Le Wagon

You are a creative individual and you don't have the tech skills to make your ideas real? You feel that your studies, even prestigious, haven't provided you these skills, focusing more on theory than practice? You want to change your life? Don't hesitate any more, just jump on the band wagon!

 

I made this choice 6 months ago and I don't regret it! After a MSc in Engineering, I spent 5 years in a consulting company before I decided to launch my own startup: ZADL, a service to plan paid events between friends.

 

In order to test this idea, I needed a fully functional MVP, and I didn't want to delegate the development of the product. Sadly, I had no programming skills to handle it on my own. At this time, I heard about Le Wagon from a friend very connected to Paris startup ecosystem. I made my own investigation calling a bunch of alumni! They were all extremely enthusiastic about their experience. I was convinced at this point and I just jumped in. I was part of batch 43 and did the 9-week course from October to December 2016.

 

In only 2 months, we went through all the basic skills a beginner needs in order to build a web application from A to Z. Ruby programming for the backend side, SQL for the database, HTML/CSS and Javascript for the front-end part, and also very useful product design tools like Sketch or Marvelapp. We also learnt how to collaborate within a developers' team using Github, and used Ruby on Rails to speed up our app development and not re-invent the wheel for every new web application. During the 3 last weeks of the programme, we worked on two projects, that we built completely and put in production with Heroku. One of these projects was my startup idea, http://beta.zadl.fr/.

 

In my opinion, Le Wagon made me save nearly 2 years compared to what I would have learnt on my own with online MOOC and tutorials. Le Wagon's program is really intense and requires a 100% commitment. But there is also a very cool atmosphere, with a team of dedicated and passionate teachers and teaching assistants. Besides the "coding" part, Le Wagon also connect you to a great community: young grads, artists, engineers who want to switch their careers... We all helped each other during the 9 weeks and some of us really became close friends. After Le Wagon, part of my buddies pursued their entrepreneur's journey, and a lot of them started working as developers, either doing freelance or in full-time positions.

 

To conclude, I would recommend Le Wagon to anyone willing to learn how to build a web application with a very thorough curriculum and an amazing students' community, that be for working on your own project or literally for changing your life!

Learn to code and change your life! 9 weeks and that’s it, you can call yourself a dev and realize any web app with your two hands? Sounds a bit ambitious but four weeks after finishing the bootcamp (batch#48) I can definitely confirm that this is true!  I have quit a comfortable yet annoying product manager position in the IT industry to jump into a fascinating but risky entrepreneurial adventure in the Travel sector. Le Wagon was a pivot in this adventure and gave me efficient technical skills. Thanks to the content and the quality of the bootcamp, I am developping a MVP on my own. I am about to show it to potential investors.  All I need now is to incorporate my company an test my product!

My experience at the batch#50 Le Wagon at Rio was amazing! Really a life changing experience. Before the bootcamp I couldn’t find a job and was actually struggling to find something I wanted to do. I’ve learned so much with the Wagoneurs, I feel like I can do anything right now.
   I was always interested in technology and what it could do, so I got into Mechanical Engineering school and looked for researches and extracurricular groups. But when I graduated at the beginning of 2016, I saw that most of the opportunities in engineering were on production, following orders and doing a lot of the same thing every day. Nothing in the area interested me much, but I still felt like I needed a job, so I got lost looking for opportunities without any focus.
   One of those job searches led me to find out about Le Wagon. At first I was a bit skeptical because I didn’t picture myself as a part of the start-up/entrepreneurship world and didn’t know how much they could actually teach me in 9 weeks, but I decided to apply just to learn to code better and hoping I could find a job as a developer afterwards. I am so glad I gave it a shot.
   I had some programming skills before the bootcamp, but now, after it, I consider myself a web developer. Not only we learned to write HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery and Ajax, we also learned how to build software from scratch with a strong and scalable ruby backend using the Rails framework. Something I also consider very important is that now I feel confident enough to look for solutions for whatever problem I may face on-line and adapt to my code, which happens all the time to developers. All of that using Git and Github to contribute with my batch and project buddies.
   Le Wagon gave me the technical skills with which I can now build any prototype and start-up any idea I have. During my time there I really found myself doing something exciting, with the help of awesome people. It really changed me personally and professionally. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn to code. This is the place for that and much more.

On July 2016, the company in which I worked as an engineer for years had to let go all of its workers. The Brazilian crisis hit us and it hit us hard. In that day I realized that the good old times of engineering had been left behind and that there was no use in looking for a new job. The country wasn't growing anymore, there was no money left and nobody was investing. Me, as a Construction Engineer, realized that I couldn't be independent, that there was no use for all those years that I dedicated to my work. I would always depend on the government, investments and big corporations.

Some weeks later I realized that I had to learn new abilities that would give me independence that would break that rope. 
That's how I restarted to study coding. I had learned a little bit on university, but the good old Pascal wasn't any good anymore. 
I bought some courses on Udemy. I started with python. I watched some hours of class but was a bit lost. I didn't know how to apply that on the real world and neither where I could use all those For, While, classes and objects.

I got tired of python and started trying to learn front-end. I thought to myself "Now we're good". I was really learning something from html and css but when I got to javascript and jquery then even though the teacher had really nice ratings on Udemy that was just not doing the job. Sit in my chair watching classes wasn't getting me anywhere - it was time to get my hands dirty. 
I started to look for on-site courses and I was introduced to the bootcamp concept. I found some really expensive ones in the USA that appeared to be very good, but it wasn't financially worthy for me. I then looked in Europe and found a French coding bootcamp called Le Wagon. And, to my surprise, there was a batch starting in Rio, close to my apartment.

I then researched innumerous reviews, articles, videos, instagram posts... everything that I could get my hands on. I only found good reviews and comments, so I decided to apply to the batch starting in January 2017 in Rio. 
After I got approved in an interview with one of the cofounders of Le Wagon Brazil, one of the mandatory pre-requisites was finishing up the Ruby track on Codecademy. During this course I realized that Ruby is a much easier programming language than all the others I had contact with. I liked it so much that I finished the track in a few days and one month before the begging of the bootcamp. 

In the first days of bootcamp I noticed that the methodology was completely different from everything I had seen before. 
Their learning platform to start with - a system of exercises, examples, questions, classes, and everything you'll need during your course and resources that will help in your career. Everything is there. 

Everyday classes start at 9am with one hour and a half well needed theoretical classes. We had 6 different teachers, every one of them teaching subjects they knew very well. After the theoretical part we jumped in to the real life exercises, some of them mandatory for the day and some more expert optional exercises. The platform has a buddy system so we can work in pairs, every day we had a different buddy, so we got to work with everybody - working in doubles is fundamental - the best way to learn is teaching. 

The exercises were hand picked, not all the methods and solutions were in the classes, and so we had to learn how to dig in for solutions - like in real life coding challenges. We learned how to go through documentation, good old Google and our best friend stack overflow. That's how a developer works. Based in somebodies solution, we build our own. 
At the end of the day we did some live coding with the teacher, where we solved one or two extra exercises together - it was always really cool to see other students solutions and logic to the same problems. 

During the bootcamp we learned necessary programming languages. We started with Ruby - we've build some software’s that worked on the command prompt - you know, that thing that looks really hacker like! We've learned to parse and scrap websites, I really loved doing that, and I scrapped many websites myself. 
Then we jumped in database, an elementary part of every software, we learned how to persist and manipulate the data. 

Then we jumped into interface design with the frontend part, HTML and CSS helped us design our apps user interface. We also went through javascript and jquery, the old black command prompt got left behind and we could build good-looking web apps! 
In the 6th week, we finally reached Rails! This is the week where all the magic happens! Everything is connected and makes sense: Ruby, HTML, CSS, Jquery, Database. Everything is possible now! 

In the last two weeks of the bootcamp we have to build a app from scratch. Every student gets to present as many ideas as he has in mind and the ones that get more votes from the students gets developed. We were divided in four groups. 
My group developed an app to order food and beverages in stadiums and events and get it delivered in your seat. We learned how to develop many interesting functions, like logins, payments, facebook interaction, etc. In two weeks, we had used almost everything we had learned in the 7 weeks before. 

In the last day we had the opportunity to present our project to the public, with the presence of the press and even VCs, investors, and members of the tech community. Awesome!
It's a long text but I really wanted to show you how everything felt! 
If it was worth it? Definitively! Some students got jobs, some launched their products and some are working as freelancers! I managed to become independent, as intended!

I graduated from a French Business School in 2015 and after a few years travelling and working as a business developer in tech companies I thought it was time for me to start learning again. I wanted to expand my technical skills and find a way to express my creativity.

In coding, there is always new trends to analize, new things to learn. A friend of mine who works in the tech and start-up scene in Paris recommended me Le Wagon. I was already living in Barcelona and I met Gus, the driver, who invited me to a demo day. I was amazed by the quality of the projects. I decided that I wanted to learn how to build a product from scratch and decided to join the next batch. That’s how I fell in love with the world of programming !

The first 2 weeks were tough. I had to jump head first into a brand new world full of equations and that I found very conceptual. But I soon understood that I will never be left alone with my problems. Becoming a developer comes with an amazing community always prone to share advice and to support you.

The program very well-structured: lectures in the morning, exercizes in the afternoon with the help of the teachers, and live-code in the evening as a recap of the day’s concept.
The teaching was also top quality. The staff at Le Wagon Barcelona is skilled, supportive and enthusiastic, and I have been amazed by the teachers’ availability and dedication. There is a real sense of community that helped me throughout the bootcamp and since. This is more than a technical program, the bootcamp also teaches great product and project management skills : during the project stage I learnt how to define the easiest Product possible with an optimized user experience.

In a few words, Le Wagon gave me necessary skills and enough confidence to feel autonomous after the bootcamp to work on my own projects and keep learning: there will definitely be a before and after Le Wagon. I would recommend the course to anyone ready to start a challenging coding journey and discover an exciting community.

It's been a few weeks since I finished my training in the wagon in Bordeaux during the bacth #51 and today I confirm a sentence that I could see on their website: "You will learn in 2 months what you would have learned in 2 years".

    After graduating with a degree in commerce, I wanted to reorient myself in an area that really attracted me but I did not want to go back on several years of studies. The ideal was to find a fast and qualitative training to get strong skills in web development and The Wagon was the key to succeed.

    I had the opportunity before I graduated in marketing to do a year of computer science, but i realised that after a year I did not have real reusable skills.

    9 January 2017, the adventure begins with 28 totally different people. The first few days are relatively difficult, we code, it works but we do not know how. More days passe and I realize that our level is really good. All that we were doing with difficulty and that we didn’t understand a few days later came basic elements that were mechanically realized with a real understanding.

    We spend 9 weeks to think and work, we learn all that is necessary to develop a website from scratch.

    The last two weeks are devoted to develop a personal project in a group. I was able to develop a survey application with impressive functionalities. The fact of being able to make it discover to other people was a satisfaction and a motivation to continue in this field, due to the complexity of the site and the final result that was incredible.

    Today the training is over and the Wagon has been the best experience of my life. I have been able to obtain a relatively high level that I could never get without the help of the teachers but also the students who support during the 9 weeks and the network of more than 1200 people.    

Thanks to the wagon for this new passion, this great atmosphere and these deciding skills that I added to my cv.

 

Fremin Florian, Alumni Batch #51 Bordeaux.

For those who are reading this, believe me when I say … this was one of the best EXPERIENCES of my life!
Before I decided to apply to the bootcamp, I was an IT graduate that never worked at any corporate or company of that expertise. My life was in a Portuguese Insurance Company and later as an IT Teacher, who became unemployed.
Since I finished university, the world of IT and Technology was always on my mind and I feel so lucky I discovered Le Wagon late December 2016 (one week before Lisbon’s bootcamp started!).
I decided to make a life change, a new mindset for the future and Le Wagon matched all the requirements I was looking for.
Since day 0, yes we had a day 0 which was a ice breaker session were all the alumni/ students got to know each other, the atmosphere was AWSOME … Shannon, Hugo, Nick, João were the best hosts and were crucial for the amazingly friendly, joking, organized, hard working group that all the ’49’ers' became (we were batch 49).
Le Wagon is also the community - joining people in a tech environment, providing the best experience, and teaching to ensure a greater future ahead.
Everyday was HARD work, with a lot of information, technologies to absorb and exercises to complete. Besides that we had Live Code sessions were all of us were called to do write some code to solve an exercise with the help of all our classmates.
Every day fast paced, with a lot to learn, understand, implement, but in the end , it all came together. And in 10 days, me and three other team members created an app to send pizzas to protesters. It was impossible to even image I could make something like that before I joined Le Wagon. It was so rewarding to actually build it and present it to an audience at the Demo Day.
All the technology taught at Le Wagon is up to date and really well explained during the morning lectures;. The curriculum is super well organised, focusing on all the important tools needed to start building app’s.
Now that the bootcamp is over, I can say that all the sweat, stress, brain fatigue paid off … I gained new skills that the job market is anxiously looking for and I can even start my own company, wherever I want, now that I have more knowledge. I also increased my network and met new people (new friends ).
Don’t hesitate to join the Le Wagon family. It is something that is completely worth it and will change your life in many aspects.
Thank you Shannon, Carlos, Nick, João, Mathieu and all the T.A’s for the support, but most of all a BIG kiss to all you 49’ers.

My story with The Wagon began last year in a context that could only guide me towards what I was going to experience for two months during the training. I had left my job where I was a retail director in the cosmetics sector.

While I was quietly sipping a beer in a clandestine restaurant by the sea with friends, I was telling them about my dream to create a web platform on cosmetics, adding that it was now or never to realise this dream. The magic is that a friend of mine had just enrolled at Le Wagon Bordeaux and told me with great enthusiasm what this training was going to bring to him.

I therefore subscribed to Le Wagon Paris for the Batch#48 and from that moment I knew that I was entering a new universe, the universe of Code. Le Wagon's team helped me prepare so that I would not be lost on the first day. The program of the training is very rich because we learn a lot of things:  the back-end,  the front-end, to carry out a project from A to Z. This is a very intense training the first days because we learn new things every morning, which should be put into practice the same day. Even in the evening in my bed, I was seeing bits of code ...
But I do not hide from you that in parallel with this learning experience there was another adventure to live at Le Wagon: a magical and human one, thanks to all the people with different backgrounds I met in my batch, and to the staff team that is passionate about its work and happy to teach us what they had previously learnt themselves. Quite simply, I was glad to get up in the morning to come to Le Wagon to learn and see all this little world because there was not the well-known pressure that I felt while working. These two months were a real bubble of oxygen.

When I look back at my journey, I started the training without even knowing what a terminal is .. I can tell you that I am very proud of me today. I am now moving forward with my project with serenity because I know that I am not starting from scratch any more. My goals were to be able to build my projects' MVPs and to become autonomous : objectives achieved.

If you are going to learn web programming and design I full recommend this program! The program : https://www.lewagon.com/program

PS : Extremely friendly and professional team 🤗  !

After 3 years working in Paris as a consultant, among which the past 2 years at eleven, a strategy and management firm specialized in digital strategy (http://eleven-strategy.com/en/) , I’ve decided to take a deeper step “behind the digital scenes”. This gradual slide stems from several opportunities that made me aware of the need to enhance my tech skills, in particular through my latest assignment as a consultant. I worked as a project manager for a cross-functional cross-country flagship project that was meant to diversify the earn and burn opportunities in the loyalty program of a major player in the hospitality industry through e-commerce. I could only be relevant and meet the ambitious objectives of the project if I effectively managed to challenge each team and external provider that I was coordinating. While, based on my previous experience, I could easily take a deep-dive into the stakes of most of the aspects of the project (marketing, finance, legal, tax, etc.), I still needed to fully grasp the challenges the multiple IT teams were facing. I thus applied to do an intense 9 weeks coding training at Le Wagon Barcelona, which allowed me to gain technical skills in both back-end and front-end programming languages and experience the work of a fullstack developer.

Le Wagon … the very name holds the promise of a singular journey, right?

Now, let me tell you a bit me about how this journey felt.  

I remember the first Monday, when we went around the table to listen to the story of each of the 14 individuals gathered, aging from 17 to 35+, all with a very diverse cultural professional and personal background (investor, former consultants, freelancers, “proven” and aspiring entrepreneurs) … Some people had previous technical experience and most did not. At the very beginning, I thought: “Great, it very much feels like a retreat for cosmopolitan and ambitious yuppies…”. And then, as we moved on with the set-up of our computers and I discussed more thoroughly with each one, I realized how much it would be a challenging and humbling collective learning experience. And that’s exactly what it was.

On this first day at Le Wagon, I shared my first coffee of the journey (and there were many more) with my then buddy-for-the-day, Hugh Mitton, and we chatted about travels, previous work experiences, movie making and other activities. 9 weeks later, after 10 days of intense coding and debugging, we’ve introduced the MVP of Destinosé (www.destinose.com) , a travel app meant to help people that like perusing the world pick their next destination.

 

Working each day with a new buddy as per Le Wagon methodology, doing about 8-10h of problem-solving on cases that did NOT look like business cases for which I could use what I had learnt to do so far was quite challenging. It obviously gave me a renewed and thrilling feeling of being totally out of my comfort zone … everyday!

 

As much as it could also feel a little bit frustrating to learn a new set of coding elements everyday without having the comfort of thinking you’ve fully digested the tricks of the previous day, I realized that these layers came together in a very “neuroergonomic” way after I was done with the bootcamp. It is rather impressive to see how well designed this immersion into the vast world of coding is. The material itself (kitt and karr platforms) encompasses the best practices of coding in a very accessible and readable manner. The TAs that are taking turns into teaching parts of the curriculum are all fully committed to deliver digest explanations given the fast-paced learning curve that’s proposed. They are also keen on spending extra-time with students to make sure they feel fully on track. The whole pedagogical team is smoothly coordinated by a very inspiring driver, Gustavo De Vita, whom I feel incarnates really well the very concept of equanimity applied to management. Le Wagon Barcelona is also well connected to the tech startup scene there, which allowed us to meet a lot of interesting entrepreneurs and try their product/service (e.g. founders of GetYourHero, Eoz, Yugo, etc.).

 

Slowly, I started making programming related puns and speaking in Spanglish over lunch preparation with my teammates. And yes, we did prepare lunch together everyday, shared it at the terrace of the coworking space, with a sunny view on La Sagrada Familia! Some days, knowing we had to get through a very heavy workload, we would start with a xocolata a la tassa and churros. At the end of the day, when backs were hurting too much for having kept ourselves behind the screens for the whole day, we could enjoy a good Kundalini yoga class at a school around the corner or a tailored session put in place by the staff of Le Wagon Barcelona.

 

We also celebrated birthdays with massive cakes that could feed the whole coworking space for many days. The Batch-44 was so much of an inclusive close-knit community that we had parents and family visit, and bring or help prepare national dishes from their home country. I did my own version of a couscous with the available equivalent of a couscous maker, under the close watch of a semi-staggered semi-amused Moroccan mother who had to adjust her standards … and we gladly shared this over the next lunch with my classmates and a few other people from the coworking space.

 

All in all, life at Le Wagon Barcelona was GOOD!

 

But what it really brought me, and this is invaluable to this day, was a sense of confidence that I was acquiring a very relevant knowledge that will expand my freedom to create projects. And doing so, it gave me an impulsion to move forward with the professional transition I longed for for a while. I quit my job while there, which was a long overdue action I managed to do with all the support I received, feeling part of this exciting and growing community. As I was surrounded with like-minded people, some already or soon to be proper digital nomads, eager to learn and share in the most benevolent way their knowledge and driven by a very similar sense of accomplishment for when work is done effectively and allows for a holistic growth of the individual, I very much felt that a meaningful work collaboration should feel and taste like this each and everyday. Nothing less fulfilling than this!

 

I left Le Wagon after the demo day a bit tired and extremely happy and satisfied. It’s been a few months already and I know that I will stay in touch with the Batch-44 as a whole, and more particularly with very good friends I made there. I feel ready for all the new creative tech adventures that will come up … starting NOW!

I started studying computational linguistic a year before I joined Le Wagon. Before my studies, I had zero computer skills, to the point I that I had to call my brother every time I installed a new program or something was off. I started programing in university but I knew my skills were by far not good enough to land a job as a working student in the hopes of becoming one day a great software engineer. I decided to go to a coding bootcamp to make up for all those years missed not programming and to accelerate following my dreams.   The bootcamp proved to be tough. By day 5, I was already learning things I hadn't seen in university before. The struggle began and didn't end until Le Wagon finished nine weeks later. I learned so much in such a short time. I could never have done this on my own and I don't think it’s possible to achieve that much when you are on your own.   Le Wagon’s teachers were a great help, answering all my personal questions and always keeping us motivated. Going through a process like this wouldn't have been bearable if it wasn't for the other students though, we pushed and helped each other and formed our own little community.  The last two weeks we worked in groups to make a final project which we presented on the final day.   My group created a prototype to handle freelancer invoicing. It was really hard work but an opportunity to focus on the things we like, for me backend, but also to get better at the ones we struggled with - frontend.   Going to Le Wagon is perhaps one of the best experiences of my life. I would't be able to work as a software developer right now if it wasn't for those 9 weeks.

I attended Le Wagon batch #46 in São Paulo, Brazil, and it was a truly transformative experience. 

I’m 23, and a soon-to-be business graduate from HEC Paris, France. After interning twice in VC, it quickly became clear that I needed to considerably improve my technical skills, whether I was to stay in VC start a company or join a product management team in a startup, which were the three main options I am considering for my first job out of college. So I started working on FreeCodeCamp and Codecademy, putting 300+ hours in learning to code in JavaScript, Python and Ruby. I quickly got the grasp of algorithm coding, but I was far from being able to build the web apps I was dreaming of: the transition from coding algorithms to actually building software was much bigger than I expected, and I couldn’t find the right e-learning program for me. Working and studying, my time was limited, and it was clear I had to go another route if I wanted to quickly improve my skills. Living in Brazil at the time, I met the formidable team of Le Wagon in Sao Paulo, and signed up for the next session.

The next two months have been incredible. I had the chance of attending le Wagon in a small batch of 12 students, which considerably improved the experience and helped built a great relationship between students and teachers. 

After 7 weeks of learning and practicing, I gained the skills to build EasyMoveis, a furniture rental marketplace (www.easymoveis.co) in only 10 days with a team of 4 LeWagon students. I was most impressed by the fantastic learning curve at Le Wagon. The learning program is very well engineered so that the transition from coding to actually building web apps is extremely natural. I started building apps without realizing it! Aside from building apps, I think Le Wagon also helped me build a ‘developer’ mindset, that is the ability to keep learning on my own, find resources and libraries, and more importantly collaborate on a project. All those skills simply can’t be taught online. Finally, I am glad to have joined the Le Wagon community: the teachers from my batch at Le Wagon are always happy to help and provide feedback, while the overall community is super active and helpful.

Le Wagon is probably the best investment I made on myself, and I would recommend it to any one willing to learn software development, eyes closed!

```LeWagon was a game-changer for me. There is a before and an after LeWagon, be ready, seriously.

Before LeWagon...

I had always wanted to learn coding and build my own product. I went to a business school and I was working as a product manager. So in my work, I worked with developers to build beautiful products. In the same time, I always worked on side projects with developers but I was depending on them. I wanted to become autonomous and be able to build my own MVPs (Minimum Viable Product) by myself.

The night before my first day at LeWagon, I asked myself : "Are you sure to pay that amount for a training which you probably can do with Codecademy, Udemy, Openclassroom…?" And after the first week, I was glad I joined LeWagon and glad to invest in myself. I think this is one of the best investments I have made.

I was ready to work hard, very hard, to struggle at the beginning but at the end of the journey, I was proud to learn that fast. In my opinion, the fast-learning experience only works if you focus all your attention on it, and also because 9 weeks is very short. So give everything to learn and produce the best product you could do and enjoy creating products with your head!

After LeWagon...

Now, I work as a freelance Ruby on Rails developer and Product Manager for multiple companies. As a Ruby on Rails junior developer, I develop some web apps and websites for companies. As a Product Manager, I work differently and I easily anticipate the technical problems. I'm now much more confident with developers and I'm keep learning with them, especially in Ruby and React. And as an entrepreneur, I'm working on a new MVP with another Le Wagon alumni from my batch. Now, I define myself as a fullstack builder.

So, if you want to learn coding but are still hesitating, I'd suggest without a doubt to enroll at Le Wagon! But again, be ready to work hard!```