Le Wagon

Summer 2017 While finishing my Finance degree at Imperial College London, I came across a short tutorial video posted on LinkedIn by Le Wagon. I had never heard of this “coding bootcamp” before, but these few introductory minutes were sufficient for me to realize that I wanted to be part of the 9-week adventure this coding school was offering. And this is precisely what I did. From learning back-end to front-end, from working on my own to collaborating with my team members, from brainstorming on to pitching a product, Le Wagon offered me all the tools I needed to be able to thrive in the tech industry. The format of the program is very well-thought. The first weeks are spent learning the basics, the following ones are for knowledge enhancement, and the last 3 weeks are aimed at putting everything together and presenting the output of these intensive sessions. All this was done in a very relaxed atmosphere, where teachers are not only friendly but also very competent at what they teach, always making sure that you understand the concepts. On top of that, the incredible opportunity to join a community of over 3,000 alumni, spread across more than 25 countries, was also very appealing to me. Over a year has passed since my last day, but this has not prevented me from keeping in touch with many of the people I met there, either to ask coding questions or just to grab a coffee. All in all, Le Wagon gave me everything my previous degrees did not, namely, the opportunity to learn how to code, build and develop a project from scratch in a friendly environment, making coding a lovable art and not a painful experience like it was at school. I now work in the banking industry where I am able to use many tools I learnt during the bootcamp, enabling me to automate many tasks I perform on a daily basis.

The Wagon’s patient teachers show you how to think about programming and pass on the necessary skills to code a sleek, modern, and dynamic website. After a daily lesson explaining basic programming concepts, you work with other students on exercises that slowly stretch the breath of their understanding. Every day, ideas that initially seemed fuzzy and abstract become focused and concrete. By the end of the course, things that seemed impossibly complex at the beginning become rudimentary, and you are all the more curious to keep on learning.   I highly recommend this course to anyone willing to work hard and be challenged constantly.

I have been a full-time musician and music producer for the past 7 years, and had always dreamed about learning how to code. A few months after discovering and attending Le Wagon, I am now developing projects as a freelance junior developer, and just started my own as en entrepreneur.

What happened in between was a 2-month journey of passionate discovery and study of code and web design, along with 42 (no pun intended) other very motivated students. Every passing day brought its lot of new encounters, A-HA moments, and fresh beers at the end.

What I particularly loved during my coding journey was the fact that no one got left behind at any point : teachers, teaching assistants, and most of all other students are here to ensure that everyone stays on track with everything. Le Wagon is, above all, a human experience like no other.

As a philosophy student, I had a few creative ideas that I hope to develop, but was unable to due to my lack of technical skills. 
In 9 weeks, Le Wagon gave us an insight into what it's like to materialize an idea. The bootcamp is divided into two stages - the first stage consists of learning the basics of Ruby, Javascript, CSS, SQL, and other tools, and the second stage consists of applying what we’ve learned to practice (i.e. develop websites using what’ve learned!). 
As an aspiring product manager/entrepreneur, the second stage was especially helpful since we learned how to pitch ideas, measure the feasibility of developing an idea in a limited amount of time, create user-journeys, design prototypes for website, and work as and with developers to create websites. We were constantly supported by hardworking and patient teaching assistants and other students despite all the mental struggles! 
Also, I came to the bootcamp with a biased pre-conception that developers are antisocial; this presumption was totally reversed by the end of the first day! Everyone was very open-minded and social. Le Wagon also makes sure that we get the chance to know everyone in the bootcamp - each day, we are paired up with a new buddy with whom we cooperate to solve daily coding challenges. Personally, I consider this the best part of the bootcamp because I was not only able to cooperate with people from diverse backgrounds, but was also able to see how each person think differently by taking different approaches to solve a problem! 
Le Wagon also organized quite a few career talks with product managers, entrepreneurs, and developers - I was able to gain perspectives on what I might be interested in doing after my studies by learning about work experiences of invited speakers, classmates, and alumni. 
This bootcamp in Berlin is really a wonderful experience and the highlight of my summer!

Le Wagon is the best strategic move of my life.

 

I've always wanted to become an entrepreneur. After my business school, I decided to learn how to code in order to be able to develop the first version of a website, in order to convince a business partner and to save money on the Minimum Valuable Product conception which is often costly whearas you don't know if the idea is valuable.

 

Le Wagon bootcamp was recommanded to me by a friend. It was the best 2 months of my life. First because it was the first time I was happy to go to school. It's a very unique experience to learn how to develop complex websites in two months with an incredible pedagogy. Secondly because I met some amazing people including... The business partner I was looking for.

 

I would without a doubt recommand le Wagon which was a very good investment for me !

At the end of my studies, I tried to start my first start-up but I quickly noticed that understanding tech & code would be extremely useful.

In order to be autonomous for my future projects, I knew I needed to learn how to code, so I decided to join Le Wagon in Paris for a summer bootcamp.

During 2 months and supported by an amazing team, I acquired enough skills to build all my projects and, most importantly, I met many amazing people!

Le wagon is more than just a coding bootcamp, it’s also a great network!

I am currently a freelance full stack developper for at least several months, I also continue building startups, and to be honest I feel completely independent now.

For me, The Wagon has been a lifetime experience and I strongly recommend you to join! Take a look at the demodays on their website to see what you can build in just 2 months.

I always wanted to become an entrepreneur but didn’t know how to get started. After working 5 years in marketing and in HR, I knew it was the time for me to try out new things. Quitting the corporate race was the first move. But what do you do after that?

 

The world of startups is very different from the classic corporate world. In a big company, you are a small piece of a huge machine. In a small company, you have to learn to think different and to be able to do a lot of things at the same time, especially if it’s your own venture. Today, even in non-tech companies, it is very important to understand how the latest technologies work because your customers probably spend as much time as you do in front of their computers and smartphones.

 

I decided to board on the 9-week bootcamp of Le Wagon to get the set of skills that would help me build my MVP. On the first weeks, we learn the object-oriented programming language Ruby. For those who have never coded before, Ruby is a very intuitive back-end language. Once you master Ruby, you can basically learn any other programming language because it would work in a similar way. Then, we learn about databases, front-end programming, and integration in the framework Rails. On the last weeks of the bootcamp, we team up in groups (like in real development teams) and build a web app.

 

Le Wagon has a very pedagogical approach: they know that you will struggle but they accompany you through the different steps of this learning experience. During the day, you work with another student to complete coding exercises. When you don’t know how to proceed, you may ask the help of a TA who would guide you (without giving you out the answer). Then you start to move up the learning curve, understand the logics of coding and unlock your brain potential. The bootcamp is intensive: you mustn’t give up even when it’s hard. The reward is worth the effort: there is nothing more satisfying than solving complicated problems (and fixing bugs in a program!).

 

What I especially liked about my experience at Le Wagon is that it was much more than learning web development. Thanks to them, I could not only feel more confident while writing code, but I also learned how to engineer and design products the start-up way. I would no longer waste time in building apps that consumers don’t need but keep focus on bringing added value. It sounds pretty simple like that, but believe me that before going to Le Wagon, I had thousands of ideas that were not viable.

 

At Le Wagon, I met a lot of wonderful people who all had a different background. Interacting with people who don’t come from the same industry as you do help you see things you couldn’t see before (in my batch, there were journalists, consultants, designers etc.). Whether you want to become developer, Product Owner, or start your own company, Le Wagon is a community of people bursting with energy. So, if you are looking for inspiration while learning programing, Le Wagon is definitely the place you have to go to.

Skilled in IP Law and Innovation Management I joined Le Wagon to get tech skills in an area that I've always found fascinating. I tried to learn how to code by myself but it was hard to know where to start, what to learn or select the most valuable data from the huge amount of information on the web. One of my best friends did Le Wagon a few years ago and I knew it was the best way to learn.

During the Bootcamp, everything was made to ensure that I would keep making progress. It was very rewarding to see that every day I could use what I learned during the day before without learning it by heart but in a rather more efficient way by doing exercises with my buddies. Besides, Le Wagon was not just about learning how to code but also being part of a community and meet people from different backgrounds, students, alumni or staff members always willing to share their experience (yes, beers were involved...!). The final weeks with my awesome team really made me realize that I had the new mindset and skills I was looking for and what I was now able to do.

It brought me tech & product skills, a fresh mindset and confidence in the career change I had not yet dared to embrace and that was more conform to my aspirations. Moreover, I made some good friends, with a common mindset and values during the Bootcamp, and it's still satisfying to feel to be part of this community.

Thanks to Le Wagon and the job support help, I'm now a fullstack web developer at Le Closet, a startup where I will keep coding and learning within a young, fun, talented and ambitious team.

I used to work at an English school in Japan and I needed to change my career.
I found Le Wagon and it was one of the best highlight of my career life. Also being developer seemed perfect career change for me.
Le wagon teaches you a lot in 9 weeks; it was tough and frustrating at the beginning  because I didn't know anything about programming.
However, after few weeks, you get what you were doing and learning how to code feels really fun. 
End of the bootcamp, I was really confident and really happy with myself.  

Also teachers are really friendly and helpful. It helped me a lot because they are passionate to teach you and they explain you really well.
I loved Yoga every Wednesday too. Also they have free tea and coffee!!! (I needed that)

Overall, everything was fun and I learnt a lot. Job hunting after finishing the bootcamp wasn't too bad. 
You can definitely can learn a lot,  and I strongly recommend this bootcamp if you want to change your career.

Hello everyone,

I just finished my bootcamp in september in le Wagon and i want to share this amazing experience with you.

I was a project manager in a creative agency and i worked on digital projects. I wanted to improve my knowledge and understand all this sector to manage web projects.

The programm is complete to understand and have fast skills. Teachers have good skills and are great they also help us a lot. People in our group was really nice and you meet new people everyday due to extra activities like conferences, drinks etc..

I managed a project (www.beatween.me) and that was for me the best experience of this program. In two weeks you have a functional project and you can show that in interview.

This was a amazing two months full of knowledge, meet people and good mood. I recommand it for everyone who want to learn how to code ! 

Thanks le Wagon !!

 

 

When I first thought about taking part in the Le Wagon boot-camp, the online reviews were a big selling point for me, which is why I decided to write this one. They seemed so good they were fake. Having completed the boot-camp I now get it, there are no fake reviews, they’ve just really nailed the process, so that everyone leaves with a great foundation in coding, a new network of like minded developers and entrepreneurs and a fantastic experience.

I went in with zero coding knowledge and left with the ability to make a complex website.
It’s important to note that this didn’t come easily. The boot-camp is very intense, it’s not a wishy-washy part-time course. It’s all consuming, for 9 weeks. This is exactly what I wanted, because to learn to code I believe you have to really break the back of it. Learn to think like a developer and how to problem solve – and this is what Le Wagon gave me.

As a modern languages student I am lucky in the sense that I have a very broad degree, but unlucky that it doesn’t allow me to leave university with expertise in a specific sector. I’m interested in tech and start-ups and I thought that in order to start a career in that world, a basic coding literacy would be fundamental. Le Wagon taught me so much more than a basic literacy and in the final two weeks I was able to put this to use by developing an MVP for my own start-up idea. More than this, the boot-camp is very career driven, they run CV and career workshops as well as organising 1 on 1 meetings with recruiters. For me it was the perfect start for launching a career in tech.

As a serial entrepreneur, I have always been keen on creating innovative companies in sectors in great need. Focused on new consumption patterns and the digitalisation of our society, my career reveals a deep interest in technology and the various digital professions. Attracted by data management and the automation of these, I learnt during my higher education the algorithmic approach and programming. However, the learning methods were far from my expectations. I therefore “temporarily” put aside computer programming and devoted myself exclusively to the development of my companies. Self-taught, I resumed learning how to code. But it was very slow... I was missing an educational path and a clear goal. I then decided to join Le Wagon’s Bootcamp which fully met my expectations: to focus on coding for nine weeks in order to create a first functional web application. This is concrete! In addition, having had the opportunity to interact with web agencies, I am now ready to challenge their proposals. Indeed, it is more complex to exchange around a proposal or a quote that you do not understand! Meeting people and learning teamwork with an agile methodology directly related to the needs and the operations of the startup are also part of Le Wagon’s program. Now I am ready.