Le Wagon

I graduated from Le Wagon in May 2015 in Paris, and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone with even the most remote interest in coding.

I recently attended a Q&A with DHH (creator of Ruby on Rails, the web framework taught at Le Wagon), where he said:

“Learn to code. If not to be a coder, then to understand the world.”

Le Wagon is the perfect doorway to begin that journey.

My Background

After an amazing learning experience in high school, I was less than enthused with my university experience (liberal arts). So I quit after my BA and took a job at a big company. 4 years later, I grew tired of the corporate culture and handed in my resignation to do Le Wagon.

The Bootcamp

All I wanted from the bootcamp was learning to code. But what I got from the bootcamp was much more:

• the Program: the program is excellently designed, both in pace and content. I really liked the no-nonsense approach to the material and the intensity was high but appropriate.
• the Team: the team behind the program is a rare combination of technical and human skills.
• the Network: with over 500 current alumnis and counting, the program keeps on giving beyond the 9 weeks it lasts. Whether you’re looking for a job or have a technical hiccup you need help with, the network has your back. Across 12 cities in 8 different countries.
• the Culture: learning code is one thing. But the human experience is a huge factor for me, especially under intense working conditions.. And that was my favorite thing from Le Wagon: the optimism that permeated everything about the program. You leave not only with an arsenal of new tech skills, but with a new mindset. The mindset of someone who doesn’t stop until something is working exactly like you intended. The mindset of a coder, of an entrepreneur, of a “Wagoneer”.

Le Wagon is the best educational experience I’ve ever had, and I will always look back at those 9 weeks as defining both personally and for my career.

After 7 years as VP Sales in a startup, it was time for me to have fun with code.

I was clearly determined to become a web developer.

At start, I tried hard to learn by myself with online courses, but It was really hard to link all these elements. I was able to create simple algorithms, but how to store it ? how to create a simple interface for web users ? how to share an URL to target my users ? At start, Internet is a mess !...

My luck was, a good CTO friend told me he just hired a young ‘graduated’ developer from Le Wagon and it was a good surprise for him and for his team. That was such an argument so after passing tests, I started to learn how to code with Le Wagon during the winter 2018. I really loved this experience working with other students with the same will to succeed in coding. Program and teachers are well-honed and after 9 weeks I was the first surprised by all the things I was able to accomplish.

After Le Wagon I practiced as a freelancer for small projects and since septembre 2018, I’m now CTO in a young company and I am having a lot of fun coding every day..

I have always been fascinated by great tech products and have always had plenty of ideas on how to make them better or come up with radically new ones. However, I always lacked the technical skills to make my ideas reality.

I did LeWagon to overcome this situation but would never have believed that I would actually learn this much. The LeWagon curriculum is incredibly well organized and just perfect for absolute coding beginners. The 9 weeks are intense but it's a super fun experience and the teachers are great. It really is a community and you can feel that the teachers are passionate about coding and want you to learn the skill.

Although, I am not working in a technical position strictly speaking, my technical skills help me in my day to day job. As a Business Developer I have to understand our product (Payment API) really well and I am currently working on a prototype to test a new use case for our product. Moreover, I am still working on a coding side project. 

In short, once you do the LeWagon Bootcamp you will never want to stop coding. I have recommended 3 friends to LeWagon since I left, which pretty much says it all

Le Wagon has been a life changing experience for me. I used to work at Conde Nast in New York City then moved to London. I was starting an app with my sister and got frustrated not being able to understand the web developers we were working with. I decided to put the project on hold and enrol at le Wagon London. At first, the program was hard but after a few weeks all made sense. During the program, I met my business partner, with who I now have a company called Socialive TV. We launched a little under a year ago and couldn’t be happier. Without le Wagon none of this could have happened!

I’d heard so much about Le Wagon before I started the course that I was afraid it was going to be overrated. Boy, I wasn’t disappointed. The curriculum is well thought out, like Lego bricks that you assemble. And the social experiment is definitely a highlight: meeting classmates who took the same risk as I did, the risk to learn something completely new and to perhaps also change their lives. 

But the most satisfying and rewarding part was to build the final project from scratch with my own hands (and with those of my 3 fantastic group members). Prior to the bootcamp, I was working as an Investment Analyst at a VC firm in Singapore and I was so frustrated about not being able to build anything except legal documents, Investment Memorandums and Excel spreadsheets. When I came back to Paris, I got seriously ill and wasn’t able to do anything for a long while as my frustration ramped up. Le Wagon helped me find a way back into the working world as I now work as an auto-entrepreneur building websites for others and for myself. Now I can’t go a day without thinking about coding new projects!

The course itself felt pretty comprehensive but after the daily lecture, you will be paired up with a buddy to work through it and re-teach each other. This in principle could change Software Engineers from working independently to collaborative professionals. This worked well in week one, but after a while individuals learning speeds differed and so did the motivation to be a good buddy. This became detrimental to one student's learnings who felt she could not continue because of the constant stream of poor buddies and a situation with a rather unharmonious final project team. The Teaching assistants also varied in approachability and care. All having different ways of fixing issues. One major thing was the minimal attempts Le wagon made to help with employment, 2 out of 5 Recruiters didn't turn up and not one business or Recruitment agency had a real role to interview for, they were simply connecting for the future. Employability is a real issue, despite the Teaching assitants promising to be on hand afterwards on the alumni slack channel, they have been pretty slow to respond.

Working in the sales department of e-commerce companies, I couldn’t help myself looking at ways we could improve our users experience. I was slowly moving towards the product side. I wanted to land a product manager position. But how do you talk to your programmer’s mates if you never coded anything? That’s why I joined Le Wagon. What happened next is just a life changing experience ! It was intense, fun and rewarding. I didn’t think I could learn that much skills in such a short period of time. You can feel the curriculum is crafted iteration after iteration, batch after batch. The teachers are all experts. You don’t lose time searching hours to debug your code. Experienced staff are there to solve your problems and teach you how to walk by yourself. I ended up loving coding so much that I changed my life’s goal to become a full time programmer. After the bootcamp you will enter in Le Wagon community and be able to get in touch with alumni who became experts in many fields. This is priceless !

Working in the sales department of e-commerce companies, I couldn’t help myself looking at ways we could improve our users experience. I was slowly moving towards the product side. I wanted to land a product manager position. But how do you talk to your programmer’s mates if you never coded anything? That’s why I joined Le Wagon. What happened next is just a life changing experience ! It was intense, fun and rewarding. I didn’t think I could learn that much skills in such a short period of time. You can feel the curriculum is crafted iteration after iteration, batch after batch. The teachers are all experts. You don’t lose time searching hours to debug your code. Experienced staff are there to solve your problems and teach you how to walk by yourself. I ended up loving coding so much that I changed my life’s goal to become a full time programmer. After the bootcamp you will enter in Le Wagon community and be able to get in touch with alumni who became experts in many fields. This is priceless !

Le wagon bootcamp was an incredible experience. At the beginning I just wanted to better understand coding to be able to discuss with developers. Through the bootcamp I realized I could even build my own mvp for the company I planned to build. The skills I learnt are now very useful in my everyday life, a new card to play in the tech ecosystem. 
The human experience was also outstanding! I met true friends in my class, a great way to meet people with different backgrounds, different stories, and same tech interest.
I highly recommend this training! 
Augustin

At the end of 2017 – at the dawn of turning 30 - I decided it was time to move on from my employed life and finally do something I have always wanted to do : launching my own start up and developing an online product which could have impact on people lives. 
First issue : I did not have money to get my product developed by someone else, it was time to learn how to code and of course I chose the best bootcamp to do so : Le Wagon Paris.
9 weeks to be able to start coding my own web product, starting level 0 - quite a big challenge ! It was intense but the team is just incredible and does everything to make sure you keep the pace and a good energy. 
I graduated 3 months ago, my MVP is today over and is currently in beta test – I did everything by myself, now that I look back I’m quite proud – 6 months ago I did not know what coding was. 
Without Le Wagon – my idea would still be in my thoughts – thank you for allowing people to keep the digital revolution growing!

I have always been fascinated to see how a digital product can become a must-have for millions of users: my business training allowed me to understand the economic issues but the technical aspect remained for me a great mystery.
At the end of my studies, I wanted to join Le Wagon in Paris to better understand the world of digital entrepreneurship but also to be part of it.
This goal has been reached! Today I'm working as Product Owner for a start-up which is growing very fast. Thanks again to the entire Wagon team for teaching me how to code and helping students in their future careers.