Le Wagon

Deciding to attend Le Wagon is turning out to be one of the most pivotal moments of my life more and more by the day.  Before Le Wagon, I was on a path that I didn’t truly want to be on.  I always had creative ideas, but did not realize how important this would be with regards to my career choice.  I realized as I got older that I wanted to try and make a start-up, but it felt like it was too late for me as I had never studied computer science or written a line of code until fairly recently.  The problem was that I was playing it safe by having decided to go to medical school due to a fear of trying to do what I really wanted to do.  It was a very risky route to commit to, and the security of being a doctor sounded more appealing on paper, for a while at least.  I always would procrastinate and tell myself that I would really follow my passions later, endlessly pushing the entrepreneurial can down the road and while making excuses.  Going further into the medical school route, I began to feel a deep sense regret that I was not doing what I really wanted to do.  I worried that if I were to make it to my deathbed not having tried my true calling, I would regret it more than anything else that could possibly happen in my life.  To keep a very long story short, it was not working out, so I left medical school and eventually ended up at Le Wagon Bali. 

Beforehand, while I was determining which coding program to attend, I researched my options pretty heavily as picking the wrong program could build a broken foundation and set you on a terrible programming trajectory compared to picking the proper one.  Le Wagon appealed to me for several reasons above all of the others.   Compared to the closest equivalent American programs, it was much more affordable for a nearly identical curriculum.  Just as important though, it was the only course I found that maintained an entrepreneurially inspired, product-based framed approach in its curriculum.  With an end goal of wanting to build a startup above all else, this appealed to me above nearly all else.  These factors along with the unanimously amazing reviews, diverse classroom locations, and the seemingly awesome culture fostered by the program were why I decided to eventually apply and enroll.

Let’s be completely honest here, the program is incredibly intense.  It feels as though it moves at nearly light speed to the point where it feels like trying to drink all of the water coming from a fire hydrant.  I prepared myself for the program ahead of time far more than was recommended, and I still found myself struggling often.  There were days that by the time I would get home, I felt completely dejected and would have no confidence in my ability to even complete the program and learn what was required to make a start-up by myself.  I even doubted that the program was legit in its claims at times.  However, throughout the course, they always would tell us to trust them and their process, so my batch and I all did that to help cope with our suffering more effectively.  Keeping the end goal of the reason I left medical school and came to Le Wagon in mind, to make my own start-up ideas get brought to life rather than just dreaming about doing so for the rest of my life, and with the help of the amazing staff and classmates, I persevered until the end when I finally really understood the big picture.  During many parts of the program, it’s admittedly incredibly hard to see the forest amongst the trees.  We spend weeks learning concepts as they stand alone, but it doesn’t all come together in a big picture sort of way until the end when the Rails framework is introduced to us to bring everything that we learn together to create real life apps.  Everything taught to us during the class that is included in the curriculum is there to be taught to us for a reason.  The structure of the program is all very well thought out to teach us what we need to know in the most effective and practical manner.   

It’s important to note again that due to how intense and fast-paced the program is, much of the real learning is achieved during the final weeks of the program.  It’s much more effective to learn these concepts in a practical real-world way by bringing them to work together via developing an actual working product from scratch than it is to learn about them in a stand-alone manner.  They all interact together, which is what makes the product-based approach to Le Wagon so amazing.  Overall, I’m very happy that I decided to join Le Wagon.  The culture that Le Wagon has built is an amazing and inspiring one to be a part of through the suffering and long-days we experienced.  The teachers are really the best.  They are so patient, helpful, and kind.  Many have gone through Le Wagon at some point themselves, so they truly do understand what we are going through.  The resources provided to us as students and alumni are both life-saving and game-changing.  The learning never really ends when it comes to the software universe, and Le Wagon really does an amazing job at providing a solid foundation with which to build upon for the various futures that its alumni wish to create for themselves.  I’m working on bringing an MVP version of my own start-up to life right now as I write this, all thanks to Le Wagon.  I was never able to learn these ideas by myself when I tried to teach everything to myself alone, and I am eternally grateful that Le Wagon was able to help me learn how to do this all.  I feel that Rails is by far the best framework to learn in order to develop a way to bring your own start-up ideas to life quickly and effectively. Ruby is a very beginner friendly programming language to learn as well when starting off too.   I’m grateful that I had a chance to attend Le Wagon, and I would highly recommend it to everyone who is considering enrolling. 

I really enjoyed my 9 weeks at Le Wagon. I feel like I have learned a lot, I now understand much better the logic behind web development, plus I have been given all the tools and resources to be a working independent developer. There is a good vibe in the bootcamp and the teachers and TA are very competent. At the end of the course you also get tips on how to prepare for tech interviews and they organize workshop in which you can directly meet with hiring companies/startups and Job Agencies.
 

My name is António and I am a graphic designer. I have been designing websites with Wordpress for clients for a couple of years, but the challenges started getting bigger and bigger, so I decided to look for a serious program that gave could give me a starting point to learning how to code. I found Le Wagon through a friend that attended the bootcamp a couple of years ago and has been working as a developer since then. I knew from him that LeWagon had a great program, but to be honest, my expectations were not very high, since I have no background in programming languages, and also have been avoiding numbers all my life. I thought that in two months it would be hard form me to learn how to develop a full application using a combination of programming languages that I had just discovered existed.

The bootcamp at LeWagon really exceeded all my expectations. It was amazing to see so many people with such different backgrounds learning to really develop a project in such a small amount of time. The first day I thought our class was big and that it would be hard for the teachers and TA’s to help everyone, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Every time I was struggling to understand something, there was always someone there to guide me through the best way to deal with that problem. I was impressed to see that anyone that is willing to commit to the challenge can learn how to code in those nine weeks. The staff at Le Wagon Lisbon are amazing and they really make you feel at home. The overall vibe was amazing and every student from my batch was eager to learn and also eager to help one another when someone else was struggling with a problem.

Every day was a wonderful experience and on top we always had a cold beer to drink with classmates at the end of the day.

Aujourd'hui, les coding bootcamps se multiplient dans la France entière. Avant de faire Le Wagon, je m'étais bien renseigné sur la concurrence. En pleine réorientation professionnelle, j'avais besoin d'une formation présentielle car je manquais cruellement de motivation pour suivre une formation (dans un domaine où la rigueur et le sérieux sont essentiels) de chez moi. J'avais peur de retourner sur les bancs de l'école et retrouver cette ambiance où on nous fait apprendre des choses sans en comprendre la finalité. Au Wagon, j'ai été agréablement surpris par le contenu pédagogique de la formation tant il était excellent. Nous avons accès à vie à des cours (vidéos et écrits) et des exercices, le tout étant continuellement mis à jour. Cependant le contenu de la formation est très dense il est alors essentiel de travailler sérieusement et de faire preuve de persévérance. Finalement Le Wagon et son équipe pédagogique ont réussi à me transmettre leur envie et leur passion, et je continue à étudier de chez moi avec cette même passion et motivation, ce qui m'était avant impensable. De plus, je me considère aujourd'hui capable de mener un projet web de A à Z. Le Wagon est donc un véritable tremplin professionnel pour toute personne motivée et sérieuse. Cette formation est une expérience humainement et professionnellement très enrichissante que je referai sans hésiter et que je recommande les yeux fermés.

When I decided to join  Le Wagon, I didn’t know what to expect. The reviews I had seen were overwhelmingly positive but you never know what can happen. My goal was to learn how to code in order to be able to get a job and, of course, continue my learning journey after the bootcamp.

We had to do some prep work before the bootcamp  to help us get prepared. I had finished it in time, but I have to admit that I didn’t understand everything.

Before the first day, everyone ( teachers and students), met to grab some drinks and to get to know each other better. Everyone was friendly and interesting.

During the bootcamp, being obliged to code all day really propelled my skills into another realm, the stuff I didn’t understand while reading about it in the prep work I understood, sometimes on the spot, during the bootcamp by putting it into practice. That would be one of my main pieces of advice to anyone wanting to learn to code : get your hands dirty. Practice over theory. 

Now that the bootcamp is over, I am proud of what I have learned and can say that, for me, it was an overwhelmingly positive experience. Of course I am still a junior developer at the beginning of my coding education but I now have the tools to keep learning on my own. And perhaps, even more importantly, I made great friends and connections at the bootcamp from all over the world. 

For the reader that is considering doing a bootcamp, make sure that your expectations are aligned with the program at the bootcamp, because the program is not made for everyone. But once you are sure that bootcamp is for you, I’m sure you will have a great time !

I had a great time at Le Wagon, enrolling was a decision I won’t regret. Before enrolling I had tried to self teach a lot of the front end aspects of coding and while I made some progress I definitely struggled to put it properly into anything project wise. After looking at some other courses I kept getting drawn back to Le Wagon because of the stellar reviews and after speaking to Alex I was sure I was making the right decision. The experience was well-designed with the lessons very informative and well-paced so that even though its an intense learning experience you never feel out of your depth. The teachers and teaching assistants are what really make the course, always willing to help and patient when talking through some of the more challenging aspects. At the end of it you really feel like a member of a community. The 9 weeks at Le Wagon London were great fun and I feel ready to enter the tech workplace.

Before I joined Le Wagon, I was a student, then I was a monk for about 10 years in an french abbey. The monastic life is full of surprises, and I exercised various activities, in addition to prayer, including a bit of code (!), but without too much time for that. At the end of these years, I realized that it was better for me to leave the monastery and to come back to the world. The code appeared to me as the best way to quickly find a job.

A friend told me about Le Wagon, and I was immediately excited by this short and powerful bootcamp. The 9 very intensive weeks allowed me to assimilate technical skills, thanks to the work with buddies or as a team, undoubtedly one of the best ways to learn!

Teamwork was so good that one of the friends of my batch suggested me to join his company as a consultant so that we could continue to work together on web/tech projects.

Change your life, learn to code is for me more than a tag, it's a reality: 4 months after leaving the monastery, I already have a job! :)

Before coming to Bali for the Le Wagon FullStack coding Bootcamp, I was a manager at Cheesecake Factory in the US. I really wanted to learn a new skill that would stay with me and stay relevant for as long as possible. 

It's a very intense course, 9 weeks, 9am to 7pm Monday to Friday, with lectures every morning and working on coding exercises the rest of the day. Sometimes actually way more than those hours because it's definitely not easy to learn so many concepts so there are days where I either came in early or stayed late to master what was taught. However, if you put your heart into it, great things happen. It's really amazing what you get out of the program. You learn something new every day, literally, and in the last two weeks it all comes together. 

My final project was a social investment app and I really enjoyed working in a team to produce the app. The people that come to Le Wagon to learn how to code are definitely of a certain caliber. We've all made the conscious decision to invest in our education and essentially, our future. The group of people in my batch that I got to know were amazing. Outside of class we also did some social stuff and even had a weekly cook-off at one of the student's houses. It really feels like a community that we build together. 

Le Wagon offers an amazing location to learn how to code at a very affordable price, especially coming from the US. It helps that Bali has a lower cost of living so even besides the program, living in Bali was very reasonable. It was also easy to get around on a scooter and I was able to explore the different neighborhoods as well. 

The Le Wagon staff is the best. They really take care of you in and outside of the classroom. They make it their #1 goal to ensure that we each have the best learning experience possible and I couldn't ask for more.