Le Wagon

2 years ago I was in my final year of university. I had picked French and History, but Entrepreneurship was my true passion. Along with my girlfriend at the time, and my roommate, I entered the University entrepreneurship competition - which awarded startup seed funding to successful ideas. We reached the semi-final with our idea, and we poured our hearts and souls in to the business plan and pitch. However we were denied because they told us that it was a great idea but the app would cost too much to develop and they weren't offering that level of funding.

This was my first taste of the crushing feeling of knowing you have an idea that is "too expensive" to execute. Since then I've had the same feeling with other ideas in my current field of work, being quoted prices that are just out of my reach at my current stage in life. In the same way you should teach someone to fish rather than give them fish to eat - I wanted to build MVPs. I never wanted to feel shackled by the financial cost of bringing ideas to life and I never want to know again that feeling of having an idea that will never see the light of day.

I just wanted to be able to manifest my vision into something tangible without being entirely at the mercy of financial constraints. So... I quit my job, my comfortable life in Taiwan, and left many friends behind to pursue something more challenging, more rewarding.

Le Wagon was overwhelming. Amazing. Probably the best decision I could have made at this point in time. I was able to do something that seemed so impossible and cryptic at the beginning, and in the end create something I am truly proud of. I've got this overwhelming sense of momentum built up now, and rather than feeling exhausted I feel energized and ready to go forward with the ideas I have.

Now I'm a front-end developer, and my sense of worth has tripled. My skills are in-demand, I can bring my ideas and my friends' ideas to reality and I feel empowered to move forward. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a hobbyist or just someone that wants to completely change the trajectory of their life - Le Wagon might be the best decision you make too.

Montréal was an amazing city, one I have decided to settle down in and MG, Antoine, Guillaume and Martin were all amazing and people I would now call friends. Moreover the alumni network spans the entire globe - last summer I had the opportunity to visit the Buenos Aires branch and I was welcomed by Seb and the team there. 

So if you're thinking about changing your life, then learn to code. It will defininitely equip you for the real world. My only point would be that if your goal is to become a JavaScript expert or walk in to a job, prepare to continue working hard after the bootcamp - 9 weeks is just the beginning of your journey and you have to continue to put everything in to creating the vision you have for your future.

If you want to see what my group made then you can check out my portfolio at www.awfrej.com and have a look for yourself!
 

Le Wagon enabled me to change my life

After spending 4 years in an engineering school, trained the old-fashioned way on the hierarchical, administrative and industrial plan, I took on a project that was important to me: web development. I learnt about Le Wagon while I was chatting with my family and web developers, and the concept of a fast-paced and professionalizing training program, tackling all modern startups’ best practices immediately appealed to me.

The 2-month program is both very long, because of all there is to learn, on various tech tools and programming languages, and very short, due to countless meetings, opportunities and achievements.

Throughout the program, there is constant support, mutual aid Is present, and teaching methods are multiplied. Le Wagon is a distinct mindset and a school like no other.

Today, 2 weeks after the end of the bootcamp, I already got in touch with a lot of tech companies in Paris, received full-time job offers, and I am now able to develop my personal web projects on my own.

I would recommend Le Wagon to all the people who are eager to go into web development, even if they don’t know anything about programming - as most candidates don’t - but all of them got out of this experience with concrete web apps and an ability to work in the digital world.

Attending the 9-week coding bootcamp at Le Wagon Paris was one of my most inspiring life experiences. After finishing a Bachelor in Business Administration, I decided to take some time off in order to get real world experience before continuing my studies. I did a few internships but felt like I needed to learn something more practical and wanted to challenge myself. That’s when I decided to sign up to le Wagon.

The program is very intense but the curriculum is really well structured. The first three weeks you learn the basics of Ruby, followed by HTML, CSS, JavaScript and finally the Rails framework. The last three weeks are dedicated to two projects built in groups and the final project is presented at the demo day. These projects are incredibly useful as they allow you not only to apply everything you have previously learned to a real life business idea but also to keep learning from your team members and explore some parts of the curriculum more in depths.

I am truly impressed to see how much we were able to learn in only 9 weeks! This was only possible due to the incredible teachers at le Wagon. They are doing such an outstanding job at teaching the complexity of web development to complete beginners whilst still making it challenging for more advanced coders. Teachers and staff are always available, patient and motivated to help!

But what also makes le Wagon so memorable is its community. I had the opportunity to meet and build relationships with truly inspiring people from all ages & backgrounds. Every week we took part in different kinds of evening activities, workshops, career-related events and conferences that undoubtedly helped me develop my professional goals. I have recently started my masters at ESCP Europe and will be searching for an internship in Product Management, as I would like to work with web developers in the future. I am also developing my own projects on the side. I would say that le Wagon was definitely an unforgettable experience!  Thank you!

After graduating from law school, I felt that the legal world and the real world was really disconnected. The legal environment hadn’t at all kept up to speed with the technological advances. I wanted to acquire the tools to be able to change this. After doing some research on coding bootcamps I soon discovered le Wagon as a leader in the market. I was surprised to see so many ratings, all excellent, which made me comfortable in my choice.

The courses are not like regular school courses like we know them from university. The day starts with 1,5 h of lecture, and then you code all day in teams of two. This means they have a real learning-by-doing approach, which I believe is a very efficient one. Of course, you are surrounded by helpful teachers if you have any questions. The pace is very intensive, and I think what you get out of the course really depends on what knowledge you have when you start. For my sake, I was a total ‘noob’, and I found some courses really challenging. However, I think this also relies on whether or not you do all of your prep work (which I wasn’t able to since I registered only 5 days before the course started).

But the Wagon is not only about the courses. It’s one big loving family, which organize various events every week; from yoga to presentations by start-ups. They are very involved in each student, and are genuinely interested in you and how they can help you. The people who work there are devoted to give you the best experience possible.

I am sincerely happy about my Wagon experience, it has allowed me to get the basic knowledge of coding. This is a course for someone who wants to get a maximum of information in a minimum of time. So, brace yourself for an intensive – but real fun – experience.  

After working in tech startups for a number of years, I really wanted to become more technologically savvy so that I could better work with product teams, find ways to optimize my day to day work, as well as speak intelligently about products/features with customers. Additionally, a dream of mine has been to start a company one day, and I wanted to be in a position where I could create MVPs for my startup ideas.

Most coding bootcamps teach you how to code, but Le Wagon teaches you how to use code to build products. They teach you to qualify, prototype, user-test, and develop your ideas. Le Wagon gives you the skills to be an entrepreneur as well as a programmer.

The thing that I'll miss the most is the day to day grind of learning new things. For the first six weeks, you're drinking from the fire hose and learning new coding concepts daily.

Although challenging, very few things are as satisfying as learning a something new in the morning, struggling with it throughout the day, and then getting a green terminal (passing the challenge tests 100%) by the afternoon. And I loved Barcelona. Amazing culture, people, and tapas :). For me, it was the perfect place to learn to program.

Bite the bullet. 20 years from now, I doubt you'll regret going to school to become technologically literate. Le Wagon will teach you to be a developer, but if you decide to go a different route (entrepreneurship, freelancing, product management, etc.), you'll have a skillset that is going to differentiate you.

Le wagon was a life changing experience to me. Prior to joining Le Wagon, I was a 2nd year Law student. I intend to complete my degree this year and to use the available resources and what I learned at Le Wagon to build a career in coding. The Le Wagon coding bootcamp taught me more than my 2 years at university. I had such an amazing and challenging experience this summer. I met so many awesome people, who I enjoyed working and learning from. During the last 2 weeks of the bootcamp, in a team of 4 we’ve built a very cool project, Polyglot which is a video and chat website with live translations. Le Wagon was probably one of the best experiences in my life, I am so glad to be part of the Le Wagon family.

If you thought that "change your life, learn how to code" was just an exaggeration they are using to bait you in, you are WRONG... I've been to Le Wagon Milan, the teachers were really helpful, skilled and passionate about what they are doing.
The course is really intense and you need to really be motivated before joining this program, but if your will is high, then you'll be more than happy about this decision you are making.
I found a job straight after the Bootcamp and all I can tell you, is that you need to apply to this Bootcamp if you really want to step into the web development industry and change your life

There were several reasons why I chose to join Le Wagon bootcamp:

1. To learn and understand technical processes and jargons.
- I've always been interested to understand how everything works and be able to communicate better with other developers.

2. To pursue my passion in programming
- I love programming so much that whenever I'm coding time stops for me. Before the bootcamp I was developing static front end web pages and was self taught. I wanted to learn back end programming and wanted to fully commit to it I've always been interested to understand how the back end connects to the front end

3. Being surrounded by an amazing community of like minded, talented individuals.
- The thing that sets Le Wagon apart is their ability to select individuals that are highly motivated and eager to learn and develop their skills. Recruiting the right people is super critical especially when collaboration is involved.

My experience at Le Wagon Melbourne was exactly what I wanted from a Bootcamp. It is an intense 9 weeks of learning and I wouldn’t have changed one bit. I had a little experience with learning to code with some online resources for a couple of months prior, but I quickly overtook my comfort zone and was learning in leaps and bounds. I loved the practicality of the course focusing on the real world and even working out of a coworking space ingrained the tech start-up world. So glad I took the plunge with Le Wagon and am know apart of their support network as an alumnus.

This bootcamp is exceptional for people looking to get into the web development industry, what they offer in terms of knowledge, experience and post-bootcamp resources is well worth the money paid for the course. I crossed the atlantic ocean to do a LeWagon bootcamp in Tel Aviv and it was a very fruitful experience.

I'd highly recommend the Tel Aviv bootcamp to anyone interested in learning web development and coding in a high tech environment, not to mention you get to take the course 10 minutes from the beach ;)

There is a week ago I finished the coding bootcamp from Le Wagon and I'm still tired! That was so intense and full of teaching that I need some time for realize the level that I got in coding and come back to a normal rhythm. Now I have to use all those new knowledge in my project. 

It took me some time to realize how working in a job which I didn’t enjoy was sucking the energy out of my life. Finally, I decided to do something about it. As a follower of blockchain projects & crypto I saw how these new technologies are making their way to build decentralized/ distributed applications that can disrupt many industries. They are building the next internet and I want to be part of it. So, I decided to start coding. Coding has always been an exciting idea to me but I didn’t want to go through 2-4 years of college to start.

After some online research I found out about the Le Wagon bootcamp. An intense full-stack program for two months. The program seemed well organized and complete. At this point I was already hooked but wait... I needed to read some reviews first. So, I came across SwitchUp and Course Report, carefully read some reviews and discovered all of them are 5-stars! Wow! I checked other reviews on the web and almost all of them are 5-stars too. It was too good to be true.
Fast forward… it’s totally true!

Le Wagon offers their bootcamp in many cities around the world. I chose to take it in Bali, Indonesia. And what an excellent choice it was. Bali is known as a place for a holiday. However, the program was intense and requires commitment from its students so don’t expect a vacation. Bali is a beautiful tropical island, everything is nice, the weather, the food (especially for vegetarians) and most importantly the people are super friendly. Plus, you get to enjoy your “little” free time with different activities the island has to offer (surfing, yoga, hiking, etc.).

We started the program by learning Ruby and gone through databases, HTML, CSS, JS, Ajax, API’s, Git & Github and finally we (I and my team) built our app using Rails. After the morning lecture we solved multiple challenges using Le Wagon’s platform. This is one of the best things about the program, you learn by doing. While you are on the exercises you’ll get any help or info you need from the teachers. And then we wrapped up the day with a live coding session where we solved a challenge that summarizes the day together with the teacher.

The program was so intense and so rewarding at the same time. We were 25 students in batch 163 from 14 different countries! Everyone had a different background but all of us shared the same enthusiasm for learning this new skill. The manager of the camp and the staff were so nice and helpful. They took very good care of us before and during the bootcamp. Also, we had great teachers and TA’s, both knowledgeable and very helpful. You’ll be surrounded by people who will encourage you to give your best.

In Le Wagon I didn’t only learn how to code, I got to challenge myself, I got to know amazing people, I made new friendships, I discovered new places. Without a doubt, this is one the best experiences of my whole life.

After obtaining a degree in Electrical Engineering and being uninterested in the field I discovered that coding was much more fun. I have 1.5 years of professional experience in Rails but this was self taught and I felt like a bootcamp would fill in the blanks. Additionally I was lacking front-end skills. Thus I wanted to get even better! I applied to Le Wagon Barcelona because I wanted to live in a country/city I've never lived in.

I loved the program, methodology, teachers and the environment. But if I had to choose one, I think all the teachers did an outstanding job teaching the material in such a short amount of time.

Apart from coding, I learned what is required to be a team lead/teacher. I have a lot to work on to be a good TL but I've definitely taken steps toward that goal.

At the end of the bootcamp, I developed SWAPP, a social mobile app to allow you to offer skills to others, while receiving skills in return. Now I'm gonna move to Vancouver to join and look for a remote job. This way I'll be able to travel while still having a source of income. 

My advice if you're considering Le Wagon: be serious on day 1 and attend all the lectures. Even if I already knew 60% of the information being taught, there was still that 40% that helped me deepen my understanding.

I loved the program, methodology, teachers and the environment. But if I had to choose one, I think all the teachers did an outstanding job teaching the material in such a short amount of time.

Apart from coding, I learned what is required to be a team lead/teacher. I have a lot to work on to be a good TL but I've definitely taken steps toward that goal.

At the end of the bootcamp, I developed SWAPP, a social mobile app to allow you to offer skills to others, while receiving skills in return. Now I'm gonna move to Vancouver to join and look for a remote job. This way I'll be able to travel while still having a source of income. 

My advice if you're considering Le Wagon: be serious on day 1 and attend all the lectures. Even if I already knew 60% of the information being taught, there was still that 40% that helped me deepen my understanding.

I've always wanted to create my own company and I saw a lot of opportunities in the digital world. I started working as a CEO assistant for an e-commerce website and I created an app. I instantly saw my technical limits. I had no experience in coding and I had to recruit developers, tell them what to do, and eventually estimate their work.

It was just wrong, I was taking bad decisions and I was just not good at what I was doing. If you still don't get my point, it was like being an air traffic controller without knowing anything about planes, telling instructions on how to land safe to a guy you just suppose he's a real pilot, and the guy responds in a language you've never heard of. Le Wagon basically taught me how to recognize a real pilot, how to speak his language, and how to become a pilot.

So far I can say it is the best decision I have made in my career. I finished in December and started freelancing mid-February as a web developer. Three days later I got my first mission and I never stopped getting missions ever since. I love what I do. I learn every day coding skills but also skills that could be useful if I want to open a business later on. I use my creativity, help clients, have the freedom to choose my projects, and I finally feel good at what I'm doing!

After graduating from a Business school and working for 5 years as a business developer and project manager for digital companies, I felt the need of understanding how all the digital magic happened. As my contract ended, I had some time ahead and heard great reviews from friends who had graduated from le wagon. I decided it was the right time to finally learn how websites and web apps are built, and perhaps discover a new profession, as I was quite unhappy with my job.
These 9 weeks were very intense but so exhilirating ! At first, I couldn’t believe that we would be able at the end to build real products. But the teachers and the program enabled us to become real programmers.
My experience was life changing: it gave me back confidence, with an amazing feeling of achievement when you finish your product; opened new career opportunities I hadn’t considered before, and enabled me to meet great and diverse people who also played a big part in my change of perspective.
With all these new skills, I now have a 360 degrees profile in digital and consider creating my company of consulting in digital communication and brand strategy.
Without le wagon, I would never have felt that I could create my own company. Not only did I learn incredible skills, but in such an open-minded and diverse environment, I became more confident, because I can also rely on the alumni and le wagon itself, which is an amazing asset.

I came from a small consulting firm working with big industries. Although I found their issues very stimulating, I was looking for a new challenge where you can actually build something and be a part of a project. To do it short, I was looking to be more an entrepreneur.

And to do so, I wanted to extend my programming skills. I have had several projects in the past where I always got stuck on my lack of technical skills. By chance, while listening to a podcast, I found the perfect bootcamp: not a bootcamp just to learn some technical skills but a bootcamp that gives you the right tools to create your entrepreneurial projects!

This is, according to me, the success of this training: to give you a set of skills (and only the ones that will be useful) to launch a project.

I have to admit another point that was a real surprise to me is their teaching methods (training platform, teachers support…) which is modern and very well designed. Last very important point, above all, the alumni community is very very active, you do not feel alone when the program is finished!

To sum up, no regrets, lots of hope for the future!

This a true coding bootcamp, really teaching you to learn how to code and bring life to your projects and apps.
It can really make a difference when you want to kick-off your start-up project or find a job in the programmation space.  

Plus, the mentors, teachers and teaching assistant are all very skilled and very sociable, always helping  and making you progress.
Overall a superb experience that I recommend to everyone, even you don't necessarily aim at becoming a developer, it is more than just that.

When I graduated from an agronomy school, I wasn't sure what to do afterwards. But I was sure about one thing : I wanted to learn more and to discover different professional environments. Therefore, I did consulting, business development in a start-up abroad, marketing, financial audit.. But something was missing. I wanted to see more my day-to-day impact and as I am curious, I wanted to learn more and faster. In addition, I started to get start-up ideas. But I had to test my ideas with real users so I needed to create an app. The only option I had was to pay a developer to create my MVP but I didn't have the money...

At this moment, a friend told me about le Wagon, an intensive coding bootcamp that is now in 28 cities worldwide ! I did it in January 2018 in Paris and I found exactly what I was looking for : 
- great skills in web development to be able to speak with developers and to create my own web products and MVP 
- a wonderful community always keen on helping each other, from various backgrounds which is such enriching 
- a nice le wagon team that helps you a lot to do the transition after the bootcamp.

Since then, I'm a freelance web developer and I’m also teaching code in Paris. It exactly fulfilled the expectations I had : keep being curious, keep learning a lot (the knowledge is absolutely infinite in coding) and create in a couple of seconds great stuff on the internet !