I was determined to find the best coding bootcamp out there
If I had only one sentence to describe Le Wagon, I would say Le Wagon is the best place to change your life.
Before Le Wagon I was studying advertising and at the same time I was a freelance videographer for production agencies. I shot a variety of videos including for sports clubs and backstage videos for commercials.
What inspired me to join Le Wagon was a desire to find a more rewarding job, a job that I could commit to for the rest of my career, and a job that was future-proof.
So I decided to learn how to code, and I searched for “Best Coding Bootcamps” on Google, which is when I found Le Wagon.
It surprised me what I was actually capable of
I felt drawn to technology from a very young age, and I’ve been lucky to grow up in an age where technology has been so accessible. I was 5 years old when I used a computer for the first time. It was my brother’s and at that age, I knew nothing about technology.
But the fact that I’ve used computers and a mobile phone my whole life helped. It meant it wasn’t hard for me to adopt, or adapt to, new technologies. When I was 12 I bought a technology magazine about video games and they were giving away promotional CDs with some C++ lessons. I started watching them and obviously couldn’t understand anything, but I definitely found it very interesting.
Although that first CD when I was 12 sparked my interest in coding, and I found it fun, before Le Wagon I was convinced that coding was too difficult for me. I was a complete beginner before I joined the bootcamp and the biggest fear I had going into the bootcamp was that I wouldn’t be able to learn how to code.
I thought it might be rocket science, but I learned so much in the first 2 weeks, that I grew confident and realized that I was capable of a lot more than I had expected. That feeling of conquering a fear, learning something new, it was the most rewarding experience.
When coding, practice makes perfect
I really enjoyed the curriculum and challenge-based learning. I’ve always felt that practice makes perfect and I realize now that this is also the best way to learn how to code. I tend to dislike too much theory and reading too many books, and I believe that learning how to code by yourself isn’t going to work in the long term. You learn best when you actually practice, which applies to anything; coding, photography, sports, etc. This is one of Le Wagon’s cornerstone philosophies.
Team spirit is what makes a team
I still miss the bootcamp a lot. The daily routine and feeling that we were on a learning journey, discovering something new on a daily basis; that was amazing. It truly felt like we were continuously improving ourselves day-by-day. The team spirit with my other buddies from the bootcamp was fantastic and I miss chatting with them and solving coding problems together. I really liked all of my buddies at the bootcamp, they were cool, relaxed and kind, and although I’ll miss them I look forward to keeping in touch and seeing how they develop as coders.
The diversity of the bootcamp was a learning lesson by itself
As someone who has always liked design, I found the front-end week the most enjoyable of the bootcamp and learning CSS and Javascript was great. I felt that the teachers were extremely good and each of them were experts in their respective fields.
The most eye-opening thing I learned about myself was how to work with others in a group. There were a total of 5 of us during Le Wagon’s first ever bootcamp in Istanbul. Until then I had been used to working as an individual during and after university, but never in a group. By working with others and sharing my knowledge in a team environment, I discovered that I have more patience than I expected.
Outside of coding, Le Wagon was the first time that I’ve been in such a diverse environment. Communicating with people from all over the world was a great experience for me, it really broadened my horizons. I was also able to greatly improve my English. Finally, I loved the campus. The location was great and it was the best environment in which to learn how to code.
We built a brand-new app in less than 10 days
I really enjoyed focusing on building a brand-new product in the last 2 weeks of the bootcamp. It was great fun creating our app, ‘OurHood’, which was a Covid-19-inspired e-commerce platform to help local shops create an online presence. We all learned from the process of building OurHood and we were extremely proud to present what we created on Demo Day. In less than 10 days we realized what we were capable of and created a unique web app by working extremely well as a team.
Le Wagon’s global community was very welcoming
My time with Le Wagon was completely unique and I after I graduated I was especially surprised by the size of Le Wagon’s global network of alumni. Everyone is on Slack which means that you can contact them with the push of a button. I check Le Wagon’s alumni channel (with almost 9,000 people) at least twice a week and receive really useful notifications which are helping me to continue learning through the network.
Thoughts on the future...
Thanks to Le Wagon I’ve discovered a passion for software development and my driving motivation is to keep learning and keep growing. I was extremely pleased to land my first job in tech about a month ago, working at a great company which has a friendly and positive work-culture.
