Coding bootcamp in São Paulo

My history with Le Wagon began e few years ago, I had just presented an IT recruiting system at a Ruby meetup in Paris and chance had it that someone from Le Wagon came to this same event to present their Bootcamp. The idea of learning to code started to sprout - but with a 9 to 5 job it would not be easy to find the time for a two months full-time bootcamp.

Some springs later, destiny (or rather my wife) made me move to São Paulo. So I quit my job and started learning Portuguese. Once again, destiny made things right when I heard that Le Wagon had just launched their bootcamp in São Paulo. This time I had the available time and I jumped on the opportunity to apply to their next batch.

It started with an interview with the person in charge (Mathieu Le Roux), I felt lucky that he happened to be French since my "portuñol" was not that great. We talked about my motivations, in my case I had been working with digital for the past 6 years. I had a multitask profile: product launch, marketing, product management, acquisition strategies, mobile apps... but always felt frustrated for not being able to master 100% of the product chain. The interview went well, I just needed to complete an online course so that my application would be valid.

One month later the bootcamp started and I felt the first week was really tough. Lots of new concepts everyday had me come home every night with some heavy headaches. It's only after the third week that I felt things became clearer to me, just when we actually connect all the concepts to concrete practical applications. From then on, things started to feel more natural and automatic. After that we had a few more weeks to learn Front End, which for me was easier since I had already created some sites using HTML and CSS.

And finally, the two best weeks: the final project. Our small group of 4 people wanted to create a recruiting site targeted to developers, with a matching algorithm to find the best profile for each job offer. The team was extra motivated and we worked everyday up to 10pm. It was feature after feature: anonym and public profiles, search engine, matching algorithm, online payment, admin interface, responsiveness...

The last day finally arrived and it was the moment to demo our product: programathor.com.br. Even though I had improved my Portuguese during these two months, pitching the project myself was still a little bit out of reach. So Julien and Leandro got the responsibility to demo the project, and they brilliantly did!

After Le Wagon I am still considering launching ProgramaThor as a proper business in Brazil and keep improving the platform so I don't forget what I've learned. I'm impressed and proud of what we have accomplished in only two weeks and of what I feel capable of doing after only two months.

I attended Le Wagon batch #46 in São Paulo, Brazil, and it was a truly transformative experience. I’m 23, and a soon-to-be business graduate from HEC Paris, France. After interning twice in VC, it quickly became clear that I needed to considerably improve my technical skills, whether I was to stay in VC start a company or join a product management team in a startup, which were the three main options I am considering for my first job out of college. So I started working on FreeCodeCamp and Codecademy, putting 300+ hours in learning to code in JavaScript, Python and Ruby. I quickly got the grasp of algorithm coding, but I was far from being able to build the web apps I was dreaming of: the transition from coding algorithms to actually building software was much bigger than I expected, and I couldn’t find the right e-learning program for me. Working and studying, my time was limited, and it was clear I had to go another route if I wanted to quickly improve my skills. Living in Brazil at the time, I met the formidable team of Le Wagon in Sao Paulo, and signed up for the next session.

The next two months have been incredible. I had the chance of attending le Wagon in a small batch of 12 students, which considerably improved the experience and helped built a great relationship between students and teachers.

After 7 weeks of learning and practicing, I gained the skills to build EasyMoveis, a furniture rental marketplace (www.easymoveis.co) in only 10 days with a team of 4 LeWagon students. I was most impressed by the fantastic learning curve at Le Wagon. The learning program is very well engineered so that the transition from coding to actually building web apps is extremely natural. I started building apps without realizing it! Aside from building apps, I think Le Wagon also helped me build a ‘developer’ mindset, that is the ability to keep learning on my own, find resources and libraries, and more importantly collaborate on a project. All those skills simply can’t be taught online. Finally, I am glad to have joined the Le Wagon community: the teachers from my batch at Le Wagon are always happy to help and provide feedback, while the overall community is super active and helpful.

Le Wagon is probably the best investment I made on myself, and I would recommend it to any one willing to learn software development, eyes closed!

I had never coded a single line before in my life, but those classes were so complete that after only 9 weeks I am now confident enough about my code skills to apply for a tech position.

For the past 3 years I worked with Marketing and Communications, but right after Le Wagon I started applying some logic knowledge and hacks in my daily tasks and this led me to get a spot in the tech team of my company!

It's only two months to become a fullstack dev so you have to dive in code everyday but it is totally worth it! I am fully satisfied and recommend Le Wagon to everyone looking for a quick start on coding. Besides Le wagon provides you with an amazing network of alumni and teachers that help you even after the bootcamp is over.

First of all I totally recommend doing Le Wagon bootcamp if you are keen on entering the programming world. Before doing Le Wagon last winter here in Brazil I was kind of worried about my future and having a hard time finding a good job. I have studied and worked with oceanography here and before the bootcamp I was disappointed with the lack of opportunities in my field, I spent more than a year looking for a job and nothing came up.

Work with programming was something that I always thought about, but the initial learning curve was very discouraging. So coding bootcamps were already in my mind to break through this curve. Then I heard that a really good bootcamp was landing here in Brazil, so I thought it was my chance of changing. I ended up being the first student to enroll in the first brazilian batch.

And let me tell you it’s been an amazing experience, I have met really good people and looking back I still cannot believe how much me and all my colleagues could learn in only 9 weeks. This is the most interesting point where Le Wagon stand out, it's a very well structured and crafted program. And it explains how they manage to have anyone learn so much so fast.

Their philosophy is learning by doing, and that's also another diferenciating fact about them. You really get your hands dirty and « squeeze » your brain. The last 2 weeks are devoted to a project which teaches you how to work in team and release a functional project in only ten days. Some of my teammates are still working on the project that is turning into a startup called numooh. Check it out!

Two months after I finished the course I’ve been involved in some freelancing dev for a nice French startup and just got hired in another major startup here in Brazil. (Gympass, the netflix of gym club :) So, in my opinion, if you seriously want to dive into this world with a solid understanding of what’s going on. You should consider Le Wagon.