Le Wagon

I've just finished my 9 weeks bootcamp @ Le Wagon Paris, and I already talked 4 friends into it (and more are coming). It is THAT good folks.

What can I say to give you a fitting overview of my experience? 

The staff is awesome.
The founders seem to posess a kind of secret, that allowed them to build the most rewarding learning experience of my life.
It's not really a secret actually: they've refined their curriculum over 15 batches of students and they built a tremendous learning platform to support it.

The new HQ in Paris is awesome.
A very spacious villa in the 11th arrondissement with all the equipment you need to literaly live here for 9 weeks. (OK OK you got me, there are no beds, but I think it's totally negotiable)
 

Your batch buddies are awesome.
The staff carefully select the students in their next batch, to create the best learning atmosphere you could experience. People around you are smart, determined to fulfill their objectives, and nonetheless fun to hang with.

The only obstacle you'll face when learning @ Le Wagon is yourself. 
So buckle up, brace yourself, and go for it, coz' it's definitively worth your time and your money.

I'll leave you now with something you'll understand in your first day @ Le Wagon:
```
def le_wagon
  puts "@LeWagon is the best bootcamp to become an awesomer version of yourself :)"
end

```

Many people will tell you that you can learn everything about coding on your own online for free. That's right but Le wagon provides you with very well structured courses, some teachers are here all day long to help you understanding various concepts needed to start.

I think that if you never had any contact with code, starting with other highly motivated people with courses and exercices to follow is one of the best Kickstarter you can ever imagine.

There is no technical background required, only a deep motivation.

At the end of these 2 months, you will not only be able to write your first web application using Ruby on Rails, but you will understand what are the differences between all the "computer langages" that you heard about. Studying at le Wagon will not make you a full stack developper in 2 months but it will allow you to understand the big picture about coding, you will be able to face one by one the challenges that are waiting for you if you start working on your own web application, and if you want to go further you'll be able to do it on your own.

The icing on cake about Le Wagon is the network and community revolving around, if you are looking for a job or if you feel stuck with a new feature that you want to add to your project, you will always find someone to chat with.

You take 3 inspiring executives, you add a team of passionnate and expert teachers, you mix this with a bold and well-oiled learning track and you put everything in a great place where you can attend startup talks and meetups at least once a week... you get an amazing bootcamp!

But this is only 60% of your 9 weeks at Le Wagon. The remaining 40% is an empowering experience with 20 more motivated and open-minded buddies, where you're going to learn, work and share together.

Le Wagon is a dealbreaker and a game changer bootcamp. I have learnt front and back end technologies and I am now able to tackle whatever web-dev project with the appropriate mindset. Switching from having ideas to being able to quickly test your ideas is priceless. 

I do recommend Le Wagon.

Le Wagon is an amazing kickstart to becoming a fullstack developer. People from various backgrounds, with different carreer ambitions, are working 10 hours a day during 9 weeks on a very intensive track to learn how to program high level web apps from scratch.

Personally it has been a real game changer, giving me the opportunity to get a great position in the Silicon Valley in a fast growing start-up. After only a couple of months I could develop rails app from scratch, and even after a few days I knew way more about programing than what I got from months of self-teaching.
More generally it is a great experience where you will learn more than programming; you will meet cool motivated people, learn a whole new way to think and add significant skills to your curriculum. Besides the teaching is great and it emphasizes on creativity and collaboration between students.

You do not need to know anything about programming when you start, so go for it!

No matter where you come from, no matter how old you are, learning to code is currently a powerful lever to develop your skills. "Le wagon" is the best way to start or improve quickly, with the best practice.

An amazing team of teachers, nice coding buddies to work with, many talks with well known entrepreneurs, "Le wagon" does everything that has to be done to help you build a project, or to start a new life as a web developer. After 9 intensive weeks, you can achieve almost everything you want, continue learning on your own, and be connected to a huge network of developers and entrepreneurs.

I am a graphic designer and thanks to this tremendous experience, I acquired a real dual skill.
I highly recommend it to you !

Le Wagon is the best way to quickly learn how to develop a complex web app from scratch.

You don't need to know anything about coding before entering the bootcamp.

The program is very well conceived: 

- you get to spend enough time on the basics to understand them

- you learn how to use powerful tools and frameworks, and you get to understand how they work

- you get to develop an Airbnb copycat in 5 days

- the last 2 weeks are dedicated to your personal project where you get high quality assistance from Le Wagon's instructors.

In the middle of the program, you spend one day learning lean approaches and product management techniques, and the last day is the Demo Day where you get great feedbacks on your product (coded in 2 weeks!!).

I personnally developed my project during the program: https://www.lovely-hood.com :)

Today I get to develop web apps as a fullstack freelance developer, and I still have time to work on my personal projects in parallel.

This program is perfect for entrepreneurs struggling to get a prototype of their website: at the end of the 9 weeks, you'll have yours for sure!

Hey all,

I attended the second bootcamp at le Wagon. It has been a terrific experience which has allowed me to launch my product and find a job as a web developer.

The strongest asset of le Wagon is the team. The teachers are all great with a strong background in programming but also on design, product or business. They will help you through all the setps from being a complete noob to being a fluent rails speaker. Setting up your computer, algorithms, back-end development, front-end development but also working as a team using git and agile methodologies or grow your consumer base using growth hacking techniques.

After 9 weeks, you'll be a profficient rails developer and have the tools to learn more languages in an effective way and also become a real product guy.

Alumni from le Wagon have become web developer, entrepreneur, growth hacker or product manager. And whatever they do next, they've all learned things they find valuable in their daily work.

In three words, le Wagon rocks!

After getting my liberal arts degree and worked in advertising as a creative, I was looking for a way to get into the digital world in a more serious way. I stumbled upon Le Wagon and it was everything I was looking for. Here's 3 reasons that sum it up:

1) The program is very, very solid. It won't make you a star developper over night, but if you put in the work, it's very rewarding. But you have to be ready for a high pace learning environment. The online infrastructure used to store the material and complete the assignments was excellent when I attended, and it's even better now, with access to online video classes and a ticket system to get help whenever you need it in class.

2) The teachers. They're all very friendly and eager to teach noobs like you and me both the basics and the finer points of coding. They bring an energy and enthusiasm to the table that is infectious. Special mention to the CTO in Paris who is the best teacher I've had period since high school.

3) The network. Le Wagon is all interconnected on Slack, and the alumni network is alive and kicking. Initiatives are done by students to help each other. Moreover, they've developped a dedicated online platform for alumni to stay in touch and help each other. The network alone might be worth the price of admission, it's the gift that keeps on giving way past the 9 weeks the program takes.

I graduated with a bachelors degree in economics and had my own startup before the age of 25.

After I sold the startup I was convinced I wanted to become an entrepreneur again.

All of the ideas I had involved some IT knowledge. It was either learning it myself or spend the rest of my life trusting other programmers and spening a lot of cash.

I decided to pick up programming in a regular University. The amount of programming I got was very dissapointing. I finished my first year and my final exam for programming was to build a simple calculator app.

That's when I realised this wasn't going anywhere. I started doing some research and found LeWagon.

The bootcamp is pretty intense but that's exactly what you need when you want to learn something quickly.

Some people didn't keep up with the pace but the program provides additional coaches to help people who fell behind to still get the maximum out of the bootcamp.

Fast forward 9 weeks later, I created my own website with all these awesome functionalities.

And the best part is, you can pretty much do anything you want after this bootcamp, because they teach you a mindset of how to learn to tackle your own IT problems.

The most remarkable thing I realised is that over the few years I was an entrepreneur I hired a few web developers to make my projects. 

The total cost of these projects would probably be around 30.000EUR. After the bootcamp I realised I could have done all those projects with ease on my own.

If you're thinking to yourself that you don't have the time to develop your own projects see this as the best investment you can make. The developers won't be able to misslead you and overcharge you for projects because you will know how much effort it will take.

Long story short; 

If you want to become a entrepreneur: Do it, you will save a lot of money in the long run even if you don't have time to create your own projects. It will be a blessing if you need to brief or map out something.

If you want to become a web developers: Do it, the job assistance is good, although not perfect. You will struggle a bit at start because most companies will want to hire someone with experience. Your best bet is to try to get a 2-3 month internship at one of the companies they have connections in and then either work there full time or apply to other companies with a few projects in your portfolio.

As a non-tech management consultant I was looking for a course to help me understand how all these complex web apps were made. I wanted to be able to make my own. 

Le Wagon Brussels was a great experience. It took me a lot of nerve to take the decision but I haven't regretted it for a second. The teachers and coaches are extremely kind and helping, the material is well explained. The pace is high but adapted to everyone's level.

I now run my own start-up ;)