Seraphin snags €1.2M in investment
Le Wagon Brussels alumni Thomas Vanderstraeten is Seraphin’s cofounder and CTO. The company just raised €1.2M and Thomas did...
Before joining Le Wagon, I have been working as a mechanical engineer for more than 5 years and have accumulated a... Read more
Before joining Le Wagon, I have been working as a mechanical engineer for more than 5 years and have accumulated abundant experience in the industry. However, I have always harbored great zest for programing and software engineering. So for me, the hardest part about learning to code from scratch is whether I’m willing to give up everything I’ve built up for myself in my previous field to embrace something completely new and challenging.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make. To start with, I was uncertain about my potential performance in coding due to my limited understanding of IT industry. And consulting the internet and reading online answers only made it more confusing for me, as those are all other people’s experience and opinions and each person varies in terms of ability. Age was my other concern since compared to other students I’m considered a late beginner. Extra effort is a must in order to bridge the gap between me and those who started in college. But in the end, I followed my heart to pursue what I’m really interested in- coding, and everything else matters less.
I didn’t hesitate at all to choose Le Wagon because based on my research, it is probably the best coding bootcamp available in China. My later satisfying experience in every aspect proved me right. Mentors here are experts with rich industrial experience, but except for the professional knowledge they delivered, the skill that we gained in learning new things is even more precious. I enjoyed very much the company and help of other fellow students as well. Every day was quite fulfilling when we immerse ourselves in numerous practices for better application of the theoretical knowledge.
We formed a team of 4 during the final 2 weeks to work on projects and I was in charge of the back-end development. Our team delivered an awesome social app in form of mini program since mobile app attracts more traffic nowadays compared to traditional websites. It was a great challenge but being able to overcome difficulties as a team and build up our own app is a fantastic feeling!
I didn't start job searching immediately after the camp but instead continued to strengthen all the skills I learned with the help from our mentors. Most of the camp graduates would choose to learn something new but for me reviewing has greater significance since it enables me to form a more comprehensive and productive knowledge framework. I feel very lucky to have received an offer from ALO7 to become a junior Ruby engineer 3 weeks after leaving Le Wagon. Despite many challenges ahead, It’s a great start!
Looking back at the 2 months spent at Le Wagon, coding apart, the strong bonding I harvested with mentors and students is to cherish for a lifetime. Hope Le Wagon will continue to do a great job in leading more people into the wonderland of coding!
I always knew I was interested in becoming a Web Developer but I was doing a non-technical degree at university an... Read more
I always knew I was interested in becoming a Web Developer but I was doing a non-technical degree at university and wasn't sure I would find work as a developer afterwards. (I studied French). I was teaching English abroad and when I was asked to teach a Technology course I realised I was a lot more interested in coding than most of my students...this was when I seriously started looking at becoming a dev.
I ended up picking Le Wagon for a couple of reasons - the reviews were pretty unanimous that it was a great place to study, and it was also only 9-weeks long and I wanted to get working ASAP so I didn't mind signing up to something pretty intensive.
It was definitely more than 'pretty' intensive but I had the most amazing time doing it. I'd already done a fair bit of HTML/CSS before the course but it feels ridiculously insignificant after an intensive week of JavaScript lessons! They also teach you to code properly --what to avoid/best practices-- which I'm so grateful for in hindsight. It's more than just knowing how to code, but also how to deploy an app from scratch along with a tonne of other really useful lessons.
A lot of people said the first couple of weeks were very tough and they were right, but IT'S SO WORTH IT. Le Wagon is definitely a 'work hard/play hard' kind of place. The teachers were all amazing and they went above and beyond when we got stuck. (Especially in the last two weeks of project-deadlines!) It doesn't stop when you leave, either. Everyone is so happy to help with issues post-course and there's a brill alumni network.
I loved learning to code in Ruby, but when we got to frontend, i completely fell in love and had my fingers crossed for a great job as a front-end dev (which I found just a couple of weeks later).
Taking Le Wagon has quite literally changed my life - I'm doing what I've always wanted to do.
I’ve always been interested in technology and have wanted to study it ever since I was a kid, but school just wasn... Read more
I’ve always been interested in technology and have wanted to study it ever since I was a kid, but school just wasn’t teaching me what I wanted to learn so I left when I was 18. I looked into some coding bootcamps and Le Wagon was clearly leading the game with the best reviews, highest ratings, most interesting alumni projects.
So I started in London in January 2017 and I learnt more technical skills in the space of 2 weeks than I did in my entirety of formal education! Even my friends who decided to go to university can’t compete with the scale of things I can now create.
Le wagon has kickstarted my career and I even got my first project by meeting their alumni! Joining Le Wagon was the best decision I’ve made in a long time and I still miss going there every day and being in the environment of constant learning.
Before Le Wagon, I spent about a year doing various online courses to try to learn how to code. They taught me the... Read more
Before Le Wagon, I spent about a year doing various online courses to try to learn how to code. They taught me the basics of HTML, CSS, JS and some other areas of programming but I couldn’t build anything completely from scratch and couldn’t tie together what I knew with any degree of confidence.
Le Wagon’s bootcamp was exactly what I needed. It took the bits and pieces I already knew, filled in the gaps and amalgamated all of this knowledge so I now have a much better understanding of the bigger picture of web development and programming in general.
The teachers were fantastic and I studied alongside some wonderful people who I still keep in touch with. The pace of the course is fast and it makes for a very intense 9 weeks but you learn so much every day and the structure of the day ensures you get time to practise extensively and then digest and consolidate everything with evening live code sessions.
I’m currently working as a junior web developer and finally feel as though I have the skills (not to mention resources!) to build web applications in Ruby on Rails and build on the solid foundation that the bootcamp provided me with. Highly recommend to anyone that wants to learn to code!
I used to work as a structural engineer but I was not satisfied with the day to day challenges and the work I had ... Read more
I used to work as a structural engineer but I was not satisfied with the day to day challenges and the work I had to do. I wanted to join a startup with a more young, dynamic environment but I didn't have any transferable skills. A friend of mine suggested I joined le wagon.
My experience at le wagon has been very positive. Not only because of the actual course and how in 7 weeks I had learned enough to code my final product in 2 weeks but also because of the community at le wagon and the network it has created for my professional career.
I am now looking for a job as a web developer and in only one week of finising le wagon I have been getting multiple responses from various startups to set up interviews and discuss how I would fit in their team.
If you want an intensive course that will open many doors in the start up industry or web development world and have no prior coding knowledge I would definitely recommend joining le wagon!
My background lies in sales where I first came in contact with a group of programmers in Malaysia. I was fascinate... Read more
My background lies in sales where I first came in contact with a group of programmers in Malaysia. I was fascinated to see how a dedicated team of programmers, testers and designers were able to create a tech solution that helped companies engage with their target audience. The idea to work in a team and create a custom made solutions from scratch appealed greatly to me. Choosing Le Wagon as the place to learn how to code turned out to be a great decision.
The bootcamp is well organised by people that truly care about their students and teachers. The teaching material is phenomenal, they basically succeeded in creating a summary of the internet on how to code in Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, jQuery and much more. There is a structured approach for every module, day and exercise. Everyday you team up with one of your fellow students which creates great teamspirit and group dynamics but also improves your learning curve.
The teachers are absolute specialists in their field of work and share a enthusiasm in teaching. They help you to think like a developer and look for solutions in the online documentation rather then just giving you the answers. In the final weeks of the Bootcamp you will team up in groups of three to build a web app from the ground up. This team effort is, in my opinion, one of the most important learning experience. You will have to apply most of your knowledge and work together by dividing tasks and merging changes online using Github.
Finally, the community of alumni’s, teachers and students is truly remarkable. On the different Slack channels people share interesting articles, job opportunities, and you can ask for help with any specific problem in the #help channel. Also there are plenty of meetups where you can stay up to date on any new developments in the field of tech and also social events like wall climbing. Whether you want to become a developer, build your own product or any other reason, I would highly recommend to join Le Wagon.
