AI Software bootcamp | On campus, full-time

What a great learning and growing experience! Great teachers, great T.A.s. The content was totally relevant. It was intense. Human. Fulfilling. Thanks!

As UX designer who owns a startup in online education with a background in industrial engineering, I wanted to enhance my knowledge of coding in order to understand my product better and strengthen our developing manpower. The reviews of Le Wagon were great but what convinced me to go there was the testimony of Le Wagon alumna. The structure is very well organized so that you learn in the best conditions with the support of tutors and the community. Once the boot camp is done, you have access to all the material that was given to you including the videos of the lessons that were given to you. But what truly makes it amazing is that you then belong to an international community of game changers in the web industry and else. This has been a life changing experience for me and many others.

The lack of negative reviews I found online gave me very high expectations about the bootcamp. Le Wagon managed to surpass them all. Learning new languages? Coding a fully functional website? All of that in just 9 weeks? Believe it or not, it is possible at le Wagon.

From writing your first line of code to building your final project and see it come to life, the amount of knowledge you get during these 9 weeks is truly impressive. You would be amazed by how much you can learn and build in such a short period of time.

More than just a school, when you join Le Wagon you become part of a community, a family some would say. It’s not all about coding. Le Wagon organizes bi-weekly yoga sessions, events and meet-ups with entrepreneurs to name a few. The working environment is so great that I decided to become a teaching assistant and pass on the knowledge I had just acquired. Leaving Le Wagon was just not an option for me.

All in all, joining Le Wagon is one of the best decision I’ve ever made. Make most out of everyday you spend there because it will be over before you know it..

A life-changing experience, I still can’t believe what I’ve learned in such short of time. I can honestly say my expectation was overly exceeded. When I applied, I was just expecting to gain coding skills which obviously makes sense since it’s a code Bootcamp, what other can you expect right? I mean that’s all I was looking for, but then Le Wagon happened! On top of coding skills, I gained two other very important skills, which are problem-solving skill and can do attitude and I can confidently say these two skills have had a positive impact in my life since then.

So, it all began when I was working on my final project at university which was also my business idea. It involved making a business plan for an application, though it annoyed me that I didn’t understand the technical part of my idea and that I wasn’t going to contribute much on this side. But then the idea came in my mind, what if I can learn it? That’s how I started searching and exploring my options. I found Le Wagon and at first I was very sceptical and thought it was too good to be true, mainly because all reviews were positive, I mean ritually Le Wagon’s every public appearance is positive but then I took my chances and went for it, after having a Skype call with Guillaume (who is Bootcamp Manager at Le Wagon Montreal). That was one of the best decision I ever took!

During Bootcamp, I loved the entrepreneurial StartUp mood environment we studied in, every day was different and unique, and the most exciting part was our final project where we had to come up with an idea and actually implement it in just ten days. My three teammates and I came up with an idea to build a chatbot that can recommend the perfect gift in just a few minutes and within the user’s budget (Regalo that was the name of the app). The journey to build the app was breathtaking, mainly because we couldn’t believe that we were able to do it and we were! We did it! I mean I can go on and go on. And Yes, I would definitely recommend anyone to attend Le wagon Bootcamp. It’s an intense nine weeks, It’s not meant to be easy but it’s definitely doable. My advice to you is to have a positive attitude and don’t give up on yourself, I can do it, You can do it!

I spent many late nights and weekends trying to teach myself how to code, over many months, with very little results. I was sure that if I quit my job and dedicated myself full time to learning how to code that I could teach myself properly, and certainly not pay money for a bootcamp when there were so many online resources. After quitting my job and spending a couple of weeks of long days in a library teaching myself, I had spent most of that time stuck on tiny coding problems, and I knew that the only way I could progress quickly was by having a teacher. After doing research on what the top bootcamp in Melbourne was, I settled on Le Wagon.

I’m so happy that I did!! Le Wagon surpassed my expectations, I had expected non-communicative teachers who would lecture in the morning and bail during exercises. Instead, I experienced some of the best teaching in my adult life, and the ratio of students to teachers/teacher’s assistants was so good that I had as much face to face time for help with exercises that I needed - in fact, asking for help was encouraged. While the bootcamp moved quickly, the teachers provided all the foundational tools I would need to explore complex topics further in my own time, and even sometimes provided additional after-hours support. I am so impressed with Le Wagon and recommend it to everyone that I meet!

I would not hesitate to recommend LeWagon to someone who is looking to get into coding for any reason. TThe course is designed to provide students with the tech skills necessary to enter the job market for tech-related roles, while being sufficiently product focused to allow them to build their own product for those looking to kick-start their business. It’s not easy and very intense, but if you are dedicated and committed to learning anyone can complete it and come out the other side a developer!

Hi, my name is Otávio and I am a Le Wagon alumni from batch-#204, taken in Rio de Janeiro between October 15th and December 14th, 2018. 
Some background about myself: I used to be a logistics project coordinator for a telecomm top 3 company. Worked for the US Government also, in a diplomatic mission. My career focused on international logistics, supply chain management, contract and process management mostly. I can honestly say I had no prior experience in programming before the course. Setting up Macros in Excel would be the closest thing. 
In the years I worked in the telecomm industry I was lucky to see technologies being developed and had a glimpse to where things are going to. IOT (internet of things), small cells, smart cars, startups... and none of that happens without a good amount of programming. 
How did I come to find Le Wagon? Talking to a friend who's been in Europe's IT industry for a long time I asked how one could insert him/herself in the IT realm without having to go through the classic computer science graduation path. That is when I learned about this growing trend of coding bootcamps. The first on the list he gave me was Le Wagon, to which he included a "best bang for the buck" tag. On a quick search in the net I found many Le Wagon alumni and their experiences (which at first sounded too good to be true). And they were considered the #1 coding bootcamp. Further in the search found some posts about this growing trend on bootcamps and how they were being considered the next MBAs but for the IT industry. And what really drew the line for me was when I reached out to Pedro, one of Le Wagons partners in Brazil & Latin America. He said that he was a photographer before starting to code at Le Wagon in Paris 2014. He liked it and believes in it so much that he brought Le Wagon to Brazil and LatAm as a matter of fact. 
It is a 9 week program. The first weeks are brutal. It's like getting home after running a triathlon (but for the brain) knowing it will happen the same thing on the next day, for the next several weeks. What kept me sane were a couple of lines Pedro told us on the very first day: "Guys, you will get desperate! You will get frustrated! STAY WITH US !! It will all fall into place at one time..." Every time I got desperate, and it wasn't only once, I remembered myself of that. They also have good TAs (teaching assistants) and lecturers who also went through the program and know our pain. It all fell into place for me during the second half of the bootcamp. 
The bootcamp is orientated not only to those who wish to become a developer, but to those entrepreneurs who wish to begin their own startups, future product owners and digital nomads. We had people from 24 to 48 years of age. I wasn't the oldest with my 42 summers in the bag. The environment is amazing. A collaborative pair programming learning process where we sit every day with someone different than the previous day. I felt lucky that in my batch I had no case of "ah no, that one again, bummer!" Everyone got along. A lot of coffee! Every Thursday there was an event with outsiders from Venture Capital owners to startups pitching for a CTO and people sharing their story of hard work, pivoting and success. Oh, and after these talks Le Wagon offered free beer. On Wednesdays there were Yoga classes to help sooth the body. Even though it was a lot of hard work, we knew there would be some yoga, talks to insert us more and more into this IT environment, and the beer to help us relax a bit. 
In the end we leave as junior developers with a good amount of skills to help us keep improving. The Le Wagon platform is also really well thought of with video lectures and information on every class with have during the bootcamp. We are given full access to it for life as well as to the Le Wagon Slack channels. In Slack we have access not only to our batch but also to job postings, all of the wagon alumni, teachers, mentors and many others. 
The whole experience changed my life. Met really interesting people. Made good friends. Learned awesome skills. And left with two projects as portfolio. 
When I was in school as a young kid, knowing another language or two would count a lot. Today it's default. The equivalent to that right now is coding.

I had an amazing experience at Le Wagon. I had wanted to learn how to build a web product when I signed up for the course, and Le Wagon really lived up to being a very product-driven bootcamp. I’ve learnt step-by-step the essentials, and the last weeks of the bootcamp were dedicated to building real world products. The teachers and tutors were fantastic, making the learning experience a really enjoyable one.

I signed up for Le Wagon after having taught myself to code for the previous four months. At the time, I was mainly interested in formalizing my knowledge and expanding my network. I expected the bootcamp to be fun (and had heard as much from a few alumni), but I didn’t expect to learn *that* much that I hadn’t already covered in my own studies.

As it turns out, I was definitely wrong about that last part. I learned *way* more during my two months at Le Wagon than I had during the preceding fourth months of self-directed learning. The course has a great structure, a heap of helpful resources and, most important of all, a super-enthusiastic group of teachers who really care about your development.

I felt confident applying for jobs after finishing the bootcamp and ended up finding full-time work as a software engineer within two weeks of graduation. So, in short, I can say with all sincerity that my Le Wagon experience exceeded expectations (and my expectations were already high). Would most definitely recommend

TD;LR : Why are you still here, reading reviews ? No time to loose ! Go apply to Le Wagon.

If you like:

- Challenges

- Go out your comfort zone

- Meet amazing people

- Learn quickly with efficiency 

Then you really should consider Le Wagon. 

Regarding my background, I was working in Finance, learning CFA when i decided to swtich careers, i had 0 knowledge in coding before the bootcamp and now I'm able to create a copycat of airbnb.

Don't fool yourself, it will be hard, you'll be very low at some point but don't forget, once you are down you can only go up ;)

My Le Wagon Batch 199 Barcelona journey started somewhat unexpectedly. Having worked in corporate purchasing and program management for almost 10 years since graduating college, I never thought that I would make such a drastic career change. However when I realized that at 33 I was stuck in the never-ending 8 to 5 leading to eventual retirement without any realization of my dreams, it was a fairly easy decision. It was now or never. 

All my life I had ideas for websites and apps and that’s all they were, just ideas. Learning to code gave me the tools to make those ideas reality. It gave me the confidence to be able to tackle any feature that I would like to add to my website. 

There were so many highlights to this amazing experience. The people really made it special. The teachers were top notch and I was lucky to have an absolutely incredible batch. We worked very hard during the week at class, but also were able to explore the amazing Barcelona together on weekends and let loose a bit!  

Barcelona is a great place, with so much culture. Every weekend there is something different to do. I don’t remember a single weekend or day when I could not find something fun to do in my somewhat limited free time. There is the beach, parks, and just an unlimited amount of little bars and restaurants that anyone would be able to find something they enjoy!

My advice to future students would be to really enjoy the experience because it goes by very very fast. Monday through Friday, really concentrate on the classwork. Don’t miss ANY days. It is very easy to fall behind if you do. Watch the lectures on KITT the night before if you can. But also, really explore Barcelona on the weekends. If you put in the work during the week, you will have plenty of time on the weekends to explore and get to know this amazing city. Get to know your classmates. you will go through a lot with them. But really, ENJOY the experience. There is nothing quite like it that you will do in your life. You will meet people with different backgrounds from all around the world, learn new things, try new food. This is just step one of a long and beautiful journey, but a very important one. So enjoy it!

Le Wagon gave me the tools and confidence to tackle my dreams, make some amazing friends along the way, and what happens next is up to me!

I'm a alumni leWagon from the batch #188 in Montreal.
I use to be an engineer in the aircraft industry, after 4 years of experiment I've drooped my job in France to come in Montreal, following a master degree in environment. 
I decided to change my life by following Lewagon training and it was the best decision in my life.
How can I sum up my experience? Learning a lot! Discovering a passion. Meeting amazing people. Finding in myself i'm maybe less stupid that I was thinking. 
This experiment just gave me more confidence and new perspectives for the future. More modern and exiting.
Now I think I can build a career which make me proud and open to me a lot of new directions and field.

By the way! I'm actually assistant teacher for LeWagon Montreal and it's a very nice experience. 

TL;DR :

I more than loved my Le Wagon experience. From both human and learning sides, it was the best 9 weeks ever. The teachers are 300% dedicated, the whole staff, in fact, acts that way.

Having a self-taught background and working as a graphic designer & webdesigner, I wanted to upgrade my tech skills, I ended up not only sith a solid development knowledge, but also with more confidence, learnt how to speak in front of a bunch of people to present a product, how to work with other people on a project…
In a few words : amazing experience.
Le Wagon FTW. <3

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For those who wants to read the whole text I published on my blog about that amazing experience, here it is.

1er octobre.

Autour de la grande table en bois, pas très loin des croissants et des chocolatines de bienvenue, les nouveaux 22 se jaugent. Il est encore tôt et on nous a bien dit de ne pas arriver en retard, à 8h30, on ferme les portes, tant pis pour vous. On est tous là, bien sûr, mi-excités, mi-fatigués - on perd vite l’habitude du rythme scolaire.

Après quelques cafés (les premiers d’une longue, très longue série, je pense avoir éclaté mon record de consommation de caféine pendant cette période-là), on s’est installés en classe, avec cette ambiance de premier jour, ces nouvelles habitudes que l’on va commencer à se fabriquer sans trop savoir encore jusqu’où elles iront. Ma place, deuxième table à gauche, place du milieu. J. à ma gauche, A. à ma droite. Ce sera comme ça tous les matins, tous les soirs, alternant ainsi les heures de cours tantôt très studieuses, tous très concentrés, fronçant des sourcils sur des concepts un peu compliqués encore, qui nous paraissent flous, abstraits, lointains ; tantôt d’une insolente déconcentration, fous-rires et gribouillis sur les cahiers, gloussement sur des blagues pas si drôles, mais après une journée passée à coder, qui nous en aurait voulu, de rigoler bêtement comme cela.

30 novembre, 18h.

Dans la salle, on a installé beaucoup de chaises, on vient de tester le son au micro. C. à côté de moi répète le bal des actions sur le clavier, précieusement minuté, pendant je présenterai l’application que l’on a fini de développer. Depuis quelques heures déjà, on est tous prêts, stressés et fébriles, à l’idée de raconter en quelques minutes le travail des 10 derniers jours. Je suis morte de peur. Au cours de ces deux mois, j’ai gagné en confiance en moi, mais je reste terrorisée à l’idée de parler - en anglais - devant toute cette foule de gens, pour présenter le projet dont j’ai porté l’idée, le projet que nous avons construit tous les quatre, en partant d’une feuille blanche.

Assis sur la grande table qui nous a vus crier de joie quand tout fonctionnait, qui nous a vu taper des poings quand, oh, j’ai tout cassé, assis sur cette table, on balance des pieds en attendant. Certains ont déjà ouvert une bière, d’autres préfèrent se ronger les ongles. C. s’est fait un thé « I really feel British when I do that ».

Les visages amis s’installent dans la salle, et puis c’est à nous. 5 minutes pour convaincre, 5 minutes pour prouver à toutes ces personnes, juste là devant, que nous sommes vraiment des full-stack dev.

Et puis entre ces deux moments, 2 mois, 9 semaines. 9 semaines de six-sept-huit-neuf cafés par jour, de cookies avoine-chocolat du 8ème étage, de bières le vendredi soir (les premières semaines, et puis de bières à partir du mardi soir, après), de yeux fatigués le matin pour le cours de la journée, de yeux perdus qui répondent d’eux-mêmes à la question « do you understand ? », de sourires victorieux quand c’est bon, je suis capable d’expliquer ce que je viens de faire. 9 semaines de messages en continu sur Slack, 9 semaines de sommeil oublié, de Sublime Text ouvert en permanence. de vie rêvée en lignes de commandes sur le terminal.

9 semaines d’amitiés, aussi - parfois un peu plus, mais mes sous-entendus s’arrêteront là -, de petite bulle fermée, entre nous, on se serre les coudes, on apprend ensemble, à coder et à travailler, à expliquer, à se planter, à recommencer ; 9 semaines de lamentations autour de la machine à café, 9 semaines de yeux cernés. 9 semaines à part, entre les murs vitrés de La Gar, à se demander si vraiment, à la fin, on comprendra ce qu’il faut mettre dans le model ou dans le controller.

La deuxième semaine, il y avait un apéro (on a beaucoup pris l’apéro pendant ces 9 semaines) où les alumni venaient nous parler un petit peu. Tous étaient d’accord sur la même chose, Le Wagon avait été l’une des plus belles aventures de leur vie. Je rigolais doucement au début, bien sûr que j’en attendais beaucoup, de cette formation, mais tout de même, je trouvais que c’était un peu exagéré, en deux mois, il ne peut pas se passer tant de choses.

7 semaines après, je suis convaincue de la même chose.

On leur a déjà dit, et je ne suis toujours pas à l’aise avec les grandes déclarations d’amour, mais tout de même, je voulais écrire noir sur blanc, une dernière fois, mon infinie gratitude pour l’ensemble des profs et de l’équipe du Wagon Montréal. Je n’avais jamais vu autant de passion, de dévouement et d’entraide comme cela et cela n’aurait vraiment pas été pareil sans eux.

I have always struggled with formal education despite completing high school and Quebec’s CEGEP program.  I was diagnosed with ADHD in elementary school and have found that trying to juggle up to 8 different subjects at the same time is almost impossible for me.

I’m now 22 years old and gave university a shot for two years. During my first year in psychology, I discovered that I loved programming, and during my second year, in computer sciences, I discovered that I hated university.

As an alternative to university, Le Wagon was a massive help to me. It perfectly suited my learning style, by keeping up a steady flow of new and interesting information without ever totally overwhelming me. In addition to covering new topics constantly, Le Wagon’s challenges and buddy system, in conjunction with formal lectures, helped teach skills not just theoretically, but practically too.

The staff of Le Wagon were practically family to me by the end of my 2-month stay. They were understanding, helpful and always a pleasure to be around. I hope to stay in contact long after my graduation.

The final project I completed with my team will always hold a special place in my heart. I didn’t come to Le Wagon with a solid grasp on just how far we would come in a short 2-month period, but the products we finished far exceeded anything I could have imagined.

Le Wagon gave me an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world:  between wonderful friendships with people of all backgrounds, and a solid foundation of lessons on both working in code, and finding work.

In short, I would highly recommend Le Wagon to anyone who feels they are interested in changing their lives and learning to code!

I used to work in communications. I felt a bit stuck in my work, couldn't see any possibilities of evolution, I wasn't learning anything new and I was losing all motivation. I had the feeling coding would be something I would love doing, but I didn't want to go back into long studies and wasn't sure where to start.

Then a friend of mine told me about Le Wagon. This bootcamp had everything I was looking for: a clearly defined learning path, passionate teachers always available to help, and many great co-students to learn with! Thanks to Le Wagon, I've learned many valuable skills in computer programming of course, but also in team work.

Today I'm on a new career path that I really love and where I can keep on learning new things everyday. What I especially appreciate from Le Wagon is that once the bootcamp is over, they still keep in touch with you and help you look for a job. It feels like being part of a family!

I had the best experience at Le Wagon bootcamp, at its first Kyoto batch.

In terms of the learning, I was surprised to see how I started from a complete beginner ( I didn't even know what the different programming languages are), and within 9 months could build an app that I wouldn't have even thought was possible to build. I like my app so much that I am currently working on it further to see how I can commercialize it. What made the learning experience great was that the teachers at Le Wagon are knowledgeable and dedicated to each person's learning, and the curriculum is well designed in a way that makes you enjoy the process of learning how to code. For me, my objective from learning how to code was never to be a developer, but to work on the commercial aspects of a tech company and be able to work seamlessly with the product team through a deeper understanding of the technicalities. I managed to fulfill this objective - and much more, in terms of my technical knowledge - and has proven to me invaluable in my current job.

But Le Wagon is not just about teaching you how to code - it also helps you plug into the tech community in the city through various events and meetups with startups and other tech companies in the city, which has been extremely helpful as I was thinking through my career move. 

And finally, Le Wagon was an extremely fun and enriching experience. As the first batch in Kyoto, we had a small group, and we had a lot of fun together, going for dinners on weekdays, going out on weekends, and doing trips to nearby cities. Added to this, a chance to be in Kyoto - a beautiful and serene city - made my 2 months an amazing experience. Le Wagon was exactly what I needed - in every way.

I had not studied any programming language before I joined LeWagon.

Since we only had nine weeks to become a programmer, the class went very fast.

At first it was difficult for me to understand the lessons held in English since I had never lived in any English-speaking countries.

What do you think about it after reading my situation? Do you think it seems difficult to get programming knowledge for me?

So did I. I worried about whether I could follow the classmates.

But after these 9 weeks, I know I should not have worried about anything.

There were teachers and assistants who were very good at teaching.

Moreover, classmates were enthusiastic to get skills, so they motivated me.

Now, I can make web apps since I get skills of Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and so on.

This camp is good to get skills in only nine weeks!

Even though I had mixed feelings when I applied for Le Wagon due to 1) Ruby as a programming language and 2) uncertainty what former students are able to teach you, I found the Le Wagon experience in Bali to be amazing and exactly what I was looking for.

The most important takeaway from the 2 months is the confidence to just go out there and learn any programming related subject I'm interested in (even if it might take some time). I gained the necessary skills to teach myself new concepts and debug code that is not working first time.

Quick hint: If you do Le Wagon, definitely choose Bali. It is a no-brainer, trust me.

The coding bootcamp at Le Wagon Amsterdam taught me that you don’t have to be working with computers since you were a 12 years old in order to become a web developer.

I have been a working professional since I came out of high school and even with work experience in the finance sector I felt that I was less and less qualified for the jobs of the future by the day. We live in a world that is digitalizing rapidly which requires new skills from it's workforce. Knowing this I realised that no matter what position I am working in, I will need to be able to code and or at least understand fundamental concepts of development in order to progress in my career.

Applying to this programme made sense to me as it was more compact and real life oriented than a bachelor in computer science and ended with us presenting a fully functional application to investors and potential employers after the camp.

Even though the bootcamp was one of the most challenging experiences I had (50 hours a week of high intensity learning) I never felt overwhelmed as the teachers were really competent and would help by giving hints when stuck with a challenge. Due to the extra activities we would participate in at the days end (Drinks, Lunches and City tours but also professional workshops and speakers) the atmosphere was always great and the students got along very well with one another. From my experience it is very common to stay in touch afterwards!

Personally I am very happy to have participated and I recommend every person that want’s to get into tech but is uncertain on how to start to take part in this awesome experience!

Le Wagon came highly recommended but I didn’t anticipate how much I would achieve in the 9 weeks. The high teacher ratio meant help was always on hand, and rather than being ‘spoon-fed’ we were encouraged to problem solve and to approach the daily challenges with the mindset of a developer.

As a career changer and being new to the industry, the evening events with entrepreneurs, thought-leaders and the career workshops were particularly useful. I was dubious at first but the bi-weekly yoga was amazing when all we were doing was sleeping eating coding & repeating!

It does what it says - after Airbnb week and pushing our final apps to production I felt equipped with the tools and attitude needed to build my own projects. And the contacts too - the alumni network has already proved fantastic for both industry contacts when job searching and when code issues crop up.

It’s tough and it’s like no other learning experience, but learning to code with Le Wagon is one the best decisions I’ve made - do it!