AI Software bootcamp | On campus, full-time Reviews

Paul Manche – Batch 325 – Bordeaux
Je souhaitais apprendre à coder pour compléter ma formation d’école de commerce avec comme objectif de devenir Product Owner. J’ai découvert la formation du Wagon et après avoir effectué le travail préparatoire j’ai été admis à Bordeaux. Quelques jours après la fin de la formation et une recherche active j’ai décroché un premier stage en tant que développeur marketing digital chez Cdiscount pour renforcer mes acquis.
Je recommande ce bootcamp pour sa pédagogie avancée et les rencontres qu’il m’a permis de faire.

Mon expérience au Wagon Bordeaux fut très positive, le rythme des journées, l’organisation, l’enchaînement du programme rien n’est laissé au hasard.

J’ai beaucoup apprécié l’ambiance générale de mon batch l’entre aide quotidienne entre les élèves et le soutient des professeurs. Débutant en programmation, je suis surpris de tout ce que j’ai pu apprendre en 9 semaines, c’est lorsque nous avons présenté notre projet que j’ai réalisé tout le chemin que j’avais fait.

Nous avons eu l’idée de développer une plateforme qui permet de parier des sommes d’argent contre ses amis pour des séances de running. Pari réussi puisque nous avons présenté le jour-j une application fonctionnelle, Run2beatMe !

J’ai trouvé les challenges journaliers particulièrement efficaces, car ils m’ont poussé à me débrouiller de manière autonome face à une problématique, et c’est cet état d’esprit qui aujourd’hui, à la sortie du Wagon, me permet de continuer d’apprendre en autonomie.

Cette formation m’a également apporté une base de connaissances solides pour lancer sereinement ma carrière de développeur.

Je recommande vivement la formation du Wagon à tous ceux qui souhaitent se challenger et cultiver un état d’esprit de développeur !

Before I start : I have a background in psychology and knowledge of art & design, I’ve also always been curious of learning a lot of things.

My initial question before I started this journey was:

Why coding? This is the question that I have been asked for a lot of times, also the same question I asked myself before I decided to attend Le Wagon. Why coding, instead of other things? Why choose coding at this time, instead of before or later?. What helped me take the leap was a voice inside of me saying “ WHY NOT coding? Don’t you see the possibility? if you don’t learn coding, you could be illiteracy in just a few years?” This voice may be scary, but try to check what’s going on around you, think about it. Get your answer, because this is really serious!

Making the choice:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (A Tale of Two Cities)

This a quote from “A Tale of Two Cities” and it relates a lot to learning how to code nowadays.

If you start to be interested in coding, you can find tons of ways of learning. Sometimes too many options, you feel dazzled. This decision is especially hard for a person born under the sign of Libra  :-) I am lucky, because I know someone who graduated from Le Wagon. And I saw his career changing after he graduated. When he started, I couldn’t believe that one’s life can be changed only after 9 weeks. Because this is counter my common sense. I have been taught  that you need 10 000 hours of practice to be good at something. But this friend is the hard fact, which I couldn’t ignore and deny it. So I decided to try by myself, to see how far I could go, how much my life would be changed by such “mystery” process.

I can give you my story ending: I never regret the decision I made. Furthermore, my life is changed and still changing now. This is one of my best decision I have ever made in my life.

If you experience trying to learn code by yourself, you might know you might be stuck sometimes for a few hours or even days, you don’t know where is the mistake that was made or why your code doesn’t work, and you can’t find someone to ask why. Sometimes this could lead you to a self-doubt situation, that you tell yourself: “maybe I am not made for it, I don’t have the talent to do this”. That’s exactly where Le Wagon can help. You have the opportunity to learn with a community.

Life at Le Wagon:

The schedule at Le Wagon is quite simple: lecture and then practice, practice, practice… the practice part is like an infinitive refrain of a song: you can’t get rid of it and you don’t even want to get rid of it. But, practice is the key! And we don’t practice alone. We practice with buddies (this is the cooperation system used by Le Wagon), and we have teachers’ support. You can’t be stuck in one problem for more than 1 hour, unless you really want it. I was immersed in doing the challenges, only hoping the time could fly slowly, but the time is ruthless, it never happened.

Generally, we have one-hour live-code at the end of the day. Sometimes, someone has to code in front of the class, and of course, not every day we had volunteers. You will always remember the “wheel of death” moment 😅if it happens : we randomly select someone. But don’t panic, you will always get the answer, the whole class is by your side.

Teamwork is another keyword at Le Wagon. For the whole bootcamp : with your buddies, or when you are working together for a group project. You should always keep that in mind. I was very impressed by the way we pitched for our own project,  how we had feedbacks and the way we chose the project we wanted to work with. If you are accepted, you will expand your knowledge, and Le Wagon does it very efficiently.

Collaboration ❤️

In the last 3 weeks, you will work with the same teammates all the time. I had an excellent experience working with my teammates. They were very supportive, cooperative. We had a lot of meetings to review, discuss, plan our daily work. Usually meeting means boring moments, waste of time. But in our case, I never had this kind of feeling. It is very useful and necessary. I learned from everyone. Another good thing I found is, not just inside the team, cross the teams, we also made a lot of connections. Sharing or asking for help is normal during the bootcamp.

Finally making a product : the final weeks

I will never forget the last 2 weeks dedicated to our final project. From scratch to final product, we made it! I know, I still have a lot to learn. But, in less than 2 weeks, creating an app from zero, is already amazing. I couldn’t believe it before we made it. We worked a lot, myself, my teammates, the whole team of Teachers. I am so proud of it, indescribably proud of it!.

My pieces of advice:

Be prepared for the class. Take online courses, do the exercises, the more, the better!
Be prepared that sitting all day long in front of laptop, after the bootcamp, you could suddenly realize that Le Wagon fatten you up!
Don’t think that the teacher always tell you everything: They say the 3 first weeks are the most difficult ones. The true fact is: No! Every Week is challenging!
Learn some French words if you come from a country where people don’t speak French. Or if this helps: if you want to find a local language partner, try a cool app named“Bonjourhi” (please allow me to promote our final project here lol)
Notice that you will be used to learn and code in a very intensive pace, this could affect your daily speaking speed, eat speed, walking speed etc etc.
Warning! Probably you will be sad, depressive, get lost on the Saturday morning after the demo day party :(

Conclusion:

9 weeks is like a little nap, without having a dream, suddenly you are woken up. It is tough, but it is a looooot of fun. Besides the new career opportunity, it is also the opportunity to challenge yourself, to see the benefits after your hard work. You can’t buy a sense of accomplishment, never, the only way to do it is to commit.

Find this mystery joy by yourself. Then, you will be as me, as my classmates, as the  alumni around the world, grateful and satisfied.

3 months ago, I was somebody else.

I was looking for another way to live, a community closer to my values, I was looking for creativity, open-minds, taking life as a game… 

I used to work in the finance department of big companies, I also worked for a hospital, until I quit to be a freelancer.

I have always been attracted by tech and coding. I saw that as playing with my brain. Sudoku style. 

I was not believing in myself.

A while ago, I went to an event to talk with a recruiter in tech who discouraged me from going this way. At this time I had even gathered information about Le Wagon. 

But I put this idea in a corner of my head. 

Until the beginning of the new chapter of my life.

A summer night on the balcony/terrace with friends, I talked with a web developer friend, a wonderful woman who changed her career. This was last July. 

A few days after, I had an interview with Marie-Gabrielle at Le Wagon, and I subscribed in the same week.

I remember my answers to the question: “why Le Wagon?” - “because I am looking for being surrounded by interesting and benevolent people.” And this is how I felt was Le Wagon.

I was dreaming awake.

Indeed surrounded by amazing people coming from everywhere (not only geographically!): teachers, staff, and students! Learning all day every day. In a sunny and very cool environment at La Gare. My brain has never been so awake! 

Never any judgment, we were free to find our pace, and ask for the support that we needed.

Plus, yoga class with Claudette, the best yoga teacher in town I know.

I used to say that if every school was like that, we would all get tons of diplomas.

This is a Marathon, not a sprint!

I pushed my limits a bit too far the second weekend by not sleeping that much, I have learned my lesson, and the next weeks I acted like a coder monk! I was doing yoga in the morning, going to the class walking, drinking ginger-lemon infusions, learning, coding, coding, coding, going back home walking, doing some meditation, having dinner, doing my flash-cards, going to bed, and falling asleep after 2 minutes I started my audio-book… Until the free beers & socializing friday nights. :) 

The intense 9 weeks gave me the opportunity to create a better version of myself.

Especially during the group work for the 3 last weeks. I think doing so much in a little amount of time within a brand new team, gave me the occasion to grow, watch myself under new conditions, and be surprised by the “new me” I met.

I am so grateful for Le Wagon and the wonderful people I have worked with on the projects.

And today, I am so happy to be part of this community, in addition to have made friends for life.

Vi Pannetier, alumni @ Le Wagon Montreal | Batch #329

The experience in Le Wagon was incredible, although it had a programming base certainly did not apply it since too many years ago. The teaching method they have is very intensive and work perfectly, the teachers as well are the best. They have been a key piece to start a startup, we developed a complete web platform in 2 weeks and today it is up to me to continue with it. Thanks to Le Wagon I have the necessary skills to continue my startup. It is certainly the best decision I made this year.

After a decade working as an Engineer for a giant resource company, I took a self-granted sabbatical and found new passions in programming and product design. I decided to change direction to tech industry upon returning back to the workforce, and soon faced w/ roadblocks. I’ve invested countless hour and dollars in online educations, but without proper guidance and support, it was very easy to be lost in ocean of information and outdated technology. And I still couldn’t achieve what I was aiming for.

Attending Le Wagon bootcamp is one of the best investment I’ve made for myself. Not only the bootcamp is packed with technology that is currently being used in the market, I also had a privilege to pair up and work together with talented budding programmers from all walk of life, thanks to the sophisticated structure of the bootcamp. For our final project, our team also successfully created a useful data analytics web app from scratch within 2 weeks. It was made possible because we got to understand the fundamental of the programming itself, how to be creative with it, how to handle the roadblocks and how to do programming effectively within a team. We didn’t just learn how to program, we’ve learned how to be a programmer.

Post bootcamp, there are even more resources and supports made available to us to continue our learning to the next level. And as someone who’s coming back from a long career break and made quite a career change, Le Wagon is very supportive in guiding and help me to pave the way getting into tech scene. At the moment, I feel comfortable and on the right track to where I want to be.

What I liked about Le Wagon Tokyo in short,

Great curriculum
It was intense and hard, to be honest. But following the curriculum, I have obtained fundamental knowledge and skills about web development, and now I can confidently address myself as a full-stack web developer.

Wonderful support from teachers and managements
Very supportive and well-experienced teachers and managers. They became not only my teachers and mentors but also really nice friends as well.

The diverse culture and life long friendships
The batch I had joined had 24 members from 13 different countries. And I had a really really nice time with them in and out of classes. I can't forget about the good time going karaoke, having a drinking party, playing futsal...

I truly recommend Le Wagon Tokyo if you are looking for a coding Bootcamp in Tokyo.

The experience at Le Wagon was really fantastic! First of all, I was finally able to acquire skills that I had been aiming for for a very long time, but first I had to finalize my studies to enable me to follow this training. Le Wagon allowed me to remember that I really enjoyed creating things and putting my creativity on paper. Indeed, my studies and the different internships or jobs behind them had taken me away from all the creative aspect that the web could represent. I also had to question my skills and face frustrations but also moments of happiness! Coding is a discipline in its own right and the learning and outcomes can be far from what I could have done before! It was a real challenge and I have no regrets about having followed this training that I wanted to start since 2017 !

The best decision I made in my life. They told me: “start coding and your life will change” and it was right like that.

I never thought could be programing in 9 weeks, even when I never had any computer skills! 
Take time to do the prep-work the most conscious you can; much better will be your  performance during the bootcamp.

Being a product-driven bootcamp make's Le Wagon, not only a coding school, even more a life-changing experience where you will gain skills to be a dev, PM or entrepreneur.

And one more thing, DO FLASHCARDS!

After 5 years working in the Food & Beverage industry in marketing and sales, I felt the need to develop technical skills in order to gain more freedom and efficiency in my day job. During my career, creating weekly reports on Excel and Powerpoint was part of my duty. I am a person who doesn’t like to do the same task over and over. So, I learned the basics of VBA programming and find a way to automate the creation of these reports and be able to spend more time analyzing and providing useful recommendations. Excel became my best friend when it comes to improving my efficiency at work allowing me to focus more on added-value tasks. But I felt limited in the creation of tools to go even further.

As a marketing manager, I had to work with digital agencies to improve our online presence, starting with redesigning and improving the performance of websites. I felt truly frustrated not being able to make adjustments myself. I learned how to use WordPress in order to make tiny changes. But again, I was limited and wanted to deeply understand how a website works, how everything fits together. Back then, learning how to code seems necessary to me. I tried to self-learn coding with free online resources and by attending coding events. It was a good starting point, but I felt quickly discouraged by the lack of guidance and the lack of purpose.

The full-stack developer program of Le Wagon seems to be exactly what I needed: a team of professionals with a tailored learning process to guide you and the challenging objective of creating a real product from scratch in only 2 weeks. It appeared to be very promising!

My experience at Le Wagon clearly exceeds my expectations! I wanted to learn basic programming languages and bring technical skills to my background. I came out of this experience with technical abilities, personal growth and unique opportunities. This is such an empowering investment!

Le Wagon provides you with a clear process: at first, I felt lost and overwhelmed but quickly, I was able to apply the key concepts in practical exercises which gave me a clear vision of what concretely I will be able to create by myself. Starting with Ruby, you learn the key-concept of a coding language which gives you better ease of learning other coding languages after it. Then you learn how to manage the database using SQL, how to design a beautiful interface using HTML and CSS, how to add interactivity using Javascript to improve the web page manipulation, the interaction with the user and the webserver. Last but not least, you learn Ruby on Rails providing you the structure for all the code you write.

Le Wagon gives you a product vision: I not only learned how to code, I also learned how to create a product from scratch. Starting with an idea, defining the core functionalities according to different user stories, sketching out the wireframe with basic UX/UX concepts, defining the database architecture, designing the mock-up using Figma and last but not least, coding the different features using back and front-end languages. Oh! I forgot, and you learn how to pitch your product in front of a large audience. Of course, you are not doing all these steps alone, you work in a team of 3-4 persons and develop soft skills in order to deliver a quality Minimum Valuable Product on time! During the 2 weeks project, I developed both technical and soft skills that are required when you work as a developer or a product owner.

Le Wagon team is always here to give you the support you need: each day, teachers, TAs and all the team is present and dedicated to help you grow. Most of the teachers and TAs did Le Wagon bootcamp before, so they know exactly what difficulties you face every day and how to help you make the most out of the learning journey. The fact that they already went through the bootcamp also reassures you that IT IS POSSIBLE and YOU CAN DO IT!! The rest of Le Wagon team is also really supportive: whatever your needs are, you can always count on the staff to help you find a solution! Le Wagon team isn't there to put pressure on you, but rather to support you and sometimes to cheer you up when you need it. Personally, I was a bit lost and needed help to better understand the type of role I could apply for after the bootcamp. The community manager reassured me and shared with me the resources I needed to have a better vision of what to expect in my future career (Contacts, forums, events, organizations, companies…).

Le Wagon gives you the opportunity to grow your network. Le Wagon not only teaches you how to code but also helps you to get a foothold in the tech industry! They organize many events (Le Wagon Talks, Lunch & Learn, Meet-ups etc.) where you can meet and learn from experienced tech professionals. They also are really well connected with the startup ecosystem which gives you the opportunity to connect with innovative companies and be inspired by great entrepreneur stories. Le Wagon is part of a huge tech/startup community, so they can individually, help you connect with the right person depending on your needs. When I started Le Wagon, I was new in Montreal and didn’t have any network. Thanks to Le Wagon, I developed my network and even find my partners to start a business with!

At le Wagon, you will have a lot of FUN! I didn’t expect to have that much fun. The great community of open-minded people with a diverse background and the positive and caring culture of Le Wagon is just the perfect combination to be yourself and enjoy every moment of this intensive experience! It reminds me of the holiday camp: you don’t know what to expect and at first, you stay “vigilant”, then you get to know people and realize it is a safe place to be yourself, learn new things and surpass yourself while having fun; you don’t sleep that much because you want to appreciate every single minute and make the most out of this experience until it is the end and you already feel the nostalgia and you want to do it all over again! The difference with summer camp is that you will never lose connection with Le Wagon community because you will always be a part of it!

The future is so much brighter now!

Thank you!

Léa

Before joining Le Wagon, I was a fresh grad with a degree in Systems Engineering (ElectroMechanical Systems). I started exploring web development during my capstone project in the last year of my university where I have to come up with a web application to log data from sensors and displaying them. Even though web development was not taught in my course's syllabus, I found myself enjoying to learn the concepts of web developing on the Internet. Hence, out of interest, I had found Le Wagon to kickstart me towards that direction.

I had so much fun during the Bootcamp! Even though the Bootcamp was intensive, the instructors and my batch mates made it possible for me to enjoy every second of it. The Bootcamp also provided us with coding challenges every day to enhance our problem solving capabilities, which motivated me to try to complete every single one of them, and time felt like it passed so quickly.

The toughest part of the Bootcamp for me was definitely the final project, where all the concepts came together since week 1 and it was like an examination to come up with an actual viable product to showcase to the world. Initially, my product pitch in week 5 was simply a travel application which is able to plan and organize itineraries for trips. However, the idea evolved constantly throughout the rest of the Bootcamp, following feedback from my batch mates and the instructors. My final product called Trails is now a planning application which is able to collaborate with people to plan activities, with templated checklists (and delegate to people in your group), and is also able to map all the activities with locations on a single map.

Looking back at how much my initial idea has developed, I would say don't be afraid of coming up with ideas which may seem stupid at first, as you may never know how far can your idea grow. Quoting Prima, one of the instructors in Le Wagon: "Great products always starts off with crazy and funny ideas".I could not have imagined that it was possible to build a web application in just 2 weeks which I actually took close to 4 months to build back then in university! Overall, I would say the journey was not easy but definitely an enjoyable experience and an amazing opportunity to be the second batch of students to graduate from Le Wagon Singapore.

I was trying to launch a start-up and quite quickly bumped into the reality of costs constraints... How to move on, creating the product you wish to launch, and limiting costs?
And then a friend advise to join Le Wagon... Me? Was I the right person? Never written a single row of code before.....
I just siad to myself: "Ok, let's take up this challenge..."
I very quickly realized that I never had a better advice in the process of launching my own business. 9 intense weeks of coding program, to give me the essential understanding, knowledge and autonomy to build up a mock-up first (during the 2 weeks project of the bootcamp), and then the product itself.
A fantastic support in my project has also come from Le Wagon team. People that encourage you to follow the path you chose and are available to support in your journey.
It has been a great opportunity to join this course and I truly recommend it :) 

My background is somewhat different from the usual student of a coding bootcamp.

I was trained as an engineer, and have worked in research and development, designed and built production grade software for a couple decades. But it was all very niche - to take a car analogy I was an expert at making the most efficient pistons, but barely litterate with engines, and clueless with vehicles.

To put it in simpler terms, I could write software, very good software, but not an application.
This had been a frustration for many years - many ideas not pursued for lack of knowing where to start...

I could have turned to online courses and learn yet another handful languages, but from my practical experience there is no substitute for dedicated mentoring, and the experience of working on projects as a team. Both of which are cornerstones of Le Wagon bootcamp.

So after closing a chapter in my career, I decided to enroll in Le Wagon in Tokyo.

The program is every bit as good as others have commented on this site. Curriculum is very solid and well designed, up to date, well adapted to complete beginners, and certainly very efficient at turning them into competent junior developers by the end of the course. From the point of view of a seasoned veteran, watching that metamorphosis felt like a little miracle - while the result of very hard work from both students and teachers.

Speaking of which, the teaching staff in Tokyo is excellent - competent, dedicated, available, and friendly. I was lucky to have extraordinary teachers in my university years, and I am happy to say the guys at Le Wagon are very much up there counting among the best!

Also of note was the strong sense of camaraderie and cooperative mindset among students of our batch.
The feeling of belonging to Le Wagon's network of alumni and staff is no small part in its successful formula.

I will admit that at times I had doubts if I had made the right choice enrolling in the bootcamp, especially at the beginning when the learning curve was still gentle for a veteran coder.
By the time team projects started (7th week onward), they were gone - replaced by the thrill and passion of building actual products with young and talented teammates.

Long story short: I highly recommend Le Wagon. Even at a later point in ones career, it's a great place for old dogs to learn new tricks.

I did le wagon in order to learn how to build an MVP of a business idea that I was working on for two years. 

My expectations were quite high, and I trusted the bootcamp to deliver thanks to an experienced developper that strongly recommended it. Let me tell you that I was not the kind of person to even have a look at what a program was, it all looked very mystical, and I did not want to deal with it! But experience forced me to demystify it, and even code myself 😱.

I couldn't find any curriculum online that was adapted to my way of learning. To be honest, the challenge seemed incommensurable at the time. Am I really going to be able to build a website from scratch after 9 weeks (I mean it's nothing) ? 🤔 

Well, it was not easy! There is a say which states that 'You learn best once you'r out of your comfort zone', I was out of it every single day! (reading it is different from experiencing it...)

Not comfortable and, most probably, the best decision I have ever made! I have built my MVP 🚀. I even enjoy coding now 🤓. 
It is a life changing experience, indeed. And in so many ways! I learned how to build a first version of the Project, and most importantly I met incredible people! They keep on teaching me every single day 😎. 

That's what le wagon is, a strong technical learning experience that embodies a powerful sense of an international Community ready to help, anytime.

Thank You ! 

The hardest, most intense and fun experience of my life.

My experience in Le Wagon was really life-changing. They provided me with the tools to start a new career or even combine my previous Business skills with the new technical skills I acquired. 

The teachers transit from super serious to fun in a heartbeat, creating a highly productive and enjoyable environment.

It's no pick-nick! If you're not 150% committed to this, you won't stand it! The intensity starts even before the classes begin, with the prep course. Be prepared! Take one month off before the course starts to be able to make the most of this prep which is crucial to your success during the classes.

The results are REAL. You will come out the other end with the necessary tools to start your career as a programmer. You'll also be part of a global community of alumni and you'll make friends for life. Make no mistake, though: it's still a long endless road after that...

I definitely recommend Le Wagon.

The Wagon is a very interesting bootcamp to follow if you want to become a web developer. During the 9 weeks, you will be accompanied by very high level teachers who will help you to understand all aspects to create fast and efficient web applications. Pedagogy is also turned on the methodology and the state of mind to be a good developer. At the end of the 9 weeks, 3 weeks of team project can learn to work together what will be essential for the future. If you want to deepen your skills as a developer or change your life, then do not hesitate a second. After the Wagon, I started freelance and I give classes to Wagon Lille.

Le Wagon has an amazing approach of teaching, based on intensive training and exercises all day long, led by a fantastic team of teachers and TAs. I've always been passionate about the start-up world, but always frustrated not to be able to code, or understand it.

Now, thanks to this 9-week intensive program, I can build a website from scratch, and the skills I acquired are absolutely precious. I never thought I would be able to achieve so much in 9 weeks.

So I can say without hesitating that applying for the fullstack intensive program was the best investment I've made so far.