Le Wagon

After finishing my business high school, i used to work as a freelance business developer for different startup, for 4 years. I learned a lot about business and entrepreneurship, but it was not enough. I needed more than only try to increase company’s turnover.
Indeed, I'm passionate about tech startup and I always have 1000 digital business ideas in my mind, but I have never been ableto do more than a simple prototype or a static page …
It’s why I decided a couple of month ago to stop my current activities and start Le Wagon Paris.And I think It was one of the best calls in my life: I met so much people with different background but with a same goal: learn how to code properly and demystify the tech side.The Wagon’s team has succeeded to make this bootcamps an unforgettable experience with a great positive energy.
I work now as a full-stack developer, and I’m able to transform a simple idea into a beautiful app. Everybody should do The Wagon Program!

Not too long ago, I moved to Canada from Brazil and started living and working in Montreal. I stumbled upon Le Wagon coding bootcamp and fell in love with its mission. One thing led to another and I soon started working at Le Wagon. While I didn’t know how to code, it was something I had always wanted to learn. When we launched a new part-time coding program in Montréal, I saw an opportunity I couldn’t pass up : learn to code while working at the same time. Luckily, my team fully supported my decision to apply — thank you, team! — and before long, I joined the bootcamp as a student. I finished the bootcamp in April and it was one of the best learning experiences I have ever had!

Learning Speed & ResourcesThe goal at the bootcamp is to accelerate tech education with hands-on practice and an emphasis on finding creative solutions to problems. The bootcamp gave us access to all the resources and tools we could ask for, and guided us through challenges that were built to expose us to new concepts every day. You couldn’t get bored, there just wasn’t enough time! I recently completed a Master Degree program in Canada and I felt a huge difference in learning speed when I compare both programs.  In the end, I was impressed that we were able to create an entire web application in just 3 weeks working part-time, two nights a week and Saturdays. I’ve never felt so satisfied and like I learned so much in such a short period of time!
CollaborationCollaboration might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you imagine a group of people coding, but at Le Wagon, it is. Teachers are always available to unblock you when you’re stuck, and you can count on your buddies for help solving challenges. The more you collaborate, the better, because you learn a lot from your interactions with classmates and teachers. There’s a lot of value in understanding someone else’s process and seeing different approaches to the same problem.  Group projects were the best part of the program. We put into practice everything we had learned and flexed our project management muscles. 
Embracing difficulties and mistakes One of the main things I learned was to embrace difficulties. We learned to embrace bugs and even mistakes at the bootcamp. When they happened, we dealt with them and moved forward. There was an open-minded culture where it was OK to make mistakes because that’s how we learned! Every solution found after hours of being blocked was an invaluable victory. Programmers make plenty of mistakes all the time and learn from them. Solving coding challenges every day is a surprisingly satisfying activity. You get to have a lot of fun with it!
Part-time formatI loved the part-time format and I learned a lot. It’s still fast-paced, but the nature of the part-time program allows for more time to review concepts when needed. It’s the perfect format if you want to keep your day job. But my advice : make sure you organize your agenda well. You should not miss any day, it’s new information every day, new challenges, you really need to commit to get the most out of it.
Empowering Minorities in TechI felt so empowered after this experience, I feel like I can do anything now. To be completely honest, moving to a different country (with two official languages that are not my mother tongue) was not an easy experience, and when I saw I was able to do so many things with what I learned and to code on my own complex projects, I felt more empowered than ever. I truly believe that this type of program could really help minority groups (women included) get access to the tech world & startup community. It’s a very different way of learning, very engaging and intense. It’s not easy, but it’s totally rewarding and worth it.

Convinced that the code will be a subject taught in school programs in the same way as mathematics, I decided to register for the first part-time batch of Le Wagon Montréal in the fall of 2019 to be in tune with my time and learn how to code.
I was absolutely looking for a part-time program with the specific purpose of learning the basics of coding to develop personal projects. If all the roads lead to Rome then all the good reviews lead to Le Wagon, so when Le Wagon Montreal opened the part-time program, I did not hesitate!
The resources (platform, videos, challenges, flashcards, Slack, etc.) of Le Wagon are really well suited for part-time learning (every other day we had videos to watch while the other days we were in the classroom to work on our challenges with sometimes a bonus of live code which is for me the best way to learn). The teachers and assistants are passionate and qualified! The buddy system also works quite well.
The pace is quite intense when combined with a full-time job. The program lasts 24 weeks, so it is a commitment you should think about a lot. The first 3 months were the hardest for me and I questioned myself several times. It was only during the project phase that everything fell into place!
Le Wagon Montréal is also very active in Montreal's tech and start-up ecosystem and organizes many events and talks. Le Wagon Montréal also offers numerous workshops and discussions to prepare you for the post-bootcamp.
There are plenty of free sources on the internet to learn how to code, but the benefit of learning it via a bootcamp is that you can learn the basics in a specific setting without dissipating, it saves you time and provides you discipline.
Whatever your reason, I strongly recommend Le Wagon program to you and here are the pros and cons on the part-time program if you still hesitate:
- The major positive part for me about the part-time program is that we have time to digest and assimilate the concepts over several days. The fact that the course is via video is rather practical to come back to fuzzy notions or to follow the live code (again, I strongly recommend actually doing it while watching the videos, it helped me a lot to practice). Everyone can follow at their own pace.- If you are unsure if coding is right for you but you want to learn, I recommend doing the program part time. It'll take out the after-bootcamp stress and will allow you to take your time on how you want to use your new knowledge.- The program is project oriented and that's why I wanted to follow this particular bootcamp. At the end of the program you will be able to code (back and front) and deploy in production a real web application!- The biggest negative is that it is long ... but it is the way it is! As I said, this is not a decision that should be taken lightly. You have to be ready for 6 months to put your social life aside and have only Sunday to rest. There are days when you won't want to be there and no longer look at single line of code, but most of the days go by quickly!

 Before joining Le Wagon, I was just a college student who felt that college wasn't taking me anywhere or doing enough for me. That's when I started looking into coding Bootcamps. Even without a very particularly strong technical background, I took a leap of faith and applied to Le Wagon Bali, hoping it would open up opportunities for me. Believe me when I tell you I was not disappointed.
Overall the experience was amazing; it exceeded my expectations and was even transformative for me. The entire staff was great. I didn't just gain new skills; I met and befriended many like-minded individuals and the 9 weeks went by too quickly. 
Working together with my team, we each got to apply all of our newly acquired skills by building an awesome final project that we were proud of. 
Now that I have completed the Bootcamp, I feel like I have developed a passion for coding that I can use to even further fuel my passions and progress as an individual. I am no longer the same person I was before this program and highly recommend Le Wagon Bali to anyone considering joining a Bootcamp.

After working in consulting I was pretty tired of only talking and got involved in a little automation process where I only scratched on the surface of coding. That’s where I decided that I wanted to work as a developer to actually build something myself.

I chose LeWagon because it is the biggest boot camp out there and i must say that I’m so happy I did this and chose LW. The setup, the teachers and the learning environment was really perfect and encouraging each and everyone to develop at their own pace. 

I had hoped to get a bit more out of the career week, but that said it was exactly where corona virus had hit us so  LW has to quickly schedule some digital career week events.

I have been part of the startup community for almost 5 years, working with companies in Paris, Berlin, and London. For over 4 years, I have been employed as a recruiter for ACELR8, a Recruitment-as-a-Service company specialised in scaling startups. There, I gained exposure to Software engineering, it being a big part of our mission to find the very best engineers for our clients.I have always found it interesting interviewing engineers, as they seem to have a very different approach to solving daily challenges.
As my experience and interest in engineering developed, I decided to learn to program. The difficulty here was learning complex concepts from scratch, on one's own, as well as putting time aside to practice (very hard in the startup world!). Every week I would come back to my programming challenges to find that I had forgotten what I had done the previous week. I was stagnating and frustrated!Having a foot in the Parisian Tech system, I had already heard of this great coding bootcamp. The Le Wagon Alumni seemed to be thriving, following their 9-week coding experience, so I decided to give it a try. 
A typical day at Le Wagon would start with breakfast, followed by coffee with the teachers and classmates. We would continue with a 2-hours lesson covering specific concepts (these classes would follow a well-thought-out Web Development course, split into topics throughout the weeks). After the lesson, we would then be paired with a randomly assigned classmate to work on daily challenges. Our day would end with a "live" coding session, as a group, with teachers and classmates.
The teachers play a key role in our learning process, as they break the complex concepts down into small digestible blocks. When you hit a wall, the teachers were there to offer tips and clarification on specific things you could not fully grasp. Not only were they patient and good teachers, but also friendly and inspiring people. 
Bali is a fabulous place to visit; being able to live there for almost 3 months was incredible. I would go to the beach before classes for a walk or surfing and visit other towns on the island on the weekend.Canggu is perhaps the most famous digital nomad spot, so you meet very interesting people - from all over the world - during your stay.  
Le Wagon Bali was truly a life-changing experience! 
The 9-week Web Development Bootcamp has taught me a whole new set of skills and changed my perception of the digital world. It gave me an understanding of how apps are built and how to use the language and technologies to interact with computers. During the course, I was not only able to build and ship two Web Applications from scratch in an entrepreneurial manner, I also discovered a new country and culture, whilst making new friends from all over the world at the same time. 

Thank you Le wagon!

Before Le Wagon, I had settled into a nice routine of teaching Pilates in the mornings, which gave me lots of free time. I decided I wanted to do something with it, learn something new. I’d started teaching myself to code back in University and I’ve always wanted to pursue it, but always felt I was missing so much, so I started looking into bootcamps.
Le Wagon was the only one that offered on-campus part-time learning, which was perfect as I could keep working and it would also give me more time to digest the material. All the reviews were glowing, everyone seemed to love it and most found jobs in the industry soon after. I went along for an interview, met some of the team, took a look around and I was sold.
Batch 317 was a really diverse group; it was great to see so many women on the course! Le Wagon also have a buddy system, meaning you work through the challenges with someone new every day. This really helped build a community, you made friends, encouraged you to talk through your solutions and also made you feel better if both had no clue what to do (very rarely, of course). The support from the staff was superb. The fact that the entire team had completed the bootcamp was reassuring that the process works. They were understanding, encouraged any questions and were really light-hearted in their approach, which took a lot of the stress off.
My favourite thing about the bootcamp was building the final project. It was incredible to see everything come together, you realise how far you’ve come in such a short amount of time.
My group’s final project was creating one place that you could browse over independent bike workshops and book appointments easily through the app. If you asked me before the bootcamp what sort of project I’d like to build by the end, I don’t think I would have come up with something half as complex as that. I’m blown away by how much I’ve learned at the bootcamp, I couldn’t recommend Le Wagon more!