Le Wagon

After working 10 years at Apple in various roles from finance, operations and sales I realised how little I knew about the tech side of the business and decided to take on the challenge of learning how to code. 

Following discussions with friends and reviews online I joined the first batch of Le wagon in London (batch#36) this summer.

I'm still amazed by the amount of information that we managed to cover in only 9 weeks, these were probably the fastest 9 weeks of my life !! I went from not knowing what css was to being able to code an MVP in 2 weeks. 

In my view it's important to join and be part of a community rather than any course, as this will give you access to an amazing amount of content and great people, during and after your course and this is exactly what the wagon is, a great community.

It took me two years to pluck up the courage to quit my job to do a coding course. I was working for a design agency in London and although I knew early on that building websites was what I wanted to do – forfeiting a steady income to learn how to do it was a hard decision. As I became increasingly frustrated with outsourcing our designs to freelance coders (where the brief was rarely met and almost always past the deadline), I decided to take the plunge. I put a lot of time into researching, speaking with and visiting the various universities and coding bootcamps and Le Wagon came out top. 

One of Le Wagon's most appealing aspects was the perfect balance of lectures, self-learning and pair-programming. Some courses rely heavily on lectures (where I would have most definitely lost concentration) and others solely on pair-programming and self-learning (where I would have fallen behind). An hour and a half's lecture each morning gave us a proper introduction to the topic of the day and a good understanding to be able to tackle the pair-programming that followed ('buddying’ up with a classmate and working through problems together). At the end of each day ‘live code’ either consolidated what was learnt that day, revisited areas students had difficulty with or introduced a new topic ready for the next day. This structure was brilliant as it not only taught us to work as a team with a new person each day, the lectures either side kept concentration levels high and, as a result, in two months of 9am-7pm there wasn’t a single moment in which I wanted to leave early or take some time out.

Le Wagon appealed to each student's reasons for being on the course – whether you enrolled to learn to build websites in general (like me), or to develop and build one particular idea, or of course to learn to code in preparation for working in the newest tech start-up / taking over the coding world. We were taught in such a way that each of us could work to our strengths and with the incredible daily support from tutors and assistants, and indeed fellow classmates, I don't think anyone ever felt like they were drowning. I knew I was never going to be the best in the class at the ‘back-end’ side of things, essential as they are, but I knew if I could understand how it all worked together that my ‘front-end’ design skills would prevail. 

Since finishing in September, I have been freelancing building websites for businesses – everyone I meet seems to want a website or knows someone who does. Working for myself has been a life-long dream and after only two projects I paid for the course that got me here. The daunting prospect of going it alone has been made infinitely easier by Le Wagon’s amazingly tight community and incredible resource of lectures, guidelines and live-recordings from the course, which I will have access to for as long as I am coding. 

Having run my own company in Switzerland for the last 8 years I wanted to join Le Wagon London to expand my digital entrepreneurial skills. My business, Label Bleu, distributes fresh food produce direct to our customers in Switzerland. We currently employ our own dev team (regiomag.net), which programs our backend in Ruby, and I really wanted to learn more so I can communicate clearly with them and ultimately grow Label Bleu digitally. 

London is a hotspot for tech and Le Wagon's office is located right in the heart of it, surrounded by awesome startups. The whole course is very intense. We are absorbing new information everyday. By the end you cannot imagine that in only 9 weeks you're able to build your own products from scratch. 

In the last two weeks, my team and I built an extension to Label Bleu. A platform to harness our huge community and engage them socially through sharing their own recipes and photos. We will soon be launching this part of the business. 

I absolutely loved my time at Le Wagon and have since developed new skills to help grow my business. I am coding everyday and am able now to code for my comapny. It was a life changing experience and amazing to present at Google Campus on Demo Day. I will have access to the platform for ever and be part of Le Wagon's family. 

Thank you to the whole LeWagon team, the quality is excellent and I have no regret. 

My idea to join a Coding Bootcamp goes back way before I heard about Le Wagon. My first contact with Le Wagon was in an TechCrunch article and what really impressed me the most was the synergy between 'coding' and 'entrepreneurship’. With a background in finance, I felt learning to code would be valuable and also help me get involved in the startup scene.

The decision to dive into a bootcamp is not an easy one -the value is huge, but the investment money/time is also considerable.

After a few days at Le Wagon batch #28 in Lisbon I realized my investment was a smart one.  I really felt the time and money put into the program was being invested back on me from everyone involved.

Two months have passed since I finished my bootcamp and I am already working as a software developer in one of the most promising economic data platforms on the web. I found out that the most valuable thing I took from Le Wagon, is not the specific skills I learned there, but the understanding that if i put 120% of myself into something in 9 weeks the amount of knowledge one can gain is incredible.

Seriously, if you are in doubt, just do it.

Why did I choose Le Wagon coding bootcamp in Copenhagen?

My background

I’m a classically trained “corporate ninja” within the disciplines of business administration and marketing. Since the world is becoming more and more digital I wanted to add digital skills to my tool belt. More specifically I wanted to learn how a digital product is developed from scratch and how the development process is organized. I researched options for coding schools that would offer short-term coding courses but they were based abroad and I was looking for a “local” solution. When I found out that Le Wagon was opening here in Copenhagen Denmark I knew I had to join. Hence I enrolled in the 9-week bootcamp in summer  of 2016.

Why Le Wagon

I did a lot of research on Le Wagon prior to joining it. What really sets Le Wagon apart from the rest is the entrepreneurial focus: you get the chance to develop your own product and think like an entrepreneur. This was a perfect match with my business background, since it was building on top of my existing knowledge base as well as expanding into unknown territories (well, hello coding!). Having a full stack curricullum that takes back-end as well as front-end into account was exactly the combination I was looking for with my zero skills in coding. Furthermore my research also showed that Le Wagon was highly recommended and scored very well on ratings. That’s why I chose it.

The bootcamp

I was part of the very first Copenhagen batch of Le Wagon. One word that sums of the whole 9 week experience: excellent! The teaching was great since we had people who were professional developers and knew exactly what they were talking about. The teachers were highly competent and professional. Not only were we presented to new knowledge every day, we learnt how to apply it to exercises that  were really challenging - but strengthened our understanding of the concepts. Every day you built up your skills brick by brick. The first 6 weeks really gave you the necessary skill set and was the best prep for the last stretch of the bootcamp: two major projects in the remaining 3 weeks.  We  created our own Airbnb clone ( platform was similar) while the second was our own app idea. Being able to go from having absolutely no coding skills to create sites that actually look like something worthwhile is quite cool. You literally see how much you progress every week and that just motivates you keep on learning and coding.

Besides all the new knowledge the social aspect is just as good. These 9 weeks are probably the most challenging you experience but the social aspect of it makes it even more worthwhile. You have a lot of fun during these 9 weeks. Even after 12 hours of coding every day we would go out for burgers or beers in the evening. And we stil meet even after the bootcamp is over because you are Le Wagon buddies for life (we really are!)   

Pros

You learn a lot in 9 weeks. The amount of knowledge you get in these 9 weeks is massive. But you also learn to apply the knowledge in an actual, practical sense. You start viewing and evaluating digital solutions that you see everywhere.  

Copenhagen. It’s a beautiful city that’s really open and young. Give it a try. You will love the biking and social life of the city.

Start of your coding journey. You really get a solid foundation to learn even more after the bootcamp is done.

You understand how a digital product is developed. Although the projects of the bootcamp are of miniature-scale the core methods of structuring the development processes are the same in the real world.

Reshape your career. Having the digital understanding as above mentioned makes you even more interesting for a future employer. I can vouch for this because it led to my new job within IT project management.

The social aspect. You have a lot fun while your brain is frying because of all the new concepts it’s trying to absorp.

Cons

You learn a lot in 9 weeks. At times you would lose track of which concepts you covered in the previous week because there is a lot to cover. I recommend that by end of each day you reflect on the key concepts you learnt.

Not for the faint-hearted. Learning how to code is challenging. At times you will feel frustrated because you just aren’t getting it. It’s important that you come with an open mind and accept that sometimes it takes a bit more time for you to learn it. But eventually you will.

I've been interested in computers and technology since I was young, but I never had the push or guidance to actually start coding. I played around with some less technical stuff and loved it, but decided to study clinical social work. A move abroad to Denmark made it hard to continue in my previous line of work, so I thought it was the perfect time to dive head first into coding. It just so happened that the first batch of Le Wagon Copenhagen was a few months away, so I committed.

Le Wagon Copenhagen was on of the best experiences of my life. I quickly realized that there so many factors that can affect an experience as intense as this. The fact that you are spending so many hours a day with the same people, curriculum, and teachers learning something that feels unfamiliar and abstract is demanding. Le Wagon is great because it meets all of these challenges. The curriculum is great, the teaching informative, and most importantly, the environment is positive and supportive.

At Le Wagon, you learn so much in 9 weeks. While Le Wagon does have a strong focus on teaching the skills for entrepreneurs to pursue their business ideas (you even pitch app ideas, vote on them, and then build them), there is a lot of flexibility in what you can focus your time and energy on. For example, you can really dig into more advanced concepts like sorting algorithms and metaprogramming, but if that sound boring, you can spend time on many other things like UX, design, or wireframing.

This course really is for everyone. Whether you've never done coding, you want to build your own app, or you've tried to learn to code and feel stuck, Le Wagon will help you with whatever tech direction you want to go. Also, Le Wagon has done a tremendous job of creating a consistent level of rigor and quality in all of its cities, and Copenhagen is no exception.
 

Before Le Wagon, I was a student at the University of Warwick studying History. I enjoyed my degree, but wanted to learn a new skill which had practical applications in the workplace. Around the same time, my friend and I had an idea for a car-sharing application targeted towards university students. Our aim was to link drivers and passengers via a two-sided marketplace. We quickly realised that, in order to build our application, we would have to outsource the coding or learn ourselves. We decided the better long-term decision, in addition to the obvious personal development benefits meant we needed to learn how to code ourselves. A quick google search and telegraph article of the top-ten coding schools in London later, I had applied to Le Wagon. The course, and particularly the teachers, were incredible. The intensive program means that you gain immediate and meaningful knowledge, whilst the teachers are more than willing to dedicate their time to help you learn more.

I was very impressed by the speed at which people are able to learn coding, when given a wealth resources and supportive peers. Being able to code a full application, from scratch, within two weeks is a fantastic achievement
 
Even though my short-term aspiration is join the British Army in January, I felt that Le Wagon was an opportunity I could not miss. Le Wagon has convinced me to take a development job, after the Army.

The aspect of coding I like the most is how logical the process is. Whilst it can be incredibly frustrating when a bug refuses to disappear, you can be certain that if you follow the error message and apply logical reasoning, the issue will emerge.

I also discovered how great Le Wagon community is, which is another reason to join this great bootcamp. The post course community is close family constantly helping and sharing info.

Hi! My name is Manou, I've finished La Wagon fullstack challenge one month ago. If you're wondering, this formation is more than just a formation, it's a life experience. 

I've been a Motion Designer for 3 years and I felt like I was bored. I was in a need to learn something new. I was in a need to start something new.

I took my chance and following advices from former students I know, I applied. This is one of the best move I could have make. I enjoyed 9 weeks of pure radness. I learn how to learn. Even better, I learn how to like learning. I wish my high school teachers would have done the same. In the same time, when you're at Le Wagon you're like part of a very cosmopolitan family which will do whatever it takes to make you reach your full potential. As I said previously, Le Wagon is a life experience. 

What now?

I've joined as a front-end developer a 30 members dev team in a French startup which just raised 8M€. I'm now surrounding by crazy vibes and amazing people who know how to dream on. I can say I'm happy coding every day among them. I still can't believe I achieve this in only 9 weeks.

Cherry on top, I can go back to Le Wagon whenever I have a bit of spare time and can still enjoy the atmosphere of this incredible place where people believed in me.

After 9 weeks of intensive Coding at LeWagon Lisbon where HTML, CSS, Ruby, Rails, Postgres SQL and JS ruled our days and nights, it is time to reflect on these hours of concentration, days of smiles, and million of seconds of pure pleasure.

From finance …

After a very traditional early career start in finance in Geneva, Switzerland, I had been attracted to the world of Fintech for a while. In the past year, I have been working on new web trends with the wild ambition of leading my current company, a Fintech dating back to 2000s, towards new more modern, 3.0 solutions :) After weeks and months exploring the tech world and its opportunities, my frustration became too big. I told myself how can you be truly effective in Fintech without knowing how to code? It would be a bit like learning how to ski with a sledge. It won’t slide for long.

To coding….

I did some research, and came across Le Wagon. After reading some reviews and working through Codecademy, my tickets were booked for Lisbon. 

To be very honest, the first month was really difficult, very challenging. Yet after that, everything started to fall into place. You begin to understand the pieces of this huge puzzle. I cannot tell you the pleasure of seeing your code running for the first time!!! 

Indeed, I found the content of the course to be of a very high level, it was very demanding but the results were incredible. You really learn the bases of Full stack web development in 9 weeks, and more importantly you learn the mindset of “how to learn quickly and effectively.” 

After Ruby, SQL, HTML, JS, and getting to know my new friends -  Bootstrap and Rails -  we kicked off with the 3-weeks of project work. Project week Airbnb was great, because you learn to work quickly and ro develop the application using the open source model and the millions of available gems. Then finally comes the final project. My project was fortunate enough to have been selected by my classmates. In two weeks, we created a game for couples to help them maintain the fun and romance in their love life. Lovee will soon be online if you are looking for ideas for your prince charming or your princess

Why Lisbon? Simple - the surf and its booming Fintech environment. 

Back to Fintech 

I can say with sincerity that Le Wagon can help you achieve your goals of becoming a Tech Entrepreneur. I'm leaving in a few days to return to Lisbon for 10 days of intense coding in order to create our first Fintech prototype, a personal assistant for your investments. On the schedule: APIs, JavaScript, AJAX ... which would have not been feasible without Le Wagon.

Thanks Le Wagon Lisbon

Before Le Wagon I was trying to learn programming on my own.   For me, code is one of the few things that gives that amazing ability to create whatever you want -  you just need a computer and an internet connection to start.  With that said, it’s not an easy task, it takes resilience and a lot of patience. 

I have an engineering background and I can tell you that I learned so much. The teaching method is really well structured. You walk away with a very robust set of skills that you know how to improve upon after the bootcamp, and that’s really what you hope for in a two month course like this. The teachers are experts are extremely competent and know the material from front to back.  And after staying with the same people everyday for 2 months it’s impossible to not make very good friends that as an upside share the same passion as you.

Our final project was an online payment solution for freelancers.  It basically secured a clients payment and released it when the job was done. It was unthinkable for me before Le Wagon that you could build an MVP from scratch, like that, in just two weeks.

Since the bootcamp, I have stayed in touch with the majority of my classmates and ended up joining another project with 5 other alumni from my batch. This time it’s a combination of web development and energy production. We are being accelerated by the major energy company in Portugal (EDP). It is amazing what you can do with people that share your passion and have the same interests.

For me, Le Wagon turned out to be the best investment.  After just a few months out, it already created many opportunities.  I highly recommend it.

Good luck!

While most people dream of becoming a doctor, a policeman or a lawyer, when they are younger, I was dreaming of being part of a Startup. When I started studying in business school, I spent hours per week reading all sorts of books, articles, blogs and online courses to acquire a tech culture. I wanted to be able to understand the whys and wherefores

of this environment. After one year I had studied the upper layer, I had a strong feeling that something was missing. Indeed, in order to fully understand this environment, I needed to study the technical layer. Therefore, as usual, I naively began on my own by consulting articles to solve the mystery of startup’s products! I decided to browse resumes of emblematic characters of the Tech industry. I came to the conclusion that a significant portion of them have in their backgrounds technical skills.

Since I have a curious mind and I am always eager to learn, I enrolled during my summer vacation @LeWagon Coding Bootcamp. I graduated from Le Wagon one month ago, and it was the best jump forward I have ever done, certainly the most valuable decision for a business student who is passionate about Tech. My expectations were high concerning the Full stack Program. With very ambitious goals when it came to my skills before Le Wagon, and I have not been disappointed even more.

A CHALLENGING WORK ENVIRONMENT

'Le Wagon full stack program for entrepreneurs’ is a 9 intensive weeks program. The goal is to build an MVP during the last two weeks. But if you expect knowledge and techniques to be brought to you on a silver plate like the way thing are taught at school, you are delusional; coding is about learning how to learn. Le Wagon’s team do it with faultless functioning. They designed a program in a way to make learning more attractive and straightforward, both within their platform and the day to day courses. The range of resources and tools built in-house fit our needs and are always up to date.

The hard skills you learn are relevant and straightforward. You learn the core concepts of the web development with an approach that tends to reach an operational autonomy. You will be able to deal with API, frameworks, database, collaboration tool like Github and many other.

The learning speed is high and the time flies out when you are in front of your computer 10 hours per day, it can be disconcerting at first. For my part it was, but you become right away addict. The funny thing is that the staff can be disconcerting too regarding their full beliefs and trust in the program. Their faith in your success comes from the program itself. I was skeptical, but it is only at the end of your 9 weeks that you can realize that they were right.

A GAME CHANGER EXPERIENCE

First of all, I think that one of the main strengths of Le Wagon is stakeholders who gravitate around them and their network in the Parisian startup ecosystem. Most of the people I met share a positive mindset, a sharing spirit with a contagious motivation. The mix of ages, backgrounds, and meetups allow a real exchange between people. As a young man, I learned every day from the sharing spirit of my buddies, teachers and persons who are in the co-working space. The apprenticeship is not limited to learning technical skills with best practices because learning how to code is about developing your developer mindset. It is through this mindset that you reach a real operational autonomy. An important part of the pedagogy is learning how to search for the correct info, methods, techniques, services. This is a key to understand better coding culture and be able to make progress. Now when an idea comes through my mind or when I scroll the web, I immediately try to think in terms of components and technical issues, which makes me more pertinent and pragmatic. I discover a product driven way of thinking and tackling web products.

Although Le Wagon paves me the way for further areas of work, all the information you learn during the Bootcamp can be reviewed, improved. For that reason, the master word is practice. So actually I try to improve what I have learned on a freelance project. Once again when you are stuck, you can count on Le Wagon community. The community is very active, alumnus, teachers constantly pull together to deal with code issues or to share quality information and resources. When I read the Slack of the community, I always feel the urge to go broad and develop my skills; there is a spreading emulation.

In a word Le Wagon afford me an overall framework regarding web products analysis and workflow. My lack of tech skills is not a barrier anymore; it became a strength. I know that there is now a before and an after Bootcamp, nothing will ever be the same again. 

I was Marketing Manager in a tech startup during 4 years. Every day, I was working with developers but I could not understand what they were really doing. This was frustrating… But unfortunately I had no time to learn to code. It turns out that I quit my job in Paris to move to HK. This was the perfect time to attend Le Wagon!

This experience gave me plenty of energy. It was stimulating. Really. You meet new passionate and creative people. It changes from your high-school friends you see every week :wink: Le Wagon widens your scope, give you desire to undertake great projects. For me, it was the perfect "break" between 2 jobs.

Today, I have much more confidence when applying for tech companies. I can now get Product Manager position, which was really hard without any tech background. I strongly recommend Le Wagon, whether you want to find a dev position or aspiring to a new job in the tech industry.