Le Wagon

After graduating from business school and launching 2 significant ventures for Rocket Internet, my cofounder and I resigned to work on our own project. Like many others, our first task was to find a CTO. After a few weeks of rather frustrating search, I decided to attend Le Wagon's #1 batch in Paris (2014).

After 9 intense weeks of learning, I went from zero development knowledge to being able to create a solid MVP. On top of great course material and teachers, Le Wagon really stands out by its ability to create an ambitious yet fun environnement. Everybody there has their own background and is eager to make a change.

The work I did at Le Wagon helped me prove my concept and attract 2 great developers to get things started. We ended up launching Kudoz, a recruitment mobile app. 3 years later, we are a 12-people team. We have raised €1.2m in 2015 (and probably more soon). Kudoz has reached more than 250k users and 1000 active recruiters this month. 

So yes, attending Le Wagon was really worth it ;)

I had never coded a single line before in my life, but those classes were so complete that after only 9 weeks I am now confident enough about my code skills to apply for a tech position. For the past 3 years I worked with Marketing and Communications, but right after Le Wagon I started applying some logic knowledge and hacks in my daily tasks and this led me to get a spot in the tech team of my company!  It's only two months to become a fullstack dev so you have to dive in code everyday but it is totally worth it! I am fully satisfied and recommend Le Wagon to everyone looking for a quick start on coding. Besides Le wagon provides you with an amazing network of alumni and teachers that help you even after the bootcamp is over.

After earning an engineering degree and working a few years as a consultant in the banking sector, I wanted to learn new skills, especially in web development.

Thus, I joined the Le Wagon's 9-week FullStack program in Paris. The choice of this particular course had been motivated by various reviews I had found on the internet, but more importantly by the quality of the projects that are pitched by the students at their demo days.

My goal was to become autonomous and able to build any kind of web application's MVP in a reasonable amount of time: this goal has been reached.

Le Wagon surely means daily classes, exercices and learnings, but above all it's a very rich human experience. Even though days are tough, they always take place in friendliness and cheerfulness with classmates coming from very different backgrounds and always eager to help each other. The whole staff is very skilled and enthusiastic, and teachers are always available and accessible.

Today,  I returned to my consulting job, and thanks to Le Wagon I am also working on the side on a personal project of a web application.

In a word, I am sure you have understood that for all those who are looking for a web development bootcamp, I strongly recommend Le Wagon.`

A few months ago I had to make the following choice: am I going to dive deeper into social science and finish a master in my area of specialisation or, am I going to jump out of my comfort zone and go head first into coding. Now 3 months later I am still thrilled that I choose the latter.

It is remarkable the amount of information that Le Wagon manages to teach you in just nine weeks. At times I felt like I was hanging on to the last cart of a fast moving derailing train, but it is inevitable to not be in over your head learning to code as a beginner and it is almost imperative for the learning curve that Le Wagon offers.

Now I am able to create finished products, from start to end and I’ve found a job as a developer. Not only did the course provide the me the tools to start building and keep learning, but it also comes with an amazing community in which you are definitely prone to keep developing.

Background
As a graduate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation I am interested in start-ups in the world of IT. In order to build a project with a friend I immersed myself in the world of web development. To accelerate this process I found Le Wagon.

During the bootcamp
Le Wagon was a very intensive bootcamp. They have a nice structure of lectures and challenges, you are ready to build your own web applications towards the end of the bootcamp! The environment is very friendly and comfortable, I’ve had awesome teachers who helped me to get the most out of my Le Wagon experience.

Post bootcamp
Joining LW gave me the hard skills of a developer. I never expected to learn how to make fully functioning web-applications in such a little time. I can honestly say that I am confident with my obtained proficiency in software development. Moreover, I realized that it is not just the end-product, but coding itself is what makes me happy. Therefore I want to further advance as a web-developer.

Before joining Le Wagon, I worked as a finance analyst. I wanted to take a break and had always been intrigued by the happenings within the tech and start-up scene, and thus after a period of research, I decided to apply for Le Wagon in Copenhagen. 

Why Le Wagon?

I was based full-time in Asia, where coding bootcamps were not yet popular at the time of my application, and so I looked abroad. I browsed bootcamps in the U.S., but found most of them very expensive, and was lucky to find out about Le Wagon after perusing online reviews. Headquartered in Paris, Le Wagon offered classes across Europe and is now expanding to Asia and Latin America. It stood out as one of the more affordable options while not compromising quality and content. I am now happy to attest to the strength of the reviews I had read before I applied. 

Le Wagon was an intensive 9-week program with the goal of equipping creatives and entrepreneurs with the skill set to kick-start and launch their ideas. That said, you do not need to have a business idea to join Le Wagon. I found the program extremely well structured and thought out — lectures in the morning to introduce new concepts, exercises in the afternoon to practise those new concepts, and live-coding sessions in the evening to make sure everybody is on the same page. In the last few weeks, we plunged into developing our own projects, and it was incredible to see what one could do after learning 7 weeks of code. Of course, do not expect yourself to become an expert after the bootcamp, however, you will have a solid foundation in code to continue your journey as a junior developer or test out your ideas!

For me, my biggest takeaway from Le Wagon was the community. I met amazing classmates from all parts of the world and different backgrounds, and all converging to learn code together. Teachers at Le Wagon all teach with passion and immense belief in the program — most lecturers and TAs were former Le Wagon students, and it just comes to show the strength of the alumni community. We also had the pleasure of meeting Boris the founder of the program, and saw his vision in empowering ourselves through code in no matter what we do. You can see how much care and thought the founders behind the bootcamp had put into shaping the course by going through all the lecture materials, exercises, and flashcards they had put together and made available online to all students. 

Why Copenhagen?

The deciding factor for me was simply that I was curious about life in Scandinavia and thought there probably would not be another time for me to move across the world and spend 3 months here! I was extremely glad with my choice — not only was Copenhagen a lovely city with a unique pace and biking culture, but the Le Wagon program was also run by a very competent alum who knew exactly what he was doing. Guest lecturers were invited on same days and they were either seasoned developers or designers in the field, and we were blessed to have them come in and share tips and insights with us. These teachers have now become our mentors and I am really grateful to have met them. 

If you are deciding which city to join Le Wagon in, I would recommend Copenhagen with no hesitation. Most of my batch were international students, and we are now once again scattered across the globe to pursue the next steps in our careers. The skills you learn at Le Wagon are universal and highly transferable, so why not spend 9 weeks in a new city and where is the quality of teaching is great? 

Before I joined Le Wagon I thought programming was something only 15 year olds living on their computer could do. Now I find out that I have the potential to be amazing at it and Le Wagon helped me make unimaginable progress. I used to not know anything about the command line or even code and now much of it comes like second nature. I also used to hate class and considered dropping out of university but I just discovered I was being taught wrong and at the bootcamp I enjoyed attending class and it was easy to pay attention. The majority of the course was spent solving small problems that trained my brain to be the developer I am today. The instructors were phenomenal and when it was all said and done this course was good. Many boot camps advertise what they excel at but Le Wagon just excels across the board. I can now build websites with relative ease and I could hardly work the command line before. Finally, my classmates and I got very well. Having travelled from America for this, I made some lifelong friends from all across the world. You often hear testimonials about how it was hard to leave but I would not dismiss the sense of community Le Wagon builds. The buddy system they employ works wonders on getting to know people and the manager Ed is absolutely amazing and will make you feel comfortable from the first day until the last. If you are going to learn web programming and design I give this program my full recommendation.

Hey guys, just wanted to leave my experience and opinion here about my time at Le Wagon in Barcelona, I was part of the first cohort.

It was truly a great time, the curricula was great, I really learned a lot about coding as well as front end.

I finished my project in the end and I enjoyed the overall experience, Gus the driver was helpful, I made great friends and my time in Barcelona couldn't be better, the city and weather was perfect.

I would recommend it, if you have a project you want to complete.

Hello,
  I am Aryana, a Le Wagon Alumni. Like many students there, I had no idea I wanted to become a Web Developer until recently - but I believe it is one of the best decisions I ever made!
  I graduated from a Business School 3 years ago - not because I was interested in business, but because I had no idea of what I wanted to do. After that I became a freelance recruiter, and worked with recruitment agencies. One of them was specialized in IT profiles. Not only did I realize that there was a shortage of programmers and web developers, but a vast majority of the programmers I spoke to were enthusiastic and loved their job. That got me thinking. I had done a little programming myself during my free time and had loved it. Why couldn't I become one myself...?
  As I had no real experience in programming, I knew I would have to follow some kind of course. But which format / language should I opt for ? I went through many websites, spoke to quite a few programmers, and was starting to think I would never find a short but intense program that met my needs (most of these had bad reviews on the Internet) until one IT Teacher I spoke to told me about Le Wagon. I looked into it, and it seemed perfect ! Many people had advised me to learn Ruby on Rails, and the format was exactly what I was looking for - even though it seemed a little expensive.
 

I was in batch 43, which started in October 2016 and ended in December. It was even better than what I had imagined!
It was a very concrete experience, full of motivated students and an extremely devoted staff. I discovered that coding was something I loved, and had come to believe that I had finally found a job I would enjoy. The course goes as follows :

• 1 or 2 hours of class in the morning
• Exercises all day in pairs (you're never alone and get to meet all of the other students) --> practice makes perfect !
• 1 hour of livecode (everyone codes together) in the evening.
• The last 3 weeks you work in groups on 2 projects. This means that each group, and each individual, will ultimately develop different skills depending on the website and on their role in the group. Some work more on the front-end, some more on the back-end, some websites will do plenty of scraping while others will use loads of javascript... It is very enriching. !

Everyone is motivated and hardworking - we actually nearly forgot to go for lunch a couple of times! - but the staff is there to remind us to relax and have fun. We had yoga classes twice a week (I discovered how bad I was at yoga then ><) and events were organized on a regular basis.

On the whole, it was great experience. I met fantastic people, and had plenty of fun. I must admit that I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the program, but it was totally worth it =) But now what ? After a short (well-deserved!) break, I started looking for opportunities as a fullstack developer. During one of my interviews I was asked to look into Tests (something we only skim over at Le Wagon but which is very important to tech teams), and javascript. I am therefore working on personal projects in order to develop my Ruby on Rails skills, and learn more about tests and the other languages. And if everything goes as planned, I will be joining their team in April... =]

Good luck to any of those who wish to follow it, and enjoy !

Hello! I was a student at Le Wagon Bordeaux batch #40 (03/10/2016 - 02/12/2016)

This bootcamp of 2 months brought me a lot. It was dense, complete and well organized.

WHY LE WAGON:

The language Ruby is known to be "developer happiness", that means intuitive and easy to assimilated. This does not prevent that there are quite a lot of good practices to know to be effective (SRP, DRY ...)

We also learn to work with:

- HTML

- CSS

- Javascript

- Ajax

- Jquery

- Ruby on Rails

LESSONS:

Every day there was a principal teacher, as well as assistant teachers to have a more effective individual follow-up. The teachers are friendly, attentive, patient and listening ... The day begins with a lesson. Then we form groups of two people, to work on the subject of the lesson until 5:30 pm. We finish on a livecode, to correct the exercises of the day. Anyone can ask questions and correct their exercise.

At the end of this bootcamp, I am able to set up a site (e-commerce, hotel ...) from conception to a functional web application.

AND AFTER? :

I am currently on my own. I realize sites for professionals, who want to improve their visibility, turnover and proximity. A month after the end of this bootcamp, I work on 4 sites simultaneously.

I work in parallel on personal projects that will lead, I hope on the creation of a startup.

And now I'm a teacher assistant in Bordeaux for the next batch.

I highly recommend Le Wagon.

LOUARN Ronan

Before joining Le Wagon, I was working in a nuclear power station as an operations engineer in the main control room. I finished my Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bristol and went straight into the nuclear power industry but after two years I realised that this was not the career for me. And now, 3 weeks after the course I have already landed a developer role in an exciting London startup.

I wanted to move back to a big city after living in a remote village for the last year and started looking for jobs in London. As a mechanical engineer, I did not find anything that really interested me and I also came to the conclusion that I was never that passionate about mechanical engineering in the first place! During my job search I couldn't help but notice the abundance of software development roles that were available in London and this gave me the idea to look into becoming a developer.

A very close friend of mine recommended Le Wagon to me as he knew someone who attended one of the Amsterdam batches (Gina) and after seeing her enthusiasm about the course during a Skype call I was convinced that I should apply. This was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life.

Learning to code at Le Wagon was an incredible experience. The course structure and content have been meticulously pieced together to create a logical journey which means that even someone with no programming knowledge can understand the concepts and excel in web development. The nine weeks are tough but rewarding, there is a lot of information being thrown at you and everyone has moments where they struggle, however at the end you will be amazed at the web applications that you are able to build.

For my final project, I worked in a team of four students to build a web application which allows users to apply for a loan using their mobile number. The idea for this project came from large proportions of people around the world not having access to financial services due to not having a bank account. Users can sign up and apply for a loan and then bank employees can review these applications, monitor their loan portfolio and have access to statistics which give them an overview of the business. This project was built in only 10 days.

Honestly, I could never have imagined that I would be able to build something this completed after just 9 weeks of studying.

Apart from the fantastic course content, all the teachers, teaching assistants and Le Wagon staff helped to create a really friendly and comfortable atmosphere. Every one of them is clearly very passionate about wanting to help people to learn to code and this is reflected in all aspects of the course. Another reason why the course quality was so high was that the teachers were excellent; great at explaining things, answering questions and helping students with their bugs and issues.

Overall, if you are considering learning how to code in a short space of time – I recommend Le Wagon over any other bootcamp in London. It is a guaranteed life changing experience.

Le Wagon... The place to be for a very challenging bootcamp!

You'll see everything, from back-end to front-end, including a bit of Javascript and other sweet things to usher you into the delicious world of developers!

At Le Wagon, you'll find the open mindset, a warm atmosphere and everything you'll need to feel 100% ready for intensive training.

As far as I'm concerned, in Batch#43, we put everything we had learnt in classes into practice to build our project ZA:DL (https://www.lewagon.com/fr/demoday/43/zadl)

Before Le Wagon, I created my own company and I felt very limited in its evolution because I was lacking the required technical skills. I chose Le Wagon to get these skills as fast as possible so I could build another MVP myself. Being able to understand everything that lays behind a web-app led me to question my project and made a 180° pivot to a much better product.

More than a technical program, Le wagon helps you to define the easiest Web Product possible with an optimized user experience.
The final projects enabled me to take enough hindsight to truly understand and use everything we had learnt during the first few weeks of the program. It gave me confidence in the fact that I can keep learning to code and be autonomous after the bootcamp.

Le Wagon kept its word: today my creativity is not limited any more as I now have the skills to express it.

In a nutshell, if you hesitate.. do not, go for it!

My previous job in tech recruitment was spent placing developers into jobs, which became rather frustrating because everyday I could see the massive potential in having digital skills. I spent a long time agonising over which coding school to choose when I first decided I was going to move from my previous career to a career in technology, and I am so pleased that I chose Le Wagon. I could never understand how they could consistently get 5 star reviews but I thought I would trust them and go through the process myself.

The team at Le Wagon has been so welcoming, supportive and friendly throughout my time there and since. There is a real sense of community with teachers, previous students and the management team going above and beyond to help you out along the way. There was also a great mix of students and we found a good balance between working hard and having fun at the same time.

The teaching was also top quality, it was quite unbelievable how we picked things up, and even though it could be tough at times, the way the course is designed means that you are constantly going over the stuff that you've already learnt without even realising it! Often we would have teachers flying from all over the world to teach us and they were very good at breaking down the things we needed to learn. The course covered everything that we had to know to go straight into developer jobs, from back-end Ruby to some quite advanced JavaScript.

I found that a lot of my classmates had business ideas ready to be made a reality and those like myself who came to learn to code primarily. This was very useful, as there was a lot to learn from people who had much more business experience than me and added a whole new layer to my learning, particularly during the project stage.

Overall, it was tough and needed a lot of hard work, but it never felt like too much because of the support and style of Le Wagon. I would recommend it to anyone interested in coding or starting a tech business.

In a past life, I was a truck driver, which has nothing to do with code. However, a few months ago, I decided to take the plunge and I joined Le Wagon in Paris (batch #43) last October.

Despite my background, the teaching methodology was so effective that I didn't feel overwhelmed by the difficulty of the course. The staff and the atmosphere were great. On top of that, I am amazed by what I got to accomplish at the end of these 9 weeks, whether it was through the AirBnb clone or the final project (www.barde.guitars). 

I am now looking to join a company as a Fullstack developer and I already have a few opportunities for full-time positions!`

Hello, My name is Clemence and I have never been into "long studies". That's why, I naturally turned myself towards bootcamps when I decided to learn how to code.

I had been looking through all the different bootcamps for months before I decided to apply to Le Wagon. At first, I hesitated because I thought it was only designed for entrepreneurs which was not really my profile. But quickly I realised that I could apply without having any current entrepreneurial project.

After taking the interview, asking questions and having completed the ruby track, I got accepted in the Batch#43 in Paris which took place from October to December 2016. 

The team I joined was the first girls-only team at Le Wagon. The project we built is called ZA:DL ( http://beta.zadl.fr/ ). ZA:DL is a web-app that helps you organize paid activities with your friends.

After Le Wagon, we kept on working on it for 2 weeks as the leader of our team plans on releasing it during Q1 of 2017.

There is no denying that the atmosphere at Le Wagon is awesome. The people in my batch were super cool and everybody was getting along well with each other. Teachers, teaching assistants and the staff are all very nice and ready to help when needed. The events organised during the bootcamp were great as well. Despite getting more and more tired throughout the weeks, the talks with entrepreneurs, the Q&A sessions with alumni were very appreciated by the whole group.

Although the first few weeks were really hard for me as I had never coded before, the 9 weeks spent at Le Wagon were so great, and went so fast that no one wanted it to end.

Before joining the bootcamp I had no coding related background whatsoever. I had a Master's of Laws degree and at my latest job I was working as a B2B Account Manager. I decided to take a completely different path and learn how to code! 

Le Wagon is a 9 week intensive bootcamp and the beginning was tough! However, I worked hard, attended every minute (and more) and with some help from my classmates I stuck it out to the end. The syllabus is really well structured, so that even beginners can comprehend it and learn the foundations of web development. 

The course has a really practical approach, so in the end we were educated to build fully functional web applications. All the teachers and TAs were amazing and they did their best to make us understand all the theory much better. If someone needed a boost, they would take extra care of them. 

During the final 2 weeks we were working in teams in order to design, code and ship to production our very own products (www.like-minded.tech). The 9 weeks are intense but I loved every moment of it - the lectures in the morning, the challenging exercises, my different buddy each day, the teachers and the TAs, my teammates, our lovely manager Ed, the masterminds behind Le Wagon, the Friday drinks! At the end of the bootcamp I didn't want to leave! Thanks, Le Wagon!

After getting a Law Bachelor and graduating with a MA in Media & Communication, I just couldn't picture myself starting the usual internship process for big companies in old industries. I was also always excited by the fast moving tech industry - but so frustrated to not be able to be a part of it. 

When I came up with my business idea, it got to the point where all the brainstorming and market research was about to be left hanging if no product was actually being built… After getting a pricing estimation of what it would cost to code my MVP - and knowing that even then I wouldn't be able to fully understand my own product - I decided to invest that money in myself and acquire tech skills.

I spent hours comparing the different bootcamps out there and eventually chose Le Wagon because of what I heard from friends in Paris and because they are the only one really focused on building your product.They have proved it with the successful entrepreneurs they have helped so far. 

The experience at Le Wagon London was truly amazing. The staff (teachers, managers, directors) are as close to the students as it can get and are always available to help you out even after hours. The platform on which we exercise is one of a kind: you start the day with a lecture where the new concepts are taught with the teacher live coding and explaining everything they do; then you spend the day working in pairs or teams and going over the concepts of the day (and more advanced techniques for those who can); and you end the day with another live code where you go over everything once again. It's just crazy the amount of stuff you learn and you surprise yourself keeping the pace with everything and getting better with the days. 

I made good friends there and met my amazing team with who we are now improving our sports competition generator and manager (OnTop). It is now going so fast and we are already able to test it right after the program. 

Finally, I really recommend taking this course for any aspiring entrepreneur (regardless of your background), but also for anyone who wants to commit for 9 weeks to a life changing experience that will open you more doors that you could dream of. But it doesn't end here because you're part of Le Wagon for life.

After finishing my business school in France I knew I wanted to work in a startup environment. But I felt like the knowledge I learnt in the past 4 years was very theoretical and strongly lacked the technical skills to actually bring something to the table in a company other than just an extra pair of hands to help out. 

Having done an internship in a digital startup during my studies I had seen what developers could do and "coding" kept intriguing me since then. That is why after graduating I decided not to do a masters degree as most of my friends were doing and instead I decided to learn how to code at Le Wagon's bootcamp in London! I was amazed by it's online reputation, specially on the international scene compared to other bootcamps I was looking at.

The course was intense, as I expected it to be, but I was amazed by how well the structure of the course was. We would spend all day learning how to code and doing exercises without losing focus. Unlike my university classes, where I often lost focus after 30 minutes of a lecture. 

The last fews weeks the classroom felt more like a company office as we all worked in teams to build our final projects, this was an incredible experience, we quickly got very passionate and proud of our projects, meaning we'd voluntarily spend late nights trying to make our websites look perfect or adding extra features. Before we knew it we were building fully functional websites in just a couple of days.

And that's how, thanks to Le Wagon, in just a few weeks I learned how to code and completely changed my career path and my way of thinking from business to web development with a business perspective.

First of all I totally recommend doing Le Wagon bootcamp if you are keen on entering the programming world.   Before doing Le Wagon last winter here in Brazil I was kind of worried about my future and having a hard time finding a good job. I have studied and worked with oceanography here and before the bootcamp I was disappointed with the lack of opportunities in my field, I spent more than a year looking for a job and nothing came up.   Work with programming was something that I always thought about, but the initial learning curve was very discouraging. So coding bootcamps were already in my mind to break through this curve. Then I heard that a really good bootcamp was landing here in Brazil, so I thought it was my chance of changing. I ended up being the first student to enroll in the first brazilian batch.   And let me tell you it’s been an amazing experience, I have met really good people and looking back I still cannot believe how much me and all my colleagues could learn in only 9 weeks. This is the most interesting point where Le Wagon stand out, it's a very well structured and crafted program. And it explains how they manage to have anyone learn so much so fast.   Their philosophy is learning by doing, and that's also another diferenciating fact about them. You really get your hands dirty and « squeeze »  your brain. The last 2 weeks are devoted to a project which teaches you how to work in team and release a functional project in only ten days. Some of my teammates are still working on the project that is turning into a startup called numooh. Check it out!   Two months after I finished the course I’ve been involved in some freelancing dev for a nice French startup and just got hired in another major startup here in Brazil. (Gympass, the netflix of gym club :)   So, in my opinion, if you seriously want to dive into this world with a solid understanding of what’s going on. You should consider Le Wagon.