Le Wagon

I have been working as a Digital Project Manager/Interactive Producer for the past 12 plus years at quite a few interactive Digital Agencies in Southern California.  Until 3 years ago, I quit a solid full time job of 6 years because I was simply burnt out.  Late nights, weekend work, and no real social life… I had to do something. When I quit my job, I really did not have a plan, but knew I wanted to have my own business, travel more, and to be in control of my time.  

After traveling a bit, I decided to start a small interactive agency.  Things picked up quick and a big issue I was facing was finding reliable talent.  I decided to learn more about the current state of the web development world to enhance my understanding and become a better Digital Project Manager.  I needed to get up to date with front end development(started in digital as a web developer years ago) and have always been intimidated by the backend.

I came across Le Wagon after going through a few dev bootcamp review sites. After checking out some of the Youtube videos and all the locations around the world, I knew I had to go. But which one?

Next thing you know I am in Barcelona. First time in Spain and learning full stack development at Le Wagon. The curriculum covers everything you need to know to get started with front and backend development. Each day you are challenged and building up to create your very own web application.  Of course you are not building it alone, you and your comrades you have been training with through the course are coming together daily to make it happen. And we made it happen!  

Teachers are awesome, course content is well thought out and presented well, and the support is exceptional. It was a good choice and think that taking the course was long overdue.  I wish I would have signed up sooner. The digital world is moving fast, and if you want to stay current you have to be sure you are around the right people and resources.  Le Wagon has been that place for me and has provided the knowledge upgrade I needed to take my skill set to the next level. The skills I have attained through Le Wagon have assisted in enhancing processes in my business as well as locating and hiring more reliable talent.  I also have a newfound love for backend coding.  

Thank you Le Wagon!

Before Le Wagon i was working in door to door sales, which is not really a career. So I decided i needed a career change. After a bit of research I found Le Wagon and was extremely interested in learning how to code. It was the best and most life changing decision I have made in my life so far. The people working at Le Wagon are amazing and so much fun to learn and work with. I have not stopped recommending it to people since I left. Just 2 weeks after finishing I was able to land an amazing job and I cannot thank them enough.

This is the training you have to do if you want to change your day to day and start a tech. way of working ! Working for 10 years as an Industrial Engineer, I moved to Bordeaux and wanted to make a real turn in my career.  Wagon allows me to do so, thanks to the quality of the trainings, the team of course and the tech culture.  In 9 weeks, you will learn how to build a website from the really beginning to the online version, knowing all the steps to do it in the best way, learning Ruby, Javascript, Html, Css, Ruby on Rails. I have just finished my training and have so many projets in my head now possible.

Doing Le wagon Bootcamp and learning how to code during 9weeks was incredible ! 

I didn't know anything about coding but the Bootcamp program is so well thought and built that you can't fail. 

It has been very very intense but so efficient! I have met great people, joined a great and active network and gained new skills : It opened new perspectives . 

In addition the Lille team is sooooo great: present, attentive, very competent. They are quality teachers!

I sincerely advise anyone who is interested by websites to do it. 

I recently completed Le Wagon Amsterdam batch #126. It was, in short, the best learning experience of my life.

Throughout and after high school, which I graduated the summer just before the bootcamp, I completed other coding courses before, but none of them had the same impact on me or taught me as much as Le Wagon. Even with very high expectations for the programme, they managed to exceed each and every one. The curriculum and structure side of the programme is amazing. The teachers and teacher assistants do a great job at explaining every concept just enough so you really understand what you’re doing. Additionally, they teach other soft and hard skills a developer needs to succeed in the industry, such as version control and collaboration with other developers.

What surprised and pleased me the most was the sense of community that is created since day one, and persists even after the bootcamp is over. The buddy system is a great way to learn to code with other developers, get to know the other bootcamp participants and even make new friends.

All in all, I would absolutely recommend LeWagon to anyone, regardless of previous experience with code.

Just before writing this review, I was programming away on an application for a freelance client; feeling the adrenaline of jumping back and forth between back and front-end as I freed the code of bugs. I feel in-control, powerful, and like I can accomplish anything if I really set my mind to it. A few months ago, this would not have been possible.

Before Le Wagon Shanghai, I always felt pretty stuck. I had that dreaded feeling of waking up every morning, anxious and complacent about going to work; doing everything for the paycheck. I always felt like my job controlled me and I was running on autopilot, doing what I needed to get done to go home and let life begin everyday.

In comes Le Wagon. What a crazy, incredible ride. I don’t even know where to begin.

• The course material was engaging and challenging. The lectures and instruction were typically short and sweet; giving us the fundamentals to go on with the day and code until we couldn’t code anymore.
• The instructors were inspiring and reminded me of how much I love to learn; especially as a more focused adult. I consider them to be lifelong friends and mentors. Not having strong role models previously, I gained several while on this camp.
• My peers may have been the best part about it. We were all going through the same crazy coursework together. I’ve come out of the course with freelance buddies, business partners and close friends.

I think the greatest takeaways I had from Le Wagon was that it gave me the skills and the confidence to get out there and start obtaining some freelance jobs to gain more experience. Furthermore, when I go to start my own business in the future, I will feel technically ready to make it happen. Finally, I love that I have an invigorated drive to learn again, and I no longer have the limiting beliefs that have stopped me from reaching my full potential in the past.

One thing to keep in mind is that you have to work your ass off to get the most out of the experience. This includes after the experience. Don’t let your skills go to waste after the camp by not putting them into action in one way or another.

Either way, you will enjoy it, you won’t have regrets. Make the investment, because it is so worth it.

My name is François, I took the batch#64 in São Paulo, Brazil. I used to work in investment banking in France and I wanted to take advantage of a life transition where I decided to live in Brazil to learn new skills. I was attracted by the tech world and wanted to get to know web-development with the idea to develop my own project or join a start-up (I joined a peer-to-peer lending platform in Brazil few months after Le Wagon). Getting out of Le Wagon you can easily get a role as junior developer, however it is also a strong asset if you are looking for product manager role or any business role in a tech company.

The key barriers to entry to web-development is the fact that a web application mixes a lot of pieces that you have to put together to have it up and running: you need a backend language (Ruby @ Le Wagon), HTML & CSS to build your frontend, javascript to make it bite reactive, a data-base, etc… which makes it extremely hard to learn on your own. Le Wagon pedagogy is great and quickly guides you step by step through the basics of web-development to build strong foundations (no blind application of something you would be told to do, you actually know what you are doing !).

The 2 last weeks are dedicated to building an application, it is amazing what you can achieve in 2 weeks when you had no previous knowledge few weeks earlier! My project was an application that helps friends getting together calculating the best neighborhood to hangout (based on where people will leave and taking commuting time into account) and generating a selection of bars and restaurants so that the group can democratically decides where it will hangout, ain’t that cool  ?

I quit my job as COO of a small software company at the age of 53 because it was becoming more of a sales position and that initiated me to make a career change and go all in on my dream of becoming a web developer. Three weeks later I was in Barcelona on a very intense web developer boot-camp to learn the full stack based on Ruby on Rails.

I had no prior experience to coding in any language so for me basically everything was new which meant focusing and working long hours every day - even outside of the 9-10 hour days on the boot-camp - in order to 'get' as much as possible. The instructors were great and especially their patience was admirable when we asked what must have been the same questions over and over.

Le Wagon lead us through everything from the database to the front-end step by step and through the entire process we were working hands on with bigger and bigger projects. We finished the camp in teams of 3 or 4 where we in two intense weeks built a fully functional and relatively complex web application. Our projects were constantly pushed through social media and getting attention from potential future employers which combined with all the extra events like job fairs and networking arranged by Le Wagon was a great inspiration and opportunity for us as new developers.

This camp far exceeded my expectations and at the time of writing this just a few days after finishing in Barcelona I already have two job offers in Denmark and Germany. I'm definitely going all in on this exciting field where the market is screaming for qualified people - I hope to be able to combine my future job with my interest in and knowledge of the Blockchain but that only time will tell...

Before joining Le Wagon, I was working at Google as an Account Manager in Digital Marketing for Google’s largest automotive and mobility clients. 

I did not have any prior knowledge of coding but noticed that more and more of my discussions with partners were about their web applications. This increased a lot with the emergence of new mobility start-ups.

The business need together with a personality of always wanting to learn new skills made me very excited about applying to Le Wagon. The alumni reviews speak for themselves and even before going I was sure I had made the right choice. 

The people I met there and the skills I learned however completely exceeded my expectations. After going to Business School and learning for the sake of passing exams it felt extremely refreshing learning a skill for life. The teachers did an amazing job guiding the students along their line of thinking instead of imposing one single way to solve the many challenges. 

The absolute highlight were the three last weeks in which we built two MVPs. Before the bootcamp I would never have thought it was possible to build a working and fully designed MVP in only two weeks. 

Back in my job I am looking forward to apply not only the technical expertise I learnt but also use some of the Agile and Scrum techniques we learnt for my daily business.

This was an absolutely amazing experience and I would recommend it to anybody in doubt.

After working in the banking industry and in IT banking industry, i was tired of the slowness and the antiqueness of the processes and way of working there.

I was also frustrated about not to be technical enough to fully understand the IT processes.

 

That’s why, in the first hand I decided to learn by myself coding with the help of internet resources. But after a while, I was kind of blocked in my learning progress.

At this time, when surfing on the web, I found Le wagon bootcamp.

 

The quality of the website, the transparency about the program, the good reviews and the alumni careers convinced me and long story short I enrolled for it ( and I can tell you, i do not regret it J).

https://www.lewagon.com/

 

The bootcamp was far beyond my expectations.

The pedagogy, the learning pace, the resources are extremely well designed and you feel that you are immediately able to use it IRL.

The second major key point is the people. Teachers, TAs, Drivers, are very nice, competent and always willing to help you, for the bootcamp itself but also for your personal project(s). They are very encouraging and they make you grow by putting you in the right direction, with the correct mindset.

Last but not least Le wagon provide you with a huge active tech community.

Le wagon Slack will be your best friend (you can go home facebook J) with tons a job offers, resources, tutorials, tech news…

 And of course, a help section if you are struggling with an issue, the 2K + members are here to help you out.

 

I was part of wagon Batch #127 in Bordeaux (jan-march 2018). I’m now beginning my career as a freelance web developer and digital nomad, as will be living in the Caribbean.

After only a couple of weeks after le wagon I have projects in the pipe, a tons of stuff to read, to learn, to do and the brain full of ideas in order to contribute to open source community and projects.

La Wagon will open you the door of the gigantic tech universe.

I have a brand new world to explore (bye bye boring office work and hours)…and coding under the sun with the feet on the sand…what else? J

To conclude, a tech enthusiastic, tech curious who is always willing to learn & grow and who is dreaming to be part of the tech world, enroll, you’ll not regret it!

It's definitely not easy (as there is a lot to learn in 9 weeks), but it’s totally worth it without any doubt.

Change your life: learn to code with Le Wagon…and see you soon on Slack J

Before Le Wagon I was working at a hospital in New York City as a central sterile technician which not surprisingly did not involve any coding at all. Although I enjoyed my job I realized I had the ideas and desire to create things but I was not sure how to bring my ideas to life. I created my first Wordpress website but I quickly realized how limited I was with it. I then hired a developer and as I read through his code I thought to myself anyone who could read and write this stuff was a wizard! And could do anything!
Months later I decided to make a change by traveling abroad to Asia and to gain some perspective. I thought after travelling I would come back to New York and really dedicate my time to learning how to code. But while traveling in Asia I met someone who told me about Le Wagon and how it changed her life. It allowed her to become a digital nomad and work from wherever her heart desired, which in my eyes was exactly what I wanted. So shortly after this encounter I applied to join the first batch of Le Wagon in Bali.
During the bootcamp it became very clear that it would by no means be easy. I often struggled to wrap my head around complex logic but the instructors were so amazing and helpful that I never felt stranded or alone. Help was always available and resources were always provided to assist anyone who was in need and this is something I felt was the magic that makes Le Wagon so successful.
During the last few weeks we built our own Web apps and if pressure makes diamonds, that was exactly what every person in our camp became. The amount of hard work, dedication and understanding Le Wagon fosters in each student was beyond my own expectations. I was able to finish the camp strong, confident and proud. If you are a creative person and are looking to change your life, Le Wagon is the perfect environment to help you become a “wizard” and really grant you the power to take control of your future.
 

 

 

 

Before attending Le Wagon Bali, I was working in the Building Industry in Singapore for 10 years, an industry which is not related to coding at all and an industry which is unfortunately left behind when it comes to digitalisation.

I have always been a creative person, curious about new technologies, and several ideas of web products came to my mind during the last few years. But I felt a bit frustrated because I felt completely disconnected from the “tech industry”, and I had no idea of the right approach to adopt in order to develop my ideas.

Then a friend recommended Le Wagon to me and as the first batch in Bali was about to be launched, I decided to enroll. I am very happy with my decision, and luckily my friend has told me about Le Wagon.

To be clear, the 2 months in the bootcamp were very intense, and the Le Wagon program requires a lot of commitment and hard work. But the program is amazingly well structured, and step by step, day by day, you are progressively getting the full picture of fullstack development.

When we started on the first day of the bootcamp, we discovered the hidden part of the Le Wagon iceberg: a powerful web platform, gathering in one place all tools needed by the students: lectures, videos, resources, assignments, tutorials, etc.. I have been really amazed by this platform, available to all students, and for life. After Le Wagon, this platform is priceless, as I can retrieve all the lectures videos and resources, helping me to go further about any specific subject.

The 3 last weeks of the bootcamp were the richest weeks because we had the opportunity to develop two real web apps, working as a team all day long, and putting into practice all the skills learnt during the first 5 weeks. It is such a good feeling to actually build stuff, to be focused on it, and to realise what we were actually able to do!

Doing the bootcamp in Bali is the cherry on the cake, learning to code in this kind of environment is just amazing. With classmates coming from all around the world it was an amazing experience, and I had the chance to develop true friendship with some of the students.

I am overall very satisfied with this bootcamp. Not only have I learnt and practiced many technical skills in a condensed period of time, now I also feel very confident in building my own product. I have a very clear picture of all the steps to follow to do so and a clear insight of the available technologies. Last but not least, the support of the alumni community and the support of the Le Wagon web platform is absolutely worth every cent!

To conclude, I will definitively recommend Le Wagon to anyone as it is an asset that you will keep with you for life, no matter what you do after the bootcamp. Even if I go back to my previous role in the Building Industry, I will certainly have an enriched approach on my future challenges, will hopefully be a better version of myself, and I will look at coming opportunities with a different perspective!