Le Wagon

Before joining Le Wagon I wanted to learn how to code and make a website but didn't know where to start. Then I found the course in Le Wagon where they say they can teach us how to code and make a website in just 9 weeks. After hearing about this I visited one demo days and I was amazed they were able to make fabulous websites in just 9 weeks. After joining the next batch(#279) I was taught by Amazing teachers. During the morning lectures, they would teach us while clearing any doubts we didn't understand. after lectures, we would be paired up with a classmate to complete challenges. these are pretty hard challenges that help us understand the logic in programming. At the end of the Bootcamp, I have learned a lot so that I can now make a website like twitter or facebook easily. even after finishing the boot camp they let us keep the lectures in a video form so we can come back if we forgot something. Overall this boot camp was very worth it. it helped me be a full stack web developer and helped me gain many skills as a developer.

That cloud looks like duck... sort of... Ooh! But that one looks like a dragon!   I catch myself staring out the window again. The number of times I catch myself is getting out of hand. I sit at the WeWork, twirling my pen, trying to force myself to fill out the brand launch strategy, and I just can’t. I’ve filled out a million before, and now, I just can’t.   I opt to grab a coffee instead, maybe go for a walk, wrap my head around anything else, I’ll figure it out when I get back. It’s another beautiful day in Oregon, and the weather is simply too nice to be spent inside all day. As I walk down the streets, peer in a few shop windows, I can’t shake the feeling something is off. You know those days, where a cloud just hangs over you, there’s nothing wrong in particular, but for the life of you, you just feel crummy.   What’s wrong with me, I’ve literally been described as a human puppy, why am I not happier, why do I feel so off? Seriously, what is wrong with me? I mean I’ve done everything I’ve been expected to do, haven’t I? I went to a great high school, played sports, went to university, even graduated top of my class as an engineer. Oh, if you could only have seen the grin on my mother’s face as I showed her my diploma.   From there I went the management consulting route, opting to flex my business know how. I ended up working a rotational program for the largest beer company in the world. I lived in some of the greatest US cities (LA, NYC, MIA, ATL, DC, PDX) and did some of the most fascinating work (venture capital, brand strategy, sales management, brand launches, etc), all in the alcohol industry. My job was literally to go out and talk to people about alcohol. My nights out were work, and my work was nights out, that’s the dream, right?   I had myself a nice retirement account, had a car, did my own laundry, did my taxes, I even began flossing! All the trademarks of a successful adult, so what was wrong? Why wasn’t this enough?   And it began to dawn, the reason it wasn’t enough was because it wasn’t what I actually wanted. I had been filling out someone’s else’s template for success. And when I took a hard-long look... well... I quit.   And so, I decided to move to Barcelona, a city I had grown to love through my travels. But what would I do when I showed up? So, I began poking around and asking myself, if money were of no object, what exactly what I do?   I’d build things of course, it’s what I’ve always done and what I genuinely enjoyed. But what would be my medium, what would be my canvas, and what would be my brush? Looking back at my classes in university I realized the ones I enjoyed the most, the ones where I’d simply get lost in a state of flow, had always been my computer science classes.   So how could I get back into coding? How could I get a fresh take with a new skill set? And so like most of you, I googled “Best Coding Bootcamps”. Lo, and behold, there was Le Wagon, and even better, a batch in Barcelona would start in July.   Between the intense days of coding, the weekends spent playing on the beach, and the nights sitting out on terezas drinking beer, the summer was over before I knew it. But the skill set I walked away with would empower me.   Now a days I’m working to be a freelance developer while I TA with Le Wagon. It’s not the easiest route by any means, but I’m happier than I’ve ever been before. I finally found the thing that had been eluding me all these years.   For once, I was no longer filling out someone else’s template for my life, I was finally architecting my own path. The leap can be scary, I know, but I promise what’s on the other side can be beautiful as long as you’re willing to put in the work.

I started learning to code on my own a couple of months ago, previously employed as a digital marketing specialist I build a little data pipeline to automate my report. I quickly realize that I was having more fun doing that than building campaigns. When I decided that I wanted to be a developer I didn’t know what the journey would be like, I didn’t have much experience and I knew no one to guide me. I started to gather information about the different bootcamp in Montreal, this is when I discovered Le Wagon. Starting Le Wagon was the first milestone in this adventure that I wanted to start. Le Wagon sure taught me how to code (the teachers are here for you every step of the road to help you understand the key concepts) but the value of doing Le wagon bootcamp go far more beyond that. You learn how to properly develop an idea, prototype the product and develop it with a team. You’ll be surprised by what you can learn and accomplish in just a couple of weeks. Another great value of Le Wagon is its community, a very active and helping community that helps you broaden the perspective of what you can do, I wanted to be a developer, today I am also an entrepreneur and the journey keep going.

Before joining LeWagon Bali, I was working for a strategy consulting firm in Zurich. Most projects were about Digital and Analytics topics, where I realized how much there is to learn in this area. I knew I wanted to study Data Science in my Master, which is why I thought a coding bootcamp would give me a head start and an additional skill. Little did I know that the 9 weeks would give me so much more than that!

In the first few weeks my day usually started at 6am with a 1.5 hour yoga session. At 9am, I had my first fresh coconut and was ready to soak up all the information our teachers would give us in the lessons. After the challenges, I was usually exhausted, but at the live code, full attention is needed to keep up. At the end of the day at around 7.30pm, we would all go for a quick beer and dinner and then drop into bed. This was such an exciting time because each day, I came home with a head full of new things I learned, all in an unbelievable speed. At this point, we were just getting to know each other as a group, and our driver did an amazing job at bringing us all together on exciting trips to beaches, islands and clubs. Good times!

After a few weeks, every piece I learned started to come together like a puzzle. This is the most amazing moment. Building your first app, getting something live on the web, working in a team with other people pushing code on GitHub. You feel like you’re a magician, its FIRE! By now, our batch was one big family, organizing parties and weekend excursions together. We were a very diverse group, ranging from 18 to 45 from all educational, geographical and job-backgrounds, all hanging out together. I think that is amazing and exactly how it should be.

After 7 weeks of hard work, we started to work on our own projects. This is when the real fun but also the real challenge starts. I realized that to be a great coder, you have to be able to do more than just code. Communication is key to a successful project and the biggest challenge was not the ability to do the things but to get a common understanding, vision and a working team together. At the end, this was the most important learning and I was SO proud to see the final result of our hard work.

Overall, LeWagon has been the most empowering experience of my education so far. It gave me the ability to make my ideas reality and showed me that I can learn anything. I will continue improving my current coding skills and, now that I’m programming in R, I can tell that it has been key for me to get the foundation from LeWagon. Last but not least, it gave me a network of amazing alumni, a group of friends I will always be able to visit around the world and nine weeks of pure fun in paradise. Big Thank You to Bali, our wonderful teachers #BOOM and the #Batch253!

My background is in Marketing and Sales. I was freelance for Fahion Brands before Le Wagon including services like consultancy, sales, eCom and BZ developer basically in Barcelona.

 

During the months before my bootcamp I started to investigate and learn to code and I quickly realice it was much more creative and exciting I could expect. So, after some interviews I realice Le Wagon was exactly what I was looking for.

 

I wanted to develop new skills which could enrole me in new an different projects and learn another way of working / living.

I have a friend who hardly recommend me Le Wagon He also wanted to breakthrough his profesional carrier, become a full stack developer and After one year He was there.

 

Le Wagon creates a very good atmosphere. They create an amazing team between TA’s, Teachers and Students. A very different group of people (20 different nationalities), super interesting all focus on same goals and helping eachother to get there.

I’m from Uruguay and originally started my studies in the fields of marketing administration. After getting my Bachelor’s degree I started working in a startup company and saw it grow into a fast-food chain with more than 10 stores. Some years later I started to feel the need to change my career into something that I soon found to be my new passion… coding.

A friend of mine told me about these type of intensive programming courses so I researched for the best ones in Europe and I found Le Wagon. After some research I decided to enroll in Le Wagon Barcelona, so I could also get to know the city.

Two months later I’m starting my freelance career and also diving into teaching, I wouldn’t expect to be able to create the projects that we did in such a short time.

Le Wagon Barcelona not only brought me technical knowledge, but also the experience of developing products in teams, contacts and a lot of new friends. They gave me all the tools to have an awesome and enriching experience, and I’m really grateful that I took it.

It has been a bit under two months since I finished Le Wagon’s full-stack development Bootcamp, and my life has already changed drastically. I have been hired as a junior full-stack engineer and will be moving to Amsterdam for this new adventure.

I can honestly say that Le Wagon’s mantra, “Change your life, learn to code”, could not be better said. This Bootcamp has not only given me the tools needed to change professions, but it has also helped me discover a new passion I can turn into a career.
 
I would like to thank all the teachers and TA’s that made this possible as well as Gonzalo and Gus, who organized an amazing batch. I would also like to thank the Le Wagon network that put me in contact with my new job. My life really has changed by learning to code!

I was one of the students who deliberated for many months over whether to commit to a bootcamp. I finally made the decision to resign from my job and paid the deposit for the Le Wagon bootcamp. The experience exceeded my expectations, and I feel it has put me firmly on the right path in both my life and career. 

I would suggest to any new students that the prepwork is very important. Ensuring you fully understand the concepts in the prepwork will put you in good stead to absorb as much of the bootcamp content as possible, as the bootcamp is very intense and fast-paced. The first 3-4 weeks in particular can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming, especially for those like myself who came with no background in programming or computer science, but just making sure you get some good rest and sleep in the evenings and weekends goes a long way. 

I chose the Bali bootcamp, and could not have been happier with the location choice. You'll make many new friends from all corners of the earth in your batch, plus the Indonesian locals are all super friendly. The school building itself is pretty special. The views and sea winds produce a calm atmosphere and environment. On the horizon you can see the surfers riding the waves of Canggu on the one side, and on the other, (if it's a clear day) you have the spectacular view of two volcanoes.

For me, the teaching staff were the biggest factor in advancing my own personal development. They are jedi masters of programming, and they all have the patience of saints. When you're stuck either on a challenge or a feature of your project, the teachers are skilled at probing you for the answer instead of just giving you the solution. These instances slowly help you realise that you are actually understanding the concepts, but you just don't yet know how to express the solution entirely. The effect is a compounding of your confidence, which probably helps explain why as students we're able to build such complex projects in such a short amount of time during the project weeks. In addition, the Le Wagon style and system of teaching is very fine-tuned. The professionalism, and honesty in how they teach is impressive.

Le Wagon clarifies that the bootcamp not only teaches you web development, but it teaches you how to learn. This bit should not be understated, and having left the bootcamp a few weeks ago I am now really beginning to see the effects of this. In my own work post-bootcamp, I'm finding that I can find solutions to my own dev problems quite fast, much faster than when I was on the bootcamp itself. 

One of the reasons I chose Le Wagon is because of their emphasis on giving you the tools to build your own startup. Le Wagon does not claim to find you a job, however the amount of career and job resources they give you upon graduating, are almost as overwhelming as the first few days of code.

As an alumni, you also get lifetime access to all the course content plus more. As technology changes and advances, it's comforting to know that Le Wagon will continue to keep me up to speed.

After 3 years of work experience in a consulting firm, I wanted to change of universe, in order to discover web development which was murky for me. Le Wagon’s program seduced me and during those 9 weeks, I could discover, understand and learn some of the computer languages which are the hidden side of all websites and applications that surround us everyday. Le Wagon’s experience met perfectly my expectations, regarding the learning aspect and the environment.One year later, I have not kept on practicing coding but my experience at Le Wagon made the difference when applying to jobs. I got a new job as a CFO in a startup named Blackpills because the co-founders liked the fact that I was able to discuss with the technical team, and to understand their technical issues and challenges.

I was very interested in discovering how the most popular apps are built and how they work. My intention was being capable of making my own products one day, so I started self-teaching through online resources. However, I felt that if I really wanted to go deep, I would need some extra support.

I had heard miracle things about coding bootcamps so I checked those in my city and I started digging about their syllabus, methodology, and reviews from former students. The only thing holding me back was that I wasn’t sure whether Ruby was still worthwhile learning, but this site helped me to dispel my doubts isrubydead.com, so eventually, I considered Le Wagon because it offered me a proven methodology, international environment, and I realised Le Wagon was more than a bootcamp, it is a community.

I loved every single day during the bootcamp because you never get bored. You know that the next day you are going to learn the next piece of the puzzle you need to become a developer, so I was hooked.

Teachers and TA’s were fantastic, always keen to help and really passionate about coding. Le Wagon platform is awesome, it is so well developed and full of resources and you have granted access forever. It has become my best friend since I finished.

I am very happy now coding Ruby, but the most important thing you acquire during the bootcamp is the developer mindset. After that, you feel you can learn any other language much quicker, and you have plenty of resources and people to ask whenever you are blocked. It is now straightforward to follow the path that many people have traveled before.

For the new students, I would recommend that you prepare as much as possible before the bootcamp if you really want to make the most of it. It gets tough sometimes so try to be familiar with all the concepts you learn during the prep work, and you will enjoy 10x the experience!

Before coming to Le Wagon, I was in my final year of my Bachelor’s  degree at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. I had been studying information systems and finance for the past three years but felt link I was lacking one of the most important skills to work in the tech world: coding. In the hopes of becoming an IT consultant or work in the biggest tech companies, I felt like I had the business and strategy side notably though my internships but not understanding a single line of code was for me a huge weakness.

Therefore I stumbled on Le Wagon’s website through a simple Google search “coding boot camp” and was very quickly convinced that it was something I HAD to do. So many options in different cities around the world but I chose the Barcelona one given the amazing reviews and the experienced teachers and TAs (besides that who wouldn’t want to spend 2 months in Barcelona??  ).

A few months later I was able to create working web applications with features such as geo mapping and instant messaging. To this day, I still cannot believe how much I learned in such a short period of time.Along with 3 other amazing teammates, we were able to build a fully functional web messaging and file storing app called MyFam which uses a tag system to make retrieving files super simple. I really feel like I could have never achieved such an amazing end result without my boot camp experience. With that experience I am now on my way to achieve my goal and in the process of finding the roles I wanted but didn’t qualify for due to my lack of knowledge in app development.