Le Wagon

After getting my liberal arts degree and worked in advertising as a creative, I was looking for a way to get into the digital world in a more serious way. I stumbled upon Le Wagon and it was everything I was looking for. Here's 3 reasons that sum it up:

1) The program is very, very solid. It won't make you a star developper over night, but if you put in the work, it's very rewarding. But you have to be ready for a high pace learning environment. The online infrastructure used to store the material and complete the assignments was excellent when I attended, and it's even better now, with access to online video classes and a ticket system to get help whenever you need it in class.

2) The teachers. They're all very friendly and eager to teach noobs like you and me both the basics and the finer points of coding. They bring an energy and enthusiasm to the table that is infectious. Special mention to the CTO in Paris who is the best teacher I've had period since high school.

3) The network. Le Wagon is all interconnected on Slack, and the alumni network is alive and kicking. Initiatives are done by students to help each other. Moreover, they've developped a dedicated online platform for alumni to stay in touch and help each other. The network alone might be worth the price of admission, it's the gift that keeps on giving way past the 9 weeks the program takes.

I graduated with a bachelors degree in economics and had my own startup before the age of 25.

After I sold the startup I was convinced I wanted to become an entrepreneur again.

All of the ideas I had involved some IT knowledge. It was either learning it myself or spend the rest of my life trusting other programmers and spening a lot of cash.

I decided to pick up programming in a regular University. The amount of programming I got was very dissapointing. I finished my first year and my final exam for programming was to build a simple calculator app.

That's when I realised this wasn't going anywhere. I started doing some research and found LeWagon.

The bootcamp is pretty intense but that's exactly what you need when you want to learn something quickly.

Some people didn't keep up with the pace but the program provides additional coaches to help people who fell behind to still get the maximum out of the bootcamp.

Fast forward 9 weeks later, I created my own website with all these awesome functionalities.

And the best part is, you can pretty much do anything you want after this bootcamp, because they teach you a mindset of how to learn to tackle your own IT problems.

The most remarkable thing I realised is that over the few years I was an entrepreneur I hired a few web developers to make my projects. 

The total cost of these projects would probably be around 30.000EUR. After the bootcamp I realised I could have done all those projects with ease on my own.

If you're thinking to yourself that you don't have the time to develop your own projects see this as the best investment you can make. The developers won't be able to misslead you and overcharge you for projects because you will know how much effort it will take.

Long story short; 

If you want to become a entrepreneur: Do it, you will save a lot of money in the long run even if you don't have time to create your own projects. It will be a blessing if you need to brief or map out something.

If you want to become a web developers: Do it, the job assistance is good, although not perfect. You will struggle a bit at start because most companies will want to hire someone with experience. Your best bet is to try to get a 2-3 month internship at one of the companies they have connections in and then either work there full time or apply to other companies with a few projects in your portfolio.

As a non-tech management consultant I was looking for a course to help me understand how all these complex web apps were made. I wanted to be able to make my own. 

Le Wagon Brussels was a great experience. It took me a lot of nerve to take the decision but I haven't regretted it for a second. The teachers and coaches are extremely kind and helping, the material is well explained. The pace is high but adapted to everyone's level.

I now run my own start-up ;)

This 9-week training was amazing in every aspect. 

Only 24 students. No background required. High-quality teachers. And the structure of the course (the progression, the material and the density) is very smartly done. I couldn't have imagined when I subscribed to this full stack course that I would get this incredible level.

but don't get me wrong, in order to become a professional backend developer you need to keep on coding, there is no magic. However this might be the best course you can find to get very quickly on the right path... 

And on top of that the alumni population is superdynamic and reactive !!!