Le Wagon

I have a degree in computer science and 12 years of experience as a C++ developer. Who would have thought that I could have benefited from a 9 week intensive fullstack coding bootcamp ?

# Exec summary

Do it.

# Why?

Following my first life as a developer, I have progressively drifted to a more managerial position. And years after a years, I began to feel the frustration of knowing exactly what I wanted to code and being unable to.

Off course I had started teaching myself through online courses. But believe me I was not completely satisfied with what I was able to produce.

Don't get me wrong, online platforms are great. But in a few months after deciding to commit to code again, I had only managed to complete a few courses. I was far from my objective of being able to give life to any idea crossing my mind using code.

Nothing will replace the expertise and the vision of a team of talented developers in touch with the tech ecosystem. I happened to know none in my close relations. And where to start?

I was lucky enough to know a couple of friends having attended Le Wagon in Paris and Bordeaux, France. Both of them had had professional experience in more business oriented positions and were completely code agnostic before Le Wagon.

After talking to them, I decided I should enroll in the program and give it a try.

Here is my review after having attended Le Wagon fullstack program, batch #250 in Paris, Q2 2019.

# Prepwork:

I think it is important to take the time to properly go through every aspect of the prepwork if you intend to take on a coding position. Everything that you see will be of use at one time or another.

# Daily life:

The teaching method has proven its value and is quite efficient:
- repetition (prepwork, morning courses, afternoon live code)
- practice (daily challenges + optional exercices)
- collaboration (coding buddies, end of program projects)
- energy (the educational team is ultra cheerful and high spirited)
- and some rest (parties, community events, yoga)

# Students:

I thought that the diversity of the profiles both in terms of background and age was very enriching.

Being in contact with beginners was for me the opportuniy to dive deeper into my understanding of the core concepts through the help of others students.

# Teachers:

The team both of teachers and non teachers is extremely supportive and helpful.

Many thanks to them for always taking the time to respond to my silly questions with no practical application whatsoever - what can I do, I think I came to like Ruby ;)

# You:

The fulltime program is quite intensive, even for someone already familiar with the underlying concepts of development and of the web. You will not get bored, as the daily challenges also include optional challenges with increasing difficulty.

I think you should start the program well rested and committed. The courses progressively jump from one notion to the next and you will not get the time to get overly comfortable in a specific area of expertise.

# Plaftorm:

The teaching platform is a very well crafted jewel and is very convenient. I am looking forward to produce an app of my own with this level of quality.

# Conclusion:

Overall, I think that the program is a perfect blend of energy, collaboration, technical expertise, UX/UI vision, and product approach.

After 9 weeks including 3 weeks of team projects, I found myself able to bootstrap or join any coding adventure.

Of course I will continue to teach myself using the Le Wagon teaching platform, community events, and other online courses.

Le Wagon gave me the kick start I needed to get back on track.

A big thank you to the Paris team!

I had been running my own media company for about a year and a half after deciding that teaching English was not challenging me professionally or personally anymore. I had reached a point where going it ‘on my own’ was my only real attractive option. Being a first mover came with certain advantages within my own market. However, this was short lived as the technology I was deploying became more user friendly, readily available and affordable. This slowly pushed me to want to stand out of the competition and offer something my competitors weren’t.

This is what initially made me consider learning how to code. I also felt that I had an innate knowledge gap that I was intent to fill and fulfill a personal objective. I visited various coding bootcamps in order to get a ‘feel’ for each one and see where I would best fit in. After having my initial contact with LeWagon I was convinced it was the best option. Their no-nonsense, personal, one-to-one approach during the initial communication is what finally made me decide that it was the bootcamp I wanted to attend. I haven’t looked back at that decision since.

From day one I noticed that I was surrounded by an intelligent, driven, passionate and international class. I came to know that it was in fact the most diverse batch even to have come out of Barcelona and it really showed throughout the course. I am naturally a slow learner; I like learning on my own pace and the bootcamp did feel overwhelming at times. The peer and teacher support however were incredible throughout, giving all the necessary support along the way. Every morning, teachers came to class with an unparalleled passion for their areas of expertise. This passion resonated towards me and helped me stay motivated through thick and thin. The most giving element of the bootcamp was definitely the inspiration that the staff gave me to learn and grown and I know many of my peers agree with me on that. During my time at LeWagon I pitched an idea for a mobile app to help airport passengers find interesting things to do during long transits. It was eventually voted on and chosen as a final project. I had the pleasure of leading an amazing team to build the application in the last 10 days of the bootcamp and finally pitching the prototype to an audience at the final demo day!

As for me, I took a long and well-deserved holiday immediately after finishing the bootcamp. I then went back to work in my media company. After two months I landed my first web-development project for company here in Barcelona. Not only am I able to create content for my clients, I am now able to integrate this content into their current websites or build new ones for them out of scratch. I now feel ahead of the curve again. The bootcamp was, for me, just the start. I’m more eager than ever to improve my coding skills, collaborate within different disciplines and stay on the ball!

To all the talented and inspiring staff at LeWagon,

Thank you.

Fahad

When I started thinking about attending LeWagon, quite a few people tried to discourage me by saying that I can learn all of those things online or that the market is already saturated with developers. Some thought that I will find coding boring, even though nothing could have been more boring than my previous jobs.

I have signed up for codecademy a few years ago and found it really appealing but with a full time job and no one to ask for help whenever I encountered a difficulty I abandoned it quite quickly.

It was in the beginning of this year that I have gathered the courage to quit my job and enroll at the bootcamp and my only regret is not doing it sooner!

It is very intensive and if you have not used your brain in a long time it can be quite difficult at first, but the good thing about LeWagon is that there are plenty of teachers and teaching assistants that are there to help and you can also ask other classmates for advice.

The real fun starts halfway where you can put everything you learn to practice and create real projects and be creative, no one tells you what to do - you decide!

During those 9 weeks I acquired skills that I never imagined myself having and now have a kit of valuable tools!

Étudiant et intéressé par le côté entrepreneurial je suis venu au Wagon Bordeaux avec la volonté d’avoir les compétences nécessaires afin de concrétiser mes idées.En plus de compléter mon cursus d’école de commerce, cette formation m’a permi de découvrir toutes les opportunités que pouvaient offrir ces compétences techniques.À présent, je souhaite me diriger vers le métier de Product Manager puisque cette une fonction m’a particulièrement plu lors de notre projet de fin de batch où nous avons choisi de créer une plate-forme permettant d’améliorer le service en pharmacie.Au-delà des compétences, Le Wagon m’a permis de faire des rencontres super et enrichissantes avec des personnes de différents profils!

I was working as a project manager in tech before I decided to learn to code. I find coding an incredibly powerful and creative way to solve problem. I tried to do a couple of online courses, but it never stick to me. So I decided to take the leap, commit all of my energy to doing the in person course. Le Wagon was the perfect choice - not only because of the incredibly curated curriculum but also because of the amazing community and support that continues even after the bootcamp.

My greatest takeaway was that I learnt to absorb great amount of information. At first it all seems daunting but later it all falls into place. My advice for anyone joining is to try to prep as much as you can before the course, commit to it and don't give up, it will all pay off. '

Soon after finishing the bootcamp, I stared working as a full stack developer, using React and Node JS.

I joined Le Wagon Bootcamp with a rather precise product idea that I wanted to develop, without knowing how to execute it. I left Le Wagon with an Minimum Viable Product (MVP) properly developed with my team thanks to the help of the outstanding staff.
I kept on developing the app for a while with my co-founder that I met during the bootcamp, but eventually our paths separated and I decided to keep working on the product that will be released soon.
If you want to create a web product and that you don’t have any concrete knowledge about code, Le Wagon is a good first step to master this technical environment.

I’ve been interested in programming for a few years now, starting with a little bit of Javascript that I learned on Internet. Then when it was time for me to go to university I decided to learn physics because I knew that I would find a way to learn to code elsewhere at some point in my life.
That’s when, a year later, I’ve heard about Le Wagon and decided to go for it! And that’s how I took one of the best decisions of my life! To go to Montreal and do this two months INTENSIVE bootcamp was for me a life-changing experience.  I insist on intensive because it really is! You’ll breathe, eat and dream (literally) of code! But thanks to an incredible team and teachers, everything will be fine and you’ll enjoy it!
This experience at Le Wagon Montreal, of course, taught me to code but also about team work, and showed me how hard I was able to work on a project if I was passionate about it. It also helped me develop the ability to ask for help! (Because let’s face it you’ll need it at some point, which is fine because the team and your buddies are there for you!)
Now I can’t wait to do more and more projects! Your only limitation after Le Wagon will be your own determination and motivation to learn more!

Le wagon a été pour moi une expérience incroyable.
J’ai découvert des outils technologiques et j’ai appris à les maitriser. Ça été aussi une véritable expérience humaine.
Ces 9 semaines sont passées à une vitesse folle et me voilà aujourd’hui armé de compétences techniques dépassant mes attentes.
Au Wagon on n’apprend pas qu’a coder, on apprend également à apprendre, à tel point qu’il m’a fallu à peine 2 semaines pour apprendre un autre langage complémentaire (Python) et il m’a fallu autant de temps pour décrocher un gros contrat avec un client asiatique.
Les professeurs sont tout simplement géniaux : pédagogues et présents. Ils ont été un élément clé aux nouvelles compétences techniques que je suis fier de posséder aujourd’hui ainsi qu’à l’obtention de mon Certificat Niveau 2 (RNCP).
Pour réussir au Wagon, il faut simplement y croire et s’accrocher. On se rend alors très vite compte de notre progression quotidienne. Ça va vite, même très vite, mais avec simplement un peu de rigueur, vous aurez rapidement l’impression d’avoir appris autant en 2 mois qu’en 2 ans !

I've always been curious about coding but I never pictured myself as a developer. I always thought that it was some sort of world that was reserved only for the skilled and extra-smart people. One day, after talking to a friend who had done the bootcamp I visited the Le Wagon's webpage, I realised that my ideas were far from the truth and learning to code was something that I could actually do. Now, after finishing the program, I realise that I enjoy coding more than I initially thought and there's a whole new world ahead of me. Doing Le Wagon's coding bootcamp was for sure one of the best investments in my personal and professional growth. All the content is carefully organised in a way that at the end, we end up being able to build a web application from scratch, and only in 9 weeks!! The teachers were all top-level! Every single one of them, covering all the topics, they were well-versed on the subject-matter and that was very reassuring. The learning materials were also designed in a way that are so cool to use and revisit whenever we need. Even today, when I'm developing some new project, I go to Le Wagon's Kitt platform to review some topic or video lecture. Having access for life to this knowledge repository is worth the investment! The management staff was also extremely professional and always caring for our needs. They made constant efforts to make sure that everybody was keeping up with the pace and always made us feel comfortable and at home. For me it's still a joy to go the school for a visit, hangout with new friends or to do some work from there. Also it's worth mentioning the worldwide community that I'm part of now. Le Wagon's online network allows us to share whatever issue with our fellow Wagoners that are across the world and that's also very comforting. I now feel that I'm part of a new family :) In short, learning to code at Le Wagon really changed my life for the better and I really recommend to anyone who's willing to make the plunge into this exciting world.

After more than 10 years as an operational and financial director, I recently decided to launch my own company. Quickly, I felt frustrated by my lack of technical knowledge and necessity to rely on others to do even a simple landing page, and thus decided to join Le Wagon.
With no prior technical knowledge, and Uni being a vague memory for me, I have to admit that those 9 weeks were pretty intense. But between the amazing teachers and the mutual support between students, it felt like one of the most vibrant experience of my life. More than skills, Le Wagon teach you to be product oriented and above else, made me part of a family of vibrant professionals, always looking after each other.
Thanks to Le Wagon, I’m now finalizing my landing page and will soon launch an MVP of my product, myntee.io.