Le Wagon Reviews
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Tanguy Chennaux Verified via LinkedIn
Best investment, mentally and financially
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I was working for Apple and realise that I wanted to do something that would allow me to be more flexible with location. I decided to quit my job and join the January batch at Le Wagon in London. It was highly recommended by friends and family members who work as developers.
It was the best decision I made and the best investment I made in my life. You will learn so much and the team is fantastic. Great fun and definitely worth it. I cannot recommended enough. I was worried about leaving a job but I would do it all over again in a heart beat. Thank you so much.
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Geoff Cheah Verified via GitHubFun, creative, changed my life
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I’m an Olympian and former professional swimmer and I finished Le Wagon London’s bootcamp in March 2018 (batch #123). I had taken one coding class at university almost ten years ago and forgot everything with that bad experience. I moved to London to explore new careers and find a job and it was hard to find the right fit when lots of industries require some sort of technical skill or relevant experience. Le Wagon solidly put me on a path towards achieving that and solving this problem, and it was up to me to take it where I wanted. I think Le Wagon is a great fit for any entrepreneur wanting technical skills. If you want to get a developer job after, you will also be in the right place to achieve that. I just got a job as an Associate Engineer at BCG Digital Ventures and couldn’t be more pleased with what has happened!
Goals
Before Le Wagon, my goals were simply to learn and obtain technical skills that I could rely on as hard evidence for finding a job. What this job would be, I didn't know. But, I knew I wanted to equip myself with skills to be able to launch a digital product myself in the future and be a better entrepreneur. I never intended to work as an engineer and still can’t believe what has happened!
Why I chose Le Wagon
Le Wagon was a great fit for me because they teach beginners from non-tech backgrounds with a bigger picture business perspective and with a purpose of making you a self sufficient developer. Le Wagon is much more interesting than a developer factory and they don't make money from recruiting fees when you get a job. They don’t force you to be a developer or pressure you when you finish to find a job as one. It is up to you to take your different background (from a tech industry point of view), your new skills and use it as a strength and get what you want in true entrepreneurial fashion.
Curriculum and teaching
Le Wagon’s curriculum is designed to teach you something hard very quickly, so inevitably there will be growing pains on the course and some aspects prioritized over the others. There is no such thing as a perfect curriculum; you will always have to fill in gaps yourself, as with anything. However, I thought Ruby/Rails was such a great choice by Le Wagon to get me started with software engineering. Given the course is nine weeks, the curriculum makes sense and its now unsurprising why such companies like Airbnb and Github used Rails in the first place. You’re trying to learn something hard like coding (or launch a fully fledged webapp/business like Airbnb) very, very quickly. This curriculum (and Ruby/Rails) teaches you to do that in a fun and entrepreneurial way and not to be a developer who will just build what they are told to build without questioning (no problem if that is what you want!).
Having the opportunity to pitch product ideas to your classmates and teachers was amazing. It's a very product driven bootcamp; awareness to keep your ideas or features in line with the value proposition you seek to deliver is drilled in to you. During the project weeks, this was really important to be mindful of. There are not many better ways to learn than by creating a product you like, getting your creative juices flowing, feeling ownership over it and blowing yourself away with what you can build in ten days.
All of the teachers were great and most of the TAs were as well. They didn't just simply give me the answer or code it for me. They were all patient and tried very hard to explain in multiple ways so that I would understand. There was a holistic approach to learning which I appreciate a lot - "remember to eat properly, get enough rest and sleep" etc.
You will spend less time on some things (like testing and javascript), but in my opinion you leave Le Wagon with a solid core foundation that you will then be able to decide how to add to yourself (as is in life or on any job). If you compare this to other bootcamps, less impact on learning testing/javascript is a bit of a drawback, but Le Wagon is different to other bootcamps in a very creative way. You will leave Le Wagon with knowledge on how to go fill in the gaps, what to look for and with a big community to back you as well. Le Wagon is great value for money and time. I still cant believe 9 weeks jumpstarted the process and eventually lead me to land an awesome job.
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Bob Verified via GitHubOne hell of a ride
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Before joining the Le Wagon bootcamp I was working at a company called TicketSwap, a tech company in the ticketing industry. There, I managed the support team. I joined TicketSwap as the first employee, so during the first years I witnessed a lot regarding the development of the product. I liked talking to the developer colleagues and figure out how things, technically, work. After 4 years my time at TicketSwap came at an end because I wanted to change course and learn more about coding. A good friend of mine told me about the bootcamp and after a short holiday I hopped on board the Wagon. During the 9 weeks I learned so much. It’s incredible to see what you can do in that period. Even though I shouldn’t, I tend to compare it with my bachelor degree. I wonder; why did I need 4 years to get this diploma while I only needed 9 weeks to learn how to code and set up a working web app. In our final project we created a platform where people could recommend podcasts to their followers through donations. It’s like a Twitter on steroids where your feed contains the recommended podcast (not sure if it’s still online: mendio.co). Working together with other people was a great experience as well. Now, after the bootcamp, I’m doing a traineeship of 3 months at a company called Ace & Tate. I’m working on the back-end of this webshop, not only maintaining the webshop but also things like inventory and order management. Pretty complex stuff, but I know my why around thanks to Le Wagon.
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Bruno Verified via LinkedIn
Fine-tuned training journey
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I’m an engineer, 6 years of prof. exp, with previous knowledge in algorithm theory and a quantitative mindset. I wanted to learn code the way entrepreneurs do. Not the old style, theoretical code I learned in school
Pro: - Fast pace - Excellent ratio teacher / student (about 1/6) - Amazing fine tuning of the cursus: each daily lesson follows exactly the previous. Zero redundancy! - Great community & alumni network
Cons: - Warning, you will not be satisfied at the end: you will want to keep learning ;)
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Josias Verified via GitHubLe Wagon Tokyo
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I always wanted to know how to code without really knowing where to start. My several attempts to learn as an autodidact has always failed so I decided to look for training. This is how I found Le wagon Tōkyō.
The courses are given in English, which seemed, to me, more reassuring to learn new concepts.
It’s a training that mainly focuses on the exercises.
The bootcamp not only taught me how to code, but it also instilled a methodology and a new way of thinking. Teachers and teacher’s assistant are obviously always there to help you but they will also entice you to be autonomous by finding the solution by yourself. They will show you how to find the solution efficiently on the online documentation.
During the bootcamp i used a lot of new tools like Git, Postman, Airtable.
And the School learning platform is quite cool too. With Training videos, flashcards, etc.
Le Wagon Tokyo boot camp is also a community, with many meet-ups and speakers. Recruitment firm, Specialist in marketing and cyber security comes to provide advises and recommendations .
I found a job just before the end of the bootcamp thanks to the management of the boot camp that put me in contact.
What emerges from these two intensive months is an immense satisfaction that I highly recommend to anyone looking for a career change or simply getting new skills .
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Thibault J. Verified via GitHubGreat experience, learnt a lot during those 2 months
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I attended Le Wagon in Paris during summer 2017. It was an intensive but great summer. I was surprised by how much I was able to learn during such a short period of time and couldn't have imagined before the bootcamp that I was going to really be able to code for a living after the summer. I got hired by a startup as a backend developper right after Le Wagon and even though it was though in the beginning compared to other more experienced developpers, after a while I was fully operational. Great overall experience at Le Wagon, teachers and assistants that take time to help and are almost always available. Great methodology for teaching with only a few courses and a lot of exercizes. Highly recommended.
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Gonzalo Diaz Verified via GitHubChanged My Future and Life
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I lived in the US for 9 years were I pursued my undergraduate degree in Business and later on my MBA and Master's in Science of Finance. After 2 years of experience in the steel industry I worked in process management and business development for a private business group dedicated to Retail and Real Estate (3 years) were I got to travel to places like: Portugal, Brazil, South Korea, Switzerland, Ireland, China and Hong Kong.
Joining Le Wagon has been the best decision I have made and would advice a younger me to have joined this industry years ago. Now that I'm a FullStack Programmer I can freelance, join any industry or startup I want.
The community of Le Wagon is friendly, collaborative and connected to high-profiles that can open doors everywhere. Lose the tie, put on your Nike's and come join Le Wagon.
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Davis L Verified via LinkedIn
LeWagon Amsterdam changed my life!
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Since I always had enjoyed cooking at home I decided to try myself in the culinary arts industry as a side income while studying. Ever since that day my life was all knives and flames, scars and stress for the most part of the year except the wakeboard instructor job I had in summers when I could recharge my self again for upcoming part of the year in the kitchen. I had always been determined and unafraid of hard work so I quickly excelled from cook to chef in small but interesting places, restaurants and projects.
As the years passed on, the novelty of my career faded, the urge to prove myself in the kitchen became pointless, and it became increasingly hard to understand or justify the choices I had made. At some point, I realized 10 years of culinary experience on my resume could only lead to 10 more years of culinary experience and 60+ hour work weeks in the kitchen was something I did not want to tolerate any more.
So last year I quit my job abandoned my plans to go to culinary school in Italy to become a master chef of Italian cuisine and I set off on a journey of self-discovery that lead me to code. I started to learn from online courses by myself but since coding was something completely new to me and there are so many deferent things you can learn I needed some kind of basic structure where to start from. So searching in google lead me to LeWagon page. I immediately found a lot of amazing reviews about this boot camp and as I wanted to meet like-minded people and learn as fast as possible this looked like perfect opportunity to kick-start my career as a developer. So I enrolled in LeWagon coding bootcamp in Amsterdam.
So about the LeWagon in Amsterdam-
Usually people have the image of coders as boring, lonely, weird people who spend their days in front of screens and don’t want to communicate with others, but in Le Wagon you see that coding actually can require a lot of collaboration with diverse group of amazing people, with different age, backgrounds, experiences, nationalities and you all work to gather as equals to learn and create something amazing.
Overall experience was nothing short of incredible. I’ve probably never learnt so much in such a short time. Every day you are surrounded by inspiring teachers that are there to help when you hit the wall. In nine weeks you learn a solid introduction to all the necessary tools you would require to reach a productive level, how to put them all together, and how to collaborate in team and make MVP product from scratch in 7 days. There is almost no time to rest. It’s difficult but completely worth it!
Be aware that the bootcamp will not do the work for you. To get anything out of it, you’ll have to give it your full commitment. So if you are planning to do this, the main thing to get the most out of it is to prepare your self properly. Do all the prework that is given by the LeWagon and do it twice if possible. Take a vacation and try to arrange everything so you don’t get much distraction during the 9 weeks. Prepare your self physically as well - be in good health, well rested.
If you are looking for bootcamp experience then LeWagon is the one!
P.S.
After bootcamp I went back to my home country Latvia and started to apply for jobs. I was looking something ruby or frontend related. All the frontend positions where asking for PHP knowledge so I started to learn that. After a month and a half of actively applying, doing test works and going to some job interviews I finally found a job opportunity that I really was excited about - frontend developer in a digital agency that is one of the best in Latvia. Long story short - two days after my job interview I got the job as a junior web developer. Right now it is the end of my second month there. All the knowledge I gained in LeWagon is a huge help in learning and understanding the new work environment - cause right now I’m working with php Laravel. So my recommendation - if you find a job opportunity that makes you excited and by description, it may be over your skill level, but you still know you want it - go ahead and apply for it - you still could get it!
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Chloe Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon is Worth It!
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I decided to pursue a career in coding after almost of decade of having an interest but never taking the leap. I started researching bootcamps about a year before actually enrolling. Once I discovered Le Wagon and read it's mission, I knew it was the right choice for me. I Immediately enrolled for Batch #144 in Montreal.
I have BA in Anthropology and I worked as a research internship coordinator before coming to Le Wagon. You absolute do not need to have a maths or coding background, although a large amount of commitment and motivation is required. Le Wagon has quenched a thirst I had for challenging myself. It is intense program that pushes you to your limits in the best way possible. The support system in place is well thought out and geared towards ensuring that each student will find their flow and to provide the resources needed. I am now brushing up on skills learned, creating my own portfolio, and will hopefully begin freelancing in the near future. -
Brett Middleton Verified via LinkedIn
The most rewarding 2 months of my life
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When I started with Le Wagon for Batch 144 in Montreal, QC I had a career as a Head Chef/Baker that I was starting to get very tired of after 10 years. I had been taking University Classes for Game development that did not seem to be getting me where I wanted to go and that’s when I researched coding boot camps in my area and found Le Wagon.
I was amazed at what I became a part of after that. A community that my online classes could never give me, along with the hands-on teaching that would give me a true understanding of what I was programming.
I remember looking at job posting for web development and seeing the list of languages and libraries, thinking to myself how in the world you learn all of those and now I look at those lists and feel confident in going into interviews and discussing each item on that list.
Right out of the boot camp I had two interviews with companies and one being from a recruiter from LinkedIn that because of this boot camp wanted to recruit me. Along with the interviews, I create my own projects and am starting to do freelance, successfully completing my career change. -
Tanel Vahisalu Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon Berlin Student Review
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I used to be a graphic designer with strong knowledge of print media and marketing. I had made website designs and prototypes before and had worked on the visual side of web applications. I knew some HTML and CSS, but I had never any experience with the servers and backend part of the projects. Never had I opened Terminal before.
At the age of 39, I felt that I had to make a change.
Learning how to code is to our generation the same as was learning how to read and write to people two hundred years ago - the illiterate ones will never catch up with the faster ones in their career.
So I looked for the best coding bootcamp in Europe and came across Le Wagon. The reviews were so good that I decided to apply.
After graduating from batch no #124, I can assure you all that the positive 5-star reviews do not lie. It really is just as good as it reads!
The curriculum is excellent and its web-based online learning environment is super-useful. There is so much to explore and it's being updated on a daily basis. I still use it regularly to find answers to my coding-related questions today.
The teachers are very professional, confident, natural talents - all of them. My favourite was Alice. She just kept the whole thing together and was such an inspiration. On our final project week she spent hours trying to restore my petty Javascript animation. Not because that it was such an important feature, but because I as a student had worked so hard on it and she thought it was important.
In addition to teachers, there are a number of assistants. You will get as much help as you ask - they are there for you all the time. They sit long hours with you solving a problem and later relax together with you and have a beer. Very, very positive vibe indeed.
What I liked the most, was the product-centered, entrepreneurial mindset an bias of the curriculum - we had product pitch sessions and brainstorms and everyone, who wanted, had a chance to shine.
Surely the best thing about Le Wagon, is the large, worldwide community of like-minded entrepreneurial, helpful cool people that you will have a connection with after graduating.
Everyone is always invited back for demo days and cocktail nights to have a good time together.
Five stars out of five. Period.
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Morgane PERENZONI Verified via LinkedIn
Vivre cette expérience unique ...
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En 9 semaines @Le Wagon Marseille, on apprend à coder mais pas que …
Marseille, la belle cité phocéenne, où le climat annuel est chaud, ce qui nous permet de valoriser nos jolies calanques …
Marseille où ses habitants sont des gens au top du top avec lesquels il est sympa de prendre l’apéro en jouant aux fléchettes ou alors en regardant la meilleure équipe du monde : l’OM …
Marseille où il est désormais possible d’apprendre à coder !?# Oh l’enc ….
OUI, grâce au Wagon et à son staff autant pédagogue que formidable il est désormais possible pour quiconque d’apprendre les bases du code.
Alors, OUI il faut vivre cette expérience pour y croire.Je n’avais jamais codé une seule ligne de code avant le Wagon et pour être tout a fait franche je n’y connaissais rien du tout, et à présent je me surprends à coder tout ce qui me passe par la tête.
En 9 semaines au Wagon Marseille, j’ai appris les langages : Ruby / Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, mais je me suis également fait pleins de contacts et d’amis.
Le Wagon est à l’humain ce que le Ruby est a l’objet, je recommande cette formation pour tout ce qu’elle m’a apporté autant d’un point de vue compétences que d’un point de vue humain.
Alors OUI changez de vie et apprenez à coder grâce au Wagon Marseille.
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Tim Brackfield Verified via GitHubLe Wagon London
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Prior to Le Wagon I was a Management Consultant in a firm specialising in technology projects, where I had worked with web developers in non technical roles such as business analyst. I found working with them very enjoyable, but always felt held back by my lack of technical knowledge, so decided to dedicate some time to complete a full stack web development bootcamp.
I chose Le Wagon due to its excellent reputation and online reviews and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The teaching and course structure were excellent. The course is intense and challenging, but worth it - I’ve learned far more than I ever imagined. The teaching staff are fantastic and it was great to work with other students from different backgrounds and countries.
I also really enjoyed the entrepreneurial focus of Le Wagon and working as a team on two projects built in the final weeks of the course. I am confident now building MVPs, and perhaps more importantly, Le Wagon has equipped me with the knowledge and skills to continue learning.
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Adam Kalimi Verified via GitHubLe Wagon Shanghai Review
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In December of 2017 I graduated from a coding boot camp in Shanghai, China. To say that it was a life changing experience is to understate the degree to which new opportunities presented themselves, both professionally and personally within in span of four months.
For me, going through the boot camp had been a long time in the making. I had been an English teacher for a year in Shanghai, and then started working as a recruiter for the company I had been teaching with. The job started out ok, but I found myself dedicating 70-80 hours per week. After four months on the job, I began to see what few opportunities lie ahead: I could improve my administrative skills related to collecting applicants’ documents and climb the corporate the ladder within the HR department, or transfer to another department. At the time, I had no hard skills, so I would have been restricted in my options, most likely writing content for our various products.
The prospects were not good and I did not have a strong sense of hope in my career as it stood. I was essentially offering my ability to use the English language to write content, or improve how organized and efficient I could be to serve the benefit of the corporation I was working for.
On New Years Eve 2016, I met and made friends with someone who just arrived in Shanghai and was working as a developer for the same organization. He was making nearly 3 times my salary and had enough free time to get to know the city. He had begun his journey as a developer through a well-known coding boot camp in the US. That is when the idea started floating in my head and sticking.
Fast-forward 9 months into my job and I had had enough of the ambiguity. I left my position as a recruiter to return to teaching with the goal of getting back time to myself to prepare for joining a boot camp as soon as possible. The problem was that there were no English-speaking coding camps around. I started toying with the idea of going back to the US and nearly did, until I found out about Le Wagon. Originally started in Paris France in 2014, it began expanding quickly with locations in over 30 countries as of May 2018.
The Plan:
My intention from the get-go was to find a job as a developer, either freelance or full-time after the camp. I had spoken with several developers that I knew personally and decided that I wanted to be skilled in front-end development, with a focus on JavaScript.
To be able to enact any plan, you need to have a financial runway. With the amount of money saved, I had roughly four months to find sustainable employment, which was either a full-time job or freelance gigs that would lead to more. This was Plan A. We graduated in early December 2017, so my runway was until about March 2018.
Plan B was return home to the US and continue to job hunt from my parent’s home. I did not want to return to the US, but it was a realistic Plan B. I refused to take on any job that was not strictly development because that is the skill I intended to grow, even if I had to do it from the US.
The Beginning of Camp (and a reassessment):
So camp begins and after a few weeks, I am humbled. Coding is a lot more difficult than I initially expected. I start to question if working as a developer is really for me. Some of the students who were in my batch had a background in engineering or had taken some computer science courses were doing pretty well.
Development is very heavily front-loaded with information. Once you can get over the initial hump of learning how all the pieces fit together, things start to make sense quicker. Even though it is tough, something in the back of my mind just tells me that I will be working as a developer. Regardless of how it is going to happen, it is going to happen.
This particular camp is great because we visited several different firms around the city where we may be able to work after graduation. One meeting that boosted my motivation halfway through camp was at a startup accelerator. I met the founder of a company that had graduated from that accelerator about a year prior. One of his products is similar to the product I worked on for the boot camp’s final project, so I ended up interviewing with them for a project manager role but decline it because I was looking to code, period.
Finally the end of camp rolls around and we present our products. It was a really exciting day to be able to show off what we have built. The next day, here I am – jobless and ready to take something on. During the final two weeks, I spent a lot of time focusing on the final project, so I did not follow up with the contacts I had made during the camp.
On the first day after camp, my self-assessment of my skills is lower than I expected. I found that it was difficult to set accurate expectations on what my skill level would be post-camp because my knowledge-base was initially low.
I spent the first month after camp following up with potential employers and coding. Every day I coded for 7 hours through an online course that I had purchased to help me learn React.
A month after camp ended, I was able to land a full time job as a developer with a startup through the accelerator that Le Wagon had taken us to.
50% of the value that you get from a coding camp is the network that it has in place. Especially in the early days of your career, your network is key to getting paying gigs, whether they are freelance or full time. I am very happy with the value that Le Wagon’s network has been able to provide.
They also have a healthy habit of bringing back students from previous batches to talk about what they are doing now, T.A.-ing, and even lecture as teachers.
Overall, I am very happy with the change in my career since I went through the boot camp. Time is flying by at this point with each batch that comes and goes. Being able to reflect on my time at the camp and seeing other students who are now going through the same steps has helped me view the experience in a more holistic way and be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses with more clarity.
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Sergio Verified via GitHubAwesome Bootcamp!
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Amazing curriculum. Very organized lectures. Fantastic teachers. While most bootcamps focus primarily on career, essentially training you to be a cog in a machine, Le Wagon approaches their curriculum by focusing primarily on product development. They teach you how to create a great product, while teaching you all the tech you will need to get it done.
I can honestly say that after one session at LeWagon, you will have a toolkit ready to build a saas platform immediately upon graduation. No exaggeration.
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Isabel Verified via GitHubWonderful experience
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If you are reading this post, you probably know that the slogan for Le Wagon is “change your life learn to code”. It sounded like a platitude to me, at least it was how I felt before joining the camp. However, before I realized it, Le Wagon experience actually changed my life. During the camp, not only did I learn the foundation of coding, but it also helped build up my confidence. This confidence allows me to continue learning more advanced coding challenges independently even after the camp. In addition, Le Wagon helps me to connect to different tech communities which helps me to gain insights on the different tech sectors. More importantly, I met a group of new friends who share common interests, and join hackathons together. Therefore, I would proudly recommend Le Wagon to my friends
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Samantha Ricotta Verified via LinkedIn
Best decision I have ever made
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Before Le Wagon I worked as a project and event manager. During my career, I became frustrated with all the manual processes of the work and the time they took. These sort of processes leave event managers stressed along with a great deal of additional work. I constantly looked for ways to resolve this problem for my offices but soon realised it was possible, through technology, to change the whole industry. This is when I seriously started looking to become a dev.
It can be overwhelming looking for bootcamps as there are so many, I chose Le Wagon as it had the best reviews. For me, the most important thing was that I secured a job after the course, as I quit my job to make the change of career. At first I wasn’t sure that I made the right decision but as soon as my first day was over I knew that I had made the right choice. Not only were the teachers very helpful but they are extremely knowledgeable. They will ensure you understand what you are doing and will go above and beyond by answering questions, even after hours.
The way the course is set up is extremely thought out, it allowed me to work autonomously but still had me feel supported. The course is very intense but completely worth it and I can say that signing up to the course is the best choice I have ever made! I am so proud of myself, of what I have learned, my project but mostly that I can now work as a dev. It is really something I am be proud of.
I have never been happier with my career and it is all because of Le Wagon. I cannot recommend it more. -
Audrey Gourdji Verified via LinkedIn
How Le Wagon Changed My Life
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Now, six months after camp and six months into freelancing as a web designer & developer, it’s hard to believe that this time last year I didn’t know how to write even one line of code. So how did I get to where I am now? I know it might sound overdramatic, but I feel like there was my life before Le Wagon, and my life after Le Wagon, and both feel worlds apart.
Life Before Le Wagon
After graduating from university in my hometown, Montreal, Canada, I moved to Beijing, and then subsequently to Shanghai in 2015 when I started working as a buying assistant for a luxury fashion multibrand. After about a year and a half, I started itching for something with a little more responsibility and creative freedom, so when the opportunity to join a founding team on a fashion startup arose, I jumped on it.
Working at this startup was an intense and valuable experience for me, and acting as the product manager, one of my responsibilities was to manage the tech team building our main product. Out of all my duties, I found communicating and managing the tech team to be the most difficult, or at least the one task I knew that I could definitely improve at. In an effort to learn more of anything within the tech space, I attended one of the Le Wagon public workshops “How to Build a Landing Page in 2 Hours”. I loved it! I was so fascinated by how a few lines of code could translate into my own website (an ugly one, but still a website!). The workshop is how I discovered Le Wagon and I told myself that if ever I had a gap in work, I’d join the bootcamp.
Sure enough, a few months later, the start up didn’t work out and instead of looking for a new job straight away, I decided to join Le Wagon and develop my tech skills so that I could become a more experienced and knowledgeable product manager/start-up founder/fashion e-commerce owner/insert-whatever-job-title, seeing as tech experience would only help in any of the potential future jobs I could think of for myself.
Life During Le Wagon
I started the 9-week bootcamp in October 2017. The first few weeks were hard. We were learning Ruby and as I found some things logical, I found most things too abstract for my visual mind. It was a lot of frustration and a lot of reminding myself to be patient and do my best. In fact, dealing with frustration (which really is just learning how to learn, find answers, and unfrustrate yourself), patience, and doing your best, ended up being some of the most important takeaways for me from the camp, and are probably the most applicable now after I’ve graduated as well.
For those who don’t know the Le Wagon structure, every morning we have a lecture for 1-2 hours, and the rest of the day is spent working on practical exercises with a partner paired at random. This course set up is designed to replicate the real world, and is what strengthened all of our abilities to learn how to learn tech. What does that mean? We don’t get fed answers, the same way that would never happen after you graduate. First, we must try and find solutions to issues on our own, then by asking our partner, then by writing a ticket online calling for help to one of the teachers or TAs as you would in a tech forum like Stack Overflow.
Apart from the rigorous training, Le Wagon also set up various talks and company visits that we were incredibly lucky to get the chance to be a part of. I very quickly realized that Le Wagon is much more than a bootcamp, it's a far-reaching community and network of helpful, intelligent, and passionate individuals. The community and network aspect is the biggest contributor and reason I was able to move into freelance so seamlessly right after camp.
Life After Le Wagon
Time since finishing Le Wagon has flown by, but in a good way. After a much-needed break and visit back home at the end of camp, I still wasn’t sure whether I’d look for a new full-time job, or end up pursuing freelancing. I decided I’d return to Shanghai and freelance as I look for a new job, but the day after returning, one of my good friend’s from camp who had gotten hired by a startup company as a developer got me a freelance project with his company doing front-end work. This snowballed into a second project, and then a third, and then I soon had little to no time (or desire) to look for a full-time job anymore.
I’ve definitely learned the pros and cons of freelancing over the last few months, and have constantly had my boundaries pushed, but that’s what has forced me to learn and grow post-camp. Most importantly, as was so valuable during camp, the Le Wagon community and network has been the biggest change in my life. Not only do I have all this new knowledge that opened a completely new realm and sea of opportunity, but I also have these incredible supportive peers, many of which have become some of my closest friends.
A year ago I would have never believed I’d be doing what I do now, and now I can’t believe that I didn’t know much of anything about tech a year ago. Like I said, I feel like there was my life before Le Wagon and now there is my life after.
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Ladhari Oussama Verified via GitHubbest decision
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struggling to learn web development by myslef and looking forward to brush up my skills more efficiently, I came across Le Wagon coding bootcamp and it was for me the best decision that I have taken lately . With a very complete program and setup, a professional platform including efficient well organised order to study different needed tools for a web developer , highly skilled and experienced teachers, also I got the chance to have such wonderful classmates and a best teacher assistant !(who become a real friend: Douglas).
And once an alumni you have access to very huge community and forever support from teachers and assistance to get job or to start your own startup.
I advise anyone who really would like to understant coding and web development to choose le Wagon!
Arigatou gozaimau le Wagon -
Joy Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon: best thing I ever did
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My experience with Le Wagon Batch 144 in Montreal has been amazing. The curriculum and staff had made it possible for me to learn web development in the simplest and most effective way. It provides the students with the skills that it needs in the tech industry, which does not only include a strong understanding of back end and front end development but also a strong group work ethic. Moreover, Le Wagon has such a big community of likeminded people that it continues to benefit those who have graduated from it. The ability to connect with over 3000 alumni worldwide through slack benefits you as many alumni’s are willing to lend a hand and help you in things such as tech advice or jobs. The 9 week program instills in you the tools you need to start a career in the tech industry and the network to lean on. I loved my experience with Le Wagon. I got all the skills I wanted and I would recommend this program to anyone who asks.
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Benoit PRIGENT Verified via GitHubLong life to the wagon
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Hey I’m Benoit 👋
I attended the Wagon course in March 2018 in Paris.
I am 22 years old and I am still not graduated from my business school. Wishing to evolve in a web environment, I decided to join the Wagon as early as possible because I was particularly frustrated not having any technical skills 😳
I am passionate about beautiful web products and fluid UX and I wanted to join a B2B Saas start up as a full-stack developer intern.
This is why I joined Workelo, and as soon as I arrived I find out myself to be operational really soon ! Since then I have been learning every day really easily thanks to the robust pedagody and mindset provided by the wagon. 👨💻
But above that, what makes the greatest strength of the wagon is the “community”, I met within my batch very inspiring people from various backgrounds!
Long life to the wagon 😍🎉
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Hedi van Meurs Verified via GitHubeverything I hoped for
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I was in batch #143 of Le Wagon in London.
For the past ten years, I have tried to make a career out of teaching and translation. After a decade, I realised that this isn’t my passion. I’ve always really enjoyed anything computer related and I’m very interested in IT. I seemed to pick things up pretty fast in the past, but I think the fact that some people have been coding since they were 13, and I have not, always kept me from trying. The fact that it is a very male dominated industry also didn’t help! When I finally decided to take the plunge and try, I researched which coding bootcamp in London was the best. Le Wagon kept coming out on top.
I knew that the course was going to be hard, I didn’t doubt that at all, but I may even have underestimated a bit. Being bombarded with new information every single day was a big challenge. I even dreamt of coding every night during the entire course! However, I really enjoyed learning all these new and interesting things, and being able to actually use a skill you’ve just learnt after two weeks of thinking it is an impossible task is an amazing feeling. It really helped that, besides having such a tight team of amazing teachers, my fellow students were also extremely motivated and helpful. Especially the other women on the course really helped me through it!
The final weeks, where you spent time working on a project in a team, were great. It’s amazing to see how everyone has their own strengths within a project group, and it felt really good to see our app coming together so nicely. In our batch, we were the only group who created an app towards helping people rather than making money, and I’m very proud of that. The app is designed to be a crowdfunding platform for people who are homeless, to make them a profile and get the items they need funded. Hopefully, someday we can deploy our app for real and help people.
If you are interested in learning to code I would very much recommend Le Wagon. The atmosphere is great and afterwards, you’ll be part of a coding community for life. Don’t expect it to be easy, but you’ll learn more in nine weeks than you ever thought was possible.
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Graduate Studies in Business and Finance Verified via GitHub
Change Your Life
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I lived in the US for 9 years were I pursued my undergraduate degree in Business and later on my MBA and Master's in Science of Finance. After 2 years of experience in the steel industry I worked in process management and business development for a private business group dedicated to Retail and Real Estate (3 years) were I got to travel to places like: Portugal, Brazil, South Korea, Switzerland, Ireland, China and Hong Kong.
Joining Le Wagon has been the best decision I have made and would advice a younger me to have joined this industry years ago. Now that I'm a FullStack Programmer I can freelance, join any industry or startup I want.
The community of Le Wagon is friendly, collaborative and connected to high-profiles that can open doors everywhere. Lose the tie, put on your Nike's and come join Le Wagon.
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Alexis W Verified via GitHubBest place to learn!
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I was part of Le Wagon batch 101 in Paris in October 2017. This has been super profitable and definitely worth the money and time investment. I am super grateful to the whole Wagon team for building this program, and I have already convinced lots of friends to follow me.
The main thing I would like to highlight is the efficiency of their learning method. In only 2 months, we are able to learn a whole new set of skills, which make us very autonomous when working on personal projects. I honestly didn’t expect we could go this far in 2 months: getting the same results on my own would have probably required more than a year and a huge amount of motivation. I joined Le Wagon as I was planning to launch a startup: what I learned at Le Wagon is enough to build a first version of my product and be the CTO of my company for the first 6-9 months, until I meet the person who will take it to the next technical level. The knowledge we have is enough to handle pretty much any tricky situation, and in case you do get stuck, the whole Wagon community is here to help ! Teachers and alumnis are always willing to help, even months after you left the program, which is one of the main benefits of being part of the community.The efficiency of their learning program is based on amazing teachers, all driven towards making things crystal clear, and perfect tools. The online platform where you can find the course content and do your daily exercises is very handy. I think all schools should get inspiration from how things are done at Le Wagon !
Last but not least, there’s a great atmosphere and the place is very nice. They organize lots of events (talks, parties, …) where you can get in touch with inspiring people and meet new friends.
In short, I can only strongly recommend Le Wagon to anyone willing to learn how to code, and can’t think of any downside about it.
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Elsa Verified via GitHubAmazing experience!
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After completing a Master’s degree in Visual and Digital media, where I I learnt the basics of graphic design, photography and video production, I had the opportunity to work for a major media company in Gabon as a communication officer. I very much enjoyed my experience, and I mainly created content for social media and print advertising. I worked with Photoshop, inDesign and Premier. I realized that what I really liked, even more than the final result, was the process of using those tools. I liked the technical aspect of creating visual content. So, I decided to go all in and learn how to code! Le Wagon was an amazing learning experience! I can’t imagine how much I learned in only 9 weeks. I am now able to code a web app, but I also have the tools and basic knowledge to go deeper and learn new skills. Le Wagon opened a whole new world of opportunities. We had the opportunity to meet key actors in the start-up environment, to meet alumni and ask them questions on what to do next and better understand the skills you have after 9 weeks, and to have several events to really get to know the people in your batch. Le Wagon is also an amazing community always available to help you, either in job search or for any technical questions. I am now looking for a job in Singapore and the community around the world is helping me and putting me in contact with who they know there. While I find a job, I am doing some freelance work as a Full Stack Developer and at the same time being a Teacher Assistant at Le Wagon. -
Patricia Verified via GitHubParis Bootcamp april 2018 - Best decision ever!!
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Le Wagon was a fantastic experience which taught me incredible skills for the future.
I registered for the class as an entrepreneur looking to get a better understanding of coding to interact with developers.
Not only have I learnt to understand and interact with them, I am now even able to code the first version of a product.
The teaching methods at Le Wagon are truly unique and adaptive to make sure that you progress with all students. The teacher are of great quality and really follow you. Thanks to Le Wagon, I developed great coding skills in both back-end and front-end development, and I also had the chance to meet two amazing co-founders which whom I am embarking on a new adventure. I strongly recommend this boot-camp for anyone who wants to learn coding, meet tech-interested driven people, and take on a new turn! -
Hien-Chanh Verified via LinkedIn
Extremely complete program, impressive platform, lovely staff and classmates
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Moving from Paris to Tokyo for this bootcamp and the beginning of a new career, Le Wagon went beyond my expectations, with an extremely complete program and setup, an impressive platform including efficient, motivational and entertaining challenges and tools, highly skilled and experienced teachers, a very active community of more than 2K people sharing valuable information including diverse events and job opportunities. I truly loved the experience, feeling I learned, improved and completed something new each day. I've really spent unforgettable 9-week with a lovely staff and classmates, and now I'm confident and can't wait to become a skillful developer. Arigato Le Wagon!
PS: The dedicated page of our batch here: https://www.lewagon.com/demoday/147 -
Sonia Montero Verified via GitHubWonderful experience @Le Wagon Bali
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I graduated in Digital Marketing and Project Management in April 2017 and started working in an IT startup in Paris as a Growth Hacker. It was an exciting experience where I had the ability to overcome constant new challenges but I felt I was still lacking something - I just didn’t know what.
During that time, I kept hearing about Le Wagon and their impressive learning system to teach coding in only 2 months. As I wanted to evolve and improve my technical profile, after reading the positive reviews of the bootcamp, I was easily convinced to leave Paris after just 6 months of work to join the first batch of Le Wagon in Bali in January 2018.
You should know 4 things about the bootcamp:
First, the amount of new knowledge you have to acquire can look scary at first sight, but the learning platform of Le Wagon is so well-structured and efficiently organized that you can easily understand and find all the information you need to get through your daily exercises.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s not going to be a walk in a park since the program is fast-paced, and you must stay focused on your final objective. The days can be really long sometimes - up to 9 hours - and sometimes the one-day weekend is really short, but at the end, you will realize how quickly you learnt all those concepts you were frightened of at the beginning. After the first month, you will even be surprised by all the things you can now handle on your own. And during the last weeks, when you are working on your own projects (and that’s truly the best part of the bootcamp), you won’t even recognize yourself in the way that you work and think. You will feel so proud of yourself, I promise.
Second, you will never - ever - feel alone. At any point. The buddy system will make you feel you are always supported, and sometimes even challenged. Everyday you will pair up with a new student to go through a new challenge, struggling together when you have an issue and celebrating together every time you overcome it.
Moreover, the teachers and teacher assistants are brilliant and full of patience. They have several approaches to the same topic and will always find the right path to explain things in a way that will make sense to you. They know how to make you remember the concepts you just learnt and how to help you release some pressure.
Third, the environment. Bali is a wonderful place, with its pros and its cons - but you’ll find mostly pros. Working on a paradise island on the rooftop of a hotel with a wonderful seaview and a supportive staff team who tries to make your life in Bali easy will make a great difference in your state of mind. During your free time, you will have the possibility to go on an adventure or to go for a chilling and relaxing day in some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. Yoga, volcano trekking, surf, massage, etc. - just take your pick! Isn’t that mad? I could never say enough how important this point was for me.
Finally, this bootcamp is definitely going to change your life! This is an unforgettable experience. I met a lot of extraordinary people there, from the students to Le Wagon’s team. And today I’m employed as a web developer and digital marketer working on the app that we built from scratch during the last two weeks of the bootcamp! -
Sammy Verified via LinkedIn
Review from a Computer Science students perspective
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The year is 2017, edging ever so close to the end of the year. The average human being is either preparing for quality time with the family or hatching a way to enter the new year less sober than the last time. A young sapling of a man faces an ever-pressing dilemma however, he is on his 3rd our of 4th year in his computer science course where he’s attempted but failed to secure a placement for his industrial year. Distraught and frustration were but a sample of the many emotions our young man was experiencing at this point in time, however back to his senses he realises he isn’t a fool and starts looking for solutions. He realises he cannot possibly hope to perform in his final year without any experience to lighten the load and so opts to take a year out to clear his head and possibly self-teach himself (oh how naive our protagonist was). Four months pass now and his discipline was as far down as antarctica. Re-assessing himself he realised all too late that his optimal form of learning was with others. At that moment the woman who gave him life rung him at the crack of thunder. Almost reluctantly he picked up the phone to hear something that would remain on his mind for the next week. “Instead of just sitting idly by why don’t you join this coding bootcamp I came across ? They’re rated as the best bootcamp for new coders in the world!”. The young man revolted at the thought of this suggestion; “Me ?” he thought, “A Computer Science student who’s done at least two years worth of studying?” His pride took a huge blow, he automatically assumed he would be a laughing stock if he took the suggestion seriously. Then as time passed he arrived at the painful truth that although he has studied the theory behind computers and algorithms he hadn’t actually done enough in terms of hands on experience, something that his industrial year was supposed to provide. Penultimately, after much deliberation our protagonist decided to grow some balls and apply for a spot in the Le Wagon london batch of January 2018. Ladies and Gentleman I am the young sapling of a man in this story. Pleased to meet your aquaintance.
So to begin the actual review ! As you can see from the short story directly above I was very wary and weirded out with applying and coming to the Le wagon bootcamp especially because I myself was a computer science student. I felt ashamed at myself for considering it because it meant that I didn’t have confidence in the skills I built up for my two years on the course. I soon came to the conclusion that there was no harm in doing it since I wasn’t being as productive as I could have been by myself.
Then came day 1, where we set up our computers with git. For windows(masterrace) users like me there was an additional setup of linux, which I was already familiar with but never actually followed through and started working with it. This was just to set things in motion however, the second day is when the camp truly began. After a morning lecture we would be given coding challenges based around what we were taught and just coded. At first I was a tad perplexed, mainly because it was more hands-on than I expected, I had never learnt via this method and so it took a good day to settle in to a daily routine. Through the first two weeks I felt that I was re-learning and also learning new things even from basic programming practice. I was quick on the uptake but actually taking my knowledge to create a solution from it was one of my biggest flaws I found early on in the course. To put it more simply I always came up with a long-winded and redundant method to solving an issue instead of looking for a straightforward and efficient method. Luckily the Teachers and TA’s issued by Le wagon have a special quality to them because they’re highly reliable in terms of both teaching and when I was stuck on an issue. Had I still trying to practice by myself I would have encountered problems that would have taken me at least an hour to fix; At Le Wagon it takes no more than 10 minutes as the winding path to a full stack developer opens up.
The events of the first day repeat itself for the next couple of weeks through essential topics like OOP, Schema design and SQL, Middleman, AJAX etc. Some days would have me feeling like it’s the end of the world but there was also a good chunk that left me with more anticipation than dread for the next day ( the same as others may attest to on their normal work day). The environment quickly became familiar to me as one of the better working and collaborative ones in my recent memory, and as such it nurtured some of the most creative and friendly people i’ve met into full fledged developers.
Although this is advertised as a coding bootcamp it is not 100% just that. With free hookups and talks with industry devs it offered far more than they actually put out. This included activities from yoga sessions to them taking care of the bar spend for the coursemates on a friday night. I have made some life-long friends and joined a fast growing network of developers through this course, something that I was not inclined to venture into at first. I would highly recommend Le Wagon to anyone looking to learn how to code with people at the same level, It wasn’t a walk in the park by any means but it is an excellent first step to anyone willing to put in the effort.
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Daniel M Verified via LinkedIn
From mechanical engineer to full-stack web developer (Bali #149)
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I have an engineering background and had limited experience coding, still, I wanted to make a drastic career change, that's where Le Wagon comes in.
I thought it was important to share my experience since these reviews were a big part of how I chose Le Wagon and now I hope my review helps prospective students reach the same conclusion; Le Wagon graduates leave as empowered full-stack web developers.
Once I had made up my mind on which bootcamp to attend I had to choose from one of their many locations all over the world. Of course, I chose Bali Indonesia because why wouldn't you want to choose to code in a beautiful place. The school is located in Canggu, a charming vacation spot with healthy food, excellent beaches, and affordable living (~$500/month for rent). You'll figure out that there's no better place to take on the rigors of a bootcamp than chill Bali.
When I applied to the bootcamp the founder Dirk reached out to me, we scheduled a Skype call and he introduced me to the program. Once you're in Indonesia he helps you get the visa so that you can focus solely on coding. In addition to that, he sets up interesting talks on entrepreneur and coding topics throughout the bootcamp, organizes group activities, and provides information on places to stay and where to eat.
There is some prep work to be done before the start of the course and unless you have ample experience coding I recommend doing it so that you're familiar with the basic concepts that come up in the beginning.
I was happy to learn that students come from all backgrounds and coding skill levels, some had quit their jobs others were taking time off.
The bootcamp goes from 9 am to around 6 or 7 pm with the lectures taking place till about noon and the rest of the day being spent on the assignments working alongside a buddy/partner which helps because if you miss something chances are your buddy knows it, but if not then you can open a help "ticket", this is Le Wagon's way of handling student questions. If you're stuck on something you open up a ticket right from the assignments website and soon an instructor or a teaching assistant comes to get you unstuck.
After each day you'll be mentally drained but excited for what is being presented the next day, you see basic concepts, backend, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, API’s, etc, your knowledge begins to snowball and you start to believe that by the end you will actually be a full stack developer.
In week six you put together what you have learned up point to work as a group (3 people) building an Airbnb clone. When that is completed you start working on the final project. One of the unique things about Le Wagon is that they foster entrepreneurship and in that spirit, they ask every student to do a basic pitch of ideas they would like to work on. Out of all the ideas presented a few are selected by student votes using a neat program that feels like American Idol. Those chosen ideas become final projects, everyone is assigned to a project based on their interests and the bootcamp culminates on demo day, a big event, part pitch, part party, part sendoff. -
Claire Verified via LinkedIn
Amazing bootcamp
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After business and finance studies, I undertook my professional career in the financial industry in Europe. Two years ago, I got a Canadian work permit and decided to move to Montreal. I've always been interested in entrepreneurship and tech industry, so I decided to work in a start-up as a business developer. When I arrived in Montreal, the first batch of Le wagon Montreal was running and I went to the Demo Day (I already heard of le Wagon in Paris as some of my friends did it in the past). I was really impressed by the quality of students' applications, and it really made me want to do this coding bootcamp.
A few months after, I took the plunge and was part of Batch #125. These 9 weeks were really challenging as I had no experience in Web Development, but it was an incredible experience. Some days are really hard, but you need to carry on and not throw in the towel.
There are some ingredients that make this bootcamp very unique. First of all, the teachers are amazing, they help and support you a lot, you can feel they really enjoy sharing their knowledge and skills. Moreover, the pedagogy created by Sebastien Saunier and Boris Paillard is impressive. Then, your student buddies, you make very good friends in a short period of time as you all live the same intensive experience and everyone is supporting each other. The cherry on the cake is the last two weeks of projects, where you build a real product from scratch as a team. It's very challenging, intensive and amazing. All the things you've learned from the past weeks became suddenly clear.
I highly recommend le Wagon. It brings you great technical skills that will lead you to a dev, product owner or entrepreneur career, but it's also a wonderful human adventure.
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Martin Verified via GitHubBordeaux #140
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After graduated from a sports makerting Business School, I wanted to add something to my studies and be more reliable on labour market.
Le Wagon was the perfect fit, intense experience, with great people with differents backgrounds, but all focused on learning how to code.We had 6 weeks of learning the basics of coding, then a one week project in order to build a AirBnB like website.
The two last weeks were the most intense : with two other students, we had to build our own project, from zero to online, a tinder like app to help you find your tennis partner, depending on your search criteria (level, gender, search radius, ...). If both players accept they can fix a match/training.
This was the best way to combinate all what we learn from the very begining, patient and passionate teachers were always there to keep an eye when we had issues.I recommend this bootcamp for anyone who would like to change their career or improve their knowledge. Thanks Le Wagon Bordeaux :)
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Cassaundra Myers Verified via LinkedIn
My brain is mush...but I feel empowered!
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Pros:
-Walking out of bootcamp with 2 different web apps!!
-Full Ocean View Every Day
-Surf Before Class
-6 after-hours workshops on Security, technical interviews, how to run kickstarter campaigns
-Great, knowlegable staff
-Yin yoga at the end of the week for mental health
-Discounts at MANY local restaurants for being a le wagon student
Cons:
-8 weeks rather than traditional 9 of other locations due to visa restrictions-constantly staring at the surf outside the classroom everyday.....FOMO much? (Okay...not really a con though...)
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Jessica Verified via LinkedIn
A life changing experience
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My story starts out different than most. I came to Le Wagon as a Microbiologist working in the pharmaceutical industry. I was really disillusioned and disengaged from that job; the day-to-day now would be the same day-to-day 10 years from now because there was no prospect of career progression unless people retire. I’m an incredibly creative person, so I need to be building things everyday and solving problems regularly to be fulfilled. It’s here that I found Le Wagon and left my job to undertake the 9 week bootcamp.
Fast forward 9 weeks later, I’ve completed the first Le Wagon bootcamp (batch #135) in Melbourne and am now a fully certified Full Stack Developer. I can’t even begin to describe how amazing the experience has been. It’s completely turned my life around both personally and professionally. Not only do you learn how to program, but you learn all the fundamentals of web development, software architecture, database development and migration management, the real world application of Ruby in both a front and a back end context, the paradigms of MVC and CRUD, and key entrepreneurial strategies. The best part of it all though is that you, with a team of your peers, design and build a fully functional web application in just 10 days. Your teachers are so supportive and create such a positive environment, that I felt like I could completely push myself out of my comfort zone. Everyone there, including your peers, builds you up and you’re all working towards the same common goal as a team.
Your experience with Le Wagon doesn’t end with the bootcamp - you become part of a growing community. I was given a lot of support with building my resume for the tech industry after my career change, and there’s always someone to go to for programming advice if you get stuck on a problem. I’ve now found work as a Full Stack Developer. I’m incredibly passionate about what I do and I’m thankful to be able to get up every morning to build something beautiful.
Le Wagon has been a life changing experience for me.
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Christophe Vercarre Verified via LinkedIn
Code is all you need!
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I got first introduced with Le Wagon in Brussels in late 2015. A year later I tried to learn myself how to code. I completed some online courses on HTML, CSS and Python without really doing any projects. I made little progress and my learning curve was very flat. As I only stayed on the surface of things I didn't really see the point of me contuining to learn how to code. Boy was I wrong!
It was not until the summer of 2017 that I decided to emerge myself fully into coding. To do this I knew I needed to enroll in a bootcamp. Now, how do you choose your bootcamp? A couple of things were important to me. This bootcamp:- would be present in Europe and preferably in the most beautiful European Capitals.
- would cost less than €10.000.
- would include an international network of alumni.
- would teach me more than one programming language and let me work on at least one project in depth.
Le Wagon met all of the above criteria. I ultimately choose for Berlin because of it's startup vibe, cultural history and level of professionalism of the resident Le Wagon team.
So far Le Wagon bootcamp has been the most immersive coding workout I ever encountered. Le Wagon offers a tightly-knit 9-week coding schedule backed by extremely talented Teaching Assistants, a handy online 'knowledge' platform with exercises and an innovative startup vibe.In only 9 weeks I learned how to master HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript ES2015, SQL, git, GitHub, Heroku and Ruby on Rails. In the last two weeks teams were formed to develop on our own Rails applications. Together with my team I brainstormed, designed and developed a full-fledged task management platform for Handy Men called Handy Harry. On the last day of the bootcamp you get a taste of the real startup world when you get to showcase your application on stage in front of Berlin's tech scene, friends and family.
Best learning experience so far!
Thank you -
João Marcelo Martins Verified via GitHubLe Wagon is the right path to become a developer
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My interest about coding started when I was on marketing position that required creating a lot of automated campaigns set up API connections between all the services I was using. However, not having the technical knowledge to do that, each task was always a struggle to be accomplished, especially when I needed to rely on other developers to dedicate the time on their busy schedule to help me out.
I started by taking some online courses to see if it was something I could envision myself doing, and it soon made me realize that: yes, I liked and enjoyed coding; and I'd need a more structured course and environment. Then, I started my quest to find the best coding bootcamp, the one that would put me on a fast track to reach my goal of learning code and be able to actually work with it.
On my search, I came across a handful of courses. I started looking to the curriculum and the overall aspects of the program, such as the network, in-class assistance and job assistance after the bootcamp. Le Wagon really beat up any other I found. The curriculum and technologies learned where relevant and up-to-date (vouched by friend developers) and the reviews and feedback I received from alumni I reached out to were 10s across the board.
The one thing I was a bit hesitant still was the job search after the bootcamp, as some other schools had big and temptatious promises to get you a job right after completion, but looking at all the other aspects they were not as strong. At this point, I had to make a decision: take on the challenge and go with the strongest bootcamp or stay in the status quo and hope for a promise to come through.So I decided to go with Le Wagon and really invest myself in it to get the best out of this experience.
From day one we started coding and work on challenges, and every day after that seemed like were twice as much as the previous day. The learning curve is crazy steep and fast. The amazing teaching team is a great reason of why the whole batch could achieve it, they were always supportive and didn't hesitate to sit with you for all the time needed to solve any question or make the knowledge acquired even more solid.
Fast forward to the final weeks of the bootcamp, the projects weeks are the most awesome time you will have during the whole course. That's when you realize the how strong is the power of building things from scratch and working with amazing fellows developers on it - and before starting Le Wagon we'd wouldn't be able to do any of that. This is the greatest time to put all the things learned during the bootcamp in practice, and solve bugs of course. :)
Now back to my main goal, switch career paths and find a tech job after the bootcamp.
In retrospective, I made the best choice when I decided to go with the course that offered me the strongest curriculum, network and overall experience. I was able to get interview and land on a job that I really wanted within less than a month searching. I owe that mostly to the strong development basis I built during the whole experience at Le Wagon, even the final projects served as a great portfolio to recruiters when I was asked about things I had built previously.
Overall my experiece at Le Wagon was amazing, I'd do it again and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in becoming a developer or just get more into the tech side of any industry.
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Juliette Chevalier Verified via LinkedIn
Berlin, Batch 124
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Having suffered in math all throughout school and coming from a strictly liberal arts background, I was afraid programming would be too hard for my analytical brain to truly grasp in 9 weeks. Yet, the interest in the subject was big enough that I decided to pursue Le Wagon anyways. My experience during those 9 weeks shocked me. The long hours quickly translated into the steepest learning curve of my life to date. And although I didn't go in with the intention of becoming a developer afterwards, the passion transmitted by the teachers everyday, the holistic curriculum, and the supportive LW community have left in me curiosity about the programming world that I cannot shake off. I would recommend Le Wagon to anyone, from any background, with any interest or previous any skill-set. Understanding how the internet and the tech world works is an asset that cannot be dismissed in the 21st century and layering code on top of people's knowledge is one of the most powerful tools we have to positively impact the world. So if that's what you want to do, then I'd say jump on the Wagon!
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Alexander Pieczka Verified via LinkedIn
My Le Wagon story
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I never really had the courage to actually get behind a computer and start learning to code all by myself. I thought that would be super complicated and I wouldn't be able to comprehend anything. I started to search for schools that teach me all of this in the best way possible.
The best approach for me to learn something is "learning by doing", so I searched for something doing just that. A boot camp would've been ideal and so my journey started. I decided to take part in the 9-week coding Bootcamp of Le Wagon.
I must say, at this point, it was the best decision I could've made.
Just right from the first day, everybody was very friendly. First thing in the morning was a lecture giving us students the knowledge we needed for the day. Most of the day we spent with coding together with another student (always someone else). During this time you had very friendly and capable teachers by your side and no matter the problem, they took their time to explain it, giving the optimal support to learn something completely new. In the evening all students came together again and started the live code. In it, we all worked together on an exercise. This created a very nice and comfortable atmosphere.
During the last two weeks, we worked on projects. The projects themselves are created from scratch and based on everything taught during the boot camp. Le Wagon provided us with the skills and the mindset shaping us into real web developers and with this knowledge we created some really amazing things.
Le Wagon is undoubtedly an unforgettable experience and it also brings people from all over the world together.
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Daniel Verified via LinkedIn
How and why I learned to code at le Wagon Coding bootcamp Berlin
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My story
Before joining Le Wagon coding bootcamp I was running an AdWords-agency for 5 years. Here, I shipped more than 200 landing pages on builders like PageWiz & Unbounce as well as on Wordpress to clients. So I was familiar with the tech and startup world but I just could not learn to code. I tried Codecademy and Udemy but did not follow through with the tutorials.
How I learned about coding bootcamps
The idea of attending a coding bootcamp had been in my mind since 2013, when I graduated from university and started the AdWords business. I briefly read about a coding bootcamp in my home city of Cologne, Germany. Yet I did not have the time and money to join then, and also later I never heard of this camp again. However, the idea remained on my bucket list. When I moved to Berlin in spring 2017 to participate in an accelerator program, I realized that lack of of tech knowledge in our team and thus a non-tech, non-scaling product was one of the reasons we got no follow up-investment. So I decided to change that and attend a coding bootcamp late 2017.
Why I chose Le Wagon coding bootcamp Berlin
At the time there were three coding bootcamps available in Berlin. I called them all. Only Le Wagon answered. I even emailed the other two, which I would not do normally, as I prefer direct contact and nevertheless: Nothing.
Philipp, the Driver at Le Wagon Berlin however was spot on. I called him up and we arranged for a walk in the same day. I spoke with him but also with the students from the current batch and actually, I was already sold at this point. The atmosphere was just right. Concentrated and hard working, yet relaxed and laid back at the same time. Also it was more appealing to me that Le Wagon focused on future founders as much as on future developers as my goal was to get the knowledge for my next project rather then get a junior dev position. So if you favor building a real product with a real team in 2 weeks rather than exercising for job interview questions - this is the place to be. However, alumni who want to get a dev job also get it. The mix is roughly one third founders, one third hired as developer and one third going in to a product management or consulting role. So it's up to you to chose.
Experience at the Bootcamp
Le Wagon is the future of learning. It combines lectures which are actually your teacher coding live, rather than reading slides, peer programming with your buddy through the day and the best e-learning platform I have ever seen. You can literally follow the Wagon examples step-by-step and it will work. The way knowledge is taught at Le Wagon is just modern and how it should be. The complete opposite of our education system in schools and universities mostly stuck in and producing for the early industrial society of the 19th century. You can always ask a teacher to explain the problem and help you 1:1 when you get stuck. Stuff you would pay significant amounts for at places like Codementor. At the end of the day, the camp helped me to get over the initial threshold and start to code in Ruby, JS, SQL, HTML, CSS and then combine everything in Rails. At the end I built an Airbnb clone in one week and an MVP of a Job search site in two weeks with my team.
Skills I gained
Remember the scene from the Matrix when Neo wakes up and realises: "I know kung fu". Exactly that happened. I was able to go onto the developer and API sections of SaaS sites and understand what it is all about. I could finally consume the internet through the command line. Scraping data, using APIs to enrich it and outputting to the desired format. This was the magic I was doing. And I finally started my project: Automating online marketing A to Z from client onboarding, copy generation, landing page and ad creation for Google & Facebook. I built the first MVP of LeadConcierge in just three weeks. So I got everything and more which I could wish for.
The community
Actually, the biggest thing you get at Le Wagon is to connect with likeminded people. This is where the bootcamp overdelivers. Again, the staff at Le Wagon does a great job of connecting everybody in the group and forming friendships. Starting with a dinner for everyone on the first day and continuing until the demo day party on graduation. What’s more? In Berlin, free coworking is offered to alumni, so we can stay connected to the community and the following batches after the program while connecting to the over 3.000 alumni on a private slack platform. Here, tech advice, jobs etc. are plenty. Fun fact: While traveling in Silicon Valley I met a fellow alumnus from Brazil. So this is really a world wide community.
Wrap-up
Come for the tools. Stay for the network. If you read till this point you should imagine by now, that I loved my experience during and after Le Wagon in Berlin. I got all the skills I expected and friendships I really care about. I would recommend the camp to anyone willing to learn. It transformed the way I think and enabled me to finally build a scalable product. You want to know what I mean? If your only tool is a hammer, you treat every problem as a nail. Yet now I have a lot of different tools in my arsenal enabling me to think like an engineer and tackle problems with automation in a scaling way. And you will have too. Take my advice: Check out the Wagon events in your city or on Youtube and once you're ready embark on this journey!
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Stephan Verified via LinkedIn
4 reasons why Le Wagon is the best coding bootcamp
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LE WAGON advertises with the slogan “Change your life, learn to code”. For me this became absolutely true. The important thing to mention: Coding did not, but Le Wagon did! Here are 4 reasons why:
1. The teachers
They are specialists in their field, travel the world to teach and even speak at conferences. On top of that, they are graded at the end of every batch, so it’s kind of a natural selection and only the best of the best survive.
2. The Buddy-System
Every day, after having been taught the new content, you get a new buddy from the other classmates. This is a genius move, not just because you get to know all the class members very well (helps a lot for the final projects), but especially because it pushes the engagement of the entire class. No one wants to be the “loser that nobody wants to work with”. So as soon as you feel that you are behind, you put in even extra hours in the morning or the evening or the weekend. You can imagine what happens when everybody is doing that! Yes, it pushes performance to new heights!
3. The atmosphere
You have team events, you have Friday beers (and free beer all the time) and through the buddy system new best friends for life guaranteed. We were 18 people from 10 different nationalities. The mix of cultures and backgrounds makes Le Wagon exceptional!
4. The Alumni Network
I doubt that there is a course with a better network. To date, more than 20 locations worldwide. Thousands of alumni that all went through the “hell of Le Wagon” and that are crazily responsive for whatever you need help with. Le Wagon has Slack channels for jobs, events, growth-hacking tools … Whatever you need, the community will help you!