Le Wagon

Le Wagon was brilliant. First and foremost, I joined Le Wagon because I'm interested in business. So coding appealed to me for two reasons. First from an entrepreneurial perspective: if I can code, then I can design, iterate and fix my own MVPs. Second from a wider commercial perspective: I thought learning to code would empower me to speak a new language; to be able to have fantastic conversations with other tech enthusiasts about where the world is headed. That's why, after graduating from Cambridge University with a philosophy degree, I enrolled on Le Wagon London's 9-week intensive course as an investment in my career.

I'm happy to say that the product-oriented bootcamp fulfilled my expectations. By week 6 we were generating mini-apps from scratch every day. Not only were we able to launch websites that are live *right now*, we could also make them look really fantastic by implementing a few simple design principles. I'm continuing to work on the MVPs we built during the bootcamp, and my techy friends have since approached me asking to collaborate on new apps and websites. Learning to code is SO empowering. It changes my whole relationship with the internet and often other people too. Even friends who studied computer science at university, or other programmers, are astounded by what's possible in a 9-week bootcamp!

Other good stuff: the course is designed exceptionally well. The Le Wagon team have worked hard to create funky, productive vibes in the office; the culture is uplifting and intelligent, and after the bootcamp I felt like I'd 'joined the family'. The design of the day-to-day learning is outstanding - clearly they've been tweaking and perfecting their teaching methods with every new bootcamp, so by the 173rd bootcamp (my own!) everything worked like a slick, powerful machine. The networking is fantastic - I've met so many inspirational people from all walks of life who will be lifelong connections. If you can spare the cash, Le Wagon is a brilliant investment in yourself.

I never knew what I wanted to do when I was going through school. I only did A-levels so I could buy myself a couple more years. After that I went from job to job and travelled a bit inbetween, but I was still looking for something to make a career from. I came across coding. I tried to find some college courses with no luck, then I discovered Le Wagon. I couldn’t find a single bad review of the bootcamp, which I thought was strange to start with (however in time I realised there was a reason for that!), so I thought that it was the definite choice.

Le Wagon is intense, which is made very clear to you beforehand, however it’s worth it. The course is 9 weeks and project focused, with the last 3 weeks creating an airbnb clone and a project of your choice, where you use all the skills you’ve learned within the first 6 weeks.
Day to day, the setup of the course is awesome, with a lecture first thing, then coding challenges going over the lecture topic, and then live code in the afternoon.
All the staff at Le Wagon are always super helpful and on hand as they’ve been in our shoes before, which is reassuring when you’re having trouble understanding something.

I would definitely recommend Le Wagon to anyone who is interested in coding. Best decision I made. Le Wagon London is where it’s at.

I joined Le Wagon after working as a product owner and I was looking for a professional reconversion. I couldn't afford to go back to school and I wanted to be able to quickly return to the job market. I decided to enter the bootcamp after talking to a few alumni who told me how professionalising and effective their bootcamps had been.

My time at Le Wagon was an incredible experience, with no comparison to my years of traditional studies. Their methology is unique because it focuses on the positives of learning. You don't ever feel stuck, dumb or frustrated. Because you are always working with a pair or a group, you spend a lot of time co-teaching each other and you get an amazing sense of fullfilment from understanding new concepts yourself but also from helping others understand.
After 2 months at Le Wagon, you will not know everything but you will have learned lots of best practices and how to ask questions and this is what makes a good developer.

1 year later, I can only say how good a decision it was. I'm now working as a fullstack RoR/JavaScript developer, and yes the first months the learning curve was stiff but I had solid foundation to help me and I now feel at ease with my coding. I still have tons to learn but that's the fun of the job!

When I was younger, I wanted to learn how to code. I tried to learn online through several courses. I didn’t really like it because it was difficult to have some active feedback and being vigorous by my own was an additional difficulty. Gradually, the motivation faded away with school and personal life. Until I started working in my first startup at 17 years old, I was exposed to talk with software engineers about technical stuff. I realized that they were losing me on technical discussions and I hated the feeling of being left behind because I didn’t understand code. I decided to take a break from the startup and since that I’m a student in CEGEP, I have 10 weeks free through the summer and a 9 weeks Bootcamp seems to fit perfectly. I begin to talk with several people that had some connections through the coding community. One of my friends was doing a 9-week intensive Bootcamp and I found that really interesting. Before registering, I decided to go to different conferences that they host regularly to learn more about the Bootcamp and to meet with the organizers. I talked with Guillaume, the Bootcamp manager and I pretty liked what he said to me. After the first meeting, I did some research to see my Bootcamp options and to do some interviews. I finally decided to go with Le Wagon Bootcamp because they were the only one to work on the Startups spirit as well as the coding part. It was the mix that I was looking for; a Bootcamp that shows you how to code and with that new knowledge helps you to bring it in the startup community. I was pretty excited to do the Bootcamp but I knew that it was challenging because I was the younger student with no scholar background yet, however, I knew that it was a good timing if I wanted to accomplish my goals. The first 3-4 weeks was really difficult for me. As I said, I didn’t have any background in code and a lot of people were either coming from a technical background or was studying in computer science and stuff like that. After a lot of perseverance and work, it began to work it out for me. It was still pretty intense, but the teachers were always there and they’re always happy to helped me with all my questions and problems. What is pretty cool with Le Wagon Bootcamp is that in the last two weeks, you’re doing your final project. Do you have an idea? Good. Just code it. It’s literally that and it was awesome. I give 10 out of 10 for the Bootcamp and I highly recommend Le Wagon for everybody who wants to learn how to code, improve your technical skills, connect with the startup and coding community and meet fantastic people through the Bootcamp. Even at my age, I have a pretty good knowledge of code and I found that really useful threw the everyday life. I’m beginning to build my own web application and I have access to all the lectures and exercises that I had through the Bootcamp. This really helps fully because it’s impossible to memorize everything that I’ve learned through the Bootcamp. Once again, no matter what industry you’re working in, change your life and understanding of things, learn how to code with Le Wagon Bootcamp. It’s a difficult and long journey, however, I promise you that is worth it. 

2 years ago I was in my final year of university. I had picked French and History, but Entrepreneurship was my true passion. Along with my girlfriend at the time, and my roommate, I entered the University entrepreneurship competition - which awarded startup seed funding to successful ideas. We reached the semi-final with our idea, and we poured our hearts and souls in to the business plan and pitch. However we were denied because they told us that it was a great idea but the app would cost too much to develop and they weren't offering that level of funding.

This was my first taste of the crushing feeling of knowing you have an idea that is "too expensive" to execute. Since then I've had the same feeling with other ideas in my current field of work, being quoted prices that are just out of my reach at my current stage in life. In the same way you should teach someone to fish rather than give them fish to eat - I wanted to build MVPs. I never wanted to feel shackled by the financial cost of bringing ideas to life and I never want to know again that feeling of having an idea that will never see the light of day.

I just wanted to be able to manifest my vision into something tangible without being entirely at the mercy of financial constraints. So... I quit my job, my comfortable life in Taiwan, and left many friends behind to pursue something more challenging, more rewarding.

Le Wagon was overwhelming. Amazing. Probably the best decision I could have made at this point in time. I was able to do something that seemed so impossible and cryptic at the beginning, and in the end create something I am truly proud of. I've got this overwhelming sense of momentum built up now, and rather than feeling exhausted I feel energized and ready to go forward with the ideas I have.

Now I'm a front-end developer, and my sense of worth has tripled. My skills are in-demand, I can bring my ideas and my friends' ideas to reality and I feel empowered to move forward. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a hobbyist or just someone that wants to completely change the trajectory of their life - Le Wagon might be the best decision you make too.

Montréal was an amazing city, one I have decided to settle down in and MG, Antoine, Guillaume and Martin were all amazing and people I would now call friends. Moreover the alumni network spans the entire globe - last summer I had the opportunity to visit the Buenos Aires branch and I was welcomed by Seb and the team there. 

So if you're thinking about changing your life, then learn to code. It will defininitely equip you for the real world. My only point would be that if your goal is to become a JavaScript expert or walk in to a job, prepare to continue working hard after the bootcamp - 9 weeks is just the beginning of your journey and you have to continue to put everything in to creating the vision you have for your future.

If you want to see what my group made then you can check out my portfolio at www.awfrej.com and have a look for yourself!
 

Le Wagon enabled me to change my life

After spending 4 years in an engineering school, trained the old-fashioned way on the hierarchical, administrative and industrial plan, I took on a project that was important to me: web development. I learnt about Le Wagon while I was chatting with my family and web developers, and the concept of a fast-paced and professionalizing training program, tackling all modern startups’ best practices immediately appealed to me.

The 2-month program is both very long, because of all there is to learn, on various tech tools and programming languages, and very short, due to countless meetings, opportunities and achievements.

Throughout the program, there is constant support, mutual aid Is present, and teaching methods are multiplied. Le Wagon is a distinct mindset and a school like no other.

Today, 2 weeks after the end of the bootcamp, I already got in touch with a lot of tech companies in Paris, received full-time job offers, and I am now able to develop my personal web projects on my own.

I would recommend Le Wagon to all the people who are eager to go into web development, even if they don’t know anything about programming - as most candidates don’t - but all of them got out of this experience with concrete web apps and an ability to work in the digital world.

Attending the 9-week coding bootcamp at Le Wagon Paris was one of my most inspiring life experiences. After finishing a Bachelor in Business Administration, I decided to take some time off in order to get real world experience before continuing my studies. I did a few internships but felt like I needed to learn something more practical and wanted to challenge myself. That’s when I decided to sign up to le Wagon.

The program is very intense but the curriculum is really well structured. The first three weeks you learn the basics of Ruby, followed by HTML, CSS, JavaScript and finally the Rails framework. The last three weeks are dedicated to two projects built in groups and the final project is presented at the demo day. These projects are incredibly useful as they allow you not only to apply everything you have previously learned to a real life business idea but also to keep learning from your team members and explore some parts of the curriculum more in depths.

I am truly impressed to see how much we were able to learn in only 9 weeks! This was only possible due to the incredible teachers at le Wagon. They are doing such an outstanding job at teaching the complexity of web development to complete beginners whilst still making it challenging for more advanced coders. Teachers and staff are always available, patient and motivated to help!

But what also makes le Wagon so memorable is its community. I had the opportunity to meet and build relationships with truly inspiring people from all ages & backgrounds. Every week we took part in different kinds of evening activities, workshops, career-related events and conferences that undoubtedly helped me develop my professional goals. I have recently started my masters at ESCP Europe and will be searching for an internship in Product Management, as I would like to work with web developers in the future. I am also developing my own projects on the side. I would say that le Wagon was definitely an unforgettable experience!  Thank you!

After graduating from law school, I felt that the legal world and the real world was really disconnected. The legal environment hadn’t at all kept up to speed with the technological advances. I wanted to acquire the tools to be able to change this. After doing some research on coding bootcamps I soon discovered le Wagon as a leader in the market. I was surprised to see so many ratings, all excellent, which made me comfortable in my choice.

The courses are not like regular school courses like we know them from university. The day starts with 1,5 h of lecture, and then you code all day in teams of two. This means they have a real learning-by-doing approach, which I believe is a very efficient one. Of course, you are surrounded by helpful teachers if you have any questions. The pace is very intensive, and I think what you get out of the course really depends on what knowledge you have when you start. For my sake, I was a total ‘noob’, and I found some courses really challenging. However, I think this also relies on whether or not you do all of your prep work (which I wasn’t able to since I registered only 5 days before the course started).

But the Wagon is not only about the courses. It’s one big loving family, which organize various events every week; from yoga to presentations by start-ups. They are very involved in each student, and are genuinely interested in you and how they can help you. The people who work there are devoted to give you the best experience possible.

I am sincerely happy about my Wagon experience, it has allowed me to get the basic knowledge of coding. This is a course for someone who wants to get a maximum of information in a minimum of time. So, brace yourself for an intensive – but real fun – experience.  

After working in tech startups for a number of years, I really wanted to become more technologically savvy so that I could better work with product teams, find ways to optimize my day to day work, as well as speak intelligently about products/features with customers. Additionally, a dream of mine has been to start a company one day, and I wanted to be in a position where I could create MVPs for my startup ideas.

Most coding bootcamps teach you how to code, but Le Wagon teaches you how to use code to build products. They teach you to qualify, prototype, user-test, and develop your ideas. Le Wagon gives you the skills to be an entrepreneur as well as a programmer.

The thing that I'll miss the most is the day to day grind of learning new things. For the first six weeks, you're drinking from the fire hose and learning new coding concepts daily.

Although challenging, very few things are as satisfying as learning a something new in the morning, struggling with it throughout the day, and then getting a green terminal (passing the challenge tests 100%) by the afternoon. And I loved Barcelona. Amazing culture, people, and tapas :). For me, it was the perfect place to learn to program.

Bite the bullet. 20 years from now, I doubt you'll regret going to school to become technologically literate. Le Wagon will teach you to be a developer, but if you decide to go a different route (entrepreneurship, freelancing, product management, etc.), you'll have a skillset that is going to differentiate you.

Le wagon was a life changing experience to me. Prior to joining Le Wagon, I was a 2nd year Law student. I intend to complete my degree this year and to use the available resources and what I learned at Le Wagon to build a career in coding. The Le Wagon coding bootcamp taught me more than my 2 years at university. I had such an amazing and challenging experience this summer. I met so many awesome people, who I enjoyed working and learning from. During the last 2 weeks of the bootcamp, in a team of 4 we’ve built a very cool project, Polyglot which is a video and chat website with live translations. Le Wagon was probably one of the best experiences in my life, I am so glad to be part of the Le Wagon family.

If you thought that "change your life, learn how to code" was just an exaggeration they are using to bait you in, you are WRONG... I've been to Le Wagon Milan, the teachers were really helpful, skilled and passionate about what they are doing.
The course is really intense and you need to really be motivated before joining this program, but if your will is high, then you'll be more than happy about this decision you are making.
I found a job straight after the Bootcamp and all I can tell you, is that you need to apply to this Bootcamp if you really want to step into the web development industry and change your life