Le Wagon

Until not so long ago, I used to be a journalist. After a few years working in that field, I decided to take some time for myself and travelled around the world.
That gap year made me realise that I wanted to shift my professional focus. After exploring different options I started to believe that learning to code was part of the solution to find a path that would lead me to a new career. 
Even though the bootcamp was really intense and that I've learned a lot, now that I've finished Le Wagon I've realised this was only the beginning. Being a developper means I will have to keep on learning new things all the time (which is really exciting and scary at the same time!).
All that I can say is that I am grateful for what that experience brought me on so many levels and today I am more convinced than ever that I want to become a developper.

After university, I had a stint in a startup where I got a taste of programming in Java. Following that, my career took off and I joined global consulting companies. My career pivoted towards product management and the more commercial sides of technology. As the years went by, I found myself further and further away from coding. I had the pleasure of managing and working with developers, but I always felt that they got to do the fun part of projects - building them !

Half a year ago I started to code again and built some projects in Javascript. This really ignited my love for coding and I decided to switch careers to become a developer. I knew I would have to start my career all over again, but I felt it was worth it as I could spend the rest of my life doing something I enjoyed. It was lonely to code alone and I often questioned the quality of my code. To learn best practices, industrial standards and work with other developers, I decided to enrol at Le Wagon.

At Le Wagon, I felt like a knight in training. Everyday we were given pedagogical challenges to shape our understanding of object orientated programming. Ruby was a new language to me, but after a few weeks I was surprised at my own fluency. I trusted the process and let Le Wagon carry me through databases, front end, ruby on rails, and then onto independent projects. The last few weeks of the course, I worked in a team of four to build two web applications. It was challenging to work with others, but after a day of Github chaos, it all fell into place. In our final project we built an app that ‘gamified’ eco-challenges (i.e. plastic free, ride a bike, etc) and there were features such as collecting points, competing with friends and tracking your progress. It was a fun and challenging project to build, and we’re incredibly proud of what we have achieved.

The best thing about the experience at Le Wagon is definitely the Teachers and TA Team. Everyday on the course, they were there to rescue us, guide us and teach us how to write clean code. They were truly ruby and javascript ninjas and the speed at which they could understand our problems and debug was impressive. Without them, I would not be where I am today - with a job as a software engineer working with the Python stack !To anyone who is looking for a career change, wants a challenge as well as seeking guidance, I recommend enrolling at Le Wagon. It is one of the best decisions I made in my life and the knowledge and community support I received was invaluable to my success.

A total game changer! I loved my time at Le Wagon and I can honestly say that after completing the course I feel like I see the world through a new lens. You may think that's a bold statement, and you're right. However, Le Wagon's well thought out curriculum and helpful instructors allowed me to gain an understanding of coding, start-up culture, and full stack web development. The course changed that way I think about the internet and software, and most importantly it empowered me and gave me to skills necessary to become the creator I've always wanted to be.

I am writing this in hopes to help others that are searching for a coding bootcamp. Do not believe the positive reviews - do not go to Le Wagon!!

The  curriculum is outdated - you will learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails . Upon completing the bootcamp two months ago, I have met with over a dozen potential employers, all of which are shocked that we learned these programs. One of them even told me they thought it was unethical. I now agree with him. I met with one recruiter that has access to thousands of developer positions across Canada. He did a search in his database for junior positions with Ruby on Rails. Zero jobs were returned. He was doing this to prove a point to me and told me I should start learning other languages.

When I expressed my frustrations to the people running the program, they tell me that employers are looking for junior level people that are "willing to learn" and that it doesn't matter that we learned Ruby. Maybe this was true five years ago, but it is not true now. The market is getting saturated. 

There is also no career support. I get occasional emails about junior level positions in Montreal from someone that works there, all of which require that you know React or some other language that we didn't learn. 

If you are in Montreal, you should go to Decode MTL or Lighthouse. They are both Javascript based courses and will teach you Node and React. Decode also assigns a TA to each graduate to help them with the interview process and looking for jobs. I really wish I had done that one. Don't make the same mistake as me!

I wish I could give this program less than one star overall - but it looks like I'm required to give it one. I chose this bootcamp because of the reviews, which after completing the bootcamp truly baffle me. 

Before going to Le Wagon, I was working as a marketer but have been wanted to do something else as my career.  After 3 months of Le Wagon's bootcamp, I realized this is what I want to do as my career since it was so much fun learning coding. It actually changed my life! Teachers are great, and I noticed after I got a job, but the curricuram is also great. It's made to make sure everybody understands how pure ruby works and also it covers about database and oop as well.  Now I got a job as a backend developer, and I really appreciate they covered those concepts as well since thanks to that, now it's so much easier to get my tasks done.

I did Le Wagon in Montreal in the Winter 2019 batch, and presently my brother is doing Lighthouse Labs. Comparing the two side-by-side I really wish that I had done Lighthouse instead.

Le Wagon teaches mainly Ruby, and you learn no JavaScript frameworks. The class size is around 25 students, as compared to less than 10 for Lighthouse. The curriculum at Le Wagon is provided for them by the organization, the founder of the Montreal branch has never worked as a programmer, and the bootcamp is much less rigourous. Lighthouse will really throw you in the deep end, but Le Wagon if you are on the task you can finish all the content most days.

Career-wise, there is some support from an administrative assistant, but the job I found was not at all through their assistance. They offer very little interview support and no training on technical interviews - because they say they are "startup" focussed. Almost all of the jobs listed on their placement board are in Europe, most in Paris. If you want a certificate, sure, do Le Wagon, but if you want a heavy-duty bootcamp experience, look elsewhere.

A few short months ago I sat in office in Sweden and I realised I needed a change from the monotony of my daily life, I work as freelance art director and have years of  design and graphic skills in my toolbelt.  I always believed if I could help build clients websites I would be the full package!

After speaking with some friends who worked with coding they recommended I look into Le Wagon bootcamp. They also believed that with my strong design background that I could excel at coding. My mind was instantly  opened to world of possibilities. I figured that it would be smart to investment of  my time to enter into a full stack developer course where I could quickly Learn this new skill.

I knew going into the bootcamp that it would be hard but it was way harder then I thought, and surprisingly I loved every minute of the challenges that I was presented with!  During the course I received so much support from the TA and teachers. Everyone is there to make sure you succeed and will spend hours with you to make sure you grasp the 9 week curriculum. I am very thankful for all extra help I received! I finished the course have a strong knowledge which I continue to build upon.

Now I can say that I’am recent graduate of the le wagon Bali batch #253 I have successfully learned:

-Ruby on rails

-How to api are used, as well as JSON, and scrapping

-Relational databases, SQL, Postgres

-HTML,CSS, Bootstrap

-ES6 Javascript

-wireframes, prototyping, UI design

-test driven development

-git, GitHub, and technical workflow.

In additional to all these amazing new things I have learned,  I have also gained a new community of friends and peers who I will know for the rest of of career/ life!

After studying business and working in various industries such as advertising and finance I finally decided to do the Wagon which I have wanted to do for a long time. I do not regret it at all as I have learned so many new skills, new coding languages and built a website with my team. It is quite intense but the whole support makes it a lot easier and the "buddy" system is also very nice as you work every day with someone new and meet very interesting people. Everyone is there to learn and happy to be there which is extremely pleasant. The ambiance is very good and the teachers are amazing. Really feel part of the Wagon family and recommend the Wagon 100% to everyone that thinks about it !

I had the best experience at Le Wagon bootcamp, at its first Kyoto batch.

In terms of the learning, I was surprised to see how I started from a complete beginner ( I didn't even know what the different programming languages are), and within 9 months could build an app that I wouldn't have even thought was possible to build. I like my app so much that I am currently working on it further to see how I can commercialize it. What made the learning experience great was that the teachers at Le Wagon are knowledgeable and dedicated to each person's learning, and the curriculum is well designed in a way that makes you enjoy the process of learning how to code. For me, my objective from learning how to code was never to be a developer, but to work on the commercial aspects of a tech company and be able to work seamlessly with the product team through a deeper understanding of the technicalities. I managed to fulfill this objective - and much more, in terms of my technical knowledge - and has proven to me invaluable in my current job.

But Le Wagon is not just about teaching you how to code - it also helps you plug into the tech community in the city through various events and meetups with startups and other tech companies in the city, which has been extremely helpful as I was thinking through my career move. 

And finally, Le Wagon was an extremely fun and enriching experience. As the first batch in Kyoto, we had a small group, and we had a lot of fun together, going for dinners on weekdays, going out on weekends, and doing trips to nearby cities. Added to this, a chance to be in Kyoto - a beautiful and serene city - made my 2 months an amazing experience. Le Wagon was exactly what I needed - in every way.

I already had some skills in coding websites, I had already been a front-end developer at the beginning of my career, before moving to other paths. When I decided to go back to programming, I needed a serious update and I didn’t know where to start.
I finally chose to attend a bootcamp, as it was the most efficient way to be back on track. I picked Le Wagon after a very long benchmark, I checked that the program matched the expectations of a moving tech market, and I found their stack was clever, mixing powerful technologies with up-to-date best practices. I was not disappointed.
Their style is quite unique, they teach to code but they also teach to focus on the product. A website is an intricate complexity of technologies, user experience and design. There, you learn to deliver ambitious project that people can really use.
I am a freelance developer now, and happy to be so.

Not knowing exactly what I wanted to do after school, I went to study law for 4 years at La Sorbonne. I was really interested in it but felt that creativity was missing in that field. Moreover, I was passionate about new technologies and had the dream of one day starting my own business. I was always getting new project ideas but didn't know how to make them live. I had tried to get in touch with developers, but without any knowledge in tech, I had little legitimacy and it was tough to convince them in joining my projects.
After going to many tech workshops and meetups, I heard of Le Wagon which sounded like the exact solution to my pain. At first, I was scared I would not be good enough to follow their program, because I had stopped studying maths for a few years. But I decided to give it a go anyway.
The training was fast-paced and required full involvement, the one that makes you feel you're pushing your brain to its limits! However hard it was, it was really worth it as for every minute spent there, I knew I was learning so much and getting real actionable skills that would enable me to create web products on my own. I felt as if I was getting magic powers!
On another level, it is also a place where I got to mingle with creative and motivated people who then became great friends.
As a result, I'm really thankful to Le Wagon as it helped me to make the switch to a new industry which better suits me.