Le Wagon

I’ve been living and working in China for over 11 years before starting the Le Wagon boot camp. The first few years I was working with an ecommerce startup in Digital Marketing before going out on my own starting my own agency. I’ve worked closely with developers the entire time I’ve been in China and I took a few online development courses which simply didn’t work.

I joined Le Wagon to get to hands on approach to coding so I could understand how to better manage a team of developers, as well as to be able to create and code my own crazy product ideas I’ve had over the years. After completing the boot camp, I can see and feel that there has been an immediate impact on my business and I’ve already started coding one of those product ideas that I have been sitting on for years.

This boot camp is perfect for those people who are looking for a change, or like me, want to expand their knowledge and actually build something meaningful. So get ready for fast paced, impactful, and more importantly exciting 9 weeks!

When I started Le Wagon in Milan, I could have never imagined that in just 9 weeks, I could learn all the things needed to become a developer.
The course was really challenging but in a very friendly environment. The structure of the course is tested and thought in a specific way to teach the students how to think, sketch and develop a working digital product.
The best thing about the course is that after just 3 weeks after the end of Le Wagon I've started to work as a ruby on rails junior developer!!!

Did you ever wonder what coding would be like? Did you ever have that one idea you wanted to build, but couldn’t? Did you ever get frustrated, because you noticed you lacked the skills to bring your idea from ideation to realization? Well hang on, because I did. Three weeks ago, I finished Le Wagon bootcamp batch #189 in Bali. I can honestly state that I’ve never learned so much in only 2 months. 

Let me first tell you about my motivation to learn coding and join Le Wagon.  I studied Business Engineering at the KULeuven and finance at ESADE. During my studies I co-founded Quivr, a mobile application which allowed students to consult class schedules, library occupancies, student papers and student restaurant menus. Having a business background, I didn’t know how to code at the time.  I was mostly occupied with the finance, marketing and sales of Quivr. Since our core product was a mobile application, strategic meetings would often steer towards technical topics. At times, it would frustrate me that I couldn’t get involved as much as I wanted in discussions about what feature to code next or when to launch the next business module.

I always knew I wanted to build a startup, and preferably in technology. I started my career working at an international strategic consulting firm. I figured that working as a strategic consultant would give me the analytical, social and entrepreneurial skills necessary to start my own company. I certainly believe it did, but only to some extent. Partly due to my experience at Quivr, I increasingly felt that being able to code was a prerequisite, or at least an accelerator, in building a tech startup. Coding enables you to build your first idea yourself. Even if your idea is in a premature stage, you’re not dependent on developers to get it out there. As a result I quit my job and joined Le Wagon. It was one of the best decisions in my life, and here is why.

Le Wagon teaches you exactly what you need as a beginner

I attempted coding before, but never really got far. Frankly, I didn’t know where to start. Since there are so many coding languages and methods, I felt increasingly lost and confused about what to learn first and why. As Le Wagon approaches its 200th batch, the organization knows exactly what their students are struggling with and what they should learn first. The bootcamp builds up to fullstack coding on Ruby on Rails. It’s a powerful framework that is very accessible for beginners without any prior coding skills.

Le Wagon teachers are committed and want you to succeed

Before lectures, Le Wagon puts its highest emphasis on completing exercises and actual coding. During 80% of the day, students solve problems and code in pairs. Needless to say, without any coding background, students would often get stuck. At all times, teachers and teaching assistents  would be there to help you out along the way. They know the struggles of a coder and are incredibly willing to help you overcome them. Throughout the bootcamp, I was amazed by their drive and willigness to help.

Le Wagon teaches you to build a complete application

During six weeks, Le Wagon teaches you all the programming languages, principles, and methods needed to build your own application. But the most important and challenging step is to leverage these skills in actually building your application. The last two weeks are dedicated to building your final project in a team. It teaches you to work in a team and take into account every aspect of building a complete application. Together with two other students, we built keetchen.co, a student delivery services with integrated life GPS and QR code scanning. It was definitely the most challenging, but fun part of the course.

Le Wagon gives you the tools to keep learning by yourself

The learning traject of a coder is all about running into problems, and subsequently solving them. At times this can be frustrating, but it’s part of the learning process. Teachers and teaching assistents at Le Wagon are there to help you out with the struggles of coding, but most importantly, they are there to show you how to solve it yourself. They don’t just give you the solution, but show you the way how to get there. Moreover, Le Wagon offers a great learning platform, Kitt, on which you can find the most relevant entry level coding principles. After Le Wagon, I felt encouraged to keep learning. Currently, I’m learning Javascript and React by myself.

Le Wagon offers you a network and a whole lot of fun

There are 30 different locations around the world where you could take the bootcamp of Le Wagon. I did Le Wagon in Bali. People would often ask me why. I mean, why not? Bali is a great location. You can surf in Bali, take Yoga classes or travel around the island. You get to know your fellow students while coding and having fun.  I’m sure the other Le Wagon locations can offer a similar experience. It provides for a great network later in life. Moreover, when joining Le Wagon you are immediately added to the official alumni slack channel, giving you access to fellow Le Wagon coders, founders, employees, teachers, etc. The community provides great help for every coding and entrepreneurship related question.

In other words, I can highly recommend Le Wagon as your first experience into coding. It will definitely give you everything you need to keep coding. It’s a great way to jumpstart your career as a developer or an entrepreneur. Consider it as an investment

I just graduated from a Business School, and I am specialized in marketing digital & web strategy. I quickly realized that I wanted to know how to code, to better understand the technical part and how developer works.
I’m crazy about making things and having crazy ideas. Passionate about startups and innovation and I’m constantly looking for new things to do, new challenges to deal with. So it was pretty obvious for me to learn how to code.

I’ve met a lot of alumnis of Le Wagon who were really satisfied about the bootcamp, so I decided to join Le Wagon Bordeaux on October 2018. (https://www.lewagon.com/bordeaux)

It was one of my best experience. Learning all the web stack and the coding basics in only 9 weeks or 360 hours of code is just incredible and really challenging.  At the very beginning it can be really intense, you are learning Ruby and coding basics but also the vocabulary, the methodology, the mindset. After a few days you feel more confident, you are understanding new concept and languages quickly (Software Engineering, Object-Oriented programming, Database & SQL, Front-end, UI, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Rails… ).

The most incredible was the team of Le Wagon Bordeaux, the motion and the atmosphere. All the teachers and the team were really cool, helpful and know how to explain in a simple and effective way. They always have a solution and take time to explain misunderstood concepts or new concepts you are interested in. All the alumnis of the batch 191 of Bordeaux were really welded together so we had an amazing experience all together. And the pedagogy is perfect to learn quickly with short lessons and a lot of practice.

The final project is the best way to understand and see all the progress made in 9 weeks. With your team you are delivering a complete project / product in only 2 weeks. It was my favorite moment of the bootcamp, being able to code something you imagined from scratch is really rewarding.

I definitely and highly recommend Le Wagon Bordeaux without any hesitation.

After a bachelor’s in economics and more than two years in business school, I felt like taking a different route. A faster one, that would accelerate my career. It’s been a long time since I wanted to learn to code and with my plan to run my own business, I believe knowing how to code is a key skill to have.
As I didn’t have any coding background, I knew, to make this work I would have to be 100% focused. Besides being the most inspiring destination, once I was part of it, I found that Bali is made to live the Le Wagon experience. Super intense learning during the day and holiday feeling before and after class. With everything at your fingertips, healthy food, nature, beach, sports, bars, restaurants, party, yoga, spa… 
For me bootcamp-styled programs are perfect, fast-paced and tough, but at the same time, short enough to stay focused and pull through. And in the case of Le Wagon, after only 2 months you can get web developer jobs, create real web apps or, in my case, start a freelance career. I really think that’s crazy compared to the slow motion teaching I was used to from university and business school. 
Even so I don’t have the broad knowledge of a senior developer to fully judge this but also the curriculum of Le Wagon seems cutting edge to me. I feel like we learned exactly what’s needed to jump right into action after the bootcamp. No detours or unnecessary theory, it was always straight to the point. Introduction of a new topic during a morning lecture and then hands-on coding for the rest of the day. I only learn when I am coding it myself and can ask questions when I am stuck. 
Which leads me to the teachers and TAs. Thank you so much for your dedication and help. No question it too much even if I asked the same one several times and they really care that you are understanding everything. Guido, special thanks to you for staying late with me on several occasions to clarify some concepts. And thanks to the Bali team for making everything so smooth and even organizing extra activities on the weekends.
I got to attend the bootcamp with one of my best friends which makes is extra special, but we had such a great group of people in general. All students in Bali come from all over the world making it a very interesting mix of cultures to learn from. And super fun to hang out with a big group of like-mined people after class and the weekends. 
To sum it up, the course has its price and is very intense but worth every penny, the Balinese environment is exactly what you need as a balance to long days of coding, and I am writing this review 4 months after graduating still in love with the experience and a couple of freelance projects under my belt. Enjoy, it’s going to be amazing!

After a masters degree in marketing and an unsucessful search for a job I decided to join le wagon coding bootcamp, with no previous knowledge of programming.

As I thought I was joining a school I quickly discovered that I actually joined a family. The working environement their is amazing, the whole team is dedicated to help you learn and discover a new world and an amazing way to change your life. The education program in particularly well designed and the resources are impressive, and still accessible, with other courses for those who want to go further, after the bootcamp.

After only one mont I found a job through the alumni network and I am now UX/UI designer and incredibly happy with everything that Le Wagon brought me !

Big thanks to all the team members and to all my fellow students !

Having worked on the business side for numerous start-ups in Germany and overseas, I decided it was time to gain a deeper understanding of my tech counterparts. That's why I decided to join LeWagon in Milan to embark on my FullStack journey. 

I believe LeWagon and especially the team in Milan is a great institution. With just the right amount of guidance, the 9 week program will truly enable you to learn how to code from scratch.

Having only had a very basic understanding of SQL, I started the prep courses this summer (LeWagon uses codeacademy as a prep) and was quite overwhelmed by the amount of content. Once we started the courses on the ground, however, the coaches did a recap of the contents and quickly alleviated any fears. Patience and good humor were an ideal recipe for 9 weeks of hard work. By the second week, I then started dreaming about arrays and curly brackets - that's how much LeWagon will consume your brain capacity. The last three weeks then perfectly tied all the learned content together. Firstly, by creating an AirBnB clone. Then for the last two weeks, we worked on our own project. This was certainly the most rewarding part of the entire bootcamp. Seeing how everything ties together and how we're able to create our own web application after only 7 weeks of training was amazing to see. 

Overall - great bootcamp. Can highly recommend! 

PS: Inquire about the size of the batch you're joining. My batch had a student teacher ratio of 3:1 which was super low and definitely pushed the learning. 

During the summer of my first and second year as a business student, I decided to join  batch 163 in Bali.

My bar was set very high but what I learned in terms of technical skills but also about myself out-passed all my expectations. I wanted to acquire a technical background in addition to my business studies. Le Wagon gave me this opportunity and I’ve been truly impressed by the quality of the teachers and the lessons. Today, I feel confident enough to work as a developer in a tech company but moreover, I keep learning about tech and coding because I know my basics, I have an idea of the big scheme of things and I know where to look for information and how to process it. That’s what Le Wagon taught me during those 2 months.

I’ve been welcomed by an amazing team of people dedicated to provide a unique experience to the students. I feel empowered today by the fact that I’m backed by a whole community of people willing to help each other but also because I know that my error messages won’t remain unsolved for too long thank to the teacher and TAs still helping me out when I need it.

All in all, although I’m always skeptical when I read that kind of statement, my experience at Le Wagon has definitely been a life-changing experience. My range of opportunities has significantly widened and I couldn’t recommend it enough to someone aiming to do so.

I couldn’t imagine how my time at Le Wagon would be a great learning and human experience. I had a lot of good surprises during the bootcamp and after.

Even if you want to start your own project or become a junior developer in a team or as a freelance you’ll find at Le Wagon some competent people who really help you to achieve your goals.

I spent the toughest 9 weeks of my life but it worth it. Even if you don’t know anything about coding or programming and especially if you’ve never code any line in your life Le Wagon is a bootcamp for you. You’ll find a really good working atmosphere, mutual assistance between students and teachers who are helping you at anytime and with a pedagogic way.

You’ll discover a new world and learn some good working habits.

After Le Wagon I was glad to see how I’m still connected with the community. I visited Lisbon one month ago and I could find some people from Le Wagon Lisbon to talk and exchange with. You’ll find kindness in students, teachers and alumnis.

If you want to start a new tech career or start a new digital project I can only recommend this coding bootcamp.

At some point in 2017, I decided I want to become a developer. That was the easy part, the "what". The hard part was yet to come: "how"? With my goal in sight, I spent hours upon hours googling, trying out some free online courses and asking friends how they became developers (without realising, I had already learnt the first fundamental lesson for developers: how to google!). After some consideration, I went out on a limb and quit my job. 

Luckily, my girlfriend had taken part in one of Le Wagon's free 1-day courses and told me how incredibly challenging and rewarding it was. Great! I had my first real lead and, guess what, I googled them. All of it looked really promising and I was ready to go. It was when I saw the price that I had second thoughts. The main thought swirling in my mind was whether Le Wagon was just really good at marketing (they are) and just didn't have enough substance (boy was I wrong). "Would the teachers really care about the progress I made?", "Will I find it rewarding and challenging?" and "Will it really help me?". I soon realised there was only one way to find out and no amount of googling would help me anymore. Geronimo!

It turns out, the answer to all three questions was a definite YES. From day one, the teachers were really helpful and showed such passion for teaching. Was it challenging? Wow, I am not sure if I have ever had a more challenging time in my life, but it paled in comparison to what I learned (and when you complete a task without errors, it is immensely rewarding - thanks rubocop! Plus, it helped me immensely, rocket-propelling my desire to become a developer to heights I couldn't have hoped for before. 

And the best of it was that it didn't feel like a bootcamp or school. Everyone was in it together and we all helped each other out, whether student or teacher. So if you are having any second thoughts, go try out one of their 1-day courses. There is a reason they do them. And if you like what you see, I highly recommend to sign up and just join the Le Wagon community.