AI Software bootcamp | On campus, full-time

Before Le wagon I was a bit lost, I had just finished playing hockey having to step away because of injury & my mind was starting to go in a lot of different directions. When you spend so much of your time dedicated to one thing, a sudden change can really mess you up mentally & that leads me to explain my experience at Le wagons bootcamp.... It's quite scary being 21 from Canada travelling across the world to learn how to code; something which I knew absolutely nothing about. The first day was intimidating, seeing all these different classmates with prior business, product, and even programming knowledge that I didn't have. A lot of times you want to just give up and quit. I remember week 1 trying to 'iterate through a hash'... and thinking "I'm never going to be able do this I should just throw my laptop out the window", but with the help of the teachers and other classmates everything started to come together & FAST.  Le wagon's bootcamp may not be considered tertiary education in some people's eyes, but they provide you with connections and resources that you could never hope to find on your own. By the time week 9 came I truly felt confident in a lot of different things that I had no clue how to do before and that is all credited to the way the course is structured. For anyone who is a little bit lost in their life but has the desire to consume new knowledge Le wagon is a must. I learned it's not just about the code, there are so many other avenues & tricks that are taught at Le wagon to help you find the perfect setting for you in this rapidly expanding tech industry. For my final project our team worked on MilesX, an app that allows you to buy and sell airline miles for cheaper business class flights.It was a lot of work, there was a ton of web pages to create, and group disagreements we overcame. All in all I think that having to deal with those hiccups along the way made our project better. Any disagreement always spurred new discussions & having 10 pages made everyone work harder on the APIs, the design, and the basic structure. It turned out really well and I'm personally just happy that our group could learn as much as we did in a 2 week period. For anyone thinking about joining Le wagon, do it. If you have a creative attitude I urge you to explore code. I read recently that only 0.5% of the earths population know how to write lines of code; thanks to Le wagon I can now say that I am apart of arguably the most exclusive club in the world! Why wouldn't you want to join that club too.PS.This is of course my own opinion, but learning to code in Bali is unparelleled ;Reece Soukoroff, Batch 306 Bali

It was really an experience that changes my life. Currently, I shifted my life to coding thanks to Le Wagon Buenos Aires.

The instructors are the best ones and they clearly chose well all their students because out batch was composed of excellent people!

I completed the 9-week bootcamp with Le Wagon in Bali, Indonesia in November 2019 (Batch #306). The program teaches Ruby, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, SQL, git, GitHub, Heroku and how to combine everything with the Ruby on Rails framework. Graduates are able to build web applications incl. backend, frontend, and hosting. In addition, the program touches important aspects such as developing in a team, testing, dev ops, and design. In general, the bootcamp curriculum is very well thought out and fully enables graduates to start building.

I’m a 31 years old mechanical engineer and MBA from Germany. In the last five years, I have founded and build a hardware startup in the field of measurement technology for industrial customers. While communicating with our software developers in the role of a product owner, I always felt a communication gap due to my lack of experience in software development. My motivation for the bootcamp was to close this gap and ideally being able to develop a Minimum Viable Product myself for my next startup idea.

The Bootcamp has exceeded my expectations, especially in terms of the breadth and depth of practical skills being taught. Each morning begins with a two-hour lecture followed by challenges for independent study, where you can exchange ideas with a student buddy or get help from a teaching assistant if needed. At the end of the day, there will be a live coding of individual students in front of the whole group. Those who still have the energy after 9-10 hours of programming can recapitulate what they have learned at home with "flashcards" i.e. virtual index cards.

I most liked the methodology and didactic the program follows. Especially the daily challenges are perfectly set up with a gamification approach. Regular successes keep motivation high and the day flies by very quickly. I started a pure online course before and unfortunately had the opposite experience. I can 100% recommend the Le Wagon bootcamp as a full-stack web development in-person program.

The location of Bali is excellent because it makes it possible to relax on weekends in fantastic surroundings. In addition, almost all the students have traveled to Bali for the bootcamp and can concentrate on the program without distractions.

I was a lab research assistant before coming to Le Wagon. My Bootcamp experience was quite a roller coaster, as I almost quit the first 2 weeks. However, with the help of the TA's and teachers, I became more confident and more comfortable with the assignments and lectures. I don't regret choosing Le Wagon because I'm so satisfied with the experience I had. The final two weeks were really good because that's where you actually put everything you learn into motion, which is very rewarding and I felt that I made the right decision in choosing Le Wagon. l would definitely recommend Le Wagon to anyone who wants to learn how to code.

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 just completed the Full-Stack Development Bootcamp with Le Wagon in Bali, Indonesia (Batch #306). In 9 intense weeks, we learned the fundamentals of web development, culminating with us building from scratch two working prototypes. The pacing, teachers, and curriculum organization were absolutely top-notch to learn launching a well-designed project quickly.

Before joining Le Wagon, I was an accountant and business consultant for five years in Washington DC. While I’ve always had a passion for entrepreneurship, I lacked the skills to turn my ideas into reality. Through this (demanding, yet fun!) program, I feel comfortable with my programming foundation enough to continue working on my own after the course. I started a new project just days after!

The typical day looks like this: Arrive around 8:30/9, about a 2 hour lecture to learn a new topic for the day, and then from 11-5:30 you pair up with a classmate to work on challenges at your own pace. At 5:30 we have another lecture/livecode/group activity. The whole time the teachers are there with you every step of the way to answer questions or clarify concepts. Perhaps one of the most worthwhile and beneficial parts of Le Wagon is access to high caliber teachers. For me, this is the biggest separation from learning code on your own.

Overall, I had a very positive experience with Le Wagon. I feel like I have a completely new set of tools to reshape my career going forward. Whether you’re interested in changing your career path, pursing side projects/companies, or simply to learn a new skill, I’d 100% recommend the decision to go with Le Wagon.

Before joining Batch 281 at Le Wagon Montreal I was working in B2B Marketing for

IT. The job was ok but there was no room for growth in the company. I felt stuck and

really wanted a change. But I also didn’t want to go back University for another 2-4

years. A 9-week bootcamp sounded perfect. So, I applied.

Flash forward a few months to the first week of “camp” and right away I knew it was

going to be worth it. Our daily schedule was honestly the best part. Class was only

an hour and a half long, followed by a good 6 hours of practical exercises. Learning

to code is hard and the only way to develop and get better is to practice as much as

you can. Believe me, you practice at Le Wagon.

By the end of the 9-week marathon I had built so many things it was amazing. From

simple math programs, to a multi-page e-commerce site with full front and back end

capabilities, it’s hard to think that it was only back at the beginning of July that I

started all of this.

Everything I’ve said so far alone would make doing the bootcamp worth it. But there

is so much more to it. I met and made new friends, made fantastic network

connections, attended my first hack-a-thon, and joined a network of amazing Alumni

from around the world. I loved my time at Le Wagon Montreal and wouldn’t change

the long hard hours and large team projects for the world.

my trip with the Paris wagon.
When I started thinking about participating in The Wagon, many people tried to discourage me by telling me that I can learn all these things online or that the market is already saturated with developers. Some thought I would find the coding boring, even though nothing could have been more boring than my old Job.
I was a physical trainer but I was bored.
I worked in France and England but I was bored.
Then I made the decision to make the car and applied.
What can I say except that it was exceptional.
I'm not disappointed that I did it and my only disappointment is that I didn't do it sooner.
Everything is magnificent from the premises to the people we meet, the evenings with the alumni.

The content of the courses is rich and well explained.
The teachers are patient and know how to get you back on track if you ever let go.
It's intense especially during the first 3 weeks but you have to hold on and not lose hope.
Things integrate into you without you noticing.
I didn't think I would be able to succeed in this adventure, the teachers supported me and motivated me until I unblocked and headed for success with the certificate.
every week you have an after work and different activities which makes you feel like you are part of a big family.
And indeed we are a big family with links all over the world.
If you hesitate any longer, you will miss out on an extraordinary adventure that can change the course of your life.

I had no technical background or experience at all when I decided to join Le Wagon, I have a degree in Literature/Philosophy and had spent 8 years in education recruitment - so quite different! I’d been contemplating making a career change for a while, and did a lot of research into different options before I landed on the idea of a bootcamp course. I applied to a few of the different bootcamps in London but was leaning towards Le Wagon for a number of reasons, two of them being how welcoming and friendly Alex was when I had my interview at their (really cool) London campus, and secdonly how active and connected their alumni network is. I wanted to be part of something that doesn’t suddenly end when you finish the course, but is about giving and receiving support for the long term. I was accepted onto the course that started in July 2019, and the course itself was a complete whirlwind of great fun with awesome people. The days were intense and I dreamt about code pretty much every night, but they have perfected the balance between hard work with social activities and really nice touches, like cake every time it’s someone’s birthday (which was a lot), yoga, pizza lunches and other social events to help everyone let off steam. The curriculum builds day by day in such a way that feels so natural - you don’t realise how much you’re learning until you’re suddenly building entire web apps! I absolutely recommend Le Wagon to anyone who wants to learn to code without hesitation.

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!

Lawyer until June 2018, I did batch #250 at Le Wagon Paris between April and June 2019. Before Le Wagon, I created my training organization in October 2018. Since a very young age, I was interested in computers. Fascinated by coding, learn it was the next logical step.

Because of my schedule and after looking a few different schools, there was one in particular that caught my eye. It was Le Wagon ! Why ? They teach you « coding » in only 2 months, and they make it very easy for you to reach your goal right after (find a job, start your own business...).

I've never learn so much in a short period of time !

The most amazing thing that I truly value during my time at Le Wagon was meeting so many like-minded people. Not just meeting our teachers and cohort, learning in a co-working space got me a chance to meet different entrepreneurs, developers, designers... It helps me to stay motivated and inspired throughout my coding journey. The teachers and teaching assistants are always there to support you and you will be learning a lot really fast.

And you know what ? I’m now, in turn, a teaching assistant at Le Wagon Paris.

A big thank you to Le Wagon Paris and their staff for making this whole bootcamp a life changing experience.

If you are wondering whether you should do it or not. Just stop wondering and go for it, you will never regret it.

Having been into tech for some time, I joined Le Wagon in Bali between graduating from uni in London and starting my job in ecommerce at Amazon a few months later. My goal was to acquire the skills necessary to evolve within more technical roles within the tech industry or be able to put together a product quickly if I ever wanted to start a business.

Le Wagon promises to bring technical skills to creative people and delivers on that promise splendidly.

As you start the bootcamp having seen some of the products presented on demo day, you think ‘There’s no way I’ll be able to do something like this’ but as the weeks pass by your ability to build grows exponentially and everything starts coming together. LW provides all the skills you need to put together a well-functioning, well-designed app. I was lucky to be able to build my product idea in a team of 3 and the end result exceeded in every way the expectations that I had for an MVP.

First you learn about the inner workings of Ruby, Object Oriented Programming and the MVC pattern, that will let you build the back end of your project. You then learn the UI/UX side of things with HTML/CSS and JavaScript. Finally you learn to make everything come together with a developing framework (Ruby on Rails) and get plenty of opportunities to practice by building two web apps.

About Bali:
I literally cannot think of a reason why someone would choose to do Le Wagon anywhere else than Bali. It will cost you less to fly in and out of you country and live in a villa near the beach and live comfortably than rent a room and live day-to-day in a big city.

I also cannot think of a better learning environment than Bali. Let me illustrate my point with a description of perfect day at LW Bali:

6:30am: Wake up and drive down to the beach on my scooter for a surf lesson
8am: Come back home, jump in the pool, shower and head to Le Wagon. The classroom is on the rooftop of a hotel with sea view. Get an omelette for ~£1 from the hotel’s kitchen, get ready for the day.
9am: Go over today’s new concepts in the  1h/1h30 lecture, settle with my buddy for the day on the bean bags on the terrace and start work on today’s exercises.
12:30am: Lunch break. Go with some classmates to one of Canggu’s restaurants (they’re all super close), eat a filling and healthy lunch for a fraction of what it would cost me in London. Head back to LW.
1:30pm: Solve more problems, they usually get more and more challenging as you get through them. Raise a few tickets if I get stuck on some exercises.
Around 5pm: Live code time, a teacher presents us with a problem that we have to solve in teams right there, and then we go through the solution all together.
6pm/6:30pm: Head to a bar/restaurant on the beach with some classmates, share a beer and a dinner, watch the sunset.
8:30pm: Go home and go over today’s flashcards to internalise today’s new concepts. Sleep early to feel energised for the next day!

All in all, the quality of living is so good that you can focus truly on getting as much as you can from the program. The vibe is relaxed enough that you don’t feel FOMO from working a lot but dynamic enough that there’s always somewhere exciting to go on the weekend.

About the people: The core team is amazing and makes sure that everything works out fine. When I had a last minute passport issue, they worked with me and found a last minute solution that solved the issue. They’re people you can talk to seriously if there’s an issue but that you can also have fun with on the weekend.

As for the students, the people that do LW in Bali are often ppl that travel to Bali specifically for the bootcamp. As such, the classroom becomes your main source of socialising and you develop a tight community feeling. There are more people that are professional and come here to transit to something new than say, college graduates. The Bali effect means that age barriers don’t really apply there, I was the youngest of the batch and never once felt that was an issue. Everyone comes with their own background and everyone leaves Bali with an international network just from that classroom.

Wrapping up:

I left LW feeling more empowered than after 3 years of university, and probably learned what would have taken me at least 2/3 years to learn by myself in my free time. Also taught me how to learn, after the bootcamp I was able to build my own personal project from scratch with only the help of Internet when I got stuck (and a few posts in LW’s Slack ‘Help’ channel :))

I know some other bootcamps are way more job oriented and will spend time on acing developer interviews, or will train you super hard in one language so that you can get a job as a developer in that specific field. If that’s your ambition, those bootcamps might be a good option for you. Who LW is for: the budding entrepreneur, the creative, the guy who wants to become a product manager. LW focuses on letting you build stuff.

I decided to go to this boot camp when my current company told me they wanted me to join the dev team. I had an incredible experience and am excited to eventually go back and maybe even help TA someday. You will learn so much about dev (obviously) but also patience and teamwork. 

First time in my life where I felt that instructors were truly approchable.

It's been three months since I finished Le Wagon's Bootcamp and I'm pretty happy how things have gone so far.

Well, prior to Le Wagon, I had been working as Product Manager in Rio de Janeiro but I've never had the chance to really dive deep into technology, which has been my goal since I figured it out this was the market that I'd like to work on. As a PM, it is really important to evaluate the customers' needs, to know how to deal with the different stakeholders and, of course, understand what has to be done to solve the customers pains. However, in the startup environment, things happen really fast and your pace must be equivalent, in order to deliver value to the customers and its investors. Thus, I felt that I had a technology knowledge gap which was holding me down to take higher flights.

As soon as I felt that I needed to take this step deeper into technology, I found about Le Wagon and, since from reading its syllabus, I felt that it would be a great opportunity to learn and evolve as someone who wants with technology for life.

I took part of the #261 batch and it was a great opportunity to meet new people, exchange experiences and, of course, learn a lot of new things. The bootcamp is really hands on, with a lot of practical exercises and with a dynamic really similar to what is working as a developer in the real world. The student really needs to look for the answer, debug its code and learn from its mistakes. Also, what impressed me was the product driven mentality from it, which lacks in a lot of companies and is a huge differential among other developers.

After struggled a lot, I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track. At the moment, I work at Stone Pagamentos, the most valuable payment company in Brazil, as a developer and I'm sure that the Le Wagon took a huge part on it.

Before Le Wagon, I had just finished a year long internship at a big corporate where I was tasked with a bunch of innovation projects involving technology. The biggest thing that stood out to me was the disconnect between the technical teams and what they referred to as “business”. This was by far and away the biggest challenge to building large scale, successful technical solutions at that company. 

So I thought I would do Le Wagon so in the future I am able to bridge that gap. I was hoping I’d do well to come out the other side able to hold a conversation with a developer. Little did I know that you really could become one in the space of 9 weeks. It is a truly effective programme that goes fast, but not unmanageably so. I really feel like we have covered the fundamentals quite extensively, which was a fear I had when considering this.

The greatest thing for me was the product focus of the programme. I am pretty sure that in no other setting could I get that level of digital product understanding because the reason for it wasn’t just the content, but all the people as well. You get a real entrepreneurial spirit at Le Wagon and it translates into how teachers help you, what you discuss in spare time, what you build for final projects etc. Final projects, the way Le Wagon sets them - with design, development, deployment and marketing all covered, is simply an awesome way to learn! In the end I am so happy with the decision to go and it has been life-changing, just as advertised. Before, I was an aspiring entrepreneur having to work for someone else because I couldn’t find a technical co-founder, now I am doing my university degree while building 2 startups from the comfort of my home.

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 a nerd but I’ve never had the patience to sit down and code, let alone where to start. I remember the first weeks of the course, having done the prep work I thought we would be eased into the world of coding with a few theory-based lessons. Instead, I found myself learning how to use the terminal on the first day, and I’m pretty sure my first line of code was written on the second. Thank code it was practical, I’m the type to switch off if I’m not engaged by what I am doing. Each week we would complete a set of challenges. Each week it would get more complex there would be moments where I was pulling my hair out, however, the teaching staff were always on hand to help breakdown the problem and help me reach that eureka moment. The part-time course was challenging and it’s not for the faint-hearted. You are about to embark on a journey of trials and tribulations for 6 months. But my, it is worth it in the end. I’m far more competent than I ever imagined. My reason for doing the course was, having some entrepreneurial spirit I’m always hatching an idea. Whereas in the past, I may have cobbled together a landing page, using some HTML template and a series of trials and errors. Now I’m capable of building a web application and this is what I plan to do with my newly found free time. Well, at least some of it. This course is for entrepreneurs and wannabe developers alike. I would also say anyone working in the tech sector would benefit from this course. I myself work for an app and this course has enabled me to understand conversations that in the past would have gone right over my head. Viva Le Wagon!