Le Wagon

Coding is a skill i wanted to acquire for a long time. While life as a strategy consultant was thrilling and rewarding in many ways, a sense of monotony was sinking in over time - every (long) day was starting to look the same. Above all, I exceedingly felt like I wasn't doing enough - I wanted to be at the front line tackling and solving problems rather than taking the bird's eye view and finding rather high-level solutions. 

I enjoy self-learning and as such became passionate about the idea of learning how to code as one avenue to actually do more. I signed up to codeacademy and started learning front-end languages (html & css) whenever the job allowed. However, coding is like an endless sea - I felt overwhelmed rather fast because of the many languages out there, and the lack of knowledge as to how it could potentially all tie together at some point. 

This is when I gave up on trying it on my own and began searching for coding schools. A university friend of mine took the 9 week coding bootcamp at Le Wagon in Brazil a year back, so naturally I reached out to him. He offered unwavering praise for the class, so I decided to give it a go and applied for the batch due to commence in January 2018 in Berlin. 

5 months later I can say he was 100% right. The bootcamp was worth it - something I found hard to believe beforehand considering the price tag of coding bootcamps these days. Spending 8-10 hours each and every day learning & applying concepts with the ability to ask as many questions as you like along the way was the perfect way to get off the ground in this endless sea of coding. After a month or so, I felt the equivalent of what young players in professional sports refer to as "the game slowing down" - concepts started to tie together and you'd start to really understand how frameworks (in our case ruby on rails) function from within. 

On a sidenote, the 9 weeks were not only a great learning experience, but also an incredibly fun time. Great people (with no exceptions!), evening get-to-togethers, fun activities and cocktail nights led to countless memories that will stay with me forever. 

Over the last 2 months since the bootcamp ended I've continued coding a few projects, the last being a successful coding challenge for a blockchain company. Quite honestly I am amazed by the progress that is possible in such a short time frame, and have Le Wagon and their wonderful teachers to thank for the getting me off the ground and triggering my curiosity to continue learning and getting better each and every day!

I studied business but always been interested in Tech and Entrepreneurship. After my bachelor before starting to think about what is next I wanted to learn something I have been always interested in but never really accomplished to fully understand - Coding. Through friends I heard of LeWagon and applied for Batch-92 in Berlin. The application process is super smooth and after a Skype Interview with Philipp I was admitted to the Bootcamp.

The preparation was quite intense since you had to do a lot of courses online and had to start digging into the topic of coding. Fortunately, when the Bootcamp started many of the topics mentioned in the preparation were readressed. However, I can really recommend to do the preparation because otherwise it takes way longer to understand basic principles of coding. 

This is also one of the things I really really loved about LeWagon. I always struggled with coding since I had problems to make the step from understanding the principle to execute it in a real life example. And LeWagon made it so freakin easy. Every day started with a lesson about the topic of the day and afterwards you could directly apply the newly learned skills in numerous challenges that were sometimes hard but super rewarding. When you had a problem you could always ask your coding buddy (pair programming is awesome) or if there was no sight of the light at the end of tunnel you could just write a ticket and a TA came pretty swift to help you understand your problem and solve. It was never the case that you just got the solution. The teachers and TAs always tried to help you to solve the problem on your own. In combination with the real life challenges one really learned how to tackle problems on your own and to be indipendent in the outside world.

Besides the great learning concept I want to mention three other things that I really appreciated during my time at LeWagon - People, Overall-Concept and Organization.

We were a group of roughly 30 students and really became a well functioning group. Through the daily chaning coding buddies or the projects at the end of the Bootcamp you really got to know everyone. Besides that, several events and lunches increased the team spirit even more. The organization of the BootCamp was tremendous. Philipp, the driver, put every second of his time into making this BootCamp a tremendous success. He organized a lot of great events around the BootCamp, from Yoga-Sessions to talks with Developers and people from the Start-Up Scene. And that is also the point where LeWagon, in my opinion, stands out from other BootCamps. The whole concept is focused on not only learn how to code but also how to develop a promising product. This is one of the most helpful things when you head out to find a job as a product manager or developer.

To summarize, LeWagon was a lifetime-experience that I never wanna miss and I can really recommend to everyone that are not only interested in learning a new skill but also how to apply this skill in products that customers love.

After reading all the reviews about various bootcamps I was a bit sceptical about le Wagon's reputation because it seemed to be too good to be true. After finishing the 9-weeks-bootcamp I can say for myself: it is really like that.

Besides the obvious, that you get loads of information and knowledge in a very short period of time, I was amazed by the community le Wagon creates. Not only do you have lifelong access to all the slides and code, it also gets updated on a regular base and they add more and more online courses you can attend afterwards if you want to proceed your career as a developer. But not only that: we were 22 guys from 12 countries, we had students who just graduated school to a daddy from Greece with two kids. We had so much fun during and after the badge, a lot stayed in Berlin afterwards and we are still hanging out. 

It is truely a great experience I can just highly recommend to everyone without a doubt!

After graduating in management at Université Paris-Dauphine, I wasn’t sure about my aspirations. Because of the lack of other options, I started a master in finance. As I cared about my freedom and my creativity, I realized quickly that I wasn’t cut out for this kind of life. I decided to apply to Le Wagon Montreal (batch #125) and thus to quit my studies and to start coding. It was a risk but also probably the first good decision I made concerning my education. Indeed, studying at Le Wagon was a very good experience. In such a short period of time, I acquired the basis every web developer should have. It made me able to conceive and build a basic product as well as to collaborate with other developers and, above all, it equipped me with the necessary skillset to keep on learning and build new competencies by myself. Learning to code is a long and non-linear journey, the stronger your bases are, the faster and smarter you’ll be. Le Wagon’s teaching method is pioneering in the way that it provides the student not only with a general understanding of some languages but with a deep mastering of what is fundamental: the skeleton, the way everything is set-up. It is this particular combination of hard and soft skills that make a student able, at the end of only three months, to entirely build a website from the idea to the deployment. I am now pursuing my learning by working on various projects and will start next year a master in computer science in London, at UCL. I sincerely recommend this program and the wonderful and committed team of Montreal.

I attended Le Wagon from March to May 2018 in Milan (batch#131).    I have a business background, I've studied management and worked in strategy consulting afterwards. I've decided to enroll in Le Wagon because I've always been interested in digital products and I wanted to learn more about how to build them. Now that it's over I can say that it was a great decision and I'm continuing to learn how to code.    Some factors make Le Wagon your best shot if you're looking for a coding bootcamp.   Le Wagon syllabus has been polished throughout the years. The approach is very practical and it offers a wide overview over the main tools you'll need as a developer. You won't need previous programming experience, just a lot of willingness to learn.   The staff of Le Wagon Milan: teachers and assistants were very competent, passionate and cool people to deal with. It was the first bootcamp organized by Le Wagon in the city, yet everything went great thanks to them.   The average day at Le Wagon comprises a rather short lecture (1.5h) in the morning, followed by a day of programming practice. All the exercises are channeled through an online platform, which has lots of resources available for the students also after the program ends.    The last two weeks students get divided in groups to work on a final project, which we eventually presented at a major Italian incubator. It's pretty unbelievable to be able to build a proper digital product after such a short period!    During the 9 weeks of the bootcamp you'll get an intense introduction to the world of coding. You'll have to continue learning afterwards - even the best developers have to - but you'll have all the tools to build web applications on your own or apply for junior dev positions.    Overall, my review of the bootcamp is extremely positive. One word of caution though: what you get out of the bootcamp is up to you. It is tough, the days are long and sometimes you'll feel frustrated. However, if you will enjoy learning how to code - like I did - putting in the work that it requires to get the most out of it won't feel as tough.   For who do I recommend Le Wagon? I strongly recommend it to whoever feels interested in learning more about coding. Not everybody who goes through Le Wagon necessarily becomes a developer afterwards, but everybody who attends gains an invaluable experience. Learning to code empowers people after all.

I joined le Wagon Berlin 6 months ago. In retrospect, I’m fortunate to claim that it has been one of the best decision I have ever taken.    For the context:  We had just launched our startup and recently acquired market confirmation. We needed to scale up and therefore, update our MVP. Our original goal was for one of us to do the course in order to gain enough skills to be able to hire a CTO and/or manage a dev team.   The bootcamp:  You start learning the fundamentals of programming, moving onto front-end and design, wrap-it-up with Rails, the framework that puts everything together and finish up with 3 weeks of concrete project development.  The starting weeks are intense but teachers are very dedicated to making sure you’re not left behind.  However, you need to be fully committed to succeed and take the most out of it.  It’s emotional payback time during the final project weeks when you figure out that you can build an entire web application from scratch when, 1.5 months ago, you thought that Java was an abbreviation for Javascript.   After the bootcamp:  I figured out I really liked to code and decided to build our new product. With the skills acquired you’re able to tackle all of it: Conception, design, development, server setup, testing, rolling out and maintenance. At that point, Le Wagon had further proven its value with its great community as I was always able to reach out to teachers and ask for advice.    To wrap-it-up, here are some of the key aspects you gain after completing le Wagon: - Have an idea? Just build, launch and scale it! Ruby on Rails is very powerful to launch products very fast - More than just coding: Get notions of product management, design and UX, all set in a business perspective  - Understand developers and learn to communicate effectively with them - Once you understand the fundamentals of programming, it’s easier to branch out to other languages - You’re part of a growing and very supportive community - Have access to great and constantly updated resources/learning material   Side-note: For those worried about the perception that coding is for geeks, math enthusiasts etc. please put those thoughts aside, those are complete bullshit.    Do yourself some good: Get enrolled, struggle first and succeed at last. You will learn very powerful and actionable skills in a very short amount of time while behind around great people. 

  Hi everybody, I'm Marco, and I'm happy to say that after studying with Le Wagon I feel comfortable calling myself a Junior Full-stack Developer.   Coding was a big career change for me, but I began to approach a bit of coding on my own a few months before LeWagon. I recommend this strongly as it helped me a lot in the Bootcamp, even if the daily lessons were still very challenging. Le Wagon Bootcamp is just that: a chance to challenge yourself while taking part in a big family that supports you.   Every day was a big learning curve (for everyone) and sometimes a student can feel frustrated, which is one of the most common feelings in the coding world...but at the same time, that frustration can fuel you to rise above difficulties along the way. For instance, at a certain point in the Bootcamp, I was ready to create a WebApp like AirBnB from scratch, and at that moment I felt invincible :D   In my personal experience, LeWagon brings you and your mind to the next level through a very good learning journey, where different and well-prepared teachers and assistants help you understand the core of the daily lesson.   I found LeWagon Staff very patient, polite and prepared, and ready to go above and beyond for their students.   All this Staff, your Colleagues, and the people from all over the world in LeWagon media give you access to amazing support channels (posting jobs, help, news...) with neverending new technical material posted. You are suddenly part of a global support network, that to me felt like a big new family (I got along really well with the teachers and other students!)   That's the unique power of LeWagon. From the moment you sign up, you are never without support.   Would I suggest LeWagon to whoever wants to change his/her life? Yes  Would I pay again to redo the course? Yes Did LeWagon help me find an interview/job/internship after the course? Yes, and their global network makes me feel that if I needed to relocate I could ask them for help again. The Final Project was useful? Yes, with LeWagon you will build a Portfolio without even realizing (really helpful for future applications).   Please know that it will not be easy. Even as a beginner you have to have a real interest in code and a wish to learn. But if you have that, Le Wagon will support you from the beginning and give you the tools you need to start working. I recommend Le Wagon. 

Coming from agricolture background, i wasn`t happy with my studies and for this reason, I decided to get more involved in product development by joining Le Wagon. 

The program has two key strengths: 
- A very hands-on approach focusing on product development's methodology and workflow (heroku, git, etc.)
- A very demanding curriculum that teaches in-depth programming basics and software architecture, Ruby, Rails, Html, CSS, JavaScript....

Le Wagon main strength lies in its solid program that teaches both essential technical skills and a strong product mindset, in fact at the end of the course the students are asked to think, develop and present their personal projects to the public and potential investors.
The group of students also really contributed to the experience. Bright people from all over the world, with diverse backgrounds, and the format of the course, allowed us to really create a bond and learn from each other. The bootcamp at LeWagon allowed me to really dive into the world of code and gave me the tools to keep on learning. 
After a week since i finished the course i already got a job offer from my ex company where i was working before joining LeWagon.
I highly encourage anybody considering joining Le Wagon as it is an experience that will continue to give you benefits even after the 9 week classes.

I just finished the latest batch (number 131) at Le Wagon Milan and I want to share with you why Le Wagon is the right option if you want to learn coding in Europe.

I have always been interested in new technologies and I become even more interested during the past two years of my life.
I thus began to study programming by myself, by using online courses, watching online tutorials and buying books. However, I felt that my progresses were too slow for two main reasons. Firstly, I had a full time job which allowed me too study only few hours every night. Secondly, I had no one to help me when my code was not working or when I did not grasp a specific topic.
Therefore, I started to look around to find a coding course suitable for my needs. I came across Le Wagon thanks to the positive reviews I found on major tech websites.
I was amazed by the abundance of positive reviews people wrote and how they enjoyed so much Le Wagon.
Being skeptic, I started to contacting Le Wagon’s Alumni on LinkedIn asking if the course was really that good. All of them confirmed it to me: Le Wagon is the right coding bootcamp if you want to learn how to code.

Therefore, I decide to take this jump in my life and finally commit 9 weeks of my time to learn coding. Le Wagon kept its promises. After 9 weeks I know more than what I could have achieved alone.
Do not take me wrong, the course was extremely tough but even more rewarding.
We started working at 9am and finished in the evening only when the exercises were done.
The course has a simple yet effective structure. The first hour and half of the day was dedicated to learn a new coding concept while the other seven hours were dedicated to solve different exercises. It is a learning by doing process in which you, as individual, try to solve the challenge and, if you do not manage, only after consulting with your fellow students you can ask the teacher. Each teacher will be more than glad to help you out in finding your bug/mistake or find a better and cleaner way to write the code.
Each day you are exposed to a new concept, a new code reality which, step by step, throughout the 9 weeks, will allow you to build the final project.
The final project consists in a website/application developed in teams of 3 or 4 in less than 2 weeks. 
If you really think about it, Le Wagon takes a group of motivated individuals with zero experience in coding and, in little more than 2 moths, gives them the right tools to build a fully functioning web application and be prepared to code alone.

At Le Wagon I did not only learn how to code, they also taught me how to look for the right information, the right posts, the right guides to be a better coder. In this world full of information and data, it is really difficult to spot what it is relevant and right from what it is not. Le Wagon teaches you how to learn to code and how to program in little over than 2 months.

By deciding to go to Le Wagon you truly open up doors for yourself to new opportunities and skills, but also new friends and networks. One of the most important things to highlight about Le Wagon is the community you join, which is second to none. If it is the number of different nationalities represented (14 in my batch alone) or the varying backgrounds of the individuals, everybody has an interesting story to tell.

Regarding the coding - do not expect it to be sugar coated in any way! You will really have to commit yourself to Le Wagon and coding in the nine weeks ( the first three weeks are not called "hell weeks" for no reason ;) ). But if you really want to learn the basics of coding and are up for a challenge this will definately be the right course for you!

 

I’m a Parisian graduate in business. Since I’m out of college, everything has been aligned perfectly for me to pursue a great career in Finance. Everything, except that never felt right to me. Hence, for a year, I’ve been dedicating myself to  purpose driven projects. But in each of these projects development, I found myself stuck on the same redundant reason: my lack of coding skills. Without these, there was no way to truly own the digital products I was working on. That’s why I attended LeWagon.

As an autodidact, I tried first to learn how to code by myself. But I never succeeded to build anything serious, and I had the impression of losing my time attacking a field that seemed too big to handle on my own. Now I realize the odds were even bigger, and I can’t imagine how I could have succeeded without the intensity and the quality of LeWagon’s formation.

LeWagon’s education logic is simple: learning by doing. However, that’s the way LeWagon pushes you to do that is incredibly effective. The courses are super clear, the TA’s were always pedagogue and motivating,  the challenges get you to manipulate the concepts and really grasp them, the buddy system helps you accept difficulty and have fun with it, and the live codes are the sweetest moments to jump out from you comfort zone and realize the progress you made.

Apart from the crazy nights we had going out with the batch, my favorite moments were also the last ones, during the project weeks. Those are the days when all of a sudden, you realize that you’re naturally doing what was unimaginable before. Seeing our team’s project getting concrete was a tremendous satisfaction. We rebuilt and dramatically improved one of my last year’s project: à European newspaper written by locals called Nationall.

Surprisingly, I not only developed my coding skills but also my pitching skills, which I had to improve sharply for the demoday. I also discovered how to work in team with people coming from different background and cultures. All of it is both super interesting and ultra useful to be prepared for a professional environment.

Now, I ended the bootcamp two months ago. After some deserved holidays, I’m still working with my teammates on our newspaper project to welcome our firsts writers and readers really soon. I’m also about to work as fullstack developer in a company to explore this new vast world full of possibilities. That’s how my conclusion takes us back to this post title; LeWagon broad up my horizon, it couldn’t have been the wrong choice.

 

Le Wagon is for real, when they tell you "change your life, learn to code" they do not lie.

On the end, it is the opportunity to discover and master a new motivating universe, dynamic, filled with challenges and constantly evolving, the tech world. (you wont get bored anytime soon)

After several reorientations and 5 years of business school, the code has triggered in me something that gave me many future perspectives: be a freelancer and work from anywhere in the world with just a computer and a wifi, start a project solo (or not!) with elbow grease and 0 $ in the wallet, be hired as a dev and join an adventure in a startup type company in the tech world, and so on!

On the experience Le Wagon, nothing to say, well yes, a lot of good! About efficiency, do not be afraid of the duration, 2 months is short but here it was enough, in addition to a new topic, we discover a new way of learning: constantly supported by the ultra-effective online platform  (and accessible for life) including all courses, exercises, corrections, QCM ...; each day brings a new challenge through a 1h30 class in the morning on a topic, then a whole day to practice it and understand it well, before moving on to the next day. It sounds simple, but it changes everything.

Add to that a great working atmosphere (but not just work), effective teachers and a driver that gives everything, and you have, in just 2 months: learned to code, built a network (constantly expanding) in this sector, met new buddies, had fun, had some drink (must release the pressure), and opened new horizons! It goes so fast, that in the end we ask for more.

And all this for everyone, no need for knowledge in code, good school record, "mention", being from "such school" or other, just to come in a good mood.

On Le Wagon in Lyon, the team is perfect, Matthieu the driver give this extra care to all batchers (pay attention to the "diet" Le Wagon, would be better to re-register in the gym before, just in case), about the teachers Kevcha and Jpheos, they know much about coding and bring much fun, and in addition they are pedagogue ... But watch out for the football teams that some support!

If you hesitate to do Le Wagon, I will save you time, do not hesitate, go for it.