Le Wagon Reviews
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Julian Jeczawitz Verified via LinkedIn
Great course to ignite a career in coding
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Coding is a skill i wanted to acquire for a long time. While life as a strategy consultant was thrilling and rewarding in many ways, a sense of monotony was sinking in over time - every (long) day was starting to look the same. Above all, I exceedingly felt like I wasn't doing enough - I wanted to be at the front line tackling and solving problems rather than taking the bird's eye view and finding rather high-level solutions.
I enjoy self-learning and as such became passionate about the idea of learning how to code as one avenue to actually do more. I signed up to codeacademy and started learning front-end languages (html & css) whenever the job allowed. However, coding is like an endless sea - I felt overwhelmed rather fast because of the many languages out there, and the lack of knowledge as to how it could potentially all tie together at some point.
This is when I gave up on trying it on my own and began searching for coding schools. A university friend of mine took the 9 week coding bootcamp at Le Wagon in Brazil a year back, so naturally I reached out to him. He offered unwavering praise for the class, so I decided to give it a go and applied for the batch due to commence in January 2018 in Berlin.
5 months later I can say he was 100% right. The bootcamp was worth it - something I found hard to believe beforehand considering the price tag of coding bootcamps these days. Spending 8-10 hours each and every day learning & applying concepts with the ability to ask as many questions as you like along the way was the perfect way to get off the ground in this endless sea of coding. After a month or so, I felt the equivalent of what young players in professional sports refer to as "the game slowing down" - concepts started to tie together and you'd start to really understand how frameworks (in our case ruby on rails) function from within.
On a sidenote, the 9 weeks were not only a great learning experience, but also an incredibly fun time. Great people (with no exceptions!), evening get-to-togethers, fun activities and cocktail nights led to countless memories that will stay with me forever.
Over the last 2 months since the bootcamp ended I've continued coding a few projects, the last being a successful coding challenge for a blockchain company. Quite honestly I am amazed by the progress that is possible in such a short time frame, and have Le Wagon and their wonderful teachers to thank for the getting me off the ground and triggering my curiosity to continue learning and getting better each and every day!
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Moritz Wahrlich Verified via LinkedIn
Super intense and fun learning experience I can recommend to everyone
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I studied business but always been interested in Tech and Entrepreneurship. After my bachelor before starting to think about what is next I wanted to learn something I have been always interested in but never really accomplished to fully understand - Coding. Through friends I heard of LeWagon and applied for Batch-92 in Berlin. The application process is super smooth and after a Skype Interview with Philipp I was admitted to the Bootcamp.
The preparation was quite intense since you had to do a lot of courses online and had to start digging into the topic of coding. Fortunately, when the Bootcamp started many of the topics mentioned in the preparation were readressed. However, I can really recommend to do the preparation because otherwise it takes way longer to understand basic principles of coding.
This is also one of the things I really really loved about LeWagon. I always struggled with coding since I had problems to make the step from understanding the principle to execute it in a real life example. And LeWagon made it so freakin easy. Every day started with a lesson about the topic of the day and afterwards you could directly apply the newly learned skills in numerous challenges that were sometimes hard but super rewarding. When you had a problem you could always ask your coding buddy (pair programming is awesome) or if there was no sight of the light at the end of tunnel you could just write a ticket and a TA came pretty swift to help you understand your problem and solve. It was never the case that you just got the solution. The teachers and TAs always tried to help you to solve the problem on your own. In combination with the real life challenges one really learned how to tackle problems on your own and to be indipendent in the outside world.
Besides the great learning concept I want to mention three other things that I really appreciated during my time at LeWagon - People, Overall-Concept and Organization.
We were a group of roughly 30 students and really became a well functioning group. Through the daily chaning coding buddies or the projects at the end of the Bootcamp you really got to know everyone. Besides that, several events and lunches increased the team spirit even more. The organization of the BootCamp was tremendous. Philipp, the driver, put every second of his time into making this BootCamp a tremendous success. He organized a lot of great events around the BootCamp, from Yoga-Sessions to talks with Developers and people from the Start-Up Scene. And that is also the point where LeWagon, in my opinion, stands out from other BootCamps. The whole concept is focused on not only learn how to code but also how to develop a promising product. This is one of the most helpful things when you head out to find a job as a product manager or developer.
To summarize, LeWagon was a lifetime-experience that I never wanna miss and I can really recommend to everyone that are not only interested in learning a new skill but also how to apply this skill in products that customers love.
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Marcus Zierke Verified via LinkedIn
More than just an amazing bootcamp
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After reading all the reviews about various bootcamps I was a bit sceptical about le Wagon's reputation because it seemed to be too good to be true. After finishing the 9-weeks-bootcamp I can say for myself: it is really like that.
Besides the obvious, that you get loads of information and knowledge in a very short period of time, I was amazed by the community le Wagon creates. Not only do you have lifelong access to all the slides and code, it also gets updated on a regular base and they add more and more online courses you can attend afterwards if you want to proceed your career as a developer. But not only that: we were 22 guys from 12 countries, we had students who just graduated school to a daddy from Greece with two kids. We had so much fun during and after the badge, a lot stayed in Berlin afterwards and we are still hanging out.
It is truely a great experience I can just highly recommend to everyone without a doubt!
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Theophile Avoyne Verified via LinkedIn
Great bootcamp
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After graduating in management at Université Paris-Dauphine, I wasn’t sure about my aspirations. Because of the lack of other options, I started a master in finance. As I cared about my freedom and my creativity, I realized quickly that I wasn’t cut out for this kind of life. I decided to apply to Le Wagon Montreal (batch #125) and thus to quit my studies and to start coding. It was a risk but also probably the first good decision I made concerning my education. Indeed, studying at Le Wagon was a very good experience. In such a short period of time, I acquired the basis every web developer should have. It made me able to conceive and build a basic product as well as to collaborate with other developers and, above all, it equipped me with the necessary skillset to keep on learning and build new competencies by myself. Learning to code is a long and non-linear journey, the stronger your bases are, the faster and smarter you’ll be. Le Wagon’s teaching method is pioneering in the way that it provides the student not only with a general understanding of some languages but with a deep mastering of what is fundamental: the skeleton, the way everything is set-up. It is this particular combination of hard and soft skills that make a student able, at the end of only three months, to entirely build a website from the idea to the deployment. I am now pursuing my learning by working on various projects and will start next year a master in computer science in London, at UCL. I sincerely recommend this program and the wonderful and committed team of Montreal.
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Vittorio Molaschi Verified via LinkedIn
A perfect introduction to the world of coding
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I attended Le Wagon from March to May 2018 in Milan (batch#131). I have a business background, I've studied management and worked in strategy consulting afterwards. I've decided to enroll in Le Wagon because I've always been interested in digital products and I wanted to learn more about how to build them. Now that it's over I can say that it was a great decision and I'm continuing to learn how to code. Some factors make Le Wagon your best shot if you're looking for a coding bootcamp. Le Wagon syllabus has been polished throughout the years. The approach is very practical and it offers a wide overview over the main tools you'll need as a developer. You won't need previous programming experience, just a lot of willingness to learn. The staff of Le Wagon Milan: teachers and assistants were very competent, passionate and cool people to deal with. It was the first bootcamp organized by Le Wagon in the city, yet everything went great thanks to them. The average day at Le Wagon comprises a rather short lecture (1.5h) in the morning, followed by a day of programming practice. All the exercises are channeled through an online platform, which has lots of resources available for the students also after the program ends. The last two weeks students get divided in groups to work on a final project, which we eventually presented at a major Italian incubator. It's pretty unbelievable to be able to build a proper digital product after such a short period! During the 9 weeks of the bootcamp you'll get an intense introduction to the world of coding. You'll have to continue learning afterwards - even the best developers have to - but you'll have all the tools to build web applications on your own or apply for junior dev positions. Overall, my review of the bootcamp is extremely positive. One word of caution though: what you get out of the bootcamp is up to you. It is tough, the days are long and sometimes you'll feel frustrated. However, if you will enjoy learning how to code - like I did - putting in the work that it requires to get the most out of it won't feel as tough. For who do I recommend Le Wagon? I strongly recommend it to whoever feels interested in learning more about coding. Not everybody who goes through Le Wagon necessarily becomes a developer afterwards, but everybody who attends gains an invaluable experience. Learning to code empowers people after all. -
Julien Schmit Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon Berlin - Batch #111
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I joined le Wagon Berlin 6 months ago. In retrospect, I’m fortunate to claim that it has been one of the best decision I have ever taken. For the context: We had just launched our startup and recently acquired market confirmation. We needed to scale up and therefore, update our MVP. Our original goal was for one of us to do the course in order to gain enough skills to be able to hire a CTO and/or manage a dev team. The bootcamp: You start learning the fundamentals of programming, moving onto front-end and design, wrap-it-up with Rails, the framework that puts everything together and finish up with 3 weeks of concrete project development. The starting weeks are intense but teachers are very dedicated to making sure you’re not left behind. However, you need to be fully committed to succeed and take the most out of it. It’s emotional payback time during the final project weeks when you figure out that you can build an entire web application from scratch when, 1.5 months ago, you thought that Java was an abbreviation for Javascript. After the bootcamp: I figured out I really liked to code and decided to build our new product. With the skills acquired you’re able to tackle all of it: Conception, design, development, server setup, testing, rolling out and maintenance. At that point, Le Wagon had further proven its value with its great community as I was always able to reach out to teachers and ask for advice. To wrap-it-up, here are some of the key aspects you gain after completing le Wagon: - Have an idea? Just build, launch and scale it! Ruby on Rails is very powerful to launch products very fast - More than just coding: Get notions of product management, design and UX, all set in a business perspective - Understand developers and learn to communicate effectively with them - Once you understand the fundamentals of programming, it’s easier to branch out to other languages - You’re part of a growing and very supportive community - Have access to great and constantly updated resources/learning material Side-note: For those worried about the perception that coding is for geeks, math enthusiasts etc. please put those thoughts aside, those are complete bullshit. Do yourself some good: Get enrolled, struggle first and succeed at last. You will learn very powerful and actionable skills in a very short amount of time while behind around great people. -
Marco Ranieri Verified via GitHubwork hard PLAY HARD
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Hi everybody, I'm Marco, and I'm happy to say that after studying with Le Wagon I feel comfortable calling myself a Junior Full-stack Developer. Coding was a big career change for me, but I began to approach a bit of coding on my own a few months before LeWagon. I recommend this strongly as it helped me a lot in the Bootcamp, even if the daily lessons were still very challenging. Le Wagon Bootcamp is just that: a chance to challenge yourself while taking part in a big family that supports you. Every day was a big learning curve (for everyone) and sometimes a student can feel frustrated, which is one of the most common feelings in the coding world...but at the same time, that frustration can fuel you to rise above difficulties along the way. For instance, at a certain point in the Bootcamp, I was ready to create a WebApp like AirBnB from scratch, and at that moment I felt invincible :D In my personal experience, LeWagon brings you and your mind to the next level through a very good learning journey, where different and well-prepared teachers and assistants help you understand the core of the daily lesson. I found LeWagon Staff very patient, polite and prepared, and ready to go above and beyond for their students. All this Staff, your Colleagues, and the people from all over the world in LeWagon media give you access to amazing support channels (posting jobs, help, news...) with neverending new technical material posted. You are suddenly part of a global support network, that to me felt like a big new family (I got along really well with the teachers and other students!) That's the unique power of LeWagon. From the moment you sign up, you are never without support. Would I suggest LeWagon to whoever wants to change his/her life? Yes Would I pay again to redo the course? Yes Did LeWagon help me find an interview/job/internship after the course? Yes, and their global network makes me feel that if I needed to relocate I could ask them for help again. The Final Project was useful? Yes, with LeWagon you will build a Portfolio without even realizing (really helpful for future applications). Please know that it will not be easy. Even as a beginner you have to have a real interest in code and a wish to learn. But if you have that, Le Wagon will support you from the beginning and give you the tools you need to start working. I recommend Le Wagon. -
Luis Carlos Quarta Verified via LinkedIn
"Fantastic experience @ Le Wagon Milan Batch #131"
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Coming from agricolture background, i wasn`t happy with my studies and for this reason, I decided to get more involved in product development by joining Le Wagon.
The program has two key strengths:
- A very hands-on approach focusing on product development's methodology and workflow (heroku, git, etc.)
- A very demanding curriculum that teaches in-depth programming basics and software architecture, Ruby, Rails, Html, CSS, JavaScript....Le Wagon main strength lies in its solid program that teaches both essential technical skills and a strong product mindset, in fact at the end of the course the students are asked to think, develop and present their personal projects to the public and potential investors.
The group of students also really contributed to the experience. Bright people from all over the world, with diverse backgrounds, and the format of the course, allowed us to really create a bond and learn from each other. The bootcamp at LeWagon allowed me to really dive into the world of code and gave me the tools to keep on learning.
After a week since i finished the course i already got a job offer from my ex company where i was working before joining LeWagon.
I highly encourage anybody considering joining Le Wagon as it is an experience that will continue to give you benefits even after the 9 week classes. -
Francesco Verified via LinkedIn
The place where you LEARN to code
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I just finished the latest batch (number 131) at Le Wagon Milan and I want to share with you why Le Wagon is the right option if you want to learn coding in Europe.
I have always been interested in new technologies and I become even more interested during the past two years of my life.
I thus began to study programming by myself, by using online courses, watching online tutorials and buying books. However, I felt that my progresses were too slow for two main reasons. Firstly, I had a full time job which allowed me too study only few hours every night. Secondly, I had no one to help me when my code was not working or when I did not grasp a specific topic.
Therefore, I started to look around to find a coding course suitable for my needs. I came across Le Wagon thanks to the positive reviews I found on major tech websites.
I was amazed by the abundance of positive reviews people wrote and how they enjoyed so much Le Wagon.
Being skeptic, I started to contacting Le Wagon’s Alumni on LinkedIn asking if the course was really that good. All of them confirmed it to me: Le Wagon is the right coding bootcamp if you want to learn how to code.Therefore, I decide to take this jump in my life and finally commit 9 weeks of my time to learn coding. Le Wagon kept its promises. After 9 weeks I know more than what I could have achieved alone.
Do not take me wrong, the course was extremely tough but even more rewarding.
We started working at 9am and finished in the evening only when the exercises were done.
The course has a simple yet effective structure. The first hour and half of the day was dedicated to learn a new coding concept while the other seven hours were dedicated to solve different exercises. It is a learning by doing process in which you, as individual, try to solve the challenge and, if you do not manage, only after consulting with your fellow students you can ask the teacher. Each teacher will be more than glad to help you out in finding your bug/mistake or find a better and cleaner way to write the code.
Each day you are exposed to a new concept, a new code reality which, step by step, throughout the 9 weeks, will allow you to build the final project.
The final project consists in a website/application developed in teams of 3 or 4 in less than 2 weeks.
If you really think about it, Le Wagon takes a group of motivated individuals with zero experience in coding and, in little more than 2 moths, gives them the right tools to build a fully functioning web application and be prepared to code alone.At Le Wagon I did not only learn how to code, they also taught me how to look for the right information, the right posts, the right guides to be a better coder. In this world full of information and data, it is really difficult to spot what it is relevant and right from what it is not. Le Wagon teaches you how to learn to code and how to program in little over than 2 months.
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Moritz Müller Verified via GitHubWant to learn to code - this is the place to go
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By deciding to go to Le Wagon you truly open up doors for yourself to new opportunities and skills, but also new friends and networks. One of the most important things to highlight about Le Wagon is the community you join, which is second to none. If it is the number of different nationalities represented (14 in my batch alone) or the varying backgrounds of the individuals, everybody has an interesting story to tell.
Regarding the coding - do not expect it to be sugar coated in any way! You will really have to commit yourself to Le Wagon and coding in the nine weeks ( the first three weeks are not called "hell weeks" for no reason ;) ). But if you really want to learn the basics of coding and are up for a challenge this will definately be the right course for you!
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Alexandre Gorius Verified via LinkedIn
The right choice
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I’m a Parisian graduate in business. Since I’m out of college, everything has been aligned perfectly for me to pursue a great career in Finance. Everything, except that never felt right to me. Hence, for a year, I’ve been dedicating myself to purpose driven projects. But in each of these projects development, I found myself stuck on the same redundant reason: my lack of coding skills. Without these, there was no way to truly own the digital products I was working on. That’s why I attended LeWagon.
As an autodidact, I tried first to learn how to code by myself. But I never succeeded to build anything serious, and I had the impression of losing my time attacking a field that seemed too big to handle on my own. Now I realize the odds were even bigger, and I can’t imagine how I could have succeeded without the intensity and the quality of LeWagon’s formation.
LeWagon’s education logic is simple: learning by doing. However, that’s the way LeWagon pushes you to do that is incredibly effective. The courses are super clear, the TA’s were always pedagogue and motivating, the challenges get you to manipulate the concepts and really grasp them, the buddy system helps you accept difficulty and have fun with it, and the live codes are the sweetest moments to jump out from you comfort zone and realize the progress you made.
Apart from the crazy nights we had going out with the batch, my favorite moments were also the last ones, during the project weeks. Those are the days when all of a sudden, you realize that you’re naturally doing what was unimaginable before. Seeing our team’s project getting concrete was a tremendous satisfaction. We rebuilt and dramatically improved one of my last year’s project: à European newspaper written by locals called Nationall.
Surprisingly, I not only developed my coding skills but also my pitching skills, which I had to improve sharply for the demoday. I also discovered how to work in team with people coming from different background and cultures. All of it is both super interesting and ultra useful to be prepared for a professional environment.
Now, I ended the bootcamp two months ago. After some deserved holidays, I’m still working with my teammates on our newspaper project to welcome our firsts writers and readers really soon. I’m also about to work as fullstack developer in a company to explore this new vast world full of possibilities. That’s how my conclusion takes us back to this post title; LeWagon broad up my horizon, it couldn’t have been the wrong choice.
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Thomas JOUVEL Verified via GitHubChanging your life for real
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Le Wagon is for real, when they tell you "change your life, learn to code" they do not lie.
On the end, it is the opportunity to discover and master a new motivating universe, dynamic, filled with challenges and constantly evolving, the tech world. (you wont get bored anytime soon)
After several reorientations and 5 years of business school, the code has triggered in me something that gave me many future perspectives: be a freelancer and work from anywhere in the world with just a computer and a wifi, start a project solo (or not!) with elbow grease and 0 $ in the wallet, be hired as a dev and join an adventure in a startup type company in the tech world, and so on!
On the experience Le Wagon, nothing to say, well yes, a lot of good! About efficiency, do not be afraid of the duration, 2 months is short but here it was enough, in addition to a new topic, we discover a new way of learning: constantly supported by the ultra-effective online platform (and accessible for life) including all courses, exercises, corrections, QCM ...; each day brings a new challenge through a 1h30 class in the morning on a topic, then a whole day to practice it and understand it well, before moving on to the next day. It sounds simple, but it changes everything.
Add to that a great working atmosphere (but not just work), effective teachers and a driver that gives everything, and you have, in just 2 months: learned to code, built a network (constantly expanding) in this sector, met new buddies, had fun, had some drink (must release the pressure), and opened new horizons! It goes so fast, that in the end we ask for more.
And all this for everyone, no need for knowledge in code, good school record, "mention", being from "such school" or other, just to come in a good mood.
On Le Wagon in Lyon, the team is perfect, Matthieu the driver give this extra care to all batchers (pay attention to the "diet" Le Wagon, would be better to re-register in the gym before, just in case), about the teachers Kevcha and Jpheos, they know much about coding and bring much fun, and in addition they are pedagogue ... But watch out for the football teams that some support!
If you hesitate to do Le Wagon, I will save you time, do not hesitate, go for it.
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Martin de Frutos Verified via LinkedIn
Most valuable months of my life
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As a classically trained graphic designer I love making things in my computer, and It was very surprising to me that my curriculum didn’t require scripting, code, or software design. After I graduated I began working as an art director for a global advertising firm, and eventually ended working for the digital side - where I got the chance to work on the creative side of web development. I realized how hard it can be to make awesome things if you don’t understand the technical capabilities of the technologies you’re using to build them, and therefore decided to learn to code.
I began LeWagon without having any clue on how really life changing it would be. When you work in a creative field for a big corporation, you are very detached from ownership if what you make. Working for big clients or agencies, meant that i wasn’t really spending my time doing what I loved, MAKING COOL THINGS, but working my way around loopholes to get things approved - delivered - sold. Coding and LeWagon gave the back the power to really create value from scratch allowing me to make a living through building products that people are passionate about.
I was impressed at the quality of people that was brought together by the bootcamp, and how different our backgrounds are. The community and collaboration approach to learning works wonders when you allow yourself to be immersed during the 9 weeks - and after that you will leave with a network of amazing professionals/people who you have shared a life changing experience with.
I would recommend to anyone!
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Sarah Lafer Verified via LinkedIn
One of the best decisions of my life
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Attending the 9-week coding bootcamp at Le Wagon Berlin was one of the best decisions I ever made because it changed my life. With a background in journalism and cultural analysis I had no prior knowledge of coding. However, I wanted to change my career path and become a web developer. So when I stumbled across Le Wagon I first went to all of the free workshops they offered and spoke to staff and alumni before I decided to join myself. The programme is very tough (hence bootcamp) but the curriculum is really well structured. You start by learning the basics of Ruby, HTML, CSS and JavaScript before moving onto the Rails framework. In the last three weeks, you build two projects in groups and present your final project at a demo day.
I didn't believe it was possible to learn coding in such a short amount of time, but it is amazing to see what you are able to learn when you commit time and passion to it and have competent people to guide you. The teacher at Le Wagon do an incredible job teaching the complexity of web development to absolute beginners and I have experienced them to be always helpful, patient and encouraging.
Apart from the technical aspects, le Wagon has an amazing community. Our driver, Philipp, and our main teacher, Alice, organised a lot of evening activities and also workshops or talks to introduce us to the Berlin start-up scene. I also became really good friends with the people in my batch as well as the teachers and TAs and everyone was motivating and encouraging each other. Even though the programme was tough, I loved being there to learn coding. I am now pursuing my career as a frontend web developer and will never forget the unforgettable time and fun I had at le Wagon. Thank you for everything! -
Clara Morgeneyer Verified via LinkedIn
Best time!
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Having a background in law I had no idea of programming (besides some rudimentary HTML knowledge from school) and got to Le Wagon through their evening workshops. After my interest was sparked by these workshops I decided to go for the full-time bootcamp and I was not disappointed. The LeWagon Bootcamp is a thought through course from the didactical concept to the content of the lectures. Days start with a lecture in the morning followed by challenges which are solved by the students themselves. Thus, from day 1 you are challenged to solve problems and work practically. In the evening there is another live code session bringing together the whole group. The independent time is accompanied by teachers and teaching assistants who help with any upcoming question - a luxury you will not enjoy when learning on your own and which is extremely helpful as it speeds up your learning process. The structure of the classes do not only include coding basics but you also get taught in practical approaches on how to build a website from scratch. It was this holistic approach which convinced me choosing Le Wagon. This pinnacled in the two last weeks where you are building a website based on your idea from scratch. Additional to the curriculum we were provided with a lot of extra activities such as weekly talks with interesting persons from the scene, regular yoga classes and team building events. The people I have done the bootcamp with have become friends and besides the knowledge I gained it was also an incredibly fun time!
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Owen Verified via GitHubAwesome experience
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I had just changed careers from being an accountant first to fully focusing on web development. I moved to Ibiza to work in my father's company. At that time I didn't know anything about web development yet, so I went searching for a good web development course. After a while I ended up at Le Wagon. I had a good talk with Feiko Boerstra (leader of the course in Amsterdam) who was very helpful in answering my questions about the course and web development in general. I decided to do the course.
The course was very intense from beginning to end. It was very good for me as well, because I've never gone so deep into a certain subject before. I learned a lot thanks to the constant putting theory into practice and learning from my mistakes and from the clear explanation from the teachers. Whenever I had a problem or I got stuck in an exercise the teachers and/or teacher-assistants were always there to help me and to share their expertise in a way where I could understand where it went wrong and how to prevent the mistake for next time. Through the 9 weeks sitting together in one room you get to bond a lot with your fellow students. We went out together often for lunch or dinner or just hanging out. So the Le Wagon course was both fun and challenging. I'm very happy that I chose to this course and everything what I learned will definitely be useful for my future as web developer.
After the course I went straight to work on my first website for a client at my dad's company. It was for a construction company and with my newly acquired skills I was able to make very decent website for the client. He was happily surprised with my work. My next challenges for the coming period is trying to help my dad's company make the transition from conventional paper advertising to full digital advertising. The first project is trying upgrade our websites so that they fulfil the demands of today on the web where fast delivery of great and rich content has become the norm. I look forward to going deeper and to understanding more about the possibilities of what web development has to offer. What I've learned at Le Wagon has really opened my eyes. I never knew I would like coding so much. I definitely recommend you try it out!
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Gabriela Verified via LinkedIn
Lisbon
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I didn’t have any programming background before Le Wagon. In fact, I was a high school English teacher for a few years before deciding I wanted to take a completely different direction into development. In the beginning, I was intimidated and anticipatory of what to expect, but once I realized all of my fellow classmates felt the same not only about what to expect but also about taking the risk of trying something new, it reassured me to have that common ground.
Because my background is in education, everyday I was impressed by the Le Wagon team, including the curriculum, the instructors, the TAs, the passion they have for each student and really seeing us succeed in an intensive, short amount of time.
I wouldn’t replace this experience for the world, learning an invaluable new skill, going through the struggles, challenges, and successes together, as a team.
Le Wagon really prepares you thoroughly, not only with the computer science skills, but also taking those skills and actually knowing how to implement them in a technical working environment, collaborating and communicating with others. Basically, it teaches you how to jump into a fast-paced development team and know how to swim on your own. Those skills are unique, and in the end, I believe are the deciding factor as to why Le Wagon alumni complete the bootcamp successfully.
You can read more about my experiences and perspectives throughout the bootcamp here -
Giordano R. Sisinni Verified via GitHubOne of the best experiences in my life as a student
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One year ago I decided it was time to learn coding. I started off by my own, reading a book and watching online videos. I soon realised that I needed a better way to learn the basics and create the foundations on which I could build on my knowledge. Lewagon gave me this exact foundations that I was dreaming for. In the end of the course the most talented students will be able to find a job strait way, but everybody will have the foundations and knowledge of what to do next in their new coding career.
Regarding Lewagon London: The offices were really nice, very spacious, modern and clean. All the staff was super friendly and helpful. The location was good too, in a nice area close to the center and next to the overground. The classes were surprising well structured and organized. I would like to mention something negative but there is nothing I can thing off. Even the students in my batch were incredible.
Overall, I really enjoyed being a student again and I feel like I learned a lot too thanks to Lewagon. If they had an advanced course I would join for sure! Really recommended.
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Maura Baptista Verified via LinkedIn
Life changing experience!!
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I originally studied Business and worked for many years in Administration. Then I decided that I needed a career change, and because I felt inspired by the tech industry, I wanted to learn to code.
I applied to Le Wagon in Lisbon, #batch122, where my life changing experience started!
It’s a very challenging program, which has been structured in such a way, it gives a maximum of technical knowledge in a minimal amount of time. Most of all, they teach you how to learn, which will be very helpful as a developer, since as a developer you’re continuously learning, in order to keep yourself updated with the new technologies in the market.
At the beginning I really thought it was impossible that my brain could assimilate so much information at once, but believe me, it is possible! I’m a living, breathing example of it! I struggled a lot at the beginning, but I managed to bring everything together towards the end thanks to the endless help and support from the Teachers, TA’s and the manager. In just 9 weeks, I went from zero to a Junior Developer, who’s capable of developing a web application!
I strongly advise Le Wagon for those who want to learn to code. They have developed a perfect program that any non tech background person, like me, can turn themselves into a developer in just 9 weeks.
Beside learning to code, Le Wagon also provided me with a very cool learning environment. My idea of school was a boring and serious place to learn, but at Le Wagon, we can do both - learn and have lots of fun at the same time :)
I really enjoyed this experience, and strongly recommend it!
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Ben Wright Verified via GitHubAmazing
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I studied history and politics at Swansea University and I have no idea why I chose those subjects. I was just going to uni because everyone else did. I was then self employed doing a bit of labouring work and other bits and bobs. But then I decided to start learning Ruby and Javascript online and realised I just loved it.
I decided to enroll with Le Wagon because it's a very product focused course and having competed the course I can see how 9 intense weeks is all you need to get your first job. The week after I finished Le Wagon I found paid work as a full stack developer.
The curriculum is well mapped out, starting with backend, so you are starting to think like a software developer from the very start, then it moves onto front end, Javascript and Rails. The last 3 weeks are spent working in teams building your own rails apps scratch. Without these last 3 weeks I would not have been able to get a job so quickly working on real life we apps for paying customers. There are loads of teachers everyday, saving you needless wasted time and always improving your skills.
In only 9 weeks I went from beginner to Full Stack Developer. I highly recommend Le Wagon.
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Duncan van Tongeren Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon Bali helped me change my life!! (Batch #128, January 2018)
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I actually ended up looking for a boot camp on web development by accident. I had been in banking for almost eleven years in various roles related to risk management of structured derivatives but decided I wanted to work independently and set up my own company. My wife and I decided that, hey, this might also be a good time to emigrate to Chiang Mai Thailand, Thailand being my wife's original home country and from there I was planning to land myself a remote c++ developer role which I had been trained in. By coincidence, I met someone in Chiang Mai who was in dire need of web developers. Since this would suit me down to a tee, I decided I wanted to get up to speed in web development as soon as possible. After some research, Le Wagon easily came out on top for me. Deciding on Bali as a destination was easy too. Again my wife had been there four times before and had many good stories to tell.
From day one the course in Bali was very well organized. The team: organization, teachers, and teacher's assistants were all top notch and very friendly and helpful. I was super impressed by the backgrounds of all the participants, besides the fact that the group itself was very enthusiastic and energetic. Moreover, the whole atmosphere was very inspiring from an entrepreneurial perspective.
The course location in Canggu was truly one of a kind: stunning sunset views of the beach, which is only within walking distance away. Canggu itself has many great restaurants and places to hang out and Bali is fantastic for day trips, and hiking in particular: I climbed both Mt. Batur and Mt. Abang.
The course itself is very well set up: it kept you on your toes but was neither going too fast nor too slow. It overall felt I was learning the right things to create a web app from scratch. My teachers were also willing to discuss related subjects outside the course material, which I personally found very helpful. It inspired me to start learning React and React Native as well.
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Daniel João Bugge Verified via LinkedIn
My Experience at Le Wagon, Lisbon
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Daniel Bugge [3:02 PM]
I come from a mixed background having grown up in South America and holding 3 nationalities from Portugal, Norway and Argentina. I studied Geography at university and after that I decided to join a Sound Engineering course in Lisbon. My musical background gave me an interesting insight into the programming world and Le Wagon gave me the perfect introduction into coding that opened my eyes to the possibilities that programming could bring.The structure and environment of the course allowed me to develop an idea that I had for a while, which was to bring musicians that are new to cities closer to the ressonmating world of music that is so prevalent in most capital cities around the world. JammBoxx is an app that I developed with my team during the bootcamp which allows users to turn their own living rooms into musical spaces by organising jamm-sessions with what musical instruments they and people who joined the jamm had available.
Beyond the unique opportunity to develop literally any idea you have ever dreamt of, Le Wagon offered an ecosystem of intelligent, interesting individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, which I feel have a strong effect on each others ability to imagine and innovate. I joined a batch in Lisbon and it is interesting to see where this type of innovation will take each and every one of the members of this batch in a city recently coined the growing ‘startup capital of Europe’. Le Wagon fits in this city like a techtris block :wink: promoting the idea that indeed anyone can enter this exhilarating world of tech by providing the right mindset and correct fundamental knowledge and skills to do so.
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Francisco Gaivão Verified via GitHubLife changing experience
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So here it goes: I started looking for work after finishing my college degree in business communications, I knew from the start that it wasn’t going to be easy but never expected the job search to be so difficult. I went to a lot of interviews and sent even more resumes but it wasn’t taking me anywhere. So I wouldn’t stop working and keep my head up, I started to work in various fields different from what I was looking for, like gardening and washing cars. During this time, I found that I needed to expand my skills, so I found some people teaching programming for free on the internet. After some time studying on my own online, I thought it would be easier to find a brick and mortar school and that is when I found Le Wagon. Some interviews and tests later, I was in and it all evolved really fast. Of course I was nervous to start something completely new and with people I had never heard about, but what I didn’t know as well was that every one was almost on the same page as me and that I would have complete and full support from the teachers with every obstacle I found. The first three weeks were probably the hardest thing I have done in a long time - for most of it, I was completely lost… But I kept going because I knew it would get better, and it did! During the last weeks, we started our own projects and everyone was a bit nervous because we didn’t know what we really knew, if that makes sense… What happened was that somehow a lot of information sunk into our brains, of course, we didn’t know everything and we still needed help from the teachers, but most of us were able to implement features and code in ways were didn’t know we could. At the end it was so rewarding seeing our web-apps working and not only my team’s project but the others as well because we all fought for the same goal during nine hard and intense weeks and it was there for everyone to see! -
Takahiko Okada Verified via LinkedIn
Life Changing Bootcamp
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The decision I made to join Le Wagon was the best decision I have ever made. Previously I was working as an accounting-software-consultant and I had only 2 options. To continue the job which I did not like that much or to quit and be lost. But, Le Wagon changed my life in only 9 weeks. The course is super intensive and at the end of the course, I was able to build web applications by myself and ready to apply for junior developer positions.
Best things about Le Wagon is that you meet great people from various background, and they are all super nice guys! Also, all of them are highly motivated to sophisticate their programming skills so that you will never be disappointed.
After the boot-camp, I still work together with them to prepare for job hunting, go out for drinks (especially in Berlin you may experience intense Friday nights like I did but anyway) etc. Events such as alumni talks are useful in order to prepare for things you want to do, for instance searching for jobs, freelancing and so on.
One thing I regret is that, I should have done Le Wagon earlier in my life :(
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Connor Ingold Verified via GitHubLe wagon has turned my interest into a passion.
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Without going into my life story too much I recently quit my job working at a social media startup after feeling fed up with customer complaints day in day out and knowing I was capable of a lot more.
I had started to take an interest in coding since I was already capable of designing websites and I wanted to take it to the next level. For me, it was all about self-achievement I just wasn't getting enough satisfaction designing website anymore.
During my downtime from work, I tried to teach myself how to code but lacked the focus and was too easily distracted and didn't find myself making much progress. So started looking for classes/bootcamps on how to code. I found Le Wagon which had glowing 5 starts reviews (which made me a bit sceptical at first) and after researching them a bit more I decided to pull the trigger and go for it.
I'm still young but honestly, I have never made a better decision in my life. I learnt more in my 9 weeks at Le Wagon then I ever did in an entire year of college. No matter your age or background if you are even slightly considering doing it then seriously just take the plunge, you will look back at it in the future as a defining point in your life.
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Edward Sparks Verified via LinkedIn
Time of your life
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Having completed the latest batch at Le Wagon London, I can honestly say this has been the most incredible, life changing experience I've had.
Before Le Wagon, I worked as a builder. At the end of Le Wagon I was a junior developer. It may sound simplistic but that's the case for everyone who completes this course. They give you the solid foundations, understanding and skills to perform as a competent junior developer and get a job in the real world.
The course is not easy though and you definitely get out of it what you put in to it. If you're not commited, you'll drown. It's a demanding and intense course that takes up 45 full days of your brain power and stamina. Having said this though, it's also brilliantly fun and engaging. Ed Ward and the team at Le Wagon London make the whole experience worth getting up in the morning for. Every week there's an interesting event hosted either at the course offices or at Google Campus. They put on drinks every friday for the alumni and it this stuff that set's it apart from the other courses.
In terms of job help, they provide several talks from industry leaders and past alumni to help you understand how to get your first job if this is your aim after the course. There is no need to spend a further 3 weeks and £2,5k getting this element like the other courses in the London area. You will get a job after the course and you'll have the demonstratable skills to prove to employers that you're worth employing.
I would say that, if you are looking for the best course for your money that will give you the skills and understanding to get a job as a junior developer, then you've already found it.
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Nic Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon Montreal - Batch#125
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I originally studied Business, and worked in Marketing for a while until I realized it wasn't a good career fit for me. When I figured out that the tasks I enjoyed the most from my previous job involved writing some basic HTML/CSS/JavaScript, I decide to develop on those skills and joined Batch#125 of Le Wagon's bootcamp in Montreal. Like a few of the previous reviewers have mentioned, I was initially skeptical of the glowing reviews about Le Wagon's program. But after going through the bootcamp, I can definitely say that those reviews are more than 100% justified!
What attracted me to Le Wagon's program was how well structured the course content was: starting from with the fundamentals of programming, to object-oriented programming, to databases, to front-end and finally the group projects for the last 3 weeks. The last 3 weeks was especially fun because everything we learned in the previous weeks began to click, which provided the confidence for the groups in our batch to create some great-looking webapps in our final demoday!
The buddy system that every Le Wagon student goes through for the daily challenges was a GREAT way to learn programming, and I felt this was one of the strongest parts of the bootcamp's design. In my experience, this ended up being mutually beneficial for myself and whoever my partner was for the day. If I felt that I was struggling with a challenge I could always ask my partner for tips and advice, and if my partner needed assistance I could help them out and explain concepts to see if I really understood them. Furthermore, I found it incredibly useful practice to work with different people when it comes to solving coding problems.
In addition, the teachers and TAs were super helpful with their advice and patient with their time. What I appreciated the most was that they TRULY understood that everyone in the batch had different learning curves/speeds. So regardless if you were doing well or struggling with the coding challenges, you never really felt alone or left behind. Le Wagon also has a TON of additional resources and guides which students can access during (and even after) the 9-week bootcamp!
Since the Le Wagon ended I've found myself building webapps for fun, and even managed to land several job interviews from interesting companies. I salute Le Wagon for providing me with a wonderful learning experience, as well as enabling my confidence to pursue a career in Web Development.
So if you're looking for an immersive, valuable program to learn web development, Le Wagon is going to be your best bet!
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Grégoire Malzac Verified via GitHubLe Wagon London - Batch #123
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Mid-2017, after 7+ years working as a consultant in the banking sector, I felt like I needed a fresh new start. Tired of endless meetings and committees, looking for agility and dynamism, I also took the decision to start working on my own projects. For that, I needed a new set of skills: coding!
A friend of mine – now a freelance developer - had undertaken Le Wagon bootcamp in Paris 1 year before that and convinced me to do the same. So I joined the London batch mid-January 2018 for two months… and it was insanely great! Best experience ever, from my point of view. It was like going back to school but this time I loved it!
But you have to be committed, I mean really committed! Learning something new 9h hours a day is not easy, especially when you left school 10 years ago like me (I am 33). But it is so cool solving puzzles all day long with people that eventually become your friends!
In Le Wagon, I met incredibly rich and different profiles: an Olympic swimmer, a former consultant, a ski instructor, an investment banker, a chocolate producer, a teacher, an electrician… And that’s what makes the beauty of it! Here, everyone is different but we are all doing the same thing. And that variety comes really handy when the time arrives you have to be creative, especially the last two weeks when you have to build your own app from scratch.Every day starts with a 1h30 lesson on a specific topic. Then you are paired with a buddy and you have to go through as many exercises as you can together, leave no man behind!
It is actually a great system since explaining or being explained something is always useful for both parts. And if you get stuck, you can raise a ticket and one of the teachers will come to help you within minutes.The two last weeks are dedicated to building your own project with a team or joining a team with a project. By group of 3 to 4 people, you build your app from scratch until the final demo day during which you present what you built in front of 100 people at Google Campus. Both scary and awesome!
If you want to have a look at what my team and I achieved during those two last weeks, go to www.journease.online, a one stop shop for your journeys.As a conclusion, I absolutely loved those 2 months in Le Wagon. I wanted to learn the basis of coding and I did, more than that actually. I wanted to meet people (I am new in London) and I actually made some very good friends. I wanted to build something, my team and I built an app I am really proud of. I wanted to have fun and I most certainly did :slightly_smiling_face:
Le Wagon is not the cheapest coding bootcamp (nor the most expensive either actually) but it is definitely worth it from my point of view. Their promise is “change your life, learn to code” it is more than fuffilled. -
Damien Boussardon Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon Bordeaux -Batch #127
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Why Le Wagon?
I've always been interested by computer sciences. I decided, a few months ago to apply at Le Wagon Bordeaux... And it was one of the best human and educational mission I have experienced so far.This training has been structured in such a way, it gives a maximum of technical knowledge in a minimal amount of time. It has lots of advises, in order to give us a great autonomy in order to be efficient after the ned of the Bootcamp. The community worldwide approach is just perfect. That's mainly why I recommend Le Wagon.
In order to help you to understand what we are able to achieve after the nine weeks, I will explain more about the final project, which has been elaborated by Joseph Binyoum Bayemi and myself during the last two weeks in the Wagon.
Our project named Bookmate is a web application. It connects (using a messenger) readers through literary taste and allows them to communicate. https://www.bookmate.club (if you are curious). Say it sounds simple but believe me, seven weeks ago we would have been unable to do it.If my experience could help some to make choices, I can only recommend that you go on (https://www.lewagon.com) to register, for the undecided I invite you to go read other feedback. See you soon
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Alisa Ng Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon London - Batch #123
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I was a third year Business Cinematic Arts student with no idea of where I wanted to proceed. Though I have had ideas in the past, I lacked the hard skills to bring them to life. Frustrated, I took this semester off, eager to explore the topics I been intrigued by. As I researched different bootcamps, I was drawn to Le Wagon’s approach of bringing coding skills to creative people. Little did I know, my decision to join Le Wagon would also jumpstart my understanding and career in UX Design, Web Development and Product Management.
The first three weeks were tough but the Teaching Assistants were always around to answer questions and explain a concept again. While I was managing to complete the challenges, I did not take full advantage of what Le Wagon had to offer. I would leave before Live Code and spent little time with my batch. It wasn’t until the forth week that I was partnered with a buddy who insisted I stayed for Live Code and drinks. I stayed and my experience at Le Wagon changed for the absolute better. I got to know the Teaching Assistants on a more personable level, making it easier to ask questions during lecture and inquiring how to move forward from the bootcamp. I became more engaged as my buddy of the day would be a fellow coder and a friend. We would spend the day debating the best method to solve the coding challenge and joking around in between. I became eager to stay after I completed the challenges and even Live Code-d in front of my whole batch. If you allow it, this experience will not be a lonely nor purely academic one. Le Wagon is a warm space for learning wholeheartedly, asking a ton of questions, making friends, creating business partnerships, and coming up with ideas.
The final three weeks at Le Wagon were my favorite - Project Weeks. This is when I was introduced to UX Design and Product Management. We started with Figma, an interface design tool, to map out what we wanted the web-app to look like. We spent the day brainstorming the user journey and dreaming about the website’s features. At the end of the day, we showcased our initial designs. The projects you will build with your team mates are a testament to how well Le Wagon prepares you. My team ended most days surprised and impressed with the work we have done. The workspace turns into a mini hub of start-ups. Each group vigorously coding away, enthusiastically brainstorming and collaboratively working. I was exhilarated from the energy I felt each day.
The results? By the 6th week at Le Wagon, I secured a job as a UX Designer and Front End Web Developer at a Tech Start Up I am truly passionate about. Le Wagon gave me the coding skills I needed to be in the creative spaces I never dared to dream about. I am now able to have a career that is an amalgamation of my creative and analytical side.
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Angele Verified via GitHubLe Wagon London - Batch 123
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I have just graduated from Le Wagon, an intensive 9 weeks coding bootcamp. It was my first time programming and I absolutely loved it. These are my key take-aways from it.
Three Broken clichés:
- Coding is lonely:
Before joining Le Wagon, I had the image of coders as lonely, weird people who spent their days in front of screens, by themselves in a dark garage, eating cereal. In fact, what I discovered at Le Wagon is that coding actually requires a lot of collaboration. I think all the students from my batch will remember the day we started a group project on GitHub. In 90% of the cases, you will code with others, and being able to communicate efficiently is one of the key skills of a good programmer.
- Coding is boring:
Once again, let’s return to the coder-caveman cliché. From an external point of view, he seems to constantly do the same thing, with the same bored expression. That’s a lie. When I was coding, I experienced rollercoaster moods that led to this kind of train of thought: 1. Getting stuck on something: “I hate coding, Ruby is wrong, my code is obviously perfect, anyway I despise it so it doesn’t matter” 2. Finding the solution: “Coding is amazing, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, I’m the best, Ruby is the best, everyone is the best.” Until I got stuck again. Coding is challenging, tiring, frustrating but definitely not boring.
- Coding is for boys:
The coder-caveman cliché from the movies is useful once again. Sadly, there are not a lot of coder-cavewomen on screens, which is a shame. There is a need for more developers in every industry, and a simple way to fix this is to encourage the other half of humankind to learn coding. We were ten women in our batch and we did just as well as the other 30 men. When it comes to coding, everyone is equal which is why more women should learn to code — and more tech companies should hire them.
A travel Chatbot:
During the last two weeks, we worked in teams to bring an idea to life. Celia, Hen, Ben and I created Voyagr, a Chatbot and associated web app which asks a series of questions to provide a user with personalized travel inspiration. Building a product in two weeks was very challenging but very interesting. The hardest part was prioritizing and making sure that we were focusing on the right tasks every day. In the end, we obtained good results and we have had almost 100 unique users since we launched it two weeks ago (check it out: voyagr.co.uk).
Three amazing teammates and many more friends:
There is nothing better than struggling on the same challenges during nine weeks to form friendships. I have met amazing people during these two months, from the students to the teachers. Le Wagon manages to bring together a very large variety of people in the same place, from those who have 20 years of work experience to freshly graduated high school students. This combination is a large part of what makes the bootcamp such an enriching experience. I personally became friends with an Olympic swimmer from Hong Kong, an experienced consultant, a Canadian former school teacher, a VC fund owner… and many more.
Coding and Product management skills:
You learn a lot in nine weeks and there is no time to rest. I felt more braindead during the bootcamp than I had ever felt during the course of my Bachelor or Master degrees. It’s difficult but completely worth it!
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Kateryna Merkalenko Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon London - Batch #123
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I have worked in Business Intelligence for 6 years and became interested in product management as a career change, however I felt that I lacked in-depth tech knowledge in order to be able to hit the ground running in that role. I then searched for bootcamps in London and Le Wagon really stood out in terms of their positive reviews online and offline.
The course is structured really well and it is certainly challenging, no day is the same and you surprise yourself at the end how far you’ve come after not being able to properly write a line of code at the start of the course. The day begins with a lecture and followed by coding challenges that you need to complete with your buddy as you get paired up with a different student from the course every day. This is not only a great way of meeting everyone in the class but also means that sometimes you learn from your buddy and sometimes you get to teach and therefore give yourself the opportunity to improve and solidify the knowledge. Most importantly, throughout the day there are always teaching assistants to hand that are able to answer your every question and make sure that you have grasped all the concepts properly.
After the course ends, Le Wagon provides a support network of talented alumni that share jobs, advice and tips which is really invaluable. Le Wagon is not just a bootcamp, it’s a community that inspires, teaches and supports. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this experience to anyone.
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Shirley Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon, London
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I studied event management at university but soon realised it wasn’t for me. After a few gap years of travelling, a friend invited me to a coding 101 workshop and I came out of it curious to learn more. Initially I tried to do some self teaching online but I found it a bit slow and difficult not having immediate help. That’s when I started looking at coding bootcamps - I was excited by the idea that you would be job ready by the end of the 9 weeks. After thorough research and reading so many reviews, I couldn’t believe I found a bootcamp that was so loved that it had 400+ reviews and 5 stars!
It all happened so quickly - within two weeks I enrolled, did the prep work, started Le Wagon, and suddenly pursuing a new career change. Before starting, I was terrified about having no prior coding knowledge and being behind but soon found that everyone was in the same boat and all you needed was an eagerness to learn. The teachers and teaching assistants have such a welcoming approach, they really make sure you understand every concept and reasoning. Each and every day of the 9 weeks was insane, intense, but the best kind - I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to get up at 7am. The structure of the program is perfectly designed, everything you learn in first 7 weeks is put in practice for your final project in the last two weeks. It’s so rewarding seeing this end product that you and your team have created in just 10 days.
Coming straight out of Le Wagon, I was offered a front-end freelance job at a startup. A week later, I received two full-time Ruby developer job offers and have accepted one at a digital development agency. Hands down, applying at Le Wagon has been the best decision I’ve ever made. For the first time in my life, I’m excited about my career.
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Olivier Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon Montreal - Batch 125
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After graduating in management, I started my own business. After 3 years, I faced few challenges that gave me a hard time. I had to stop my activity. The conclusion: I lost a lot of money and time.
In hindsight, this experience has made me stronger. As J-K Rowling said, “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
I decided to have my first digital experience by launching a social platform dedicated to sports. It is by working on this project, hand in hand with a web agency, that coding has aroused my interest.
Coding has become a passion, and this is certainly the direction I wanted to take for my career. I dropped my platform to be entirely dedicated to coding. New career, new life, time for me to take off!
After a few months of learning by myself, I was looking for a way to learn faster. While searching the Internet, I discovered Le Wagon Coding Bootcamp, "Change your life, learn to code in 9 weeks", perfect that was exactly what I was looking for!
I've applied, got an interview with Antoine, the co-founder, got accepted into the program for January session. The adventure could start!
I flew to Montreal in January (it was cold, but the snow is cool!). We met together on Sunday before the first day for a kick-off drink. I met my new classmates, few teachers, and MG.
This drink was really a good idea and made me very comfortable.
The bootcamp was very intense, we learned a new concept every day until the final project, which was an amazing experience! Each team worked hard to be ready for the demo day (https://www.lewagon.com/demoday/125).
It was not just hard work, we had a lot of fun too! We participated in events organized by Le Wagon but also by ourselves.
Thanks to Le Wagon, I am today a Full-Stack developer, and I have already few project opportunities I'm working on.
Oh, and now I know a lot of great people!
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Eduardo Verified via GitHubBatch 129
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I graduated university in 2014 and headed home to work in the telecommunications industry. I have always been passionate about startups and developing business ideas, which is why I chose to get my BBA in Entrepreneurial Management.
However, home was not the best place to put my newly acquired knowledge to use as an employee or as a founder. The startup scene is practically inexistent and skilled labor in tech is hard to get by. So, my only chance was to learn how to do build these ideas myself.
I started to learn on my own, but it got kind of overwhelming. Even though I did acquire some knowledge, I decided to take a break and came to Barcelona in order to get my master in Project Management. Slowly, it felt as if I was getting closer to my goal.It wasn’t, however, until I decided to join Le Wagon that I felt a huge progress in my carefully planned path. Even though it was only two months, I have never felt such great power like I do today thanks to this boot camp. Now, I feel like there is no limit to what I can do. At Le Wagon I figured that there was so much to learn that now I have embraced the fact that my whole life is going to involve continuously learning new things. And that is one of the most important things you get from learning to code at Le Wagon, you learn to appreciate learning so much that it becomes a stimulating hobby for you. You get a lot of theory but everyday you learn to master it by putting it to practice. At the end of the bootcamp you end up having developed several applications.
Today, after two weeks of having finished the bootcamp, I keep coding my own new projects and learning new things everyday. This wouldn’t be the same if I hadn’t gone through LW. I have found a passion, but not everybody comes to become a programmer, some people had their own goals and ideas of what to do with this knowledge, and they all left with their expectations greatly surpassed.The people are amazing. Your peers are like minded, but still a very diverse group of people that unite under one same goal. This journey makes you bond together very tightly. The staff, who I am also lucky to call my friends today, are incredible people and teachers, they know very well what they’re doing. Lastly, the program is incredibly well structured and the resources are top quality.
I can only say amazing things about this place, if I could I would do it all over again. -
Mila Zangirolame Verified via GitHubLe wagon São Paulo
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For all those who are technology enthusiasts, here you will find a family! I would like to write this review to tell you a bit about how Le Wagon has transformed my life. I am a 33-year-old entrepreneur woman, who has the privilege of working from anywhere in the world as a business intelligence consultant for e-commerces. But I first graduated in History in 2007 and when I was in college, we were at the height of Fotolog and I remember doing one, for the arts discipline because many students didn’t have enough money to buy the books and so they used a black and white xerox paper to follow the content. Despite being a technology enthusiast, I confess I never imagined myself working in the area. After graduating I went to work in an institute maintained by a holding company and soon I was inserted in the universe of the marketing. Since then, there have been two more university courses, a specialization in digital marketing and a project management course, both i thought would allow me to act safely as a marketing manager - but I was wrong! Three years ago I founded a company in a small city in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil to provide digital advice for new businesses, meeting a great demand of Brazilian businessmen in search of growth and expansion in their sales. During these three years, several technological changes have come directly to the success and competitiveness of my clients and more and more data science has become present. The work became difficult at the same time that new startups emerged with fluid and interactive business models and it was necessary to seek innovation and more knowledge and that is how I found the proposal of Le Wagon bootcamp.
For someone who had never written a line of code at all, the first few weeks were intense and very difficult. I immersed myself in a totally unknown universe, and when I got to the middle of the program when we entered the Frontend grid, all things connected and a universe of possibilities opened up. The classes are fantastic, the exercises are done in rotating doubles, which lets you get to know all the people and what incredible people I've met! You feel at home, you have the full support of your teachers and classmates and you are not afraid to make a mistake. I connected with people who worked at Deloitte, Microsoft, Fintechs and a number of cool companies, met with liberal professionals and entrepreneurs and one of the students got a financing before the course ended to develop his demoday project. In addition, Le Wagon always performs meetups after the classes that new interesting people shows up (and have beer at the end!). It’s a laid-back environment where you can do a great networking. Another cool thing was access to an exclusive community in slack with people and companies from all over the world, where there are always interesting position offers and invitations for projects. When I finished the course I decided to send my resume and I was invited to 17 different interviews in a single month and one of them I met a former student from Le Wagon. But what surprised me the most was the quality of the curricular grade.
I could not even believe how much I learned in such a short time. It was not "just another course", I really left feeling very capable of creating an innovative digital expansion project for my clients. After three months from the end of the bootcamp, I'm being able to implement significant changes and reaping the fruits of a 30% growth in my projects. I was able to perform integrations with APIs and ERPs and design a dashboard with data processing, that grows and modernizes every day, to function as an intelligence support for marketing staff, which also led to an economy with external and closed tools. My demand for projects has increased considerably, as has consulting.I'm building together with a community of women programmers an academy of algorithm studies that unites three Brazilian states. I'm sure this is just the beginning of a new level in my career and the choice to make Le Wagon bootcamp was key to that. I recommend Le Wagon bootcamp for every manager and entrepreneur, even if not in the technology area. If you love technology, and you know what it can do for you and your company, go ahead! I'm sure you will love the experience!
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Henriette Brand Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon - London
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Before starting at Le Wagon I had just graduated from the University of Southampton in Maths. After a year of half heartedly applying to grad schemes I didn’t want and trying to figure what I did want, I came across codecademy a free online course designed to teach you the basics of programming. I loved it and needed more! After some research a career in web development was the plan! I did not however want to spend the next 3 years at uni again… and thats when my research led me to Le Wagon.
Over the 9 weeks of the coding bootcamp we were trained to think like programmers through various exercises, had lectures and live code sessions every day (material which is available to alumni forever). The curriculum is well planned and consistently updated with a logical flow. The teachers were friendly and with ‘no question is a silly question’ attitude which to me was extremely comforting.
If you’re reading this, then you are wondering how this course has so many positive reviews: after completion, this just seems natural. My enjoyment was also mirrored by my peers who were all in the same boat, different back stories but all with the eagerness to learn. We are now part of a community of alumni where everyone helps each other.With but 9 weeks of coding experience, my team and I successfully designed and developed a Facebook chatbot with a web application (www.voyagr.co.uk). The project we built was not something I could have imagined and something I am extremely proud of! Anyone who is prepared to embark on a 10 hour day, meeting like minded people and learning a LOT I thoroughly recommend Le Wagon!
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Ben Baumann Verified via GitHubLe Wagon - LONDON
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My gut feeling during university was that there was some spark within me missing. I studied economics and management but it never truly captivated me or made me motivated to go on to learn more. I knew my real passion was somewhere out there but yet to be found. After graduating, I got bored of the UK and flew out to Amsterdam to work within consumer electronics. During this spell, I had a lot of contact with new start ups trying to promote their new tech products and could see the hard work but enjoyment in their eyes building it all. All this talk about software engineering, product design, programming got me very curious.
Then I found Le Wagon, a 9 week bootcamp which would take a total rookie and transform him into a confident developer with the tech tools to make ideas become a reality. I learned an incredible range of skills and really demonstrated this through our UniTixHub web-app (a hassle free solution of uni students exchanging tickets) which was a pleasure to demo at Google Campus. This has inspired me to continue learning, starting with React & Redux. But just as importantly, the friends and network I made along the way was the icing on the cake to confidently say it was one of the best experiences of my life.
If you are looking for a change in career or simply just curious, please don’t hesistate to join Le Wagon, I can promise you will not regret it!
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Alex Hughes Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon London - recommended!
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In a nutshell – Le Wagon, London is a fantastic coding bootcamp - I highly recommend it.
Prior to joining the January 2018 batch, I had been working in sustainability consulting for several years. But I needed a change and having an interest in tech startups and an ambition to launch a business, I went part time to pursue an idea. Soon I had launched a Wordpress site to gauge market interest and start solving the problem. The feedback was OK but ultimately it brushed over the pain and didn’t adequately offer a solution. It needed more, I needed to iterate the site but where next? I didn’t know a great deal about any of the tech stacks and even if I had the money to spend how was I meant to brief developers? How would I know I was getting value for money? It soon became clear that my lack of knowledge here was a barrier. So, I researched resources and started some lessons on freecodecamp. Don’t get me wrong, their resources are good but it was slow-going for me and I didn’t feel I had enough direction. I felt I needed to properly dive-in to jump start progress!
So I checked out a few bootcamps. After attending a couple of events from Le Wagon, including attending the previous batch’s demo day and having a conversation with Ed (the guy who runs things in London), I felt this was the right bootcamp for me.
I wasn’t wrong – it was a challenging 9 weeks but it was definitely worth it. Structured lessons every morning and lots of practice for the rest of the day – tiring stuff. But the teachers and teaching assistants really do help and are there for you if you are seriously stuck (it will happen)! The structure of the course was great and even though things in the tech industry change quickly the teaching team clearly adapts lessons to accommodate for them. In the last three weeks you put it all in to practice with your own projects - for the creative and entrepreneurial this is fantastic!
In those final 2 weeks, with the help of two great classmates, my site was rebuilt (www.oscapes.tech). Rebuilt is the wrong word … it’s more than that, it’s dynamic and is built on a Ruby on Rails tech stack that I understand, know how it works and can change myself! I met great people (teachers and classmates included), learnt a lot and had a great time! I couldn’t ask more from the course and look forward to the journey ahead!
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Ben Fanning Verified via LinkedIn
Le Wagon London
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This time last year I was a ski instructor.
In some ways it was exactly the dream I had imagined, I loved the town I lived in, I loved the people I met and I loved the vast mountain scenery. What I didn’t love so much were the uncertain hours, the ridiculously low pay and the repetitive work. After a couple of years in Canada I resolved to start a real career and turned to something I had always had an interest in, tech.
I started my journey alone, doing online coding courses via resources like CodeCademy and Udemy, but I soon found that I wasn’t really absorbing the knowledge. I felt like I was following instructions and copying code rather than understanding the reasons behind what I was doing. As a result, I took the decision to fast-track my learning by applying to a coding bootcamp. Finding Le Wagon wasn’t hard, googling “best coding bootcamp in London” brought up a number of ranking and comparison sites and they all ranked Le Wagon #1, having just finished the nine week course myself, it’s easy to see why.
The first week is a bit of a culture shock, you come to realise the magnitude of what you don’t know and start to think that there is no way you can gain any meaningful understanding in the nine weeks you have here. Then, slowly, things begin to fall into place, you start to understand how Ruby works and the potential power it has. This understanding builds day on day, week on week until all of a sudden you find yourself with an extensive knowledge, and more importantly, understanding, of Ruby’s inner workings. After this you start to learn about front-end development, with HTML, CSS and Javascript before jumping into the rails framework and seeing everything you have learned come together into a cohesive end result.
The final two weeks were the most enjoyable of the nine, pitching ideas and splitting into teams to build your own apps was an awesome experience. I was part of a team of four which built a facebook chatbot and associated rails app called Voyagr which provides tailored travel inspiration. In week one I would never have believed it possible that I could create something so complex, but by week seven I was itching to put my hard earned knowledge to the test and my confidence was sky high.
Throughout the nine weeks you are surrounded by teachers and teaching assistants ready to further explain the finer points of the days topic as well as provide a helping hand debugging your code. These are the people who make Le Wagon truly special, their ability to confer understanding is second to none and is the reason why I have learned in nine weeks what would have taken my years to learn by myself.
Having finished batch #123 I have started learning Node and ReactJS at a pace which far outsrips my first forays into the coding world. This is something which Le Wagon teaches almost as a byproduct; the knowledge and mindset which allows you to go on from the course and further your understanding in whatever direction you choose. The resources Le Wagon supplies after the course has finished coupled with an very active 2000+ alumni network means that even though I have finished the nine week bootcamp I don’t feel like I’ve finished with Le Wagon, quite the opposite in fact, I feel like I’m just starting.