Le Wagon

J’ai fait le bootcamp du Wagon Bordeaux cet automne. Je suis très satisfait de cette formation qui est allée au-delà de mes attentes. Ce fut une expérience incroyable qui m’a permis de faire la connaissance avec des gens que je n’aurais sûrement pas rencontré en dehors du Wagon. Les enseignants sont très compétents et m’ont aidé à progresser rapidement. Le staff a été accueillant et à l’écoute tout au long de la formation.Pendant le Wagon nous avons été amenés à travailler en binôme et chaque jour c’est avec une personne différente. C’est quelque chose que j’ai beaucoup apprécié puisque ça permet d’aborder les problèmes différemment et permet de s’enrichir tant sur le plan technique qu’humain.J’avais déjà fait du code avant le Wagon et pendant les premières semaines j’ai pu apporter mon aide à mon buddy du jour. C’est l’expérience humaine qui a été plus marquante durant la première partie de la formation plutôt que l’aspect technique. Après les trois premières semaines le niveau des élèves s’équilibre et les compétences de chacun ressortent grâce à leur expérience et c’est ça qui fait la force du Wagon. Il en résulte alors un mélange d’expériences et de compétences qui ont permis de réaliser des projets très intéressants lors du DemoDay.J’ai participé à un projet d’application avec 2 autres personnes. Cette application,
Seven Spaces, consiste à proposer à ses utilisateurs de créer ou rejoindre des salons de chat restreints. Ce qui donnent la possibilité de pouvoir discuter sur internet en diminuant drastiquement le risque de recevoir des messages haineux ou non-respectueux lors de discussions comme sur certaines plateformes sociales. En effet le créateur du salon peut exclure un utilisateur facilement s’il tente de nuire à la convivialité du salon.Je recommande vivement cette formation à tous ceux motivés qui souhaitent apprendre à coder. Avant de se lancer il faut bien garder à l’esprit que la charge de travail et le rythme sont conséquents.

Before joining the bootcamp I was working as a Supervisor in different restaurants across London. I wanted a change so I decided to join Le Wagon. 

I can easily say this turned out to be one of the best experiences in my life! 

The learning method is amazing since it makes you learn so much in a short period of time. When I started, I didn’t have any previous coding experience, and in just two months I learned how to build full web applications.
The course makes you improve day after day and also teaches you not to give up, allowing you to create amazing things in no time.

After nine weeks of intensive learning with Le Wagon, I’ve not only gained a deeper understanding of full-stack web development, but the confidence and knowledge to extend my learning to other technical areas.

I can only strongly recommend Le Wagon to anyone willing to learn how to code!

Après 20 années passées dans le domaine des Ressources Humaines en tant que Key Account Manager et Recruteur à Paris, j’ai réalisé un bilan de compétences il y a 1 an dans le but d’effectuer une reconversion professionnelle. Très vite, j’ai su que je voulais évoluer dans le monde de la tech et plus précisément celui du web.

Après avoir discuté avec plusieurs développeurs et plusieurs amis qui travaillent dans ce domaine, tous m’ont vivement conseillé de postuler à la formation du Wagon. Désireux de revenir sur Bordeaux et après avoir fait le travail préparatoire j’ai eu la chance de faire partie du batch 325.

Le moins que je puisse dire, c’est que cette formation a tenu toutes ses promesses. L’équipe pédagogique est aux petits soins pour chacun des élèves, nous accompagne pour nous aider à nous surpasser et le système de buddies nous permet d’aller plus loin et de nous entraider. L’apprentissage par le biais de cours mais surtout de résolution d’exercices au quotidien est très performant. Et le résultat est incroyable.

2 sites web réalisés en moins de 3 semaines en fin de formation. Fraîchement diplômé, je recherche un poste de développeur web sur Bordeaux et ai déjà plusieurs entretiens programmés.

Mon expérience au Wagon Bordeaux fut très positive, le rythme des journées, l’organisation, l’enchaînement du programme rien n’est laissé au hasard.

J’ai beaucoup apprécié l’ambiance générale de mon batch l’entre aide quotidienne entre les élèves et le soutient des professeurs. Débutant en programmation, je suis surpris de tout ce que j’ai pu apprendre en 9 semaines, c’est lorsque nous avons présenté notre projet que j’ai réalisé tout le chemin que j’avais fait.

Nous avons eu l’idée de développer une plateforme qui permet de parier des sommes d’argent contre ses amis pour des séances de running. Pari réussi puisque nous avons présenté le jour-j une application fonctionnelle, Run2beatMe !

J’ai trouvé les challenges journaliers particulièrement efficaces, car ils m’ont poussé à me débrouiller de manière autonome face à une problématique, et c’est cet état d’esprit qui aujourd’hui, à la sortie du Wagon, me permet de continuer d’apprendre en autonomie.

Cette formation m’a également apporté une base de connaissances solides pour lancer sereinement ma carrière de développeur.

Je recommande vivement la formation du Wagon à tous ceux qui souhaitent se challenger et cultiver un état d’esprit de développeur !

Before I start : I have a background in psychology and knowledge of art & design, I’ve also always been curious of learning a lot of things.

 

 

My initial question before I started this journey was:

Why coding? This is the question that I have been asked for a lot of times, also the same question I asked myself before I decided to attend Le Wagon. Why coding, instead of other things? Why choose coding at this time, instead of before or later?. What helped me take the leap was a voice inside of me saying “ WHY NOT coding? Don’t you see the possibility? if you don’t learn coding, you could be illiteracy in just a few years?” This voice may be scary, but try to check what’s going on around you, think about it. Get your answer, because this is really serious!

 

Making the choice:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (A Tale of Two Cities)

This a quote from “A Tale of Two Cities” and it relates a lot to learning how to code nowadays.

If you start to be interested in coding, you can find tons of ways of learning. Sometimes too many options, you feel dazzled. This decision is especially hard for a person born under the sign of Libra  :-) I am lucky, because I know someone who graduated from Le Wagon. And I saw his career changing after he graduated. When he started, I couldn’t believe that one’s life can be changed only after 9 weeks. Because this is counter my common sense. I have been taught  that you need 10 000 hours of practice to be good at something. But this friend is the hard fact, which I couldn’t ignore and deny it. So I decided to try by myself, to see how far I could go, how much my life would be changed by such “mystery” process.

 

I can give you my story ending: I never regret the decision I made. Furthermore, my life is changed and still changing now. This is one of my best decision I have ever made in my life.

 

If you experience trying to learn code by yourself, you might know you might be stuck sometimes for a few hours or even days, you don’t know where is the mistake that was made or why your code doesn’t work, and you can’t find someone to ask why. Sometimes this could lead you to a self-doubt situation, that you tell yourself: “maybe I am not made for it, I don’t have the talent to do this”. That’s exactly where Le Wagon can help. You have the opportunity to learn with a community.

 

 

Life at Le Wagon:

The schedule at Le Wagon is quite simple: lecture and then practice, practice, practice… the practice part is like an infinitive refrain of a song: you can’t get rid of it and you don’t even want to get rid of it. But, practice is the key! And we don’t practice alone. We practice with buddies (this is the cooperation system used by Le Wagon), and we have teachers’ support. You can’t be stuck in one problem for more than 1 hour, unless you really want it. I was immersed in doing the challenges, only hoping the time could fly slowly, but the time is ruthless, it never happened.

 

Generally, we have one-hour live-code at the end of the day. Sometimes, someone has to code in front of the class, and of course, not every day we had volunteers. You will always remember the “wheel of death” moment 😅if it happens : we randomly select someone. But don’t panic, you will always get the answer, the whole class is by your side.

 

Teamwork is another keyword at Le Wagon. For the whole bootcamp : with your buddies, or when you are working together for a group project. You should always keep that in mind. I was very impressed by the way we pitched for our own project,  how we had feedbacks and the way we chose the project we wanted to work with. If you are accepted, you will expand your knowledge, and Le Wagon does it very efficiently.

 

Collaboration ❤️

In the last 3 weeks, you will work with the same teammates all the time. I had an excellent experience working with my teammates. They were very supportive, cooperative. We had a lot of meetings to review, discuss, plan our daily work. Usually meeting means boring moments, waste of time. But in our case, I never had this kind of feeling. It is very useful and necessary. I learned from everyone. Another good thing I found is, not just inside the team, cross the teams, we also made a lot of connections. Sharing or asking for help is normal during the bootcamp.

 

Finally making a product : the final weeks

I will never forget the last 2 weeks dedicated to our final project. From scratch to final product, we made it! I know, I still have a lot to learn. But, in less than 2 weeks, creating an app from zero, is already amazing. I couldn’t believe it before we made it. We worked a lot, myself, my teammates, the whole team of Teachers. I am so proud of it, indescribably proud of it!.

 

My pieces of advice:

• Be prepared for the class. Take online courses, do the exercises, the more, the better!
• Be prepared that sitting all day long in front of laptop, after the bootcamp, you could suddenly realize that Le Wagon fatten you up!
• Don’t think that the teacher always tell you everything: They say the 3 first weeks are the most difficult ones. The true fact is: No! Every Week is challenging!
• Learn some French words if you come from a country where people don’t speak French. Or if this helps: if you want to find a local language partner, try a cool app named“Bonjourhi” (please allow me to promote our final project here lol)
• Notice that you will be used to learn and code in a very intensive pace, this could affect your daily speaking speed, eat speed, walking speed etc etc.
• Warning! Probably you will be sad, depressive, get lost on the Saturday morning after the demo day party :(

 

 

Conclusion:

9 weeks is like a little nap, without having a dream, suddenly you are woken up. It is tough, but it is a looooot of fun. Besides the new career opportunity, it is also the opportunity to challenge yourself, to see the benefits after your hard work. You can’t buy a sense of accomplishment, never, the only way to do it is to commit.

Find this mystery joy by yourself. Then, you will be as me, as my classmates, as the  alumni around the world, grateful and satisfied.

After a decade working as an Engineer for a giant resource company, I took a self-granted sabbatical and found new passions in programming and product design. I decided to change direction to tech industry upon returning back to the workforce, and soon faced w/ roadblocks. I’ve invested countless hour and dollars in online educations, but without proper guidance and support, it was very easy to be lost in ocean of information and outdated technology. And I still couldn’t achieve what I was aiming for.

  Attending Le Wagon bootcamp is one of the best investment I’ve made for myself. Not only the bootcamp is packed with technology that is currently being used in the market, I also had a privilege to pair up and work together with talented budding programmers from all walk of life, thanks to the sophisticated structure of the bootcamp. For our final project, our team also successfully created a useful data analytics web app from scratch within 2 weeks. It was made possible because we got to understand the fundamental of the programming itself, how to be creative with it, how to handle the roadblocks and how to do programming effectively within a team. We didn’t just learn how to program, we’ve learned how to be a programmer.   Post bootcamp, there are even more resources and supports made available to us to continue our learning to the next level. And as someone who’s coming back from a long career break and made quite a career change, Le Wagon is very supportive in guiding and help me to pave the way getting into tech scene. At the moment, I feel comfortable and on the right track to where I want to be.

My journey at Le Wagon has been a great experience which will hopefully help me to change my career path, and lead me into the development industry. I spent the last 15 years in different industries from automotive, to supply chain and advertising on the sales side before I joined the Bootcamp. I wanted to make a change to the tech side, either by jumping into the tech industry or even launching my own project. I chose the Le Wagon Bootcamp because I thought it would be the perfect way to get there. 

What I liked the most about learning how to code at Le Wagon was the way the days were structured. We had a lecture in the morning and then we spent the rest of the day working on challenges in pairs and ended the day with a live code session. The teachers and teaching assistants were also available throughout the day to assist whenever needed. I think it's not only the best way to learn how to code but to learn in general! I really felt comfortable learning; no question was too small, and they made the effort to stay late to give extra help and even went the extra mile to organize trips on weekends for us. 

I'm really proud of my final project - Green Room. A unified booking portal for Bollywood actors, producers, cameramen. It's crazy to think back and realize that we were able to build a fully functioning app - in 2 weeks and after just 7 weeks of lessons! I love that Le Wagon enables you to work on producing the solution to a problem you might be passionate about. 

I had the best time learning to code in Bali. I'm sure other Le Wagon alumni have similar experiences as me but I can't emphasize enough just how special Bali is. The weather is always great - from sunrise to sunset. It made it easier to keep motivated as I learned how to code. I also really liked my batch and it was easy to make friends. 

It was without a doubt, a very intense course but ultimately, so rewarding! I'd like to thank the entire Le Wagon Bali team and my batch #253, especially Dirk, the teachers and TAs, Guido, Prima, Sonia, Margo, Eli, Magnus and Mirha. I'm very happy and very proud to be part of the Le Wagon Bali family.

What I liked about Le Wagon Tokyo in short,

• Great curriculum
  It was intense and hard, to be honest. But following the curriculum, I have obtained fundamental knowledge and skills about web development, and now I can confidently address myself as a full-stack web developer.
• Wonderful support from teachers and managements
  Very supportive and well-experienced teachers and managers. They became not only my teachers and mentors but also really nice friends as well.
• The diverse culture and life long friendships
  The batch I had joined had 24 members from 13 different countries. And I had a really really nice time with them in and out of classes. I can't forget about the good time going karaoke, having a drinking party, playing futsal...

I truly recommend Le Wagon Tokyo if you are looking for a coding Bootcamp in Tokyo.

Before joining Le Wagon, I was a fresh grad with a degree in Systems Engineering (ElectroMechanical Systems). I started exploring web development during my capstone project in the last year of my university where I have to come up with a web application to log data from sensors and displaying them. Even though web development was not taught in my course's syllabus, I found myself enjoying to learn the concepts of web developing on the Internet. Hence, out of interest, I had found Le Wagon to kickstart me towards that direction.

I had so much fun during the Bootcamp! Even though the Bootcamp was intensive, the instructors and my batch mates made it possible for me to enjoy every second of it. The Bootcamp also provided us with coding challenges every day to enhance our problem solving capabilities, which motivated me to try to complete every single one of them, and time felt like it passed so quickly.

The toughest part of the Bootcamp for me was definitely the final project, where all the concepts came together since week 1 and it was like an examination to come up with an actual viable product to showcase to the world. Initially, my product pitch in week 5 was simply a travel application which is able to plan and organize itineraries for trips. However, the idea evolved constantly throughout the rest of the Bootcamp, following feedback from my batch mates and the instructors. My final product called Trails is now a planning application which is able to collaborate with people to plan activities, with templated checklists (and delegate to people in your group), and is also able to map all the activities with locations on a single map.

Looking back at how much my initial idea has developed, I would say don't be afraid of coming up with ideas which may seem stupid at first, as you may never know how far can your idea grow. Quoting Prima, one of the instructors in Le Wagon: "Great products always starts off with crazy and funny ideas".I could not have imagined that it was possible to build a web application in just 2 weeks which I actually took close to 4 months to build back then in university! Overall, I would say the journey was not easy but definitely an enjoyable experience and an amazing opportunity to be the second batch of students to graduate from Le Wagon Singapore.

I was trying to launch a start-up and quite quickly bumped into the reality of costs constraints... How to move on, creating the product you wish to launch, and limiting costs?
And then a friend advise to join Le Wagon... Me? Was I the right person? Never written a single row of code before.....
I just siad to myself: "Ok, let's take up this challenge..."
I very quickly realized that I never had a better advice in the process of launching my own business. 9 intense weeks of coding program, to give me the essential understanding, knowledge and autonomy to build up a mock-up first (during the 2 weeks project of the bootcamp), and then the product itself.
A fantastic support in my project has also come from Le Wagon team. People that encourage you to follow the path you chose and are available to support in your journey.
It has been a great opportunity to join this course and I truly recommend it :) 

The Le Wagon coding bootcamp is so much more than a 9-week course. It starts with thorough prepwork, alumni get life-long access to the learning platform packed with video-lectures, slide-decks, assignments, career advise, etc. Students are diverse in experience, culture, and age, yet are bound by being highly motivated. After the bootcamp you'll stay connected with a great network.    During the bootcamp skilled teachers and technical assistants provide excellent coaching. Apart from Ruby, Rails, OOP, SQL, HTML, CSS, Javacript, you learn to work in teams, design products, pitch ideas, and demo prototypes. At the end, teams build products from scratch in only 9 days. It was amazing what we all pulled off at demo day.   I started working in the digital branche way back; in the last 15 years as a UX designer and user researcher. I felt a nagging knowledge gap with regards to actually *making* products. That's why I chose to quit my job and seek the adventure. Now I feel better equiped to go back to designing. But first I'll give it a go to become an entrepreneur and launch my own app.   The past months did change my life. Good value for money. 

I was a growth marketer working FinTech before I went to LeWagon. I've always liked the idea of being a developer and had been freelancing as a front-end developer at the same time. I felt that I needed to boost my skills and go full-stack to make any significant career changes. 

LeWagon's nine-week program provides a well-designed curriculum taught by a host of knowledgeable teachers and TAs. They were not joking when they said it was going to go by really fast - you learn A LOT over the course of nine weeks. While this may sound daunting, the teachers and TAs were highly knowledgable and experienced developers themselves. I felt like I was in good hands in the program. 

By the end of the program, I felt up to speed on what I needed to know to begin creating my own web applications. Even after the program, I'm in touch with my teachers and the entire network of alumni. I'm extremely happy with my choice to make the jump into full-stack development and I could not imagine a better program to have joined. 

PS: Do your flashcards.

My background is somewhat different from the usual student of a coding bootcamp.

I was trained as an engineer, and have worked in research and development, designed and built production grade software for a couple decades. But it was all very niche - to take a car analogy I was an expert at making the most efficient pistons, but barely litterate with engines, and clueless with vehicles.

To put it in simpler terms, I could write software, very good software, but not an application.
This had been a frustration for many years - many ideas not pursued for lack of knowing where to start...

I could have turned to online courses and learn yet another handful languages, but from my practical experience there is no substitute for dedicated mentoring, and the experience of working on projects as a team. Both of which are cornerstones of Le Wagon bootcamp.

So after closing a chapter in my career, I decided to enroll in Le Wagon in Tokyo.

The program is every bit as good as others have commented on this site. Curriculum is very solid and well designed, up to date, well adapted to complete beginners, and certainly very efficient at turning them into competent junior developers by the end of the course. From the point of view of a seasoned veteran, watching that metamorphosis felt like a little miracle - while the result of very hard work from both students and teachers.

Speaking of which, the teaching staff in Tokyo is excellent - competent, dedicated, available, and friendly. I was lucky to have extraordinary teachers in my university years, and I am happy to say the guys at Le Wagon are very much up there counting among the best!

Also of note was the strong sense of camaraderie and cooperative mindset among students of our batch.
The feeling of belonging to Le Wagon's network of alumni and staff is no small part in its successful formula.

I will admit that at times I had doubts if I had made the right choice enrolling in the bootcamp, especially at the beginning when the learning curve was still gentle for a veteran coder.
By the time team projects started (7th week onward), they were gone - replaced by the thrill and passion of building actual products with young and talented teammates.

Long story short: I highly recommend Le Wagon. Even at a later point in ones career, it's a great place for old dogs to learn new tricks.

The hardest, most intense and fun experience of my life.

My experience in Le Wagon was really life-changing. They provided me with the tools to start a new career or even combine my previous Business skills with the new technical skills I acquired. 

The teachers transit from super serious to fun in a heartbeat, creating a highly productive and enjoyable environment.

It's no pick-nick! If you're not 150% committed to this, you won't stand it! The intensity starts even before the classes begin, with the prep course. Be prepared! Take one month off before the course starts to be able to make the most of this prep which is crucial to your success during the classes.

The results are REAL. You will come out the other end with the necessary tools to start your career as a programmer. You'll also be part of a global community of alumni and you'll make friends for life. Make no mistake, though: it's still a long endless road after that...

I definitely recommend Le Wagon.

Beware that you will not leave this program as a fully operational/experimented Dev. That takes months/years of learning and practicing. 

That being said, Le Wagon Lille gave me all I needed to do complete the first steps to understand programming, gave me key knowledge in Ruby, SQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript so that I can now build some cool shit. That's what you get from Le Wagon : the necessary knowledge and tools to keep performing/learning on your own or in your future team. 
Of course there is still a long way down the road, but damn it was great to learn all this.

The staff kept pushing us to be better, to learn to do our research, I met some great people. Hard to grasp how much we learned in those 9 weeks (because that is A LOT) but my only regret is not doing Le Wagon earlier.
I recommend it 100%!

Before Le Wagon, I was majoring in Chemistry, and at the end of my 2nd year of university I realized I would not enjoy working in research nor academic field. I didn't have a good unified field theory of career selection or passion, so I explored a lot to assess my strengths and develop interests. From taking classes outside my major to competing in business case and marketing competitions, and finally ending up on the Le Wagon website. My university is a technology university, but becoming a developer or working in the tech industry almost never crossed my mind because the way they taught us in my "Introduction to Information Technology" class in freshman year instantly killed my interest in programming. However, the start-up culture and presence is really strong around me, I realized that almost every solution to today's problems involves programming. So, I told myself to give programming another shot, because often times you hate something only because you don't understand it. Thanks to Le Wagon, I never thought learning how to code could be this fun, it was still challenging, but the teachers and the curriculum helped me to re-gain my love for learning. I was surprised with how much I enjoyed coding and wanting to learn more and more day by day. With Le Wagon, it is not just about learning how to code but you also have the chance to develop your entrepreneurial and leadership mindset. During the bootcamp, we worked in pairs so we got accustomed to working with peers or pair-programming. Having a buddy who was better than me accelerated my learning process, and helping a buddy who was struggling, deepened my understanding and helped me to develop higher quality code. I learnt that having a great team is so much more important than having a great product idea. I think Le Wagon is a great investment to kick start your tech career.

Le Wagon has an amazing approach of teaching, based on intensive training and exercises all day long, led by a fantastic team of teachers and TAs. I've always been passionate about the start-up world, but always frustrated not to be able to code, or understand it.

Now, thanks to this 9-week intensive program, I can build a website from scratch, and the skills I acquired are absolutely precious. I never thought I would be able to achieve so much in 9 weeks.

So I can say without hesitating that applying for the fullstack intensive program was the best investment I've made so far.