Le Wagon

Le Wagon is a fantastic program that you will not regret choosing. After a lot of research online, I chose Le Wagon based on its reviews. And it just so happened that the reviews were true! The 9-week program will challenge you, but at least in my experience, I never felt overwhelmed. The teachers were great communicators and guides, making me feel confident in the process every step of the way. The skills you learn are so valuable. You don't just learn static coding skills, but you learn how to learn. Post-camp, I'm strengthening what I learned as well as adding to my knowledge pool much quicker than when I was previously learning on my own. On top of leaving Le Wagon with skills and projects ready to show employers, I also left with amazing bonds made with my classmates. The people you will meet are all people looking to change their lives and work hard for it. So, if you're a potential new student reading this, why not make some friends and change your life?

Looking back at the bootcamp, one of my best memories was the moment when I realized that I can do complex things that I didn't know even a few days ago.
The reason that I decided to learn how to code is I wanted to switch my career into a rapidly developing industry and find work that required constant updating and constant learning. A bootcamp format for me was the best way to learn because I wanted to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible and compared to university, the bootcamp format would offer a lot of actual practice.
Le Wagon had good staff, great challenges, and awesome ping pong! Furthermore, it’s clear that whoever created Le Wagon really knows how to teach the necessary knowledge to the students in a straightforward way.  
The first week of the bootcamp is really hard, but after the first few days when your brain is twisted the most, you get used to it. The bootcamp environment was very diverse, with students from all over who were extremely good people. Before joining Le Wagon I didn’t have the best relationship with teachers in general, but Le Wagon’s teachers changed that for me. They were great people, easy going and good at teaching. During the “Tech Talk” webinars I enjoyed hearing from actual alumni who have been through the bootcamp, in addition to insights from actual tech professionals. After the bootcamp “Career Week” helped me to boost my LinkedIn and GitHub profiles, and I actually made a proper CV which I like!
After graduating from Le Wagon, I feel like I can learn anything. The bootcamp taught me how to learn. Reading complicated documentation or furthering my knowledge online isn’t a big deal for me anymore. 

Le Wagon Web Development Bootcamp suited my criteria very well. The comprehensive course content , the shorter duration of the full time course and the relatively lower cost are the three main factors that attracted me to choose it as it was the best option for me. It also came highly recommended by a past student who had successfully career transitioned into the IT industry.

I decided to change my career and by joining the Bootcamp I gained the experience and knowledge I needed to achieve it. The technical and soft skills I have learned helped me to start my career in IT. The course is well structured and you will always be supported by amazing teachers. Joining the Le Wagon Bootcamp is the best decision I made in my career transition journey.

Joining Le Wagon has been one of the best decisions I've made in my life.
I have tried to learn software development for a number of years previously through a combination of books and tutorials with no significant results. During my self study I’ve found myself constantly stuck in tutorial loop, quitting and restarting my studies more times than I can count until eventually I completely gave up, concluding that I’m simply not smart enough.
Enter Le Wagon:
After enrolling into the bootcamp program I noticed a number of differences between what I’ve experienced before and the Le Wagon curriculum.  It is simply far better thought out and presented than anything else. On top of that you get immediate feedback from your teachers and TAs, who will go above and beyond to make sure you understand the material. 
You also get to work within a team of like-minded professionals in the common pursuit of learning and building a kick-ass app for the final project, and to quote Ron Burgundy, “in some cases lasting friendships will be made”.
But wait there is more!

• Before the program is over you will have the opportunity to join a career workshop where your CV and LinkedIn page gets an overhaul. 
• After the program you can also join a series of career development seminars where you are walked through navigating the job market, cover letters and interviews.
• You also get continuous career coaching and advice both during and after the bootcamp.

Overall, this course is definitely good value!

I joined the Wagon’s part-time web development program to learn the basics of programming and software architecture. I have very much appreciated the demanding educational content based on a mix of online and regular classroom, practice (onsite and remote), flashcards and end of batch projects.
Before starting the Wagon I had no experience in coding. The web development program brought me the keys to start a tech company as co-founder (to manage the dev team) and to pursue the learning of coding by myself. On top of having learnt a new “technical skill” I also discovered a new field that I passionate of.

I attended the full time web development bootcamp in Melbourne from April-June 2021. Portions of the course were taught remotely as Melbourne was in and out of lockdown, but the majority of the class was in person at a co-working space in Richmond. I went into the course with the expectation of learning the basics of building web apps for my own personal enjoyment and to help me become more technical in future roles. My expectations were definitely exceeded by the end of the 10 weeks. The course was structured really well, and each lesson built on top of the next nicely. The focus on pair programming was really nice too, and it meant learning how to work with others in a technical capacity. The final project was a fantastic experience, and I'm even still using the app that I built during that time. I would highly recommend the full time web dev course to anyone who has similar goals as mine. 

Le Wagon is just fun. 
The immediate pros are the people - fellow students and staff. Everyone is there to help. 
There is a vast amount of content to learn during the course which is all put into practice which really helps solidify what you are learning. 
The staff and teachers genuinely care about your success and are always there to answer questions. 

The only cons are that I didn't want it to end, I did the 6-month part-time course which I enjoyed as it gave a bit more spread between classes to let concepts sink in.  
Though even after the end of the boot camp you are part of the alumni community from all over the world who are happy to answer questions you have for personal projects or challenges in your new job. 

It's unbelievable how the Wagon's courses structure is efficient. 
Many of us, as students, were beginners before starting the bootcamp but, after few weeks, we were able to create a functional application from A to Z. We had the opportunity to learn several types of languages and therefore to build a strong basic culture to continue our journey in the world of tech.

For everyone who wishes to learn new things and complete the professionnal knowledge with technical skills (which are more and more requested), I highly recommend this life experience !

Not understanding the applications we use every day felt like a burden and was the main driver to join Le Wagon because building such applications obviously helps better understand today’s most influential trends. What Le Wagon is remarkably good at is setting an aim for the student - daily, weekly, monthly - and making her/him get there in a pedagogical and motivating way. It’s quite a lifting and super rewarding feeling to believe there’s no way a project or idea can be realised and finishing the day with that exact thing and 4 different things done. Making the ‘Le Wagon environment’ more serious would take a lot of the positivity and fun while making it laxer would turn it into a circus school. It’s in the sweet spot.
An absolute recommendation for everyone seeking to understand the buttons we click every day.

Learning to code was never on my radar prior to Le Wagon - I’d always assumed you needed a STEM degree and that I’d missed the boat. It was a bit of a daunting prospect when I made the decision to change career and enrolled in the web development course, but everyone at Le Wagon was so welcoming I immediately knew I’d made the right choice. It was an intense but incredibly rewarding 9 weeks, the teachers were fantastic and the platform was really intuitive to use which made the learning process so much easier. I’d honestly recommend it to anyone, it was an unforgettable experience! 

What can I say... the Bootcamp was a wonderful experience for me and at the same time an excellent opportunity to enter the world of coding and develop myself professionally on the technical side. With a background in finance and an affinity for startups, it was my intention to learn how to code for quite some time. After extensive research, I chose the Le Wagon coding Bootcamp.

What I liked most about the Bootcamp was that besides the frontend stack you also learn 2 programming languages (Ruby and JavaScript - the first one is especially great for fast prototyping), that the program is very international, and that the curriculum is well thought out and builds on what you have previously learned. During the 9 weeks, no one was left behind and every single student was taken care of. This was especially ensured by a buddy system and teacher support (e.g. if you had questions about learned concepts or exercises).

The highlights of the program are the project weeks, where the gained skills can be applied by building 2 web applications. There are basically no limits (only the time factor). In week 1 we built a platform to book technical support if someone is struggling with their code, and in weeks 2 and 3 (final project) we built a surfer app that gives a recommendation for surf spots based on current weather data and the experience level of the user.

The environment is very motivating and at the same time, you get to know many new and interesting people. I can recommend the program to anyone who wants to learn serious programming and at the same time quickly get into the world of web development.

Before Le Wagon i was already working in IT as a product and project manager. Although i had basic understanding of programming and technologies around data i always wanted to dive deeper into this topic. There are many courses and bootcamps for Data Science out there, but i decided to go with Le Wagon, because it seemed to be an intense program. After the bootcamp i can say that it was the right desicion, because the Le Wagon Bootcamp has a great concept that makes it stand out from other courses.

Here are 3 things that are especially worthy to be highlighted:

Mass, quality, availability of material:
Your first impression is probably gonna be, that the pace is way to high, but that's the goal. You go through a ton of material every day and its sometimes hard to cath up.
Every topic will be introduced through a live lecture. But there is also a possibility to watch a prerecorded lesson and take a look into a script later. If the pace was to fast or something wasn't clear enough you can have a look at it in the future, because all the material will be availible for you even after the bootcamp.

Teaching concept and community:
Bacause the topics are new every single day it's pretty tough to get through the challenges without any help. So you have to collaborate. Challenges are designed that you solve them in collaboration with the teachers and other students and of course with the use of stackoverflow & co. There is also a lot of communication on the slack channels, so you really get to know many people and benifit from the huge international community.

The final project:
At the end of your bootcamp you can pitch you own project or join a project of other students. In two weeks (with support from teachers) you, as group of 4 students, will develop and deploy your own web application... and thats impressive.

PRO
Variety and depth of Data Science Topics. You get a great overview of the most important concepts of data Science, because of the high pace you can not really focus to much on one specific thing but you always have the oppertunity to look it up after the bootcamp, because all the lectures and exercises are still availible for you after the bootcamp.

CONTRA
If you do not like to be challenged and face adversity, bootcamp is probably not the right thing for you. If you do not have a technical background and no previous programming experience it can be a pretty rough experience for you on some days. But if you feel motivated, go for it nonetheless. Frustration management is a very important skill, especially in IT. 

Trying to condense a 24-week bootcamp journey into a 7-minute read might be as tough as the bootcamp itself, but let me try. 

About me. I am a techie, with a fairly long “been there, done that” career in the industry. And in the autumn of 2020 (autumn in Singapore? Use your imagination, I say) I was at the peak of my anxiety and general unhappiness with being the rat on the wheel, and the wheel was getting more slippery with each passing year!  It was then that I decided to take the plunge and do the Le Wagon bootcamp. I was very clear about WHY I was doing it - my driver was a creative itch to build new things and use software skills to build them. I was also clear about WHY NOT: for me, the pull wasn’t to get a new job or build a new career - if those were to happen, well and good, but I wouldn’t fret if they didn’t happen, yet  I could still walk away with new knowledge and skills that I could tinker with and use to keep me rejuvenated and excited about my life.

Enough about me. About the bootcamp and my ride, from here.

First lesson learnt: it pays to do the pre-course prep work well. I had initially underestimated the load and complexity of this piece, and had to ramp up exponentially before the selection interview with lead instructor Miguel. Frankly, I wasn’t happy with how I fared at that interview, but luckily, Miguel was generally ok with my skill and knowledge level, and I got through. 

I chose the part-time program that stretches over 24 weeks. Obvious reasons: I  had to balance across the demands of a regular day job and my family. The intensity of a 9-week stint of back-to-back sessions looked intimidating to me, so I chose the part-time course - and it worked for me.

I must admit that at the start of the bootcamp, it felt a bit strange when the classroom sessions seemed to be so “light” on theory, and the constant nudge to work on the challenge exercises. My initial reaction was hey, how can I do this when I haven’t fully grasped the theory? Adapting to this learning-by-doing regimen needed me to double down on paying close attention to and understanding the recorded videos that we were expected to see before each classroom session. At night, I started doing the exercises showcased in each recorded video lesson, before starting on the classroom session challenges. I focused on getting each flash card answer right, even if it took multiple attempts. I realized I had become rusty at retention, and had to ramp up on repetition and practice. After about 3-4 weeks of doing this, I got much better at learning by doing and I got to a point where I was able to complete some of the challenges before the next day’s session started. Hard, bull-headed effort was finally paying off. And I realized that familiarity breeds other things besides contempt and children: self-confidence which then leads to wanting to do more.

Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed about the bootcamp was the challenge exercises - their variety: a mix of brain-teasers, games and real-life needs - they were  never boring. 

End-of-course project. I started with a deja vu feeling - am I ready to do this yet? And at the end of the project, I realize now that there two crucial factors that made us succeed and achieve what we set out to build and built in 14 days:
(a) a very sensible and pragmatic assessment by our teachers, of the products we pitched to build, driving a fine balance between creating new, interesting value propositions while not trying to go to Mars in 14 days - followed through with continuous mentoring, as well as refinement and critique of each product as it took shape; and
(b) having a framework to follow in actually doing the project, which drew upon a broad canvas of tools and methodologies; this made teamwork and planning easier and more effective, leading to productive, rapid builds in a controlled, coordinated manner. This was particularly important during the weeks where COVID restrictions meant everyone working remotely, without the natural benefits of “common ground” classroom sessions. 
Well, that’s the story of the ride, in a nutshell. Not only did we all survive, but we emerged with new wings to fly, perhaps eventually to soar. I realized that each one of us students had a different reason to do this bootcamp - some came to self-actualize, some to improve upon what they were already doing, some to change careers and some to gain first-hand knowledge akin to learning “what goes on inside a kitchen before opening a restaurant”. I believe that our bootcamp education satisfied each of those drivers with its unique mix of content, method and teaching. 

For those who've stayed this far for the rolling credits - I take this opportunity to thank my teachers Miguel, Prima, Grace, Ann and the all-round support from Liana before, during and after the bootcamp. I could write a whole chapter on how great each of them are. But I will suffice it to say thank you, and I hope that I can live up to the trust and confidence that they have shown in all of us. 

I choose this course based on the good student experiences I came across when doing my research. The unique mixture of daily challenges, teamwork and great teachers and teaching assistance enables you to build profound programming skills and even start a career in the tech industry right after. Plus: The network of 10,000+ alumni speak for themselves and you will always find a fellow Le Wagon alumnus wherever you are. In a nutshell: You will not regret learning to code with Le Wagon, take my word for it!