Le Wagon

My Le Wagon Batch 199 Barcelona journey started somewhat unexpectedly. Having worked in corporate purchasing and program management for almost 10 years since graduating college, I never thought that I would make such a drastic career change. However when I realized that at 33 I was stuck in the never-ending 8 to 5 leading to eventual retirement without any realization of my dreams, it was a fairly easy decision. It was now or never. 

All my life I had ideas for websites and apps and that’s all they were, just ideas. Learning to code gave me the tools to make those ideas reality. It gave me the confidence to be able to tackle any feature that I would like to add to my website. 

There were so many highlights to this amazing experience. The people really made it special. The teachers were top notch and I was lucky to have an absolutely incredible batch. We worked very hard during the week at class, but also were able to explore the amazing Barcelona together on weekends and let loose a bit!  

Barcelona is a great place, with so much culture. Every weekend there is something different to do. I don’t remember a single weekend or day when I could not find something fun to do in my somewhat limited free time. There is the beach, parks, and just an unlimited amount of little bars and restaurants that anyone would be able to find something they enjoy!

My advice to future students would be to really enjoy the experience because it goes by very very fast. Monday through Friday, really concentrate on the classwork. Don’t miss ANY days. It is very easy to fall behind if you do. Watch the lectures on KITT the night before if you can. But also, really explore Barcelona on the weekends. If you put in the work during the week, you will have plenty of time on the weekends to explore and get to know this amazing city. Get to know your classmates. you will go through a lot with them. But really, ENJOY the experience. There is nothing quite like it that you will do in your life. You will meet people with different backgrounds from all around the world, learn new things, try new food. This is just step one of a long and beautiful journey, but a very important one. So enjoy it!

Le Wagon gave me the tools and confidence to tackle my dreams, make some amazing friends along the way, and what happens next is up to me!

I'm a alumni leWagon from the batch #188 in Montreal.
I use to be an engineer in the aircraft industry, after 4 years of experiment I've drooped my job in France to come in Montreal, following a master degree in environment. 
I decided to change my life by following Lewagon training and it was the best decision in my life.
How can I sum up my experience? Learning a lot! Discovering a passion. Meeting amazing people. Finding in myself i'm maybe less stupid that I was thinking. 
This experiment just gave me more confidence and new perspectives for the future. More modern and exiting.
Now I think I can build a career which make me proud and open to me a lot of new directions and field.

By the way! I'm actually assistant teacher for LeWagon Montreal and it's a very nice experience. 

TL;DR :

I more than loved my Le Wagon experience. From both human and learning sides, it was the best 9 weeks ever. The teachers are 300% dedicated, the whole staff, in fact, acts that way.

Having a self-taught background and working as a graphic designer & webdesigner, I wanted to upgrade my tech skills, I ended up not only sith a solid development knowledge, but also with more confidence, learnt how to speak in front of a bunch of people to present a product, how to work with other people on a project…
In a few words : amazing experience.
Le Wagon FTW. <3

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For those who wants to read the whole text I published on my blog about that amazing experience, here it is.

1er octobre.

Autour de la grande table en bois, pas très loin des croissants et des chocolatines de bienvenue, les nouveaux 22 se jaugent. Il est encore tôt et on nous a bien dit de ne pas arriver en retard, à 8h30, on ferme les portes, tant pis pour vous. On est tous là, bien sûr, mi-excités, mi-fatigués - on perd vite l’habitude du rythme scolaire.

Après quelques cafés (les premiers d’une longue, très longue série, je pense avoir éclaté mon record de consommation de caféine pendant cette période-là), on s’est installés en classe, avec cette ambiance de premier jour, ces nouvelles habitudes que l’on va commencer à se fabriquer sans trop savoir encore jusqu’où elles iront. Ma place, deuxième table à gauche, place du milieu. J. à ma gauche, A. à ma droite. Ce sera comme ça tous les matins, tous les soirs, alternant ainsi les heures de cours tantôt très studieuses, tous très concentrés, fronçant des sourcils sur des concepts un peu compliqués encore, qui nous paraissent flous, abstraits, lointains ; tantôt d’une insolente déconcentration, fous-rires et gribouillis sur les cahiers, gloussement sur des blagues pas si drôles, mais après une journée passée à coder, qui nous en aurait voulu, de rigoler bêtement comme cela.

30 novembre, 18h.

Dans la salle, on a installé beaucoup de chaises, on vient de tester le son au micro. C. à côté de moi répète le bal des actions sur le clavier, précieusement minuté, pendant je présenterai l’application que l’on a fini de développer. Depuis quelques heures déjà, on est tous prêts, stressés et fébriles, à l’idée de raconter en quelques minutes le travail des 10 derniers jours. Je suis morte de peur. Au cours de ces deux mois, j’ai gagné en confiance en moi, mais je reste terrorisée à l’idée de parler - en anglais - devant toute cette foule de gens, pour présenter le projet dont j’ai porté l’idée, le projet que nous avons construit tous les quatre, en partant d’une feuille blanche.

Assis sur la grande table qui nous a vus crier de joie quand tout fonctionnait, qui nous a vu taper des poings quand, oh, j’ai tout cassé, assis sur cette table, on balance des pieds en attendant. Certains ont déjà ouvert une bière, d’autres préfèrent se ronger les ongles. C. s’est fait un thé « I really feel British when I do that ».

Les visages amis s’installent dans la salle, et puis c’est à nous. 5 minutes pour convaincre, 5 minutes pour prouver à toutes ces personnes, juste là devant, que nous sommes vraiment des full-stack dev.

Et puis entre ces deux moments, 2 mois, 9 semaines. 9 semaines de six-sept-huit-neuf cafés par jour, de cookies avoine-chocolat du 8ème étage, de bières le vendredi soir (les premières semaines, et puis de bières à partir du mardi soir, après), de yeux fatigués le matin pour le cours de la journée, de yeux perdus qui répondent d’eux-mêmes à la question « do you understand ? », de sourires victorieux quand c’est bon, je suis capable d’expliquer ce que je viens de faire. 9 semaines de messages en continu sur Slack, 9 semaines de sommeil oublié, de Sublime Text ouvert en permanence. de vie rêvée en lignes de commandes sur le terminal.

9 semaines d’amitiés, aussi - parfois un peu plus, mais mes sous-entendus s’arrêteront là -, de petite bulle fermée, entre nous, on se serre les coudes, on apprend ensemble, à coder et à travailler, à expliquer, à se planter, à recommencer ; 9 semaines de lamentations autour de la machine à café, 9 semaines de yeux cernés. 9 semaines à part, entre les murs vitrés de La Gar, à se demander si vraiment, à la fin, on comprendra ce qu’il faut mettre dans le model ou dans le controller.

La deuxième semaine, il y avait un apéro (on a beaucoup pris l’apéro pendant ces 9 semaines) où les alumni venaient nous parler un petit peu. Tous étaient d’accord sur la même chose, Le Wagon avait été l’une des plus belles aventures de leur vie. Je rigolais doucement au début, bien sûr que j’en attendais beaucoup, de cette formation, mais tout de même, je trouvais que c’était un peu exagéré, en deux mois, il ne peut pas se passer tant de choses.

7 semaines après, je suis convaincue de la même chose.

On leur a déjà dit, et je ne suis toujours pas à l’aise avec les grandes déclarations d’amour, mais tout de même, je voulais écrire noir sur blanc, une dernière fois, mon infinie gratitude pour l’ensemble des profs et de l’équipe du Wagon Montréal. Je n’avais jamais vu autant de passion, de dévouement et d’entraide comme cela et cela n’aurait vraiment pas été pareil sans eux.

I used to work in communications. I felt a bit stuck in my work, couldn't see any possibilities of evolution, I wasn't learning anything new and I was losing all motivation. I had the feeling coding would be something I would love doing, but I didn't want to go back into long studies and wasn't sure where to start.

Then a friend of mine told me about Le Wagon. This bootcamp had everything I was looking for: a clearly defined learning path, passionate teachers always available to help, and many great co-students to learn with! Thanks to Le Wagon, I've learned many valuable skills in computer programming of course, but also in team work.

Today I'm on a new career path that I really love and where I can keep on learning new things everyday. What I especially appreciate from Le Wagon is that once the bootcamp is over, they still keep in touch with you and help you look for a job. It feels like being part of a family!

I had not studied any programming language before I joined LeWagon.

Since we only had nine weeks to become a programmer, the class went very fast.

At first it was difficult for me to understand the lessons held in English since I had never lived in any English-speaking countries.

What do you think about it after reading my situation? Do you think it seems difficult to get programming knowledge for me?

So did I. I worried about whether I could follow the classmates.

But after these 9 weeks, I know I should not have worried about anything.

There were teachers and assistants who were very good at teaching.

Moreover, classmates were enthusiastic to get skills, so they motivated me.

Now, I can make web apps since I get skills of Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and so on.

This camp is good to get skills in only nine weeks!

For the lazy ones 😉:
+ Well structured days with lecture, coding with a buddy and live coding session.
+ Large learning platform: videos of the lectures to rewatch, learning cards, cheatsheets, tasks with solutions, etc. 
+ Good and competent teachers
+ Interesting classmates from all around the world, of different ages, with different professional backgrounds

--> Net Promoter Score 10/10

A bit more detailed 🧐:
My background: After working for several years as an account manager for several companies, I came to a point in my life where I had to decide whether I wanted to continue or whether I wanted to develop in a new direction. Coding and programming have always interested me, but I have somehow never found the right entry. Through a friend I came across Le Wagon and then got over quitting my job and visiting the boot camp.

I visited the batch in autumn 2018 with about 40 others. At the beginning I thought that there were too many people, but the lessons were always very smooth. With the "buddy system" you work with a different classmate every day anyway. In general, everything is very well structured. The day starts with a lecture, then you work with the buddy on various tasks. You basically work independently, but if you can't get any further, you can fall back on the buddy. This system has a very exciting dynamic, because sometimes I understood a concept better and thus helped the buddy and sometimes vice versa. By explaining it, you learn a lot yourself. In the evening follows a live coding session in class.

The learning platform is very well structured with all the tasks (built-in solutions), videos and slides of the lectures, flashcards, etc. (Of course you still have access after the course). 

Some teachers are Le Wagon Alumnis, but all are competent and more than capable. For more complicated topics (e.g. SQL) there are also external experts who teach.

• I learned more useful things in 9 weeks than in 4 years of university😛! ...It was a very good decision!

Le Wagon has been a sort of cathartic career changing experience for me. I had no idea that I was able to learn so many valuable skills in such a short time-frame. Having studied completely different subjects for the past 7 years, I thought that coding would be a very difficult challenge. Alas, the teachers in Berlin proved me otherwise. Le Wagon's methods are simple, to the point and quite clear about where they are heading towards during the 9-week program. You learn all the basics to become a good web developer through a completely hands-on approach. You write your code, you test it, you break it, and you have those 10 seconds of bliss when it finally works. Then you move on to the next exercise and to the same process all over again. All of this punctuated with interesting talks and insights that the staff organize in a weekly basis. It is incredibly interesting and really helps you if you’re not familiar with the whole tech scene.

The staff is incredibly friendly and always willing to teach you and help you with whatever you need. From the driver to the teachers, everyone is very accessible and friendly. This really made Le Wagon stand out for me, I felt like I didn't want to leave the bootcamp at the end of each day. Make no mistake, doing a bootcamp is a handful of work, but Le Wagon manages to create a excellent work environment for everyone, which made the whole learning experience a lot more enjoyable than I thought.

All of this culminates in the last 3 weeks when you work with a closed team of 3 to 4 people on your final project. It is a true taste of working in a team project, filled with the highs and lows you might expect. The teachers are even more involved than before, helping each team to design their apps. People will get stressed, your team will break new ground when it comes to coding skills and you'll learn a lot of new, specific things during the last part of the bootcamp, all of this according to what you plan on doing. Then, on the final day, you and your team demonstrate what you built to everyone, and you marvel not necessarily at the app you created, but at how everything came together in the end (sometimes against all odds) and you managed to finish everything you set out to do.

Le Wagon? 10/10, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. I have learned valuable coding and teamwork skills that will certainly help me a lot in the years to come as I dive into a whole different field of work.

My story with Le Wagon started even before I considered becoming a developer. I was going through that moment in life when you're seeking what you really want to do with your future.

I was having a hard time to find a job in my city and decided to live in Germany to study German and apply for a Master programm in Finance. Being on my own for 6 months there made me realize that most of the things I know today were not exactly thanks to my studies during my MBA, but thanks to my work experience and I started to doubt if this Master programm was really the best choice for my future as I wanted my skills to be praised rather than my degrees.

After talking with a friend about this I came to learn about Le Wagon and after some research I decided to come back to Rio and be part of it. Joining Le Wagon was one of the most amazing experiences I had. Everybody in the bootcamp was very friendly and you could trust the staff to help you in your every need. I also met people with different backgrounds than mine and that is also what made the experience amazing.

I only coded before for a short time but that wasn't an issue, the bootcamp is well structured so that a newbie can learn just as much as someone who coded before. One of the most impressive things was being able to build a fully functional web app from scratch in just two weeks. I never thought I would be able to learn so much in such a short time.

If you're considering studying with Le Wagon, know this: you will struggle and you will doubt yourself but trust them and you won't regret it.

I entered the Le Wagon bootcamp after building a career in television broadcasting for 12 years as I needed a change and changing workplaces didn’t bring the job satisfaction I was after. I started to learn to code besides my job at the time and the longer I stayed with it the more sense and fun it made. Still having doubts about my capabilities, I signed up for the bootcamp to see how I perform compared to others and to follow the path of many successful students. Studying at Le Wagon Amsterdam was a unique and fantastic experience. I loved joining a group of like-minded people who motivated me to do my best and beyond under the guidance of competent teachers to become a web developer. After completing the bootcamp, I’m even more enthusiastic to grow a career in web development than ever before.

  I decided to do Le Wagon after some online research about bootcamps in Berlin and I strongly recommend it. I had a previous experience with learning to code (I completed a Virtual Reality nanodegree at Udacity), but I found the approach at Le Wagon way better. The teachers are well prepared and in just a couple of weeks I went from zero knowledge of Backend to building apps with good-looking Frontend.

  Everyday we had new challenges to solve with a pair and even optionals if you finish the basic ones. Somedays I got to the end of all of them and in others I would be stuck and almost not even accomplish the first few. But it is a great way to recognize your strong and weak points. In my case, before the bootcamp I though I would be focusing more on Frontend development, just to realize that my strongest skills are actually the ones related to the Backend work.

  Another advantage of the bootcamp at Le Wagon is the final project. We got to work together in groups and developed web applications with Ruby on Rails, also learning how to use Github properly. Working in group is rather different than alone, and I believe this is also an important skill to have when we want to join a company or even start one. 

  After all, Le Wagon was even better than I expected and I recommend it!

After going abroad and finishing High School in Canada, I wasn’t satisfied with my life on my home country, I wanted to do more and learn more and get to know new cultures, and I didn’t want to go college/university right away after High School. I really enjoyed computers and technology, so I started looking for online coding courses, but after a while I realized that it was better to learn to code in a different environment, and then I started looking for Coding Bootcamps in Europe, because I have few friends there and it would an awesome opportunity to visit then, as a bonus I would still learn how to code, so I read some reviews about Le Wagon and I was so surprised, because all of them were super positive. After talking to my parents about the idea of going abroad again and study coding I decided to apply to the Le Wagon in Barcelona, I have a lot of friends from Spain, and I thought it would be amazing to live in a city like Barcelona, after applying and scheduling a video call where I got know Gus the Driver from Le Wagon Barcelona, we talked about my goals to the future and what I expected about the bootcamp, and Gus is such a nice guy, since the beginning until the end of the course he is always there supporting the students. After the video call he sent me a small Ruby test, that I had to finish on the next few days, and then I got accepted.

One special thing about Le Wagon is their community, the teachers and TAs are amazing, they are always helping you, no matter what. The course itself is very well structured, everything you learn since the beginning is important on the following weeks, don’t get me wrong, you have to be very focused and committed to code for the whole day, but trust me at Le Wagon time flies, it’s not boring, it’s fun and rewarding, every day you get to work with a different classmate, and this way you are always making some type of networking, and by the end of the bootcamp I’m sure your classmates will be like a family to you, it happened to me. And on the last two weeks where we were able to build our own apps from the scratch and present it to the public at the demo day and seeing what we were capable of was amazing, the best part of the bootcamp, indeed.

After the bootcamp I can surely say that Le Wagon really changed my life, Le Wagon gave me purpose and it opened opportunities for me in the future, with coding you are always learning and that’s the cool thing about coding it never stops evolving. The next step for me is going to College and learn even more about Web Development and new technologies, and of course, explore the world while coding. Thanks for changing my life Le Wagon Barcelona.

大學填志願時，還不清楚人生的方向，隨意按照考試分數報名一所風評不錯的大學的資訊科系。進大學後，上課不認真，下課跑社團，一直沒有定下心來好好唸書，少數幾堂認真上的課也只是讓我有了一點基礎概念，離把資訊當成事業還差了十萬八千里。

畢業後，帶著那些薄弱的程式底子，我一個資訊相關的工作都不敢應徵，最後，進入了一家小投資公司擔任產品助理。這個工作沒什麼壓力，但薪水卻也低，做的事情又缺乏專業性及挑戰性。雖然心知這樣下去不是辦法，卻也不知道要怎麼改變現況。近兩年的時間，下班後我斷斷續續上了各種線上線下的課程，包含語言、UI設計、運動等，美其名是培養興趣及一技之長，實際上是因為內心非常茫然，不知道自己還能做什麼，所以只能什麼都試試看。然而這些課程也因為白天要上班，學習時間不連貫，缺乏實作經驗，最後課程結束後也不了了之，還是回到公司繼續渾渾噩噩的工作，所學也漸漸生疏。

經過兩年的思考，抱著破釜沈舟的決心，決定辭去工作，重拾曾經大學接觸過的領域，也因為這是我唯一有點基礎的技能，聊勝於無。搜尋課程花了很長的時間，因為實在不知道要從什麼語言學起，網路上的建議也眾說紛紜。最後，抱著姑且一試的心情，報名了網路上口碑最好的Le Wagon。我的目標很簡單，提高薪水、培養技能，也希望以後講到自己的經歷時，能夠自豪的說：“我大學念資訊，現在是一名工程師。”

剛開始其實很擔心，因為自己不是一個自動自發的人，加上課程是全英文，同學也來自世界各地。不但要適應語言，還要在短短九週內學會這麼多東西，並在期末用短短兩週完成作品並進行發表。對於大學四年用母語都學不好一個程式語言的人，這是多大的挑戰。

開始上課後，這些擔心卻完全拋至腦後，因為，並沒有時間及精力讓我胡思亂想。每天的課程從早到晚，課程結束後，大家非常有默契的留下來繼續練習及討論，受到這個氛圍影響，我也絲毫不敢懈怠。不同於大學課程，Le Wagon更注重實作及培養思考能力，透過大量的練習將課程內容融會貫通，同時在老師、助教及同學的幫助下，學習解決問題的辦法。

面對一道道題目，一個一個將它破解是一件很有成就感的事。有時候光是想一道題就可以煩惱幾個小時還想不出來，忍不住都要放棄了，但當解開的一瞬間，又會高興得忍不住吶喊。就是在這樣的喜悅及夥伴們的陪伴下，讓我能夠繼續面對這些密密麻麻的程式碼，並逐漸建立自信心。

在這裡的九個星期，只能用“永生難忘”來形容了。過去沒有，未來大概也很難再有這樣的機會跟一群好戰友們一起互相扶持、沒日沒夜、為了一個共同的目標努力前進。

累嗎？真的很累，每天近十小時都在進行腦力激盪，有時候連假日都不敢休息，就怕跟不上或拖累大家。

值得嗎？相信我，沒有比這個過程更有趣、更值得又更令人興奮的事了！