Le Wagon

I have always been amazed by the disruptive power of tech-startups and also dreamed of pursuing my own business ideas. But I also always felt like I need someone else to code them for me. I thought coding is one of these things you can only wrap your head around if math was your favorite subject in Highschool, you spend your free time writing your own computer games, your brain is a perfect square, etc...  But when I came close to finishing my bachelor’s degree I also didn’t feel like getting a job in that sector so I started looking for some alternatives.  Le Wagons’ value proposition caught my attention:  “Learn how to code great tech-products in nine intensive weeks!” they promised.  Still questioning my coding talent I made the decision to challenge myself.

Fast forward to today I am grateful for this decision because Le Wagon has made a huge impact on my career path. During these nine weeks, I went from 0 coding skills to being able to launch a real web application. After learning essential programming basics in the first weeks I really enjoyed how our TAs embedded the Bootcamp in an entrepreneurial context including Pitch Events and Product Design Sprints. In small groups, we had to apply our new knowledge to transform one of our own ideas into a real product.
While everything I learned in this Bootcamp was important and fundamental programming knowledge, I feel like the most valuable thing for me was that I lost all my fears related to coding. I feel empowered and able to learn anything.

I recommend Le Wagon for anyone who wants to found a startup or get a job as a Developer. I also recommend doing more than just the required prep-work. If you start from 0  like me try to do as many online courses before the Bootcamp as possible to develop this specific logical thinking. There will be so much new information and the learning curve will be so steep that you will be thankful for anything that you have already learned before. Also, keep in mind that this is just the kickstart of your education if you’re serious about making this your new profession.

When I first heard about the Wagon I felt I needed to add value to my managerial education with a harder set of skills. Programming obviously came to my mind and so I started looking at opportunities to get involved. Many online programming schools presented candidates with attractive features (low cost, schedule flexibility…) but none seemed to have both the professional and social aspects of Le Wagon and its solid cursus and internal structure. In the end, more than just hard programming skills, we were further introduced to the thriving technology industry, bringing us at the crossroad of our initial formation and this new one, leading us into more strategic positions for ourselves, particularly in our approach to project management and learning how to better set and surpass expectations.

I joined Le Wagon bootcamp batch #247 in Montréal. Le Wagon bootcamp exceeded all of my expectations, not only due to the new skills I got out of it, but also to the people I was surrounded with. For me, it was a human experience and a learning experience.
I received my bachelor in Psychology but I did not want to pursue a career in it. I decided to go into Marketing. After working a year as a marketing coordinator, I found that it was not for me, but I loved creating websites, and maintaining them. So I decided to learn how to code. Joining Le Wagon finally enabled me to get rid of that growing frustration and empowered me to work more efficiently with developers, to better manage digital projects now considering them also from a technical point of view, and to build my own digital projects.
Le Wagon’s methodology is perfectly designed and well rhythmic for people with no prior coding knowledge. The outstanding teaching staff is constantly sharing tips and the best practices they gained from years of experience which gives a lot of hindsight and help better understand what you are learning.
On top of that, Le Wagon gives you all the tools and resources you need to keep learning autonomously and improve your coding skills in the long-run.
Last but not least, Le Wagon is also a strong community of creative and entrepreneur-minded people driven by the pay-it-forward mentality that it’s just awesome to be part of.
In a nutshell, whether you are in digital, you want to be able to build your own projects, or you are currently working with developers, this bootcamp is for you :)

I used to work as a Marketing Manager in a Start Up.
I was constantly working with people from the Tech team, and I realized that communication between Marketing and Tech was actually very complex. That's how I wanted to learn how to code. So I did not hesitate, and I decided to subscribe at Le Wagon.
After the bootcamp, all I wanted to do is was keep coding. I didn't expect to love that much coding, and I think it's because Le Wagon conveys well this passion for code. 
Thanks to Le Wagon, I was able to join very quickly a Web Agency as a Full Stack Developer

I started my company right after university. My issue was that I never really liked the field in which I was. Last year, my partner and I decided to make a career change. I had some app ideas but it is really expensive to hire a developer so I began to learn to code through online platforms such as CodeCademy to try to do it myself. Since it is really difficult to learn by yourself, I decided to join Le Wagon to learn faster and with good practices. It’s crazy what we were able to do in such a small amount of time. We learned all the steps to create a web app. All the teachers are here because they love to help and to teach. We also have a life-access to their platform which is really helpful afterward when you are by our own trying to do your stuff. I recommend Le Wagon bootcamp to anyone who wants to learn to code and wants to make a career change. It was a great experience and I made a lot of good friends!

Pros: 

• Kitt, Le Wagon's learning platform, is one of the best things about the bootcamp: you can redo exercises, test, and refer to lectures and slides. Being able to redo and refer to the platform after the bootcamp & complete additional challenges is incredibly useful.
• At the end of the camp, you have two MVPs in your portfolio that you've built in a team of developers & with pair programming; these experiences help whether you are interested in becoming an entrepreneur, working as a freelancer, or gaining a job as a software developer.
• Learning with classmates was invaluable. Everyone was fully dedicated, ambitious, and wanted to learn as much as possible- which made us all strive to push ourselves further & help each other out. 
• The Le Wagon community of alumni is another pro- people all over the world post help, guidance, mentorship & opportunities, which means your network in the tech space expands exponentially by joining. The ability to do the bootcamp all over the world helps draw an incredibly diverse & international community: so many graduates are still active in the community which goes to show how positive the experience was for so many. 

Cons: 

• 9 weeks is a short time to learn so much- I wish we had had a few more weeks to learn more content. 
• Le Wagon was up front that they don't guarantee jobs after the bootcamp- which is a bit of a pro/con. Instead of being placed in a job that might not be a fit, at the end of the bootcamp you do have to find your next job yourself. The teachers/TAs/career coaches were helpful in being realistic and giving guidance for us on where to start the job hunt & what to expect during the process. 
  
   

I would recommend Le Wagon if you're interested in acquiring tangible skills, expanding your network, and/or want to build software products- and are fully invested in learning. 

I decided to make a career change from Investment Banking to coding after researching and attending multiple workshops and talks. 

I looked at several providers and chose Le Wagon based on the combination of reputation, price, length of course, diversity of the cohort, course content, teaching environment and approach but mostly the focus on building a product and developing problem solving skills.

The course is fast paced and intensive but the teachers/teaching assistants and Driver (Le Wagon Manager) were always available and approachable to help with any concerns. They always make sure that no one falls behind. It's crazy thinking about how much content we covered in 9 weeks.

For someone who didn't have a tech background I found that it all came together in the last 3 weeks of the bootcamp where you build a marketplace in week 7 then weeks 8 - 9 on a product pitched by a member of the course.

Why 4 stars? There's always room for improvement and I provided feedback on certain aspects of the course. I'm happy to report that Paal (the Le Wagon Driver) took it on board and has already implemented it for the next course.

As a former building and civil engineer, Le Wagon enabled me to change career and to join a French growing startup that deals with construction companies because I was then able to understand their tech product from its conception to its daily use by their clients.

Today, as a project manager, I am working on the evolution of our product thanks to the tech skills and knowledge I got at Le Wagon.

On top of that, through the bootcamp I lived intense and bonding moments with amazing people that I kept in touch with and that I  often see.

I strongly recommend Le Wagon to whomever wants to learn to code and to join a rich and truly unique learning experience.

I decided to learn to code after managing data scientists in my former job.  Having an analytical background, I became increasingly frustrated that, whilst I could help them think through problems in the abstract, I could not help with technical problems. This, combined with the fact I was wanting to switch industries to work in tech and sustainability, made me take the leap and learn to code.

I chose Le Wagon after some extensive googling. Three things stood out for me: 1. It emphasised that the bootcamp was not only for people who wanted to become developers, but also for people who would be managing/ working closely with them, 2. It was ‘full-stack’, meaning we learned front-end and back-end programming, 3. It wasn’t too long (in hindsight I wish it was longer!)

Le Wagon Barcelona far exceeded my expectations. The quality of teaching and materials is excellent. The curriculum is constantly being updated to make sure students are taught the most relevant information. 9 weeks is short but having come out the other end, I have a solid grounding in Ruby, learned good habits and know where to look to keep developing my skills.

The teachers in Barcelona are also fab. As well as creating a fun learning atmosphere, they are incredibly patient and skilled in breaking down concepts so that beginners can easily grasp them. The fact that all of them have gone through the bootcamp themselves means they have first-hand experience of what you are going through.

My fellow students made the experience special. We were a diverse bunch - in ages, backgrounds and reasons for learning to code - which meant I learned a lot from everyone. Each day we worked through exercises with a new ‘buddy’. This was a great way of getting to know the whole group and made us progress quickly as it was easy to share tips. Being new to Barcelona, it was also nice to have people to see the city with, whether that was grabbing a pizza and cerveza after class or playing football on a Saturday morning.

For anyone who is considering doing Le Wagon Barcelona, as I have been telling my friends/ family/ anyone who will listen, just go for it! It If you want to learn a new skill, change career, meet new people, you won’t regret choosing Le Wagon Barcelona.

i liked the overall atmosphere, made it very fun to learn and was structured well. My favorite part was the buddy system. The 9 weeks were great, much more than i expected. The learning structure was very well planned and I really appreciated that.

For me, the biggest help was actually after the course ended. Le wagon has such a huge international community with people who went through exactly what you did but in different stages. This really makes a difference because you continue to get real world experience and information that  would other wise take you years to learn on your own. 

I would deffintely recommend to others.

I’m very happy I attended Le Wagon Tel Aviv! It was an intense 9 weeks but I was able to learn so much in such a short amount of time! My classmates were awesome to learn with and the instructors were great and super helpful! I enjoyed walking into the office every day!

I really like the setup of the course, the people and instructors! Everyone was great! The moment I entered the office every day, everyone was happy, in a good mood, motivating and funny! I loved to come here everyday and I really gonna miss this! really had the best time here in Tel Aviv with Le Wagon. Although it was very intense, it made a lot of fun to learn coding, solve challenges with the buddies and to be together as a group! Time flew during the bootcamp, which is always a good sign that it must have been a great time! I loved it!

I spent more than four years in a consulting role, before I decided to take a break from my professional career and learn a new skill, coding, which I was personally interested in for a longer time, however lacked time, discipline, and most importantly a structured and already proven approach to learning.

Due to personal recommendations of friends, I checked out Le Wagon and immediately felt that this was exactly what I was looking for. This impression was confirmed when I had an initial chat with Rich, the driver at Le Wagon in Berlin.

From my perspective, three points were particularly valuable about the Le Wagon experience:

1.) Very nicely structured programme, which challenges both experienced as well as totally inexperienced students to a degree that optimizes learning for everyone without feeling lost. They have implemented an awesome mix between morning lectures, which teach the fundamentals for the daily exercises, as well as subsequent challenges and live codes to apply the daily learnings and gain practical routine.

2.) Online additional resources and network

Since the bootcamp has been around for quite some time now, there is an almost endless amount of additional resources to continue learning during and after the bootcamp. Also, Le Wagon now builds on a very strong community of more than 5k alumni which are very eager to help on coding problems etc.

3.) People

Great set of fun people with very diverse and interesting backgrounds, yet everyone is very focused and committed to the course.

Would highly recommend this!

I decided to learn coding because web apps are now everywhere and in every sector, from the simple food delivery app to the army simulators. My initial project was to develop skills in web development after 3 years in 3D realtime infographics specialised in VR and in Augmented Reality because coding would be a great addition to my skills. I chose Le Wagon because I had got great feedbacks from my brother who had previously done the bootcamp in Shanghai, but also because of their teaching methodology and their well-known reputation both inside the French tech ecosystem and on the international level thanks to all their foreign campuses.

After many years of studying and of ‘alternance’ work during my studies in Digital Marketing, it became clear that knowing how to code was vital if I wanted to evolve in this sector. Le Wagon is a school that was recommended to me by several colleagues, one of whom went into the bootcamp as a working professional and another as an SEO expert. Compared to all the courses I have completed throughout my studies, I have never learned so much in so little time. It was very demanding, especially at the beginning but you quickly learn to adapt and get into the rhythm of things. At the end of the course, I came out with real hard skills. It’s a course that forces you to learn and work together with other students by constantly helping each other.

In 2018 I started my gap year, enjoying the fact that I had the chance to be self-sufficient as I pursued anything I wanted to do. Even before joining Le Wagon, I had taken an interest in the idea of coding, asking what few people I knew with experience to guide me where they could to a starting point. But coding very quickly seemed inaccessible. Everyone I knew was already part of that world, and whilst each friend had a different way of getting into it, I felt as if none of these were options in my situation. I saw coding courses advertised, but didn’t like the idea of going back to a school system so soon after leaving it, until I was told about Le Wagon. Coming into the offices to speak to Alex felt easy, and his explanation convinced me to sign up and start saving. This for me was the best part of the bootcamp; you are immediately put at ease by the friendliness of the teachers, who explain things clearly and patiently, and more importantly never treat you as just a student. I needed the community atmosphere at Le Wagon as this was the first time I felt able to “be a part of” the coding world, and it gave me a greater drive to learn more. The course was intense for sure, but I never felt like it was a burden to come in, so for me it became very easy to lock in and focus on learning. The course itself is amazing, as every day you are exposed to new ideas, and then given the rest of the day to test them out, and learn about them yourself. If they were particularly challenging, there was always someone on hand to help you one-to-one, be it another student or one of the TA’s, so you never felt stuck at your desk, completely at a loss.
The ability to work for two weeks on an idea you have is equally incredible. We were given full support from all the TA’s to help flesh out our design, and refining it to make a working, beautiful website. It struck me every day of the project weeks how strange it was that just a month before, it was hard to remember even the names of all the coding languages. On this course you are given a great opportunity to be welcomed into a world that can seem daunting, whilst they provide the learning materials and proper community needed to push on from the last day, and continue your progression from wherever you started, to becoming a full fledged coding god. It is an experience I won’t forget, and one I’d recommend to anyone.

After my school closing my software engineering program in the middle of the semester, I was left scrambling for what i should do next. I could apply to more schools and take an extra year to graduate, while repeating much of the same material, OR I could take advantage of knowing something about software and design, and take advantage of the time I suddenly had free, and join a coding bootcamp.

I picked Le Wagon for a few reasons. They have great campus locations around the world, so I could pick the one closest to me. They offer a well rounded curriculum within a fair time frame of nine-weeks, making sure students are at least introduced to the topics employers are actively looking for. They advertised their alumni network, and with over 5000 alumni, you can be sure to always have a place to ask questions and make connections. After the bootcamp, they offered help with getting your first developer job, with resources at hand to help you have the best CV and the skills to write a killer cover letter.

They can do all this, at a fair price point that makes my idea to go back to school seem almost laughable. But are the companies hiring on board? Actually yes! They even had a career day and introduced Students to companies in the area, letting us see what employers expected from bootcamp graduates. We could immediately judge just how much progress we can make in 9 weeks and how ready we were to start a career in web development.

If you are able to work hard to achieve your goals, and aren't afraid to end up dreaming in Ruby, then I strongly suggest you consider Le Wagon. They will provide you with not only the comprehensive skillset of a professional developer, but also with a community and a network of passionate people, and memories to last.