all its various fields and it gave me an immense jump forward.