Le Wagon

Le wagon has been an amazing experience, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to become a developer. 

Overall the course is very intense, and you have to prepare yourself mentally for the challenge ahead. However throughout the 9 weeks there is a constant stream of help and support for your coding tasks, as well as brilliant advice from experienced developers. 

Often after the learning day has ended there are also lectures from CEOs of tech startups, successful developers and entrepreneurs at the Google campus - the depth and range of knowledge available to you at Le Wagon is seemingly endless. 

Thanks to me finally biting the bullet and doing the 9 weeks, I am now building websites freelance and will actually be going back to Le Wagon to be a teaching assistant. You will not regret doing this course!

"Change your life: learn to code". Never has a catchphrase been so accurate, at least that's what I have come to realise, nearly three weeks after completing batch #83 in Paris!

When I decided to join Le Wagon earlier this year, I had worked for nearly 10 years in various audit & accounting positions. While I did enjoy the financial security that comes with this kind of career, I couldn't help but thinking that I wasn't using my potential to its fullest and that I was somehow wasting my time. This frustration, combined with a fondness for all things logic and a curiosity for IT in general, made me just go for it. 

It's tough to describe these 9 weeks in a few lines but I'd say that narrowing it down to the different programming tools/languages taught wouldn't do the course justice. The first thing that impressed me was the motivation of students taking part. We were all here for a reason, whether it is a carreer change, a career start or a start-up creation, yet the willingness to succeed was prevailing, and that's not so easy to find in the corporate world. Also, the program is well structured, with a lecture in the morning followed by coding exercises in pair (with a different randomly picked buddy every day so you get to know everyone) where you apply what you've learnt. Lectures are available in .pdf and in video, there are flashcards to capture key notions of the day. Teachers are alumni themselves so they know students' expectations, so are TAs. There are side events organised several times per week such as talks by founders/alumni, afterworks, etc. But to me the most valuable aspect of Le Wagon is its alumni community. Upon graduating, you have access to job offers, freelance missions, technical help, etc. It's a whole network that suddenly becomes accessible.

After the course, I've decided to become a freelancer (it had been on my mind for a while), and I'm now about to start a freelance gig helping out one of my former Le Wagon classmate launch his startup in the field of accounting, something I would have never considered possible 6 months ago! So to anyone wishing for a change, bearing a project or just eager to learn how to code, I strongly recommend you give Le Wagon a try, you won't regret it:)

After 2.5 years working in M&A, I was looking for something different. I wanted to join the start-up industry. As an entrepreneur, a product manager, a developer ? I didn’t know. I chose to do Le Wagon as I could do any of these jobs.   The bootcamp is great for many things: 

• Good coding knowledge : you know everything you need to start as a junior RoR developer
• Experience in designing a web app : the project helps you to develop skills in UI and UX areas
• Experience coding an MVP : you know how to build fast in an efficient way with a team or at least you know after the project what you need to do differently 😃

  Before doing Le Wagon I didn’t plan to work as a developer but I really liked coding so I found a job as an RoR developer in a start-up.  As my CTO told me, Rails has no secret to me which is a good feedback. After almost 3 months, I still have a look at Le Wagon’s lectures. I had the lead to build a MVP for the company and it went very well thanks to my previous experience during the Bootcamp.   My last word would be GO, GO, GO !

I strongly recommend Le Wagon bootcamp !
I did it during summer 2017 in Paris. My best friend who had done it in Bordeaux the year before, advised me to do it.
It’s such a fulfilling human and work experience. The 9 weeks are really intense.
Their pedagogical system breaks with the classic one that you usually encounter in schools etc. You can work in any way you like, the system enhances your capabilities and gives you the will and strength to give the best of yourself.
The way the staff supports you throughout the entire experience is a good illustration of this. They are there to help and encourage you, even more when you doubt of yourself.
Signing up for le Wagon means :
- Learning new things everyday with a different buddy of your batch, and supervised by a super cool staff
- Meeting, having fun and working with people with very different backgrounds both professionally and personally 
- Participating in very interesting and diverse talks and events (you can even organize them if you want !!) every week
- Having the opportunity to build your own personal projects
- Leaving with all the tools to keep coding, and to continue learning by yourself
- Being a part of the network of le Wagon, and as such, having contacts almost everywhere where you can find le Wagon alumni 

Whether you know something or not about coding before enrolling, you’ll leave with a unique experience and a big smile on your face.
As they say « change your life, learn to code » :) 

Before I started the wagon, I was a marketing manager of IT company in Japan. After few years of working on projects with startups and developers, I felt the need to grow my technical skills and thought a bootcamp of a few months would be perfect. I decided to join Le Wagon because it is the best bootcamp in Japan and, luckily, also one of the best in the world. Plus, I had collected nothing but very positive feedback about this training from my friends / network.

These 9 weeks of intense coding were probably some of the most enriching weeks of my life. The quality of the teachers, the real learning challenge set by the day to day pace, the new connections with really cool and interesting people, the Yoga classes... I truly recommend this bootcamp.

What was very interesting and useful for me is:

1. I’ve got to know more about Developer and entrepreneurial culture through great teachers and assistants
2. I’ve got to know more about importance of Digital experience by designed, implemented and shipped to production a clone of Airbnb
3. I’ve got to know latest web development techniques and Digital trends through great materials
4. I’ve got to know what is product Management and how to do it by making Rails prototype

I’m now looking for a new role which would engage more with Developers and startups. I think I can say this bootcamp enabled me to build an interesting profile, both business and technical.

Thanks again to Le Wagon Tokyo! I still feel Meguro is my hometown!

A few years ago, as I was working as a UX Design Lead for a startup in Boston, I grew more and more curious about coding. I wanted to be able to build what I created, to get the technical side too.
I checked several online courses, onsite workshops & even attended some evening classes but in the end, it always felt like I was standing too close to the wall to see the big picture. All these small chunks of HTML, CSS, JS I learned about were fun to play with, but how would I go from there to building an actual app? What were the steps, how did the interactions between the languages work, what should I use for which situation, where should I host my code... ? The gap was too big, I needed guidance and motivation. 

I flew back to Paris to attend Le Wagon’s bootcamp, and I got exactly what I came for. Great teachers helped me to connect all the dots, while my fellow classmates made these 9 weeks truly fun and happy. Every day would bring new knowledge and a better understanding of the whole thing. As hard as it was, by the end we all got to code from scratch products that we were proud of. We earned valuable skills, and we made great friends. What more could you ask for?

I would recommend le Wagon to anyone who’s truly curious about code and eager to dive into a new life experience. Trust me, you won’t regret it !

Le Wagon Lisbon was a fantastic experience for me! I had done an Economics BSc in London and was about to enter a Masters in Business, and basically had very little coding knowledge when I took the course.
The structure of the bootcamp is perfectly thought of so that you learn the most in the 9 weeks you are there.
The teachers, the students and the spirit of Le Wagon make the whole experience extremely enjoyable, and the amount you learn in only two months is spectacular! Motivated students would be able to apply for junior developer roles and see a whole new job industry opening its doors to them, which is really exciting!
I unreservedly recommend the bootcamp to anyone feeling remotely tempted! It's stimulating and fun, let alone useful for any professional project you may have!

Charles Cazals, Lisbon Batch 86

 

 

 

I took part of batch #77 in Montreal during the summer 2017. With a background in Neurosciences, I had been somewhat disappointed by the field of research, notably its lack of autonomy and freedom. I felt like I needed to make a career change and always had an attraction for coding and technology in general. Doing Le Wagon was a fantastic decision as I managed to find a junior front end developer position even before the end of my training. 

Those two months have probably been my best experience in terms of education. I met great people coming from every corner of the world and with very different backgrounds, but all focused on a common goal of learning to code. The teaching was excellent and the program in itself targets the right skills that you will need to start a career in tech. Today, one of the technologies I use in my job is different than the ones I've learnt at Le Wagon but the training gave me everything I need to learn new skills quickly and efficiently. To be honest, it had not been an easy decision to take to make such an abrupt career change but I am extremely satisfied that I took it.

Let me share my awesome experience at Le Wagon and the skills I learnt there!

Last year, after I graduated from a business school and after a first short-term experience in product marketing, I felt that I did not know where to look for my next challenge. The only thing I was sure about, was that I wanted to work in tech but I needed a good grasp of technology, which for a business graduate was not an easy task!

I found Le Wagon online and I enrolled, confident that I was making a step towards my goal but unsure about what I was going to actually find there. Honestly, if I had only got a good technology varnish I would have been happy at the time… Instead, in 9 amazing weeks I learnt to code web apps, not small static websites, I mean actual Ruby on Rails apps! 

Learning such skills in so little time shows how well the curriculum and teachers are prepared. During 9 weeks, you work with a different buddy every day until you have finished the core course. You begin with ruby, before moving into SQL, front end and Rails. Once the core curriculum is over, you team up by groups of 4 to deliver your final project. This method is super effective because collaboration is at the center of the learning experience, you have to adapt to different thinking patterns and profiles to succeed and learn. Plus, it is an incredible community, fun, caring and able to help you debug anything even once you’re no longer a student!

And in case you were wondering… I found a job, a permanent position at PayPal! So yeah, pretty straight forward, join Le Wagon, it will do you good!

Since I turned 19, I have been working on several entrepreneurial projects from which I was able to gain insights into technology. These practical experiences, coupled with business theoretical knowledge, drove me to acquire the skill sets required to get an MVP up and running. Testing has become a primordial element of all my professional endeavours and joining Le Wagon FullStack program thus came across as a natural addition to my background. 

In fact, learning broad coding concepts had tremendous effects on my understanding of prototyping. I am now able to replicate what I have learned during our courses in order to handle other coding languages that I may need. Tackling coding hands-on through exercices (as if it was a 2-month workshop) is also particularly effective in teaching us the rudiments of the developper’s daily work. Moreover, the network built over this short period of time remains diverse and resourceful, which confirms the quality of the program.

Today, I work at Kuma Studio: a software design studio I co-founded (it’s based in Paris). We create digital product interfaces and offer UX advice.

I discovered Le Wagon during my studies in business school, looking for tools and knowledge to bootstrap a startup. I’ve always been a bit nerdy but never learned anything about coding. Still, I had plenty of ideas and no way to make them true, that’s why I decided to enroll at Le Wagon.

I started Le Wagon in Paris after graduating, with a precise idea of what I wanted to create and to learn. I was not disappointed because I learned all of it and so much more. Not only did it allow me to make my ideas come alive, but it also made me realise I could have a deep understanding of extensive web applications, which led me to new and bigger ideas ! I met a lot of incredible people in the 43th batch, coming from various backgrounds and having different perceptions and insights about products, user experience or business models. I had the feeling of gaining more skills and knowledge in 3 months than I did the last 3 years.

After Le Wagon, I did a handful of missions of web development as a freelance, then I started at AB Tasty, a french SaaS company as operations manager. I still code everyday, whether for my job or for my own side projects. It gives me a freedom and an agility I would never have imagined before this.