Le Wagon

My story

Before joining Le Wagon coding bootcamp I was running an AdWords-agency for 5 years. Here, I shipped more than 200 landing pages on builders like PageWiz & Unbounce as well as on Wordpress to clients. So I was familiar with the tech and startup world but I just could not learn to code. I tried Codecademy and Udemy but did not follow through with the tutorials.

 

How I learned about coding bootcamps

The idea of attending a coding bootcamp had been in my mind since 2013, when I graduated from university and started the AdWords business. I briefly read about a coding bootcamp in my home city of Cologne, Germany. Yet I did not have the time and money to join then, and also later I never heard of this camp again. However, the idea remained on my bucket list. When I moved to Berlin in spring 2017 to participate in an accelerator program, I realized that lack of of tech knowledge in our team and thus a non-tech, non-scaling product was one of the reasons we got no follow up-investment. So I decided to change that and attend a coding bootcamp late 2017.

 

Why I chose Le Wagon coding bootcamp Berlin

At the time there were three coding bootcamps available in Berlin. I called them all. Only Le Wagon answered. I even emailed the other two, which I would not do normally, as I prefer direct contact and nevertheless: Nothing.

Philipp, the Driver at Le Wagon Berlin however was spot on. I called him up and we arranged for a walk in the same day. I spoke with him but also with the students from the current batch and actually, I was already sold at this point. The atmosphere was just right. Concentrated and hard working, yet relaxed and laid back at the same time. Also it was more appealing to me that Le Wagon focused on future founders as much as on future developers as my goal was to get the knowledge for my next project rather then get a junior dev position. So if you favor building a real product with a real team in 2 weeks rather than exercising for job interview questions - this is the place to be. However, alumni who want to get a dev job also get it. The mix is roughly one third founders, one third hired as developer and one third going in to a product management or consulting role. So it's up to you to chose.

 

Experience at the Bootcamp

Le Wagon is the future of learning. It combines lectures which are actually your teacher coding live, rather than reading slides, peer programming with your buddy through the day and the best e-learning platform I have ever seen. You can literally follow the Wagon examples step-by-step and it will work. The way knowledge is taught at Le Wagon is just modern and how it should be. The complete opposite of our education system in schools and universities mostly stuck in and producing for the early industrial society of the 19th century.  You can always ask a teacher to explain the problem and help you 1:1 when you get stuck. Stuff you would pay significant amounts for at places like Codementor. At the end of the day, the camp helped me to get over the initial threshold and start to code in Ruby, JS, SQL, HTML, CSS and then combine everything in Rails. At the end I built an Airbnb clone in one week and an MVP of a Job search site in two weeks with my team.

 

Skills I gained

Remember the scene from the Matrix when Neo wakes up and realises: "I know kung fu". Exactly that happened. I was able to go onto the developer and API sections of SaaS sites and understand what it is all about. I could finally consume the internet through the command line. Scraping data, using APIs to enrich it and outputting to the desired format. This was the magic I was doing. And I finally started my project: Automating online marketing A to Z from client onboarding, copy generation, landing page and ad creation for Google & Facebook. I built the first MVP of LeadConcierge in just three weeks. So I got everything and more which I could wish for.

 

The community

Actually, the biggest thing you get at Le Wagon is to connect with likeminded people. This is where the bootcamp overdelivers. Again, the staff at Le Wagon does a great job of connecting everybody in the group and forming friendships. Starting with a dinner for everyone on the first day and continuing until the demo day party on graduation. What’s more? In Berlin, free coworking is offered to alumni, so we can stay connected to the community and the following batches after the program while connecting to the over 3.000 alumni on a private slack platform. Here, tech advice, jobs etc. are plenty. Fun fact: While traveling in Silicon Valley I met a fellow alumnus from Brazil. So this is really a world wide community.

 

Wrap-up

Come for the tools. Stay for the network. If you read till this point you should imagine by now, that I loved my experience during and after Le Wagon in Berlin. I got all the skills I expected and friendships I really care about. I would recommend the camp to anyone willing to learn. It transformed the way I think and enabled me to finally build a scalable product. You want to know what I mean? If your only tool is a hammer, you treat every problem as a nail. Yet now I have a lot of different tools in my arsenal enabling me to think like an engineer and tackle problems with automation in a scaling way. And you will have too. Take my advice: Check out the Wagon events in your city or on Youtube and once you're ready embark on this journey!

 

LE WAGON advertises with the slogan “Change your life, learn to code”. For me this became absolutely true. The important thing to mention: Coding did not, but Le Wagon did! Here are 4 reasons why:

1. The teachers

They are specialists in their field, travel the world to teach and even speak at conferences. On top of that, they are graded at the end of every batch, so it’s kind of a natural selection and only the best of the best survive.

2. The Buddy-System

Every day, after having been taught the new content, you get a new buddy from the other classmates. This is a genius move, not just because you get to know all the class members very well (helps a lot for the final projects), but especially because it pushes the engagement of the entire class. No one wants to be the “loser that nobody wants to work with”. So as soon as you feel that you are behind, you put in even extra hours in the morning or the evening or the weekend. You can imagine what happens when everybody is doing that! Yes, it pushes performance to new heights!

3. The atmosphere

You have team events, you have Friday beers (and free beer all the time) and through the buddy system new best friends for life guaranteed. We were 18 people from 10 different nationalities. The mix of cultures and backgrounds makes Le Wagon exceptional!

4. The Alumni Network

I doubt that there is a course with a better network. To date, more than 20 locations worldwide. Thousands of alumni that all went through the “hell of Le Wagon” and that are crazily responsive for whatever you need help with. Le Wagon has Slack channels for jobs, events, growth-hacking tools … Whatever you need, the community will help you!

Coding is a skill i wanted to acquire for a long time. While life as a strategy consultant was thrilling and rewarding in many ways, a sense of monotony was sinking in over time - every (long) day was starting to look the same. Above all, I exceedingly felt like I wasn't doing enough - I wanted to be at the front line tackling and solving problems rather than taking the bird's eye view and finding rather high-level solutions. 

I enjoy self-learning and as such became passionate about the idea of learning how to code as one avenue to actually do more. I signed up to codeacademy and started learning front-end languages (html & css) whenever the job allowed. However, coding is like an endless sea - I felt overwhelmed rather fast because of the many languages out there, and the lack of knowledge as to how it could potentially all tie together at some point. 

This is when I gave up on trying it on my own and began searching for coding schools. A university friend of mine took the 9 week coding bootcamp at Le Wagon in Brazil a year back, so naturally I reached out to him. He offered unwavering praise for the class, so I decided to give it a go and applied for the batch due to commence in January 2018 in Berlin. 

5 months later I can say he was 100% right. The bootcamp was worth it - something I found hard to believe beforehand considering the price tag of coding bootcamps these days. Spending 8-10 hours each and every day learning & applying concepts with the ability to ask as many questions as you like along the way was the perfect way to get off the ground in this endless sea of coding. After a month or so, I felt the equivalent of what young players in professional sports refer to as "the game slowing down" - concepts started to tie together and you'd start to really understand how frameworks (in our case ruby on rails) function from within. 

On a sidenote, the 9 weeks were not only a great learning experience, but also an incredibly fun time. Great people (with no exceptions!), evening get-to-togethers, fun activities and cocktail nights led to countless memories that will stay with me forever. 

Over the last 2 months since the bootcamp ended I've continued coding a few projects, the last being a successful coding challenge for a blockchain company. Quite honestly I am amazed by the progress that is possible in such a short time frame, and have Le Wagon and their wonderful teachers to thank for the getting me off the ground and triggering my curiosity to continue learning and getting better each and every day!

I studied business but always been interested in Tech and Entrepreneurship. After my bachelor before starting to think about what is next I wanted to learn something I have been always interested in but never really accomplished to fully understand - Coding. Through friends I heard of LeWagon and applied for Batch-92 in Berlin. The application process is super smooth and after a Skype Interview with Philipp I was admitted to the Bootcamp.

The preparation was quite intense since you had to do a lot of courses online and had to start digging into the topic of coding. Fortunately, when the Bootcamp started many of the topics mentioned in the preparation were readressed. However, I can really recommend to do the preparation because otherwise it takes way longer to understand basic principles of coding. 

This is also one of the things I really really loved about LeWagon. I always struggled with coding since I had problems to make the step from understanding the principle to execute it in a real life example. And LeWagon made it so freakin easy. Every day started with a lesson about the topic of the day and afterwards you could directly apply the newly learned skills in numerous challenges that were sometimes hard but super rewarding. When you had a problem you could always ask your coding buddy (pair programming is awesome) or if there was no sight of the light at the end of tunnel you could just write a ticket and a TA came pretty swift to help you understand your problem and solve. It was never the case that you just got the solution. The teachers and TAs always tried to help you to solve the problem on your own. In combination with the real life challenges one really learned how to tackle problems on your own and to be indipendent in the outside world.

Besides the great learning concept I want to mention three other things that I really appreciated during my time at LeWagon - People, Overall-Concept and Organization.

We were a group of roughly 30 students and really became a well functioning group. Through the daily chaning coding buddies or the projects at the end of the Bootcamp you really got to know everyone. Besides that, several events and lunches increased the team spirit even more. The organization of the BootCamp was tremendous. Philipp, the driver, put every second of his time into making this BootCamp a tremendous success. He organized a lot of great events around the BootCamp, from Yoga-Sessions to talks with Developers and people from the Start-Up Scene. And that is also the point where LeWagon, in my opinion, stands out from other BootCamps. The whole concept is focused on not only learn how to code but also how to develop a promising product. This is one of the most helpful things when you head out to find a job as a product manager or developer.

To summarize, LeWagon was a lifetime-experience that I never wanna miss and I can really recommend to everyone that are not only interested in learning a new skill but also how to apply this skill in products that customers love.

After reading all the reviews about various bootcamps I was a bit sceptical about le Wagon's reputation because it seemed to be too good to be true. After finishing the 9-weeks-bootcamp I can say for myself: it is really like that.

Besides the obvious, that you get loads of information and knowledge in a very short period of time, I was amazed by the community le Wagon creates. Not only do you have lifelong access to all the slides and code, it also gets updated on a regular base and they add more and more online courses you can attend afterwards if you want to proceed your career as a developer. But not only that: we were 22 guys from 12 countries, we had students who just graduated school to a daddy from Greece with two kids. We had so much fun during and after the badge, a lot stayed in Berlin afterwards and we are still hanging out. 

It is truely a great experience I can just highly recommend to everyone without a doubt!

After graduating in management at Université Paris-Dauphine, I wasn’t sure about my aspirations. Because of the lack of other options, I started a master in finance. As I cared about my freedom and my creativity, I realized quickly that I wasn’t cut out for this kind of life. I decided to apply to Le Wagon Montreal (batch #125) and thus to quit my studies and to start coding. It was a risk but also probably the first good decision I made concerning my education. Indeed, studying at Le Wagon was a very good experience. In such a short period of time, I acquired the basis every web developer should have. It made me able to conceive and build a basic product as well as to collaborate with other developers and, above all, it equipped me with the necessary skillset to keep on learning and build new competencies by myself. Learning to code is a long and non-linear journey, the stronger your bases are, the faster and smarter you’ll be. Le Wagon’s teaching method is pioneering in the way that it provides the student not only with a general understanding of some languages but with a deep mastering of what is fundamental: the skeleton, the way everything is set-up. It is this particular combination of hard and soft skills that make a student able, at the end of only three months, to entirely build a website from the idea to the deployment. I am now pursuing my learning by working on various projects and will start next year a master in computer science in London, at UCL. I sincerely recommend this program and the wonderful and committed team of Montreal.

I attended Le Wagon from March to May 2018 in Milan (batch#131).    I have a business background, I've studied management and worked in strategy consulting afterwards. I've decided to enroll in Le Wagon because I've always been interested in digital products and I wanted to learn more about how to build them. Now that it's over I can say that it was a great decision and I'm continuing to learn how to code.    Some factors make Le Wagon your best shot if you're looking for a coding bootcamp.   Le Wagon syllabus has been polished throughout the years. The approach is very practical and it offers a wide overview over the main tools you'll need as a developer. You won't need previous programming experience, just a lot of willingness to learn.   The staff of Le Wagon Milan: teachers and assistants were very competent, passionate and cool people to deal with. It was the first bootcamp organized by Le Wagon in the city, yet everything went great thanks to them.   The average day at Le Wagon comprises a rather short lecture (1.5h) in the morning, followed by a day of programming practice. All the exercises are channeled through an online platform, which has lots of resources available for the students also after the program ends.    The last two weeks students get divided in groups to work on a final project, which we eventually presented at a major Italian incubator. It's pretty unbelievable to be able to build a proper digital product after such a short period!    During the 9 weeks of the bootcamp you'll get an intense introduction to the world of coding. You'll have to continue learning afterwards - even the best developers have to - but you'll have all the tools to build web applications on your own or apply for junior dev positions.    Overall, my review of the bootcamp is extremely positive. One word of caution though: what you get out of the bootcamp is up to you. It is tough, the days are long and sometimes you'll feel frustrated. However, if you will enjoy learning how to code - like I did - putting in the work that it requires to get the most out of it won't feel as tough.   For who do I recommend Le Wagon? I strongly recommend it to whoever feels interested in learning more about coding. Not everybody who goes through Le Wagon necessarily becomes a developer afterwards, but everybody who attends gains an invaluable experience. Learning to code empowers people after all.

I joined le Wagon Berlin 6 months ago. In retrospect, I’m fortunate to claim that it has been one of the best decision I have ever taken.    For the context:  We had just launched our startup and recently acquired market confirmation. We needed to scale up and therefore, update our MVP. Our original goal was for one of us to do the course in order to gain enough skills to be able to hire a CTO and/or manage a dev team.   The bootcamp:  You start learning the fundamentals of programming, moving onto front-end and design, wrap-it-up with Rails, the framework that puts everything together and finish up with 3 weeks of concrete project development.  The starting weeks are intense but teachers are very dedicated to making sure you’re not left behind.  However, you need to be fully committed to succeed and take the most out of it.  It’s emotional payback time during the final project weeks when you figure out that you can build an entire web application from scratch when, 1.5 months ago, you thought that Java was an abbreviation for Javascript.   After the bootcamp:  I figured out I really liked to code and decided to build our new product. With the skills acquired you’re able to tackle all of it: Conception, design, development, server setup, testing, rolling out and maintenance. At that point, Le Wagon had further proven its value with its great community as I was always able to reach out to teachers and ask for advice.    To wrap-it-up, here are some of the key aspects you gain after completing le Wagon: - Have an idea? Just build, launch and scale it! Ruby on Rails is very powerful to launch products very fast - More than just coding: Get notions of product management, design and UX, all set in a business perspective  - Understand developers and learn to communicate effectively with them - Once you understand the fundamentals of programming, it’s easier to branch out to other languages - You’re part of a growing and very supportive community - Have access to great and constantly updated resources/learning material   Side-note: For those worried about the perception that coding is for geeks, math enthusiasts etc. please put those thoughts aside, those are complete bullshit.    Do yourself some good: Get enrolled, struggle first and succeed at last. You will learn very powerful and actionable skills in a very short amount of time while behind around great people. 

  Hi everybody, I'm Marco, and I'm happy to say that after studying with Le Wagon I feel comfortable calling myself a Junior Full-stack Developer.   Coding was a big career change for me, but I began to approach a bit of coding on my own a few months before LeWagon. I recommend this strongly as it helped me a lot in the Bootcamp, even if the daily lessons were still very challenging. Le Wagon Bootcamp is just that: a chance to challenge yourself while taking part in a big family that supports you.   Every day was a big learning curve (for everyone) and sometimes a student can feel frustrated, which is one of the most common feelings in the coding world...but at the same time, that frustration can fuel you to rise above difficulties along the way. For instance, at a certain point in the Bootcamp, I was ready to create a WebApp like AirBnB from scratch, and at that moment I felt invincible :D   In my personal experience, LeWagon brings you and your mind to the next level through a very good learning journey, where different and well-prepared teachers and assistants help you understand the core of the daily lesson.   I found LeWagon Staff very patient, polite and prepared, and ready to go above and beyond for their students.   All this Staff, your Colleagues, and the people from all over the world in LeWagon media give you access to amazing support channels (posting jobs, help, news...) with neverending new technical material posted. You are suddenly part of a global support network, that to me felt like a big new family (I got along really well with the teachers and other students!)   That's the unique power of LeWagon. From the moment you sign up, you are never without support.   Would I suggest LeWagon to whoever wants to change his/her life? Yes  Would I pay again to redo the course? Yes Did LeWagon help me find an interview/job/internship after the course? Yes, and their global network makes me feel that if I needed to relocate I could ask them for help again. The Final Project was useful? Yes, with LeWagon you will build a Portfolio without even realizing (really helpful for future applications).   Please know that it will not be easy. Even as a beginner you have to have a real interest in code and a wish to learn. But if you have that, Le Wagon will support you from the beginning and give you the tools you need to start working. I recommend Le Wagon. 

Coming from agricolture background, i wasn`t happy with my studies and for this reason, I decided to get more involved in product development by joining Le Wagon. 

The program has two key strengths: 
- A very hands-on approach focusing on product development's methodology and workflow (heroku, git, etc.)
- A very demanding curriculum that teaches in-depth programming basics and software architecture, Ruby, Rails, Html, CSS, JavaScript....

Le Wagon main strength lies in its solid program that teaches both essential technical skills and a strong product mindset, in fact at the end of the course the students are asked to think, develop and present their personal projects to the public and potential investors.
The group of students also really contributed to the experience. Bright people from all over the world, with diverse backgrounds, and the format of the course, allowed us to really create a bond and learn from each other. The bootcamp at LeWagon allowed me to really dive into the world of code and gave me the tools to keep on learning. 
After a week since i finished the course i already got a job offer from my ex company where i was working before joining LeWagon.
I highly encourage anybody considering joining Le Wagon as it is an experience that will continue to give you benefits even after the 9 week classes.

I just finished the latest batch (number 131) at Le Wagon Milan and I want to share with you why Le Wagon is the right option if you want to learn coding in Europe.

I have always been interested in new technologies and I become even more interested during the past two years of my life.
I thus began to study programming by myself, by using online courses, watching online tutorials and buying books. However, I felt that my progresses were too slow for two main reasons. Firstly, I had a full time job which allowed me too study only few hours every night. Secondly, I had no one to help me when my code was not working or when I did not grasp a specific topic.
Therefore, I started to look around to find a coding course suitable for my needs. I came across Le Wagon thanks to the positive reviews I found on major tech websites.
I was amazed by the abundance of positive reviews people wrote and how they enjoyed so much Le Wagon.
Being skeptic, I started to contacting Le Wagon’s Alumni on LinkedIn asking if the course was really that good. All of them confirmed it to me: Le Wagon is the right coding bootcamp if you want to learn how to code.

Therefore, I decide to take this jump in my life and finally commit 9 weeks of my time to learn coding. Le Wagon kept its promises. After 9 weeks I know more than what I could have achieved alone.
Do not take me wrong, the course was extremely tough but even more rewarding.
We started working at 9am and finished in the evening only when the exercises were done.
The course has a simple yet effective structure. The first hour and half of the day was dedicated to learn a new coding concept while the other seven hours were dedicated to solve different exercises. It is a learning by doing process in which you, as individual, try to solve the challenge and, if you do not manage, only after consulting with your fellow students you can ask the teacher. Each teacher will be more than glad to help you out in finding your bug/mistake or find a better and cleaner way to write the code.
Each day you are exposed to a new concept, a new code reality which, step by step, throughout the 9 weeks, will allow you to build the final project.
The final project consists in a website/application developed in teams of 3 or 4 in less than 2 weeks. 
If you really think about it, Le Wagon takes a group of motivated individuals with zero experience in coding and, in little more than 2 moths, gives them the right tools to build a fully functioning web application and be prepared to code alone.

At Le Wagon I did not only learn how to code, they also taught me how to look for the right information, the right posts, the right guides to be a better coder. In this world full of information and data, it is really difficult to spot what it is relevant and right from what it is not. Le Wagon teaches you how to learn to code and how to program in little over than 2 months.

By deciding to go to Le Wagon you truly open up doors for yourself to new opportunities and skills, but also new friends and networks. One of the most important things to highlight about Le Wagon is the community you join, which is second to none. If it is the number of different nationalities represented (14 in my batch alone) or the varying backgrounds of the individuals, everybody has an interesting story to tell.

Regarding the coding - do not expect it to be sugar coated in any way! You will really have to commit yourself to Le Wagon and coding in the nine weeks ( the first three weeks are not called "hell weeks" for no reason ;) ). But if you really want to learn the basics of coding and are up for a challenge this will definately be the right course for you!

 

I’m a Parisian graduate in business. Since I’m out of college, everything has been aligned perfectly for me to pursue a great career in Finance. Everything, except that never felt right to me. Hence, for a year, I’ve been dedicating myself to  purpose driven projects. But in each of these projects development, I found myself stuck on the same redundant reason: my lack of coding skills. Without these, there was no way to truly own the digital products I was working on. That’s why I attended LeWagon.

As an autodidact, I tried first to learn how to code by myself. But I never succeeded to build anything serious, and I had the impression of losing my time attacking a field that seemed too big to handle on my own. Now I realize the odds were even bigger, and I can’t imagine how I could have succeeded without the intensity and the quality of LeWagon’s formation.

LeWagon’s education logic is simple: learning by doing. However, that’s the way LeWagon pushes you to do that is incredibly effective. The courses are super clear, the TA’s were always pedagogue and motivating,  the challenges get you to manipulate the concepts and really grasp them, the buddy system helps you accept difficulty and have fun with it, and the live codes are the sweetest moments to jump out from you comfort zone and realize the progress you made.

Apart from the crazy nights we had going out with the batch, my favorite moments were also the last ones, during the project weeks. Those are the days when all of a sudden, you realize that you’re naturally doing what was unimaginable before. Seeing our team’s project getting concrete was a tremendous satisfaction. We rebuilt and dramatically improved one of my last year’s project: à European newspaper written by locals called Nationall.

Surprisingly, I not only developed my coding skills but also my pitching skills, which I had to improve sharply for the demoday. I also discovered how to work in team with people coming from different background and cultures. All of it is both super interesting and ultra useful to be prepared for a professional environment.

Now, I ended the bootcamp two months ago. After some deserved holidays, I’m still working with my teammates on our newspaper project to welcome our firsts writers and readers really soon. I’m also about to work as fullstack developer in a company to explore this new vast world full of possibilities. That’s how my conclusion takes us back to this post title; LeWagon broad up my horizon, it couldn’t have been the wrong choice.

 

Le Wagon is for real, when they tell you "change your life, learn to code" they do not lie.

On the end, it is the opportunity to discover and master a new motivating universe, dynamic, filled with challenges and constantly evolving, the tech world. (you wont get bored anytime soon)

After several reorientations and 5 years of business school, the code has triggered in me something that gave me many future perspectives: be a freelancer and work from anywhere in the world with just a computer and a wifi, start a project solo (or not!) with elbow grease and 0 $ in the wallet, be hired as a dev and join an adventure in a startup type company in the tech world, and so on!

On the experience Le Wagon, nothing to say, well yes, a lot of good! About efficiency, do not be afraid of the duration, 2 months is short but here it was enough, in addition to a new topic, we discover a new way of learning: constantly supported by the ultra-effective online platform  (and accessible for life) including all courses, exercises, corrections, QCM ...; each day brings a new challenge through a 1h30 class in the morning on a topic, then a whole day to practice it and understand it well, before moving on to the next day. It sounds simple, but it changes everything.

Add to that a great working atmosphere (but not just work), effective teachers and a driver that gives everything, and you have, in just 2 months: learned to code, built a network (constantly expanding) in this sector, met new buddies, had fun, had some drink (must release the pressure), and opened new horizons! It goes so fast, that in the end we ask for more.

And all this for everyone, no need for knowledge in code, good school record, "mention", being from "such school" or other, just to come in a good mood.

On Le Wagon in Lyon, the team is perfect, Matthieu the driver give this extra care to all batchers (pay attention to the "diet" Le Wagon, would be better to re-register in the gym before, just in case), about the teachers Kevcha and Jpheos, they know much about coding and bring much fun, and in addition they are pedagogue ... But watch out for the football teams that some support!

If you hesitate to do Le Wagon, I will save you time, do not hesitate, go for it.

As a classically trained graphic designer I love making things in my computer, and It was very surprising to me that my curriculum didn’t require scripting, code, or software design. After I graduated I began working as an art director for a global advertising firm, and eventually ended working for the digital side - where I got the chance to work on the creative side of web development. I realized how hard it can be to make awesome things if you don’t understand the technical capabilities of the technologies you’re using to build them, and therefore decided to learn to code.

I began LeWagon without having any clue on how really life changing it would be. When you work in a creative field for a big corporation, you are very detached from ownership if what you make. Working for big clients or agencies, meant that i wasn’t really spending my time doing what I loved, MAKING COOL THINGS, but working my way around loopholes to get things approved - delivered - sold. Coding and LeWagon gave the back the power to really create value from scratch allowing me to make a living through building products that people are passionate about.

I was impressed at the quality of people that was brought together by the bootcamp, and how different our backgrounds are. The community and collaboration approach to learning works wonders when you allow yourself to be immersed during the 9 weeks - and after that you will leave with a network of amazing professionals/people who you have shared a life changing experience with.

I would recommend to anyone!

Attending the 9-week coding bootcamp at Le Wagon Berlin was one of the best decisions I ever made because it changed my life. With a background in journalism and cultural analysis I had no prior knowledge of coding. However, I wanted to change my career path and become a web developer. So when I stumbled across Le Wagon I first went to all of the free workshops they offered and spoke to staff and alumni before I decided to join myself. The programme is very tough (hence bootcamp) but the curriculum is really well structured. You start by learning the basics of Ruby, HTML, CSS and JavaScript before moving onto the Rails framework. In the last three weeks, you build two projects in groups and present your final project at a demo day. 
I didn't believe it was possible to learn coding in such a short amount of time, but it is amazing to see what you are able to learn when you commit time and passion to it and have competent people to guide you. The teacher at Le Wagon do an incredible job teaching the complexity of web development to absolute beginners and I have experienced them to be always helpful, patient and encouraging. 
Apart from the technical aspects, le Wagon has an amazing community. Our driver, Philipp, and our main teacher, Alice, organised a lot of evening activities and also workshops or talks to introduce us to the Berlin start-up scene. I also became really good friends with the people in my batch as well as the teachers and TAs and everyone was motivating and encouraging each other. Even though the programme was tough, I loved being there to learn coding. I am now pursuing my career as a frontend web developer and will never forget the unforgettable time and fun I had at le Wagon. Thank you for everything!

Having a background in law I had no idea of programming (besides some rudimentary HTML knowledge from school) and got to Le Wagon through their evening workshops. After my interest was sparked by these workshops I decided to go for the full-time bootcamp and I was not disappointed. The LeWagon Bootcamp is a thought through course from the didactical concept to the content of the lectures. Days start with a lecture in the morning followed by challenges which are solved by the students themselves. Thus, from day 1 you are challenged to solve problems and work practically. In the evening there is another live code session bringing together the whole group. The independent time is accompanied by teachers and teaching assistants who help with any upcoming question - a luxury you will not enjoy when learning on your own and which is extremely helpful as it speeds up your learning process. The structure of the classes do not only include coding basics but you also get taught in practical approaches on how to build a website from scratch. It was this holistic approach which convinced me choosing Le Wagon. This pinnacled in the two last weeks where you are building a website based on your idea from scratch. Additional to the curriculum we were provided with a lot of extra activities such as weekly talks with interesting persons from the scene, regular yoga classes and team building events. The people I have done the bootcamp with have become friends and besides the knowledge I gained it was also an incredibly fun time! 

I had just changed careers from being an accountant first to fully focusing on web development. I moved to Ibiza to work in my father's company. At that time I didn't know anything about web development yet, so I went searching for a good web development course. After a while I ended up at Le Wagon. I had a good talk with Feiko Boerstra (leader of the course in Amsterdam) who was very helpful in answering my questions about the course and web development in general.  I decided to do the course.

The course was very intense from beginning to end. It was very good for me as well, because I've never gone so deep into a certain subject before. I learned a lot thanks to the constant putting theory into practice and learning from my mistakes and from the clear explanation from the teachers. Whenever I had a problem or I got stuck in an exercise the teachers and/or teacher-assistants were always there to help me and to share their expertise in a way where I could understand where it went wrong and how to prevent the mistake for next time. Through the 9 weeks sitting together in one room you get to bond a lot with your fellow students. We went out together often for lunch or dinner or just hanging out. So the Le Wagon course was both fun and challenging. I'm very happy that I chose to this course and everything what I learned will definitely be useful for my future as web developer.

After the course I went straight to work on my first website for a client at my dad's company. It was for a construction company and with my newly acquired skills I was able to make very decent website for the client. He was happily surprised with my work. My next challenges for the coming period is trying to help my dad's company make the transition from conventional paper advertising to full digital advertising. The first project is trying upgrade our websites so that they fulfil the demands of today on the web where fast delivery of great and rich content has become the norm. I look forward to going deeper and to understanding more about the possibilities of what web development has to offer. What I've learned at Le Wagon has really opened my eyes. I never knew I would like coding so much. I definitely recommend you try it out!

I didn’t have any programming background before Le Wagon. In fact, I was a high school English teacher for a few years before deciding I wanted to take a completely different direction into development. In the beginning, I was intimidated and anticipatory of what to expect, but once I realized all of my fellow classmates felt the same not only about what to expect but also about taking the risk of trying something new, it reassured me to have that common ground.
Because my background is in education, everyday I was impressed by the Le Wagon team, including the curriculum, the instructors, the TAs, the passion they have for each student and really seeing us succeed in an intensive, short amount of time.
I wouldn’t replace this experience for the world, learning an invaluable new skill, going through the struggles, challenges, and successes together, as a team.
Le Wagon really prepares you thoroughly, not only with the computer science skills, but also taking those skills and actually knowing how to implement them in a technical working environment, collaborating and communicating with others. Basically, it teaches you how to jump into a fast-paced development team and know how to swim on your own. Those skills are unique, and in the end, I believe are the deciding factor as to why Le Wagon alumni complete the bootcamp successfully.
You can read more about my experiences and perspectives throughout the bootcamp here

One year ago I decided it was time to learn coding. I started off by my own, reading a book and watching online videos. I soon realised that I needed a better way to learn the basics and create the foundations on which I could build on my knowledge. Lewagon gave me this exact foundations that I was dreaming for. In the end of the course the most talented students will be able to find a job strait way, but everybody will have the foundations and knowledge of what to do next in their new coding career.

Regarding Lewagon London: The offices were really nice, very spacious, modern and clean. All the staff was super friendly and helpful. The location was good too, in a nice area close to the center and next to the overground. The classes were surprising well structured and organized. I would like to mention something negative but there is nothing I can thing off. Even the students in my batch were incredible.

Overall, I really enjoyed being a student again and I feel like I learned a lot too thanks to Lewagon. If they had an advanced course I would join for sure! Really recommended.