Le Wagon

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.

I’ve just finished the Batch # 67 of the Wagon Bordeaux. I have only one word to say: THANK YOU! That an incredible professional and human adventure. It is intense and so rewarding. We are a new person, with technical skills that we could never have acquired otherwise. It’s crazy that to know what ve have in our hands. It's pretty incredible how strong you feel with these tools. The Ruby language is truly hyper well designed so it can be adopted very quickly. For me, the Wagon allowed me to see more clearly what I really wanted to do in life. And I discovered a world that I particularly love. Our final training projects show us how much we learned during the previous weeks. To apply all notions is really satisfactory. We do not realize what we can do.
I can only tell you one thing, go ahead! Of course, there is a lot of work, the bootcamp is intense, but you will come out stronger. The team is top, listening, professional. The atmosphere is always cool !
Do not hesitate to exchange with alumni of the Wagon for their feedback and to go to the Demo Day ! So, let’s Happy Hacking! :wink:

My name is Lionel and I'm from Belgium. I'm a 3D Graphic Designer but I've always been interested about Web Development, especially Web Design. I'll give you some life context so that you can understand why Le Wagon was such a game changer for me !

After my studies, I worked few years in Belgium as a graphic designer but then I decided to leave my comfort zone and travel the world. I've been to Australia, New Zealand, and Asia during more than a year, working as a freelancer to carry on my trip. During my studies, I gained a set of skills combining rigour, technique, and creativity but something was missing : coding.
I knew le Wagon for a while but I was working and was busy on some projects, so not able to apply for the bootcamp while I was in Europe. But when I was in Indonesia, I received my canadian visa and at the same time I heard Le Wagon will do his first batch in Montreal in February 2017. It was a sign and the perfect timing so I told myself, LET'S DO THIS ! My only regret ? I didn't apply earlier !!!

It was an amazing experience and I'm still in touch with most of my classmates and teachers. Le Wagon is not only an amazing community, it's also a family. After Le Wagon, with one of my classmates, we've decided to work as freelance Web Developers during our freetime and after only 3 weeks I found a job in a great startup as a Front-End Developer ! Plus, I'm also now a Teacher Assistant for the next batch and will do my best to give the students the best experience possible, as I got.

Honestly, I'm really impressed by what we learned in just 9 weeks and I'm so glad I did it because I can now combine my graphic design skills with web development. So don't hesitate guys, it's 200% worth it and you won't regret it for sure.

I studied at Le Wagon in Amsterdam - A beautiful city and a vibrant group of genuinely interesting individuals!

After working as a picture framer for around 7 years, I was looking for a change. I had built a website for the company that I was working for and really enjoyed the process. I started doing a few more (mainly wordpress) sites for charities and small business’ and I realised that maybe this was the career change I was looking for.
I taught myself in the evenings and at the weekend using online resources and was really enjoying it. I learned a lot but after a few months I felt like I was going in circles and had reached the limit of online learning.
This is where the decision to join a bootcamp came. I looked at a broad range of bootcamps, each with different structures and learning styles.
I chose Le Wagon for a number of reasons. I really liked the fact that all of the learning resources were available after the bootcamp ended. This was also very helpful when I unexpectedly had to miss 2 days of the bootcamp. I could read the lectures and keep up with the rest of the class. I also liked the way that the bootcamp had a strong social group. I now feel I have a strong group of like-minded developers who can help me when I get stuck.
The bootcamp was hard work, especially as I had to travel into Amsterdam each day. It was however worth every minute and I’m really glad I made the decision to take part -- I’m now confident and ready to become a junior Ruby developer!