Le Wagon

My name is Archie Gilbert and I attended Le Wagon’s coding bootcamp in London from January to March 2017.

I’ve always been interested in technology and have wanted to study it ever since I was a kid, but school just wasn’t teaching me what I wanted to learn so I left when I was 18.

I looked into some coding bootcamps and Le Wagon was clearly leading the game with the best reviews, highest ratings, most interesting alumni projects.

So I started in London in January 2017 and I learnt more technical skills in the space of 2 weeks than I did in my entirety of formal education! Even my friends who decided to go to university can’t compete with the scale of things I can now create.

Le wagon has kickstarted my career and I even got my first project by meeting their alumni! Joining Le Wagon was the best decision I’ve made in a long time and I still miss going there every day and being in the environment of constant learning.

Before Le Wagon, I spent about a year doing various online courses to try to learn how to code. They taught me the basics of HTML, CSS, JS and some other areas of programming but I couldn’t build anything completely from scratch and couldn’t tie together what I knew with any degree of confidence.

Le Wagon’s bootcamp was exactly what I needed. It took the bits and pieces I already knew, filled in the gaps and amalgamated all of this knowledge so I now have a much better understanding of the bigger picture of web development and programming in general.  
The teachers were fantastic and I studied alongside some wonderful people who I still keep in touch with. The pace of the course is fast and it makes for a very intense 9 weeks but you learn so much every day and the structure of the day ensures you get time to practise extensively and then digest and consolidate everything with evening live code sessions.

I’m currently working as a junior web developer and finally feel as though I have the skills (not to mention resources!) to build web applications in Ruby on Rails and build on the solid foundation that the bootcamp provided me with. Highly recommend to anyone that wants to learn to code!

When I decided to change my career, I quickly realised that I needed to acquire new skills in a fast way, so no university, no Masters, no Bachelors. After benchmarking several Coding Schools, Le Wagon seemed to the best choice based on countless reviews, curriculum, price, duration and staff, and I was correct!

When I started my coding journey at Le Wagon, I brought with me some tech skills that I acquired during my BSc in Computer Science and during my previous job as an IT Consultant. I've learned so much over the course of 9 weeks, even though I had some prior knowledge before the bootcamp. Le Wagon offers a well structured curriculum, starting from the very beginning and building up to more complex topics and finally allowing you to build complete apps. Each module is taught by teachers who have the perfect knowledge of the material covered during these modules and who know the market.

During the bootcamp I've noticed that Le Wagon connected us to the tech industry through inviting companies, visiting tech events and tech job fairs and by providing and sharing job opportunities. 

The value of the bootcamp is very present, at least in Amsterdam, because companies there have a great acceptance of the bootcamp. For example, I found a job as a junior Ruby on Rails developer, during the last weeks of the bootcamp, when I was working on my final project.

Le Wagon's does not only teach the programming skills but also implements a business view throughout the entire program, by the end of the course, everyone is able to understand the value of an idea, design and implement it, using cutting-edge technologies and frameworks.

Each person who is part of this course must be aware that they will belong to a community among entrepreneurs and developers. After the bootcamp they are all part of the global Le Wagon alumni family. 

If you are the type of person that, want to learn cutting-edge technologies, understand the business behind an idea, be part of a tech community, build your own applications and want to maintain a close relationship with tech companies then I would highly recommend to join Le Wagon.

I used to work as a structural engineer but I was not satisfied with the day to day challenges and the work I had to do. I wanted to join a startup with a more young, dynamic environment but I didn't have any transferable skills. A friend of mine suggested I joined le wagon.

My experience at le wagon has been very positive. Not only because of the actual course and how in 7 weeks I had learned enough to code my final product in 2 weeks but also because of the community at le wagon and the network it has created for my professional career.

I am now looking for a job as a web developer and in only one week of finising le wagon I have been getting multiple responses from various startups to set up interviews and discuss how I would fit in their team.

If you want an intensive course that will open many doors in the start up industry or web development world and have no prior coding knowledge I would definitely recommend joining le wagon!

My name is Theodore, I am French, 29 years old. Born and raised in Paris, I studied Business and Finance at McGill University (Montreal) for 4 years and then a master “Grande Ecole” at EM Lyon (Lyon and Shanghai).
Right after this, I started straight in market finance as an equity derivatives and structured products sales at BNP Paribas for three years. First in Paris, then NY and finally London. Although these were very fun years of my life, I was introduced to the great world of tech and startups in NY and got very passionate about it. Along with the realization that finance is not what it used to be, I felt the urge to do something more creative with my life…

Hence, with two friends of mine, and with little tech knowledge, we decided to quit our jobs and create our first startup (a social marketplace for home services called Hively).  That went on for 8 months until strenuous disagreement on entrepreneurial style and vision led us to part ways. So it’s a pretty classic startup story with all the lessons that come with it: 1. Starting a business with friends is hard. 2. Having little tech knowledge is not an advantage. 3. Paying a dev agency to build your mvp is both expensive and inefficient.

A friend of mine and LeWagon alumni was often telling me about coding bootcamps and I felt the urge to jump into coding. First to get a general understanding of code and second to be able to build the mvp of my next startups by myself. So in Jan 2017, I started LeWagon in London. Boy what a ride. I truly loved that intense experience. I met great people, found out that code does not burn and is actually really cool. If you think (like me) that Excel is fun, wait until you start code. It’s Excel fun x10. Last two weeks at LeWagon, we worked on a idea of mine which is to build a premium livestreaming platform for influencers. We had a lot of fun and we still do because we (4 LeWagon classmates and myself) are working on it now and we should be able to launch it pretty soon. It’s called Socialive.TV, hope you like it!
That’s it from me, I think everyone should learn to code and LeWagon is a great place to start. The community is great so if I were you, I would not hesitate. Personally, LeWagon was the best decision I made in a long time.

Cheers,
Theo

I was looking to change my career from sales to being a web developer, so I did a lot of searching on the web. I saw Le Wagon has five stars so I contacted them and they invited me to their demo day in December 2016.

I was surprised how amazing their presentations and products were. I had a word with a few of the students and most of them didn't know how to code before they join Le Wagon and that’s what made me so comfortable joining the bootcamp.

They do tell you that the first weeks you really need to stay focused. So I did, and  I can’t believe that 9 weeks later I was presenting and launching my own product, Desk Joy, in front of a crowed at Google Campus. It was an amazing experience and now I have a strong foundation to move forward as a developer or to build my own products.

I had been wanting to learn coding for a while before enrolling to Le Wagon. I started learning with some online services but was not convinced. After benchmarking several bootcamps in both US and Europe, it seemed Le Wagon gave the best value for money.   I didn’t regret one second joining them. The pedagogy - focused on practice - is extremely innovative. The courses are very well structured and engaging. The teachers are clear, professional and friendly. The technologies and methodologies you learn are what companies are using.   By the end of the bootcamp, everyone is able to build their own app, and more importantly has the right basics to be able to keep learning new languages, frameworks and technologies.   Last but not least, you become part of a community of entrepreneurs and developers which will be there to support you in your future challenges.   Whether you want to become a developer, build your own product, be able to better talk to the tech guys in your company or are just curious about coding, I would highly recommend to join Le Wagon.

 

I’ll give you some life context so that you can understand how Le Wagon legitimately changed mine. I left university midway through my degree in History and German. I didn’t feel that I was getting enough value to make the investment sensible. I was there because of ambition. I want to have a good career in a job that I enjoy. I went to an academic school in London and was taught that university was the only way forward after 18. To not go would be to forfeit my right to a successful future; to stagnate. Keep paddling, don’t rest, you’ll make it.

I was on holiday in Lisbon, staying in a house share. Sitting at the kitchen table I saw fluorescent text tapping along a dark laptop screen. Coding, just like in the movies. It still excites me when I open up my laptop and see the arcane looking terminal and text-editor in which I do most of my work. I asked the guy operating the laptop how I might be able to sneak into his mystical world. He asked what I was studying. History I said. Well then, a coding bootcamp he said. And that’s when I found Le Wagon. Googling away and trying to find the best bootcamp in Europe. I hit gold, but I didn’t know it at the time. I applied, I got a place and I left university.  

I didn’t make my decision lightly and I was worried that Le Wagon wouldn’t live up to my hopes and dreams. That I wouldn’t like coding. The first three weeks are hard but immensely rewarding. At 9am the 90 minute lecture starts and one of Le Wagon’s great teachers guides you through a new concept. You have to concentrate. Every syllable is important to your understanding. You then split off into randomly assigned pairs and work through coding exercises until 5:30pm. This is where your brain strains as it shifts and develops new methods of function. You’ll get tired, you’ll sit in total frustration, you’ll feel brilliant. From 5:30pm-7:00pm a student will go in front of the class and try to solve a coding problem. Don’t worry if the thought of this intimidates you, it does most, but you won’t be alone up there, the class will work with you. On this course you learn hard skills. Through 400+ hours of coding you are born into the world of technology and what an awesome world it is. The next 4 weeks are also difficult but there is a shift in what is learned. It becomes much more visual, and your first three weeks come together to make sense. You really have to trust the process. Often times you might think, why are we learning this? It’s because Le Wagon is responsible. They don’t give you a whistle-stop, skim read, superficial introduction to coding. They dig the foundations deep to steady you for a whole future of explosive growth. The last 2 weeks are spent working on your final project in teams of 3-4. This is the stuff I love, creating something from nothing. Once again it’s hard but by this point you trust in your ability to make your vision a tech reality. I worked with a fantastic team to build a livestreaming platform (socialive.tv). We’re planning to launch soon!

Le Wagon is up amongst the best things that I’ve ever done. I feel like I have a superpower, but like any good hero/heroine I’ve got to keep growing, learning, and adapting. That’s the world of technology and that’s what Le Wagon teaches you.

After 6 years working in engineering, in the railway industry (first doing a technical job, then a management-oriented job), I decided to move to a different environment (a bit tired of the big structures in which nothing evolves at the pace you want). I could either switch company to get a nice raise, or attempt something completely different : go freelance into web development, and that is what Le Wagon offered me : 9 weeks to become a fullstack ruby on rails developer. 

I couldn't really believe it, but i decided to see for myself so I went to a startup launching party (LOKORA) in Le Wagon Paris and I had a good impression talking to people and drinking mojitos. Looking online, I also had a good impression, so I jumped right in. 

Along with a really friendly ambiance, the program started intensely with its backend challenges (which I LOVED). It really consumes some brain power to conceive algorithms to convert ROMAN Numbers to Arabic and Vice-Versa when not used to. One thing I also really enjoyed was the scrapping/parsing course : I felt like I was given such a powerful weapon but so easy to use. An important part of the pedagogic system was the black box testing : each exercise you had to do was automatically corrected by a testing robot, which ensures that you got it right and if you don't, it tells you why and what's wrong. This thing even makes sure your coding style is good :smile: Exercises were so intense that twice a week, we had Claire teaching us Yoga : this thing is AWESOME and enables you to focus again and get your exercises done. The front-end teaching was good, but I was clearly not gifted for this. 

The project part (last two weeks) was awesome – very stimulating, and really taught us how to work in teams using GitHub, which is really valuable when you apply for a job. There is also this good atmosphere that you get surrounded with because all the staff is always FRIENDLY and INVOLVED. Weekly events are often organized with talks (they have an important person coming and telling you about his/her experience) – and GOOD beer (not the cheap one). 

One thing that I can also point out is that most of the people that attend Le Wagon do not exactly know what they are going to do after, but whatever they will be doing, they know this training is worth it. When I got out of le wagon, I found a first client quite easily and worked 3 months (a startup in advertising) : I improved so much that I decided to build projects on my own for companies that did not have a CTO (ex : I am currently negotiating with a real estate company to sell them a custom tailored CRM ), I even do some marketing emails campaigns with MailChimp (which is a fun thing to learn if you don't do that everyday). 

All this to say that I was over-satisfied with my Le Wagon training, even suprised how easy it was to change a career and head towards entrepreneurship.

 Hugo from batch 51 (early 2017) of Le Wagon in Bordeaux 

I graduated from a business school 4 years ago with the impression to have learned little and regretted not learning enough skills useful for the startup world. I wanted to learn a programming language but I needed to find a job and wasn’t sure I wanted to start over studying. Today I just finished batch 51 of Le Wagon in Bordeaux in France and if I could go back in time I would scream at my recently graduated self “GO DO LE WAGON!!!”  I learned to learn how to code. The program is well built to teach you the foundations of web programming with custom tools developed by the team. I also greatly appreciated the immersive experience in the life of a web developer which is a huge asset even if you never code again. But most of all, the teachers are all former students of Le Wagon which makes them the best help because they know exactly what you are going through.
Now I am back working on my startup idea with all the skills I need and a big network of alumnis.

Coming from a business background, I was missing a creative dimension in my investment banking career. So I decided to take a year off from my MBA and learn to code with the objective to move to a tech role after graduation.

That's when Le Wagon came into my life and allowed me to make a transition towards a more creative career. It was the ideal first step to become an entrepreneur.

I loved my time at Le Wagon: the entrepreneurial mindset, the dedication of the staff and the overflowing creativity of my fellow students made these 9 weeks a unique and transformational experience.

It is incredible to realize how much you learn and can achieve in 2 months and a half: I became more independent and was able to launch my own venture with friends.
Le Wagon not only brings you technical skills but also an essential working framework.

After studying graphic design and working for two years as a freelance UI/UX designer in Paris, I decided to join batch #48 because I wanted to be able to develop my own projects, from the first idea to an actual web app. And I was not disappointed!

The pedagogical approach and teaching methods are designed to help the student to learn by himself and become an autonomous web developer, while learning how to work among others as part of a team — physically and online. Moreover, Le Wagon Paris staff is full of very cool and talented persons who care a lot about the welfare of all the people involved in this crazy adventure.

After probably the 9 most intense weeks of my life, I was really proud and excited to present the MVP of mnemosyne.io, the project we built during the last 10 days with 3 other students — here is a link if you want to watch it. It’s a platform to share and discover art and design master theses. I’m now working on an alpha private version and hopefully a public beta version at the end of this summer!

So if like me, you want to give life to your best ideas, I can only recommend you to apply to Le Wagon FullStack program. I promise you that you won’t regret it ;)