Le Wagon

Before joining Le Wagon, I had never had a relationship with computers. Any problem I'd have I'd go running to my boyfriend for help. I had been a teacher before joining and at university I'd studied Art History, nothing related to computers at all. I didn't think I'd have it in me to be good at web development. What was web development?

After meeting lots of self- taught coder digital nomads and hearing some good reviews of Le Wagon I decided it was now or never to try to change my career. Time to try something new, put my brain to work like it never had before and learn how to code. I was lucky that Lisbon had a Le Wagon school and even luckier that I was able to get the resident's scholarship which made it much more affordable.

I did Batch 122 which started in January, in the cold, wet winter months I thought were perfect for hibernating and coding away. And that's what I did, all day, everyday. 

At first the weeks were extremely hard for me, I'd never used my brain like this, I was tired, some days I did not understand how to solve the exercises, I thought I'd never be good enough...There were days I went home sad and frustrated, others however,  when I felt on top of the world excited about the new things I had learnt and what I was able to achieve. Understanding the challenges, working out the code for myself was both elating and inspirational!  As the weeks proceeded I realised that it wasn't sustainable worrying about understanding every single line of code. You have to trust in yourself and even if you have trouble doing so, trust in the system and the course and at some point you will  start to realise that even though things don't get easier, you can solve them as your confidence increases. At some point you think: I can do this! It's a wonderful feeling.

The challenges are never easy, from Day 1 you go through a baptism of fire but with the help of teachers and the other classmates you will feel very proud getting through it all. Le Wagon achieves this in 3 primary and essential ways:

1. The teachers and TA are an absolute dream-team. Extremely knowledgeable,  helpful, supportive with unrelenting patience and the desire to make you understand and more importantly to empower you how to achieve results for yourself. They also have an amazing energy and a great sense of humor making them so much fun to be around - Superteachers!

2. The buddy system - everyday you are set up with a new buddy, this helps immensely because some days you are being helped by a stronger student and other days you find yourself being the stronger one, mentoring your buddy. Then you feel you've really understood. The buddy system allows you to find your strengths and weaknesses and form strong bonds with your classmates.

3. The community and the atmosphere. Le Wagon is a family and you really feel that from Day 1. Our manager and community-manager Shannon and Maria were superb at making us feel at ease and involved at all times. We would have a weekly Friday dinner and many other activities which allowed us to bond with each other and the teachers. Beer pong, dancing, doughnuts and snacks, hugs, you name it, we had it!

Now that my Le Wagon experience has ended I am still very much tied to the community and I would be very sad if that were not so. These are bonds made for life and I know that if I ever have a programming problem I have tens of people I can turn to for help. I am hoping to find a job as a Junior Developer and really achieving my goal of changing my career and my life. 

Extremely highly recommended course and experience and a special shout out to the Lisbon school. The people involved have a big heart and it shows in their teaching, organizing, the ability to motivate people and make it fun!

Among all the bootcamps, I think this is one of the best way to learn about web development. Le wagon Lyon provides high level training with very talented teachers. I highly recommend Le Wagon to anyone looking for a career change or for technical skills to develop a business. It's definitely not easy, but you wont regret it!

One more important thing: Le wagon is a human experience too, you’ll have the opportunity to develop great friendships and networks. All the staff cares about the happiness of the students and are willing to create a supportive environment to help you achieve all the goals of the training.

Among all the bootcamps, I think this is one of the best way to learn about web development. Le wagon Lyon provides high level training with excellent teachers. I highly recommend Le Wagon to anyone looking for a career change or for technical skills to develop a business. It's definitely not easy, but you wont regret it!

One more important thing: Le wagon is a human experience too, you’ll have the opportunity to develop great friendships and networks. All the staff cares about the happiness of the students and are willing to create a supportive environment to help you achieve all the goals of the training.

Thanks again Matthieu, Kevin and Joseph!

I always wanted to backpack across Asia. Just over a year ago I left my job to hike the Himalayas and at the same time I started a travel blog to share my experience. Out of fun and curiosity, I tried to get into web design. I signed up to a few online coding courses to try to teach myself but I quickly realized that paradoxically you need to know how to code before you can learn to code! I ended up getting lost in the mass of information and wasting a lot of time.
I was determined to change things so I bit the bullet and paused my travels to enroll in the immersive coding bootcamp Le Wagon in Bali where I heard the climate was warm and the culture magical. I have not regretted it ever since.
To summarise the bootcamp experience in a few words is not easy but I can say for certain that it far exceeded my expectations. The amount you learn in such a short time is incredible.
The course fed us wave after wave of new concepts everyday but the teachers, the structure and the course platform make the learning process simple and effective. We were taught the back-end language of Ruby and its framework Rails, then covered 3 front-end languages, database management and a wealth of other material. We learnt through a combination of daily quizzes, exercises, live codes and even flashcards after class to reinforce the lectures and we did this endlessly over five weeks. By the sixth week, we were able to create an Airbnb clone. It would have been impossible for me to do this by myself, let alone in such a short time.
By the seventh week, the bootcamp builds up to the apex of idea pitching, project selection and definition, using the sprint methodology to build a working prototype from absolute scratch in 10 days. I am pleased to say that our team performed tremendously and the app looked amazing. We presented the project on Demo Day as you would to an investor but in our case in front of a packed room of tech enthusiasts living and working in Bali who asked me some tough queestions! There is no better training ground than this.
But because we all know we can never fully master the infinite world of web design let alone in two months, the point of difference with other bootcamps and the power of Le Wagon is exactly this – 1. it gives you the ability to transform your ideas into a working web app that is ready to be shown to the world by the end of the bootcamp, 2. you will feel you are able to code independently, solve your own problems and 3. be ready to enter the tech world and embark on new undertakings. Right now, I feel nothing will stand in my way of coding and learning more coding which is exactly what I came to Bali for.
Less than a month since I finished the bootcamp, I am working on the project I built at Le Wagon with the hope to launch it as a startup soon. At the same time, I'm studying React with no major problem. I have also already been contacted for some freelance contracts.
To put it in a nutshell, at the age of 29, Le Wagon gave me the ability to start a new career. I could not have asked for anything better. The motto of Le Wagon is "Change your life: learn to code", and I guarantee you that it could not have been more appropriate. If you want to learn coding, Le Wagon is the best investment you could make!
And did I forget to say if you take the course in Bali, you will love your time spent mixing coding with an early-morning surf or a sundowner beer on the beach, all for a fraction of the price elsewhere. That is why I am calling Bali home for a little while longer.

I've always been an entrepreneur and my own boss since leaving university 10 years. I used to run a fast food business an grew frustrated with the scalability of it. So I tried some online coding and realised the power of it. Fast forward 9 months, the week I left Le Wagon I started a web agency with a friend from the course and we got out first customers that week. 

Le Wagon was genuinely one of the best things I've ever done. I am now my own boss again. Apart from the odd meeting, I can work anywhere I want, whenever I want, as long we deliver for our customers, which we are doing. 

Le Wagon is not just for entrepreneurs. The speed at which my class mates landed developer jobs is faster than any other industry I know. The level this 9 week course can get you to is unimaginable until you actually do it. All my classmates are happily employed either full time or freelance and loving their new lives. 

Software is eating the world. Don't get left behind. 

I have been working as a Digital Project Manager/Interactive Producer for the past 12 plus years at quite a few interactive Digital Agencies in Southern California.  Until 3 years ago, I quit a solid full time job of 6 years because I was simply burnt out.  Late nights, weekend work, and no real social life… I had to do something. When I quit my job, I really did not have a plan, but knew I wanted to have my own business, travel more, and to be in control of my time.  

After traveling a bit, I decided to start a small interactive agency.  Things picked up quick and a big issue I was facing was finding reliable talent.  I decided to learn more about the current state of the web development world to enhance my understanding and become a better Digital Project Manager.  I needed to get up to date with front end development(started in digital as a web developer years ago) and have always been intimidated by the backend.

I came across Le Wagon after going through a few dev bootcamp review sites. After checking out some of the Youtube videos and all the locations around the world, I knew I had to go. But which one?

Next thing you know I am in Barcelona. First time in Spain and learning full stack development at Le Wagon. The curriculum covers everything you need to know to get started with front and backend development. Each day you are challenged and building up to create your very own web application.  Of course you are not building it alone, you and your comrades you have been training with through the course are coming together daily to make it happen. And we made it happen!  

Teachers are awesome, course content is well thought out and presented well, and the support is exceptional. It was a good choice and think that taking the course was long overdue.  I wish I would have signed up sooner. The digital world is moving fast, and if you want to stay current you have to be sure you are around the right people and resources.  Le Wagon has been that place for me and has provided the knowledge upgrade I needed to take my skill set to the next level. The skills I have attained through Le Wagon have assisted in enhancing processes in my business as well as locating and hiring more reliable talent.  I also have a newfound love for backend coding.  

Thank you Le Wagon!

Before Le Wagon i was working in door to door sales, which is not really a career. So I decided i needed a career change. After a bit of research I found Le Wagon and was extremely interested in learning how to code. It was the best and most life changing decision I have made in my life so far. The people working at Le Wagon are amazing and so much fun to learn and work with. I have not stopped recommending it to people since I left. Just 2 weeks after finishing I was able to land an amazing job and I cannot thank them enough.

This is the training you have to do if you want to change your day to day and start a tech. way of working ! Working for 10 years as an Industrial Engineer, I moved to Bordeaux and wanted to make a real turn in my career.  Wagon allows me to do so, thanks to the quality of the trainings, the team of course and the tech culture.  In 9 weeks, you will learn how to build a website from the really beginning to the online version, knowing all the steps to do it in the best way, learning Ruby, Javascript, Html, Css, Ruby on Rails. I have just finished my training and have so many projets in my head now possible.

Doing Le wagon Bootcamp and learning how to code during 9weeks was incredible ! 

I didn't know anything about coding but the Bootcamp program is so well thought and built that you can't fail. 

It has been very very intense but so efficient! I have met great people, joined a great and active network and gained new skills : It opened new perspectives . 

In addition the Lille team is sooooo great: present, attentive, very competent. They are quality teachers!

I sincerely advise anyone who is interested by websites to do it. 

I recently completed Le Wagon Amsterdam batch #126. It was, in short, the best learning experience of my life.

Throughout and after high school, which I graduated the summer just before the bootcamp, I completed other coding courses before, but none of them had the same impact on me or taught me as much as Le Wagon. Even with very high expectations for the programme, they managed to exceed each and every one. The curriculum and structure side of the programme is amazing. The teachers and teacher assistants do a great job at explaining every concept just enough so you really understand what you’re doing. Additionally, they teach other soft and hard skills a developer needs to succeed in the industry, such as version control and collaboration with other developers.

What surprised and pleased me the most was the sense of community that is created since day one, and persists even after the bootcamp is over. The buddy system is a great way to learn to code with other developers, get to know the other bootcamp participants and even make new friends.

All in all, I would absolutely recommend LeWagon to anyone, regardless of previous experience with code.