Le Wagon

Le Wagon Lisbon was a fantastic experience for me! I had done an Economics BSc in London and was about to enter a Masters in Business, and basically had very little coding knowledge when I took the course.
The structure of the bootcamp is perfectly thought of so that you learn the most in the 9 weeks you are there.
The teachers, the students and the spirit of Le Wagon make the whole experience extremely enjoyable, and the amount you learn in only two months is spectacular! Motivated students would be able to apply for junior developer roles and see a whole new job industry opening its doors to them, which is really exciting!
I unreservedly recommend the bootcamp to anyone feeling remotely tempted! It's stimulating and fun, let alone useful for any professional project you may have!

Charles Cazals, Lisbon Batch 86

 

 

 

I took part of batch #77 in Montreal during the summer 2017. With a background in Neurosciences, I had been somewhat disappointed by the field of research, notably its lack of autonomy and freedom. I felt like I needed to make a career change and always had an attraction for coding and technology in general. Doing Le Wagon was a fantastic decision as I managed to find a junior front end developer position even before the end of my training. 

Those two months have probably been my best experience in terms of education. I met great people coming from every corner of the world and with very different backgrounds, but all focused on a common goal of learning to code. The teaching was excellent and the program in itself targets the right skills that you will need to start a career in tech. Today, one of the technologies I use in my job is different than the ones I've learnt at Le Wagon but the training gave me everything I need to learn new skills quickly and efficiently. To be honest, it had not been an easy decision to take to make such an abrupt career change but I am extremely satisfied that I took it.

Let me share my awesome experience at Le Wagon and the skills I learnt there!

Last year, after I graduated from a business school and after a first short-term experience in product marketing, I felt that I did not know where to look for my next challenge. The only thing I was sure about, was that I wanted to work in tech but I needed a good grasp of technology, which for a business graduate was not an easy task!

I found Le Wagon online and I enrolled, confident that I was making a step towards my goal but unsure about what I was going to actually find there. Honestly, if I had only got a good technology varnish I would have been happy at the time… Instead, in 9 amazing weeks I learnt to code web apps, not small static websites, I mean actual Ruby on Rails apps! 

Learning such skills in so little time shows how well the curriculum and teachers are prepared. During 9 weeks, you work with a different buddy every day until you have finished the core course. You begin with ruby, before moving into SQL, front end and Rails. Once the core curriculum is over, you team up by groups of 4 to deliver your final project. This method is super effective because collaboration is at the center of the learning experience, you have to adapt to different thinking patterns and profiles to succeed and learn. Plus, it is an incredible community, fun, caring and able to help you debug anything even once you’re no longer a student!

And in case you were wondering… I found a job, a permanent position at PayPal! So yeah, pretty straight forward, join Le Wagon, it will do you good!

Since I turned 19, I have been working on several entrepreneurial projects from which I was able to gain insights into technology. These practical experiences, coupled with business theoretical knowledge, drove me to acquire the skill sets required to get an MVP up and running. Testing has become a primordial element of all my professional endeavours and joining Le Wagon FullStack program thus came across as a natural addition to my background. 

In fact, learning broad coding concepts had tremendous effects on my understanding of prototyping. I am now able to replicate what I have learned during our courses in order to handle other coding languages that I may need. Tackling coding hands-on through exercices (as if it was a 2-month workshop) is also particularly effective in teaching us the rudiments of the developper’s daily work. Moreover, the network built over this short period of time remains diverse and resourceful, which confirms the quality of the program.

Today, I work at Kuma Studio: a software design studio I co-founded (it’s based in Paris). We create digital product interfaces and offer UX advice.

I discovered Le Wagon during my studies in business school, looking for tools and knowledge to bootstrap a startup. I’ve always been a bit nerdy but never learned anything about coding. Still, I had plenty of ideas and no way to make them true, that’s why I decided to enroll at Le Wagon.

I started Le Wagon in Paris after graduating, with a precise idea of what I wanted to create and to learn. I was not disappointed because I learned all of it and so much more. Not only did it allow me to make my ideas come alive, but it also made me realise I could have a deep understanding of extensive web applications, which led me to new and bigger ideas ! I met a lot of incredible people in the 43th batch, coming from various backgrounds and having different perceptions and insights about products, user experience or business models. I had the feeling of gaining more skills and knowledge in 3 months than I did the last 3 years.

After Le Wagon, I did a handful of missions of web development as a freelance, then I started at AB Tasty, a french SaaS company as operations manager. I still code everyday, whether for my job or for my own side projects. It gives me a freedom and an agility I would never have imagined before this.

LeWagon Batch #86 - Lisbon Summer 2017

I’m an ex-strategy consultant and executive in the telecom industry on a sabbatical break from work. In my work experience I have regularly dabbled with different kinds of coding and with each experience it validated the hypothesis that coding can be a multiplier in one’s productivity. My goals for the course were to reinforce what I already knew (first few weeks) and add on with new skills to create an MVP end-to-end (rest of the course). 

First, the course runners “Drivers” in Lisbon are very good. Shannon is a superstar. With a lot of positive energy, she gave LeWagon a real sense of community. From the first conf. call to the final goodbyes, Shannon brought a certain thoughtfulness, competency and passion to the LeWagon Lisbon experience. Head instructor Carlos is an expert in some areas but also a true all rounder, he knows all the key areas to a sufficient level to teach any class in this syllabus. Further, he isn't afraid to say "I don't know" if he doesn't know the answer and roll up his sleeves along with us in searching for the answer. A very strong quality. Carlos was invaluable, especially in the final weeks. He showed a real dedication to the cohort projects’ success.

Second, the course is well structured and the material is excellent. LeWagon must balance between being accessible to people with no coding knowledge and also people with CS backgrounds that want to get into web development. Not easy. They manage this brilliantly by gearing the course toward the former and handle the latter scenario with many advanced, challenging optional exercises. The teachers are always monitoring your progress throughout the day through their student dashboard and are ready to direct you further if you complete the optionals. 

Going into it I wasn't sure what to expect. After all is said and done I am really glad I did the program. It reinforced what I already new, taught me countless new things and allowed me and the team we formed to develop something that was technically challenging for us and something that we are now proud of (briefcases.io). I think I underestimated what could be done in 9 days before the course. Very happy with the course on the whole. I would recommend LeWagon Lisbon wholeheartedly and unconditionally.

Having spent 8 years in international education, I felt I was ready for a change. All I knew is that I wanted to either be self employed or work for a start up. So learning to code seemed like a good way to go.

I chose to do Le Wagon’s bootcamp in London, and exactly as their marketing suggests - It changed my life. Before starting this course I had not written a single line of code. Since finishing, I have built applications and websites for a number of clients and now decided to take on a full time position as a Back End Engineer at a very promising and well funded start up.

The curriculum is broad, and takes you from learning the basics of Ruby all the way through to shipping your own MVP. The field of web development is vast and ever changing, and the most important thing Le Wagon’s course structure gives you is the ability to efficiently and effectively continue learning.

Along with all of this, there is a very special culture at Le Wagon and it creates an exceptional and unique learning environment.

  After some struggle with my studies and a one year trip in Australia, I wanted to start my own business in the digital industry but didn’t know where to start. I had an idea but not the skills to fulfill it, and I’ve realized that developers are very expansive and very hard to communicate with when you are not in the game. Then I’ve discovered Le Wagon. In 2 months i’ve learned  how to build  websites: OOP programming, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and much more. Le Wagon gave me a better understanding of the digital industry. The teaching methods are amazing, we have access to a web app that provide all the courses and exercises so we can work 24/7 if we want to. Working days are divided in three parts: theory course in the morning with great teachers, exercises in the afternoon and a good cold beer all together at the end. Finally the most important thing that Le Wagon taught me is learning how to learn.  I am now teaching myself Swift, a programming language for IOS app, in order to build my own product.

Change your life: learn to code.
Le Wagon brings technical skills to creative people.

My name is Albert Montolio, spaniard, 30 years old, passionate of sports. That was an easy introduction. Actually I’d like to present myself as a person who likes to wake up early. Of course! There are so many beautiful things to do during the day. Now after LeWagon, even more.

A very short story about me: I studied mechanical engineering in Barcelona and I wound up working in Munich for a big automotive company. I liked a lot my job, it was in a research department, with cutting-edge technology. A dream-job. But after some years, the initial magic was fading away. Too easy, always the same, not challenging, who knows.

I was in a point in my life, where I was spending a lot of time talking about new technologies, apps, personal projects etc. The most common phrases at that time were: “ I have this idea, but I can not code”, “I don’t know any programmer”, “ I have an idea that I would love to do but I don’t have the time”, “I’ve tried to learn PHP on my own, but i’m getting stack and frustrated”, “it would be awesome to…”, etc. etc. etc. sounds familiar?

After talking, talking and talking, one day I decided to do what I really love. I was tired of not doing something. I decided to get into action. I decided to give me the skill of coding. Why? Because I want to create. I want to help people. I want to improve the world. I don’t care how and I don’t care if I succeed. I just want to do it.

At the beginning, coding was just a game of rules, given by the LeWagon teachers. If you write “redirect_to” and you pass the appropriate instance, the controller will send you to the appropriate view of your MVC. Ok. Got it. But following the rules was not the point of the game of coding. Behind these apparently insignificantly boring rules, the power of creating something marvelous was hidden. These lines of code, put it together in a harmonic way, could turn out into a real product that can help other people. That was amazing.

After the course, I am coding for my company web-based software, automating processes and making the day easier and nicer to a lot of employees. 10 fingers, 1 brain, a lot of passion and a lot of imagination. But that’s not even the best. 

Side-projects allow you to build what you’ve been dreaming your whole life. There are no excuses anymore. If you think it, if you want it. You code it. Just type and let it flow.

Last but not least, I can not end this personal summary without some words for the students and the teachers. Students with a lot of ideas, highly motivated. You go for a lunch with them, you come back to classes, and you are a wiser man. Regarding the teachers, they are not only very well prepared. The human level is out of charts. 

Everything that I wrote, are just words. Maybe exaggerated. Maybe distorted. Who cares, now we are coders, and we don’t need to talk about what we did or what we want to do. 

We code it. Period.

Albert

Follow me in www.github.com/albertmontolio

When I heard about Le Wagon Lyon I had been coding for a few months on basic iOS apps. Coding was almost a random choice at first. I needed to learn something new and a friend of mine offered me to teach how to code. At some point I got really bored with my former job and more and more interested in coding. I decided to quit. But I wasn’t ready to apply for a job as a developer and that’s when Le Wagon started the bootcamp in Lyon.

I was looking for a quick and intense training that would hopefully allow me to find a job in a start-up as a developer. I have been immediately attracted to Le Wagon bootcamp when I read about it on the website. As soon as I got on the phone with Etienne, one of the drivers in Lyon, I knew this was a perfect fit for me. I couldn’t wait to begin.

It’s been 9 weeks really motivating to say the least. Every day I was excited about getting to work on the exercises, and it was sometime hard to get off the computer to get a lunch. In the last two weeks, we developed ‘We Dress Fair’ a platform to find in one click clothes that fit your ethic. It was really stimulating to learn how to work with a team of developers and how to stay organized to get the best project possible out of us.

A few weeks after Le Wagon, I found a job in Optimiz.me as a Full-Stack Web Developer surrounded by a great team. I am learning NodeJS. It has been hard at the beginning but the bootcamp gave me the knowledge and the mindset necessaries to get started quickly. I am learning new things and I get better everyday. I finally wake up every morning happy to go to work.

After years studying marketing and e-commerce, I did one last internship. It made me notice the gap that too often exists between marketing and IT departments, even if they're inter-dependent. This professional experience decided me to learn how to code. At first, I just wanted to understand how it worked. But it motivated me to the point of joining Le Wagon batch #52 in Lyon, not without some pressure as I was total novice!

Best decision ever. I loved the 9-intensive weeks at Le Wagon, I learnt more there than in my entire Bachelor thanks to lovely and competent teachers Nicolas, Cecile, and obviously Kevin, and the drivers Mathieu and Etienne. Coding is a philosophy with principles and advantages: honesty, productivity, team spirit. Coding's also an eternal headache, but it keeps you excited and always more motivated to build great products!

Spending 9 weeks with the 13 incredible people of my batch was amazing, and I found a job thanks to one of our guest teacher in the month following the bootcamp! I work now at Meal Canteen as a fullstack web developer in Ruby on Rails, along with Baptiste Perrin (also from batch #52).

Meal Canteen is a great startup based in Saint-Etienne fighting against food waste where we're both lucky enough to work with seniors developers there and learn new things everyday. I would never been here without my experience at Le Wagon in Lyon!