Coding bootcamp in Lille

I never really had the courage to actually get behind a computer and start learning coding all by myself. I thought that would be super complicated and I wouldn't be able to comprehend anything. I started to search for schools that teach me all of this in the best way possible.

The best approach for me to learn something is "learning by doing", so I searched for something doing just that. A bootcamp would've been ideal and so my journey started. I decided to take part in the 9-week coding Bootcamp of Le Wagon.

I must say, at this point, it was the best decision I could've made.

Just right from the first day everybody was very friendly. First thing in the morning was a lecture giving us students the knowledge we needed for the day. Most of the day we spent with coding together with another student (always someone else). During this time you had very friendly and capable teachers by your side and no matter the problem, they took their time to explain it, giving the optimal support to learn something completely new. In the evening all students came together again and started the live code. In it we all worked together on an exercise . This created a very nice and comfortable atmosphere.

During the last two weeks we worked on projects. The projects themselves are created from scratch and based on everything taught during the bootcamp. Le Wagon provided us with the skills and the mindset shaping us into real web developers and with this knowledge we created some really amazing things.

Le Wagon is undoubtedly an unforgettable experience and it also brings people from all over the world together.

I can recommend Le Wagon without hesitation. They will teach you to code, for sure, but more than that, after nine weeks you will exit the course with the energy, ideas, relationships and skills to take your ideas to the next level. I considered all the leading coding bootcamp programs in Europe and the USA, and I chose Le Wagon specifically for the entrepreneurial mindset and dynamic culture. I felt the course delivered on all of my expectations, and exceeded them in many ways.

Pros: fast-paced, high teacher quality, entrepreneurial mindset, robust online curriculum. Cons: honestly, I can't really isolate any.

My background was perhaps a little unusual for my batch. I was older than most (46) and was founder/ceo of a few technology companies. I was interested in returning to the code after many years, and to immerse myself in a new challenge. Still, I felt right at home and was able to learn a ton and contribute some as well.

If you are considering a software bootcamp, my recommendation is to go for it. You won't be disappointed, and it may very well be pivotal in your life. If you are willing to give it 100%, you are sure to succeed. Choosing which bootcamp is a personal decision. If you want to find a job as a developer, Le Wagon will prepare you as will many of the other quality camps. If you want to, immediately or eventually, develop a new product, build your own company, pursue an idea... then I think it's no contest -- Le Wagon is really the only bootcamp catering to this kind of creative+technical competence. Go for it, you will be in good company, and you will be very happy you did.

I joined Le Wagon Berlin in July 2017 after having finished my Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering with a specialization in mechanical engineering. Having worked as an intern in big industrial companies I realized I'd rather prefer working in a more entrepreneurial company or start-up. At the same time I recognized that pure mechanical engineers probably won’t be as much in demand as before due to growing digitalization. Being able to handle interfaces especially to IT is one of the important key capabilities for future engineers. I was evaluating two coding bootcamps in Berlin and decided for Le Wagon, because of three reasons:

1) They already taught over 90 batches, which means over the time and with all the experience they must have optimized their program and lessons to a high quality level.

2) Ruby is a stable programming language.

3) Really good price and time frame.

In the end my expectations were even exceeded. The teachers were amazingly motivating and competent, I met interesting people from different professional backgrounds, and the exercises enable a step-by-step learning process. All in all you really learn a lot of web developing capabilities within a short amount of time. I fell in love with Ruby because the programming language is really easy to learn for beginners, the logic behind it is easy to grasp and when you’re able to manage one programming language very well you can learn other languages very quickly. I will start a job as junior developer in a few weeks and during the interview I managed to solve a coding challenge which convinced my interviewer, who was even surprised that I implemented it that well, to hire me. He expected a more basic solution after only learning coding for 9 weeks, because I literally started with zero knowledge before Le Wagon. I guess that speaks for the teaching quality.

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.

Before I joined Le Wagon, I worked as a manager of Bridge SE team of Software development company in Vietnam. I started my career as web/mobile project manager but I always was struggling with my lack of technical skills/knowledge working with developers. When I decided to back to Japan to gain more experiences in the Japanese market, I luckily found Le Wagon Tokyo. One of the biggest reason that I chose it was because all the program of Le Wagon proceeds in English. (The second biggest reason is the reputations on the internet). For that reasons, I made my choice to jump into the most challenging environment.

Even though I’ve been in the software industry and I knew some concepts to make web applications, the first week of the program was the hardest time for me. It took time getting used thinking like a programmer and writing codes but thanks to the great help from the skilled teachers and the teaching assistants, I gradually started loving coding.

The final project was the best thing in the program. Although I have participated in the project as a project manager before, it was my first time for me to be in a team as a developer and develop our own product. It was really challenging to build a website within 2 weeks from scratch but working as a team to build a “real” product was the best learning experience in my life.

After graduation, I'm back to the previous working company as the same role, project manager utilizing the skill of full stack developer. I do recommend Le Wagon if you want to learn to code. It is literally GREAT and I’m sure you will gain unforgettable experience.

As an undergraduate student, I had many ideas I wanted to put to life. However, I soon realized that I needed to further develop my skills to create projects of my own. I soon turned to coding because it was the most resourceful way to put ideas to life, I mean all you need is your laptop! So I started off by doing some free online courses but the pace at which I was learning was too slow; I needed a better way to learn. That's how I found Le Wagon.

My experience at Le Wagon was an experience of a lifetime. The camp teaches you not just about code, but about so much more. Being with extremely motivated and passionate people all day for 9 weeks, you learn to develop a work ethic that will translate into every other aspect of your life. You also learn to develop a business mindset to increase efficiency and productivity when working in a group, but also by yourself. The camp also incourages you to go to meetups and network with as many people as you can in order to find as many job opportunities as possible. However, most importantly, it was fun.

I enjoyed every second of the camp and will do it all over again if I could. Shoutout to all the amazing teachers and fellow students who taught me so much!