Le Wagon

Hi everyone,

I attended Le Wagon in Paris in summer 2017.

I was already working in IT as a Production Integrator and I was constantly interacting with developers.

Soon I realized that my job was boring - I wanted their job !

So I quit my job and signed up to Le Wagon. The journey is incredible, extremely intense (9 weeks) but worth it. I’ve learned more in 9 weeks that I would’ve done in years learning by myself or with online tools.

2 months later, I moved to London, and am now working as a freelance web developper full time, from building websites for small clients and assistant teaching. I couldn’t be more pleased with the result.

If you ever enroll, you’ll discover a new way of thinking, you’ll meet incredible people from various backgrounds and create an extremely well connected network.

I did it and it changed my life for the better, I can only recommend you to do the same !

Take care.

Le Wagon changed my life. Not only because I have a new skill now, but learning how to code also helped me to think different. Coding is not a sprint, is a more like a marathon. You have to go step by step, and you bring that mindset to your life too.

 

When you want to learn something new, your surroundings play an important role – positive or negative. So moving to Barcelona to learn how to code and change my life seemed an interesting combination. If Gaudi was able to design colorful and different projects living in Barcelona, why wouldn’t I get the same inspiration when coding?  Bingo!

 

I spent thirteen years as a journalist and public relations. Technology always fascinated me, so I had the opportunity during my career to either write some (less than expected) stories related to technology or to create, as public relations, communications plans about technology in companies where I worked. A couple of years ago I started to get more familiar with coding. I can’t believe that I, as a communicator, knew little (or nothing) about what’s behind a web platform. Asking this question – how does a web platform really work? - brought me to a complete new world.

 

I started to take some online courses, attended some developers conference and tried to learn more about it. I found out that for a guy like me, without a real technology background, learning on my own without any previous knowledge was hard. After months of research, I learned about coding bootcamps, and made the decision to take a break on my career and do one in Europe.

 

Le Wagon stood up during my researches. I read many positive reviews about it (all true, by the way). I asked some friends who knew about coding to analyze the content of the course, and all of them gave me the green light. Since Le Wagon is in many different cities, I chose Barcelona -  I wanted to be inspired by Gaudi. Le Wagon is located at the lovely and lively Gracia neighborhood – the new place is very comfortable, with a clean design - and I was lucky enough to pass by in front some of Gaudi’s buildings everyday on my way back home.   

 

Now let’s talk about the course itself. The 9 weeks seemed like a rollercoaster to me. Full of ups and downs – but with a great feeling in the end -, learning how to code takes you back to your childhood moments. You play, you try, you fail, you get frustrated, you search for help, you learn, you try again and you succeed. The teachers are there to help, and you also learn a lot with your peers. Sometimes you need help, sometimes you’re the one who helps.

 

The classes are well structured. They give us a lot of content that may make you think you won’t be able to follow. But everything falls together during the project weeks. I was amazed that my group was able to build a solid project from scratch - http://www.peerviews.eu - platform for peer reviews. I enjoyed a lot working on it, as this project allowed us to build a strong backend - students would evaluate (randomly and anonymously) their peers’ reports, check their papers’ reviews and next assignments. Teachers would be able to get all the data from students’ evaluations displayed in different graphs. And to think that all started with a black screen two weeks before the demo day.

 

An important thing is to come to this coding bootcamp with your mind open. Enjoy everyday. Work hard. That’s what I did. I now have a good knowledge to keep learning on my own. At Le Wagon I found a new passion and a new career. I made friends. Maybe startup partners, since we want to keep working on our project. I just know that now I can’t stop coding and I will never look at web applications as before.  

 

 

 

I was a product owner (more or less a project manager) in a Startup working with a team of 5 developers. I started to look at Le Wagon to fill some technical needs that would help me to do my job in a better way.

Before joining Le Wagon you need to do some homework, it allows you to see if it’s really what you want to do but it also allows you to have a basic level in programing. At this point I realized, I would really love this experience.

“Learning everyday” could be the baseline of Le Wagon because that’s what you will do. It is challenging but Le Wagon’s team is here to help you make the most of these 9 weeks.

Finally, thanks to Le Wagon I met incredible people with different backgrounds but the same objective, learning to code. This group dynamic is amazing and rewarding.

I have not decided yet what the next steps will be but I know I will continue learning to code.

Le Wagon not only teaches the technical skills, but also covers software engineering workflows, teamwork, and how to develop a good product prototype. There are 2 team projects with Rails, first project being the practice building a simple marketplace webapp in 1 week, and second project being the final project built in 2 weeks with a team of 4-5 people. Having these prototype projects led me to multiple interviews right after the bootcamp, and within 4 weeks I got my first job as a junior developer. Highly recommended for people who would like to kickstart their career as web developers

I want to be clear on this: Le Wagon has been one of the best choice I made in my life!

Before being involved in the bootcamp, I had been studying Business Management and I worked in various subjects including SEO, sales and business development. I had no technical skills but I wanted to be able to code so that I can start my own company later on.
And honestly, Le Wagon totally outperformed my expectations: the method to quickly improve your coding skills is well-designed and they give you the proper tools to enable you to start a career in the development world (entrepreneurs/freelance/tech companies).

For my part, I am now using my dual business/coding skills to start my company in the foodtech world and I've been hired for a part-time freelance mission.

It is worth it, definitely !

At some point of my life and career as a marketeer, I have come to realize the fantastic paradigm shift our society was experiencing : Internet technologies could unleash more creativity than ever and offer efficient and meaningful opportunities to fulfill in this world. As a chef needs to know his ingredients to make great recipe through their combinations, it came to me as an evidence that I needed to give more interest and get better understanding and real experiences of web-development. The next question then was how to fill the gap.

2 years ago, I stumbled upon Le Wagon On-Demand courses and got involved in the very first one. And light suddenly came :) I could feel that all this technical stuff could not remain so murky to me if I could practise it more.

I eventually made my decision to join the 9-week intensive FullStack programme. It turned out to be much more than gaining essential and practical technical skills : I could meet as well a great community of entrepreneurs and doers with the same awesome energy. I enjoyed a lot the pedagogy and the caring atmosphere brought by the teaching staff. Through the different meetups the team organized on a weekly basis, I could also get a more accurate and relevant picture of web-development business and its underlying jobs. This programme was indeed the best experience I could ever imagine to springboard me into the 21st Century! Thanks for that!

Thanks to the programme, I have been able to keep learning a lot by myself and with the help of the community. I could launch my first own-built website for my company (https://www.novexpat.fr) and I am currently developing a web app for my students and customers.

Le Wagon FullStack Programme was just what I needed to bring me and my ideas way more further than I could expect. I thoroughly 100% recommend it!

Le wagon has been an amazing experience, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to become a developer. 

Overall the course is very intense, and you have to prepare yourself mentally for the challenge ahead. However throughout the 9 weeks there is a constant stream of help and support for your coding tasks, as well as brilliant advice from experienced developers. 

Often after the learning day has ended there are also lectures from CEOs of tech startups, successful developers and entrepreneurs at the Google campus - the depth and range of knowledge available to you at Le Wagon is seemingly endless. 

Thanks to me finally biting the bullet and doing the 9 weeks, I am now building websites freelance and will actually be going back to Le Wagon to be a teaching assistant. You will not regret doing this course!

"Change your life: learn to code". Never has a catchphrase been so accurate, at least that's what I have come to realise, nearly three weeks after completing batch #83 in Paris!

When I decided to join Le Wagon earlier this year, I had worked for nearly 10 years in various audit & accounting positions. While I did enjoy the financial security that comes with this kind of career, I couldn't help but thinking that I wasn't using my potential to its fullest and that I was somehow wasting my time. This frustration, combined with a fondness for all things logic and a curiosity for IT in general, made me just go for it. 

It's tough to describe these 9 weeks in a few lines but I'd say that narrowing it down to the different programming tools/languages taught wouldn't do the course justice. The first thing that impressed me was the motivation of students taking part. We were all here for a reason, whether it is a carreer change, a career start or a start-up creation, yet the willingness to succeed was prevailing, and that's not so easy to find in the corporate world. Also, the program is well structured, with a lecture in the morning followed by coding exercises in pair (with a different randomly picked buddy every day so you get to know everyone) where you apply what you've learnt. Lectures are available in .pdf and in video, there are flashcards to capture key notions of the day. Teachers are alumni themselves so they know students' expectations, so are TAs. There are side events organised several times per week such as talks by founders/alumni, afterworks, etc. But to me the most valuable aspect of Le Wagon is its alumni community. Upon graduating, you have access to job offers, freelance missions, technical help, etc. It's a whole network that suddenly becomes accessible.

After the course, I've decided to become a freelancer (it had been on my mind for a while), and I'm now about to start a freelance gig helping out one of my former Le Wagon classmate launch his startup in the field of accounting, something I would have never considered possible 6 months ago! So to anyone wishing for a change, bearing a project or just eager to learn how to code, I strongly recommend you give Le Wagon a try, you won't regret it:)

After 2.5 years working in M&A, I was looking for something different. I wanted to join the start-up industry. As an entrepreneur, a product manager, a developer ? I didn’t know. I chose to do Le Wagon as I could do any of these jobs.   The bootcamp is great for many things: 

• Good coding knowledge : you know everything you need to start as a junior RoR developer
• Experience in designing a web app : the project helps you to develop skills in UI and UX areas
• Experience coding an MVP : you know how to build fast in an efficient way with a team or at least you know after the project what you need to do differently 😃

  Before doing Le Wagon I didn’t plan to work as a developer but I really liked coding so I found a job as an RoR developer in a start-up.  As my CTO told me, Rails has no secret to me which is a good feedback. After almost 3 months, I still have a look at Le Wagon’s lectures. I had the lead to build a MVP for the company and it went very well thanks to my previous experience during the Bootcamp.   My last word would be GO, GO, GO !

I strongly recommend Le Wagon bootcamp !
I did it during summer 2017 in Paris. My best friend who had done it in Bordeaux the year before, advised me to do it.
It’s such a fulfilling human and work experience. The 9 weeks are really intense.
Their pedagogical system breaks with the classic one that you usually encounter in schools etc. You can work in any way you like, the system enhances your capabilities and gives you the will and strength to give the best of yourself.
The way the staff supports you throughout the entire experience is a good illustration of this. They are there to help and encourage you, even more when you doubt of yourself.
Signing up for le Wagon means :
- Learning new things everyday with a different buddy of your batch, and supervised by a super cool staff
- Meeting, having fun and working with people with very different backgrounds both professionally and personally 
- Participating in very interesting and diverse talks and events (you can even organize them if you want !!) every week
- Having the opportunity to build your own personal projects
- Leaving with all the tools to keep coding, and to continue learning by yourself
- Being a part of the network of le Wagon, and as such, having contacts almost everywhere where you can find le Wagon alumni 

Whether you know something or not about coding before enrolling, you’ll leave with a unique experience and a big smile on your face.
As they say « change your life, learn to code » :) 

Before I started the wagon, I was a marketing manager of IT company in Japan. After few years of working on projects with startups and developers, I felt the need to grow my technical skills and thought a bootcamp of a few months would be perfect. I decided to join Le Wagon because it is the best bootcamp in Japan and, luckily, also one of the best in the world. Plus, I had collected nothing but very positive feedback about this training from my friends / network.

These 9 weeks of intense coding were probably some of the most enriching weeks of my life. The quality of the teachers, the real learning challenge set by the day to day pace, the new connections with really cool and interesting people, the Yoga classes... I truly recommend this bootcamp.

What was very interesting and useful for me is:

1. I’ve got to know more about Developer and entrepreneurial culture through great teachers and assistants
2. I’ve got to know more about importance of Digital experience by designed, implemented and shipped to production a clone of Airbnb
3. I’ve got to know latest web development techniques and Digital trends through great materials
4. I’ve got to know what is product Management and how to do it by making Rails prototype

I’m now looking for a new role which would engage more with Developers and startups. I think I can say this bootcamp enabled me to build an interesting profile, both business and technical.

Thanks again to Le Wagon Tokyo! I still feel Meguro is my hometown!

A few years ago, as I was working as a UX Design Lead for a startup in Boston, I grew more and more curious about coding. I wanted to be able to build what I created, to get the technical side too.
I checked several online courses, onsite workshops & even attended some evening classes but in the end, it always felt like I was standing too close to the wall to see the big picture. All these small chunks of HTML, CSS, JS I learned about were fun to play with, but how would I go from there to building an actual app? What were the steps, how did the interactions between the languages work, what should I use for which situation, where should I host my code... ? The gap was too big, I needed guidance and motivation. 

I flew back to Paris to attend Le Wagon’s bootcamp, and I got exactly what I came for. Great teachers helped me to connect all the dots, while my fellow classmates made these 9 weeks truly fun and happy. Every day would bring new knowledge and a better understanding of the whole thing. As hard as it was, by the end we all got to code from scratch products that we were proud of. We earned valuable skills, and we made great friends. What more could you ask for?

I would recommend le Wagon to anyone who’s truly curious about code and eager to dive into a new life experience. Trust me, you won’t regret it !