Le Wagon

Prior to joining Le Wagon, I was unsatisfied with my current job and unsure about which direction I wanted to go to in my life. Having previously had the chance to study coding but being unable to take it because I was moving out of the Philippines, I feel like I had missed out on the opportunity until I found Le Wagon in Tokyo. It was definitely one of the best decisions I have made.

Upon starting the bootcamp, I was honestly very nervous and unsure. I had never had coding experience beforehand and I was afraid that I would lag behind everyone else. True, at the beginning, it was a struggle but when they say “at some point, it will click,” it really did.

Being with so many other motivated individuals in such a diverse class with people from all over the world, it had become this fun adventure everyday. The challenges we were given throughout the bootcamp were indeed challenging but also taught me how to think logically and create good code. If there was something that I didn’t understand, there were always people there who could help me out and teach me.

Towards the end of the bootcamp, we were tasked to create a working website. That was probably the best part of the program. Here, we were able to apply everything we had learned throughout the camp. Not only that, we were taught how to work as a team, together with the use of GitHub and Trello to simulate a real working environment. I feel like that in general was an important aspect of the camp.

Overall, Le Wagon was all and more that it had promised. With a great curriculum, amazing teachers, and amazing students, it was the most fun I have ever had studying. From intense mornings and afternoons of coding to the late night drinking and karaoke sessions after a long week, to the hilarious Slack chats and the party parrot, there was never a dull moment when I took this camp.

As most of natural Entrepreneurs, I was full of ideas and I liked to indulge in fantasy about striking a great product. Fill my head with make-believe online courses and tutorials in CSS, HTML, Javascript, Python, Ruby, etc. It was fun but no productive.

I’ve worked in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs for 4 years straight from a full year internship program into a great experience in New York working with great professionals who I really admire. I was working hard trying to place myself as a good employee and bringing new ideas to the table. However, the bank is Huge and meritocracy turned into long term career program. I wasn’t looking for that, I wanted to build from my own hands. Tried consulting for 2 years after Banking, got a great spot as leader in one the biggest success turnaround in Brazilian market helping companies negotiate more than 1bi brl in debt.

I decided to start my own business in 2015. My goal was very simple, help fast growing business grow faster. Sounds controversial but in fact many business run out of cash during growing periods and that’s when I came in, providing cash flow in a smart and fashion way, no bureaucracy I promised.

My first try was hiring a software company to start develop the product I was interested in. A kind of marketplace to help those growing business fund their invoices with better investors. I spent cash and time, nothing worked. My second try was to hire someone to start coding, during the interviews I was like “What I’m trying to evaluate here? I don’t even know why people keep repeating Java and Javascript, aren’t the same thing?”. Funny tough.

So, 2017 was THE year. I started fulling myself of online courses, tutorials, books, podcasts etc. I created my very first website with HTML, CSS and a very little of Javascript (at that time I already knew the difference). Ok, now next step, create a web application, a real product! Nothing I was working with could push me from knowing syntax to create a real product. How to connect front-end to back-end? How to create good schemas and software architecture? No tutorial could teach me that in time. I was struggling.

 

My Journey at Le Wagon Bootcamp

Regularly getting earlier, preparing myself to day class, getting my buddies coffee (I confess, never prepared the coffee) and kept myself really motivated. Formula to success. I did everything I could, every minute I had I was studying (or relaxing to empower the brain). First two weeks we learned bunch of syntax in Ruby. After that we started working with databases and first concepts of CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete). Then, we moved forward to Front-end, really hands on techniques to faster your development. Our batch sticked together, as a team, helping each other evolve. Finally everything were put together, we started develop our first web application using Rails, magic happened.

All preparations were meaningfully and every hour coding was worth it. At last 10 final days we had a challenge to build a product and show that product at Sao Paulo Google campus in a Open demoday to the community. If you want to check what we did, please check it out at www.advalori.com (if the link wasn’t online when you try to open it, its probably because we are launching our production version and going to the real market soon). You can watch our demoday in this link www.lewagon.com/demoday/106/advalori (in Portuguese).

On a lighter note, I finished Le Wagon’s Bootcamp more motivated than ever, it really was 9 weeks that changed my skills set completely, I still working out to improve myself as I coder but now I know how to navigate in this open ocean. Thank you for reading this. If you see yourself in a similar situation, let’s chat. I will be happy to help.

I attended Le Wagon in October 2017 (#103). It's phenomenal. I built multiple web sites, various scripts and an Fb messenger extension (Kitty, it’s live, check it out). I still hang out with my team. Plus, I’m grateful to be teaching at the next batch. And I've set up a web dev agency.

I’d done a fair bit of coding in C, HTML and generally just messing around as a teenager before. Never any Ruby though; nor had I talked to any developers before. I thought I might be ahead of my batch at the start. But it wasn’t an issue - the whole structure is quite relaxed. You can do extra exercises yourself, or spend time explaining code to your teammates (I found this surprisingly testing). Currently I feel confident enough to jump into conversations about software development and keep up.

I had just finished PPE at Oxford and halfheartedly went through the corporate rigmarole. Then I came to Le Wagon. Now career fairs (for software developers) are a different ball game. They just let all their prerequisites slide and offer to interview there and then. If you’ve applied to law/MC/banks, the difference is *stunning*.

Finally, the team is solid and energetic.

So, if you’re dithering, it’s worth the $. I’ve just paid mine off from cryptocurrency, much of which I learnt from interested people on batch #103. I never would have found out about this stuff if I hadn’t attended. So, in short, 5 stars!

I worked as a Product Manager for a PE fund for 2.5 years, but never knew how to code. I wanted to learn coding so that I could create my own prototypes and to better manage costs and timelines. I looked at a lot of courses and was worried they weren't business orientated enough. I saw the reviews for Le Wagon and was particularly interested in the business focus they have. 

The course is tough... it really is a bootcamp. That being said there were students of all levels, some who had HTML/CSS experience and others who had never worked on any aspect of an app before. By the time the project came along we all had skills needed to create the idea we wanted. My team made an activity booking app, I was honestly surprised by how much we were able to build in such a short time. 

If you are thinking of doing a bootcamp, I can't recommend this one enough. The community, teachers, events and support they give you is more than I had hoped for.

I did Le Wagon in Paris nearly one year and half ago, so i think this delay have given me the time to see what are the benefits and drawbacks (and i do not see any) of such experience.

First, i will summarize quickly the experience in itself because lots of people have already did it and my opinion will not vary from what the crowd usually says : Le Wagon is an outstanding experience, teachers are really well trained and the curriculum is always improved in a way that allows it to be reliable even after 4 years of existence. That being said, i will move to the "after Le Wagon part" because that is the kind of testimonial i was looking for when I was reading reviews before joining the bootcamp.

When I joined Le Wagon, i was a classic business student without any professional experience even interships, it was at the beginning of my gap year. Havind coded a little bit when I was a kid and wanting to work in the tech industry, It was natural for me to learn to code that is why I joined Le Wagon. When I finished the bootcamp, I started to look for an internship and I was amazed by the pace of the process, it was really much faster than when i was searching before Le Wagon. I quickly realized that I had a big and scarce asset giving me a strong advantage in the labor market. So, I was now in the position to choose rather than in the applicant one.

I joined an early-stage startup to do lots of things ranging from marketing, sales, and sometimes coding but I ended up coding like a full stack developer. At the end of my internship, I stayed three months more as a freelancer in this company which almost allowed me to pay back the investment of the bootcamp. Now I am finishing my sudies and will start to work but I am pretty confident in the future and like what I am doing. I will not look for a pure full stack developer job but rather in a position at the border between business and tech like growth hacker, product manager or even operations analyst.

Those positions are, according to me, the best for a business graduate after Le Wagon because they are perfectly suited for our profiles. First, software developers usually do not compete for them and secondly, we are ahead in terms of hard skills over classic business schools graduates (knowing SQL and a script language is even sometimes mandatory).

To conclude, the biggest benefit I got from Le Wagon was to get a singularity in comparison to the mass of business schools graduates. And when you have a singularity, it means less competition, higher compensations and more fullfilling jobs because you have more choices. So, what I expected from Le Wagon was exactly what I got. If you want to start the adventure, do not see it like an expense, It is definitively an investment and the ROI is phenomenal. For sure, we tend to see the absolute amount which seems huge at first, but, Le Wagon only cost me 16% of the cost of my business school but brought me much more than this number, think of it !

Jean de Colombel

Coming from a background in design and working mostly with HTML and CSS, I wanted to hone my back-end development skills more. As such, I began to look at various coding bootcamps and encountered Le Wagon after reading rave reviews and receiving a recommendation from a friend. After applying and going through the requisite steps, I soon I found myself on a plane to Tokyo for nine thrilling weeks. And I'm very satisfied with my decision to attend the bootcamp with Le Wagon Tokyo! It resulted in rounding out my web development skill set and making connections with a delightful, supportive group of people who enjoyed their memes and emoji. Speaking of, the party parrot emoji best summarizes my experience at Le Wagon Tokyo. Take a look at nearly any message in our Batch #94 Slack channel and you'll see the party parrot reaction emoji bobbing away with enthusiasm. The program made learning the full-stack of web development really fun and I felt very connected to my classmates, teachers, and staff. The material we learned from lectures, comprehensive resources, and coding exercises culminated as a group project where we really applied ourselves to build a Ruby on Rails prototype website from scratch. The Le Wagon community is truly what made the experience a memorable one--we were all in this together with the support from everyone!

When I first started researching Le Wagon, I grew suspicious of all the 5 star reviews. Surely somebody would have at least one less positive comment or nitpick about something they disliked. Now that I’ve finished the 9 week trajectory, I fully understand the glowing positive reviews that Le Wagon has received.

My main goal for doing a bootcamp was to accelerate my learning process and move into a career as a software developer. The Le Wagon curriculum is perfect for this purpose because it gives you a lot of knowledge in very short period of time. The structure of the lessons makes complete sense and the build up to the final project with smaller projects is well thought out. The times I got stuck solving a challenge or implementing a feature in my project, there were always plenty of teachers and teacher’s assistants to help me out.

After finishing the bootcamp I feel much more confident as a developer and even though there’s still a lot to learn, I know I’m able to find the solution for any issue I might encounter.

The added bonus I wasn’t expecting is the amazing sense of community that Le Wagon provides. I have made friends for life during the bootcamp that include students, teachers and alumni. The Le Wagon experience doesn’t end with the bootcamp: the first 9 weeks are only the beginning.

I worked for more than 5 years as a Graphic Designer in Milan until I moved in Dubai. After my experience of 16 months in UAE as Unreal Developer, I understood how important it was for my profession to move into a different and more interesting area. I fell in love with coding after discovering the power and creativity of Javascript, but at the same time the growing demand for skills related to web development was a further stimulus to apply for this new challenge. So I decided to find the best and most complete bootcamp in Europe and one of the best in the world, and after a long search I selected Le Wagon thanks also to a complete program. Why Amsterdam? Because it is the third most important city in the world for the IT and creative industries. It is also a dynamic and innovative city.   The coding bootcamp was the best learning experience of my life and one of the best experience on a human side. In Le Wagon I found what I was looking for. An environment full of motivation, an extremely rich and structured course, supported by a clear and rich platform of content. Everything is planned to give you the best tools to face this challenge. But the best part of the course are the teachers and the perfect management of the driver. The first week was a little bit frustrating, because everything was new to me, but due to the clear and well structured lectures and explanations I was able to learn everything. Also the continuous support of the brilliant teachers was very beneficial to my learning curve. The teachers, lectures, course material, platform - it is a perfect machine where every attention is focused on your learning curve and progression. On the human side it was an amazing experience: wonderful people from all over the world with different background and different motivation. Thanks to the working method, you have the chance to know each person every day, and share your experience and your skills.    After these intensive weeks I really feel comfortable with front-end and back-end, and I have finally a complete and attractive job profile. As a designer I discovered a new world of powerful tools thanks to which I can have fun and be creative, and maybe mix some other designer skills. Anyway after two months I finally found my place in the world: despite the numerous job offers I receive, I'm looking to open my own company. So if you are looking to change your life, if you are looking to improve and enrich your skills, or if you are just looking for an awesome experience, don't hesitate. Just do it.

Before I joined Le Wagon, I worked as a manager of Bridge SE team of Software development company in Vietnam. I started my career as web/mobile project manager but I always was struggling with my lack of technical skills/knowledge working with developers. 
When I decided to back to Japan to gain more experiences in the Japanese market, I luckily found Le Wagon Tokyo. One of the biggest reason that I chose it was because all the program of Le Wagon proceeds in English. (The second biggest reason is the reputations on the internet). For that reasons, I made my choice to jump into the most challenging environment.

Even though I’ve been in the software industry and I knew some concepts to make web applications, the first week of the program was the hardest time for me. It took time getting used thinking like a programmer and writing codes but thanks to the great help from the skilled teachers and the teaching assistants, I gradually started loving coding. 

The final project was the best thing in the program. Although I have participated in the project as a project manager before, it was my first time for me to be in a team as a developer and develop our own product.
It was really challenging to build a website within 2 weeks from scratch but working as a team to build a “real” product was the best learning experience in my life.

After graduation, I'm back to the previous working company as the same role, project manager utilizing the skill of full stack developer. 
I do recommend Le Wagon if you want to learn to code. It is literally GREAT and I’m sure you will gain unforgettable experience.

Willem Poghisyo van Klinken - Le Wagon, Amsterdam (batch 99)

My background: 

I had been working as a chef over the past 8 years or so, and although I enjoyed this very much, this was never my true passion. I knew I was interested in coding (and the computer sciences) but I found it a little overwhelming on where to start. With so many different blogs and mini courses online I found it difficult to know on what to focus on and start with. After starting a few, then stopping for a while before going back to them and trying again, I realized that this approach was not going to work for me. I needed a little help and support to guide me on this new direction I was interested in. I was advised that a boot-camp course was probably the best way to do this, and after researching the possibilities, I selected the what seemed to be the best choice for me. 

Enter Le Wagon.    

What Le Wagon did for me: 

In Le Wagon I found exactly what I had been looking for. A well-structured course delivered by some extremely motivated and talented teachers and teaching assistants. The platform that we used, for our knowledge acquisition and daily challenges is very well designed, and provides you with exactly the resources needed to approach each days topics. With even additional challenges for the very motivated/skilled it caters to all levels of abilities and keeps everyone interested. The paired buddy system, taught me how to collaborate and work with anybody I was assigned with, which will no doubt be very useful in my future coding career. Although the course is delivered at quite a high pace, you have access to all these resources even after the course, allowing you to go back and review some topics that you may wish to have spent a little more time on. I really think Le Wagon found the 'sweet spot' with the amount of knowledge delivered and the pace of the course, constantly keeping me motivated and on my toes, but never overwhelmed.  

What I hope to do with it now 

I feel extremely comfortable, not only in the knowledge that Le Wagon has already provided me, but in the skills and abilities I have picked up along the way that will help me continue my development in coding. I am now far more aware on how to tackle and approach new topics I am interested in. I have an abundance of resources at my fingertips, not to mention an amazing network of extremely helpful and knowledgeable alumni to call upon if needed. I will definitely continue developing myself in this field, and hope to find a job in a company to help with this, but there is also a chance I might team up with some of my class mates to start our own web development company which would be absolutely fantastic, to keep the Le Wagon feeling alive!  

 

If you are reading this, contemplating on whether this boot-camp is worth it or not, my only advise is hesitate no longer. You will learn an incredible amount, and have such amazing fun doing it. Le Wagon delivers above and beyond 'what it says on the box'. My only regret is that those 9 weeks went by so quickly, I wish I was still there. 

 

I decided to take a gap year before university and learn to code. Joining Le Wagon Lyon (batch #109) helped me do just that and it ended up being one of the best decisions I have ever made.

The admission process was very efficient. After applying on Le Wagon's website, I received a call from the driver within hours and a Skype interview was set a few days later. No experience in code was required, I just had to complete a prep-course to build a basic understanding of programming before blasting off at the start of the actual course.

The 9 weeks are perfectly structured. Each morning starts with an hour and a half long lesson followed by a full day of challenges. A different working buddy is assigned each day which gives everyone a great opportunity to get to know each other, work in teams and discover different ways to complete a challenge. There are even some bonus exercises for the ones who have gone through the regular set and want to explore more. The livecode at 5:30 helped us dig deeper in the challenges of the day and often gave us a different, more efficient, approach to solving the problem. On Thursdays we had an hour of yoga in the afternoon - a very enjoyable and relaxing break between coding sessions.

The teachers are incredibly skilled and excellent instructors / mentors. There was always a teacher or teaching assistant ready to help me when I was stuck in a challenge. The support and guidance I received from the team as whole, driven by a passionate and very considerate driver, was amazing.

The course is extremely intense and the learning curve is steep. We were already able to code small programs at the end of the first week. Each day was packed with key knowledge that was sometimes hard to fully digest but the teachers were always there to make sure we had a clear understanding and were not overwhelmed before moving onto the next step. In 2 short months, I gained an in-depth grasp of back end (Ruby on Rails) and front end programming (HTML, CSS and JavaScript).

The last 3 weeks, dedicated to real-life projects, were probably the most exciting of this already amazing course. From week 7 onwards we teamed up in groups of 3 to 4 for a 1-week long Airbnb-like project and a 2-week long project of our choice. The first one introduced us to web projects in teams and the end result of our 5-day long projects was already pretty impressive. Now, the second one gave us an opportunity to go all-out, improve our coding skills and be the most creative. I worked on Lovify (lovify.top), a dating app which finds you your perfect music match through your Spotify listens. I had a lot of fun implementing everything I had learnt throughout the course, playing with Ruby on Rails and working with a fantastic team. I am really proud of what we have achieved through this fully functional app and it was a pleasure to present it during the DemoDay.

More than just learning to code in Ruby, Le Wagon has given me the keys to improve my coding skills myself and explore new languages. I also got to meet really interesting and motivated people, some of whom have become very close friends, and build a strong network. The support certainly does not stop once the bootcamp ends as the team and alumni continue to help us professionally, to find a job, internship, freelance work or become an entrepreneur.

The course is tiring and requires a lot of hard work during long days but the friendly and supportive atmosphere along with the skills gained make it 100% worth it.

Le Wagon has been the most educational and enriching experience of my life. I am looking forward to make use of everything I have learnt thanks to this bootcamp in my future studies and career. I completely recommend Le Wagon to anyone interested in web development, wether you want to become a full-time programmer or build technical skills the startup way!

Before Le Wagon, I worked as a procesmanager. My colleagues created IT solutions for different clients and during the building process I was fascinated about the different lines of code on their computer. In my younger years I never did anything with coding and therefore I felt that I would never be able to understand what these programmers where doing. But Le Wagon convinced me that everybody can learn code and they were right!

The first weeks are intense but gradually the bits and pieces come together. Looking back; I now have a much better understanding of the bigger picture of web development and programming. My new skill set has opened so many doors. Also I met a lot of interesting people during and after the bootcamp. The community of alumni’s, teachers and students is truly remarkable. The bootcamp is also well organized and the teachers/staff really care about their students.

I’m currently setting up my own start-up with the two people from my final project. After the bootcamp we decided to continue with the idea and we are currently finalizing the product; just a couple of months after the bootcamp.  
My experience at Le Wagon has been truly amazing. Whether you want to become a developer, improve your IT knowledge or start your own start-up, I would highly recommend to join Le Wagon!