They changed their lives… in China
In August 2018, I was celebrating my China’s 7-year anniversary. 7 years of continuous learning in the fastest-growing economy of the world. Gosh, I have been challenged *every*single*day* here!
Believe me (or not), China is the center of what’s happening. If you dream big, if you’ve ever planned to conquer the World, or at least if you want to up-skill your game, you should be in China now.
- The 19th century was the Victorian era, the industrial revolution: you had to be in the UK.
- The 20th century was the PC era and dot-com craziness: Silicon Valley or NY USA were the places to be.
- The 21st century is all about China.
I have previously shared here how we taught entrepreneurs WeChat development, what international professionals should read about China, and the sort of innovations our awesome tech community likes to ship.
Today I’d like to share the words written by unique individuals I’ve met in the past few years here.
I want to give them a huge shout out because they have been brave enough to change their lives… in China.
They all joined Le Wagon’s immersive camps in Chengdu or Shenzhen or in Shanghai.
Isabel Chan
From student at Berkeley… to a first job at Ant Financial (Alibaba group’s centacorn fintech, larger than Goldman Sachs!)
July 2018
If you are reading this post, you probably know that the slogan for Le Wagon is “change your life learn to code”. It sounded like a platitude to me, at least it was how I felt before joining the camp. However, before I realized it, Le Wagon experience actually changed my life. During the camp, not only did I learn the foundation of coding, but it also helped build up my confidence. This confidence allows me to continue learning more advanced coding challenges independently even after the camp. In addition, Le Wagon helps me to connect to different tech communities which helps me to gain insights on the different tech sectors. More importantly, I met a group of new friends who share common interests, and join hackathons together. Therefore, I would proudly recommend Le Wagon to my friends…
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Alex Smith
From marketing manager… to front-end developer at a local startup
August 2018
Over the years, I’ve worked as the business or marketing guy for various companies. I was always drawn to these roles because of my ability to ‘play nice’ with others. But in some ways I was also limited to these roles because I lacked a strong technical skillset.
In my mind, this technical skillset could be many things… coding, design, data science, architecture, medicine, and law are all examples. Unfortunately for me, I had never developed any of these skills.
I wanted to find a way to develop myself so that I could provide more value to companies while also freeing myself from the business/marketing mindset. I didn’t want to just sell, I wanted to build. After nine weeks of intensive learning with Le Wagon, I’ve not only gained a deeper understanding of full-stack web development, but the confidence and know how to extend my learning to other technical areas.
Although the bootcamp has ended, the learning has just begun. I’ve begun work at a local startup as a WeChat Mini Program developer, I’ve joined forces with other Le Wagon alumni to continue learning new frameworks, and I’ve built a strong community of developers, hackers, and entrepreneurs who want to use to tech to add value to the world. Choosing to join Le Wagon was a great decision. It has reshaped the way I see the world and my role in it.
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Thomas Li
From an entry-level position at Tesla… to an independent programmer overseas
August 2018
我叫Thomas，来Le Wagon之前，我在广州的Tesla做产品专员。当时从一名同事那里听说Le Wagon这个项目，加上自己也一直想了解编程，就报名参加了。在Le Wagon为期九个星期的高强度训练下，我不仅掌握到了很多有关编程的技术，更因为Le Wagon在上海IT行业的一些connections（Strikingly.com, Kawo.com, etc.)了解到了IT业里面职业发展的机会。在整个训练营里面，我从一开始的一张白纸，到后来可以自主开发网页、微信小程序和web app。我未来的计划是利用我在Le Wagon学到的东西，自己独立自主研发一个跟留学有关的APP，让一些选择DIY申请的同学可以直接匹配到他们目标院校的学长学姐，获得第一手的资源帮助。
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Ziva Xu
College student in Washington… turned addict programmer
August 2018
在加入Le Wagon前，我在美国华盛顿大学读大一，同时也做了两年的平面设计freelance。我对计算机、设计、商业这些领域都很感兴趣，在学校也学了很多关于这方面的课程，但学校所教授的内容大多停留在理论层面，即使做了一些小的课堂项目，难度和强度也比较低。所以在今年夏天，我选择参加Le Wagon bootcamp，希望能够学习开发相关的知识并且真正开始做一些比较复杂的项目。
在Le Wagon的两个月，每天的生活都非常忙碌，无论是上午的课程还是下午的练习都很有难度。就知识体系而言，这些内容给我对网站开发的理解打下了非常扎实的基础。同时，Le Wagon组织的活动（alumni drink，杭州tech crunch）也让我认识了国内创业圈和技术圈更多的人。而在最后两周的final project中，我真正体会到了实际开发项目的难度之大。从团队协作写代码到oversee项目整体进度，这些十分具有挑战性的任务都让我成长了很多。
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Ryan Kretch
From PR executive… to full-stack programmer
April 2018
Before Le Wagon, I always felt pretty stuck. I had that dreaded feeling of waking up every morning, anxious and complacent about going to work; doing everything for the paycheck. I always felt like my job controlled me and I was running on autopilot, doing what I needed to get done to go home and let life begin everyday.
I think the greatest takeaways I had from Le Wagon was that it gave me the skills and the confidence to get out there and start obtaining some freelance jobs to gain more experience. Furthermore, when I go to start my own business in the future, I will feel technically ready to make it happen. Finally, I love that I have an invigorated drive to learn again, and I no longer have the limiting beliefs that have stopped me from reaching my full potential in the past.
One thing to keep in mind is that you have to work your ass off to get the most out of the experience. This includes after the experience. Don’t let your skills go to waste after the camp by not putting them into action in one way or another.
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Audrey Gourdji
Former fashion buyer… now freelance web designer
July 2018
After graduating from university in my hometown, Montreal, Canada, I moved to Beijing, and then subsequently to Shanghai in 2015 when I started working as a buying assistant for a luxury fashion multibrand. After about a year and a half, I started itching for something with a little more responsibility and creative freedom, so when the opportunity to join a founding team on a fashion startup arose, I jumped on it.
Sure enough, a few months later, the start up didn’t work out and instead of looking for a new job straight away, I decided to join Le Wagon and develop my tech skills so that I could become a more experienced and knowledgeable product manager/start-up founder/fashion e-commerce owner/insert-whatever-job-title, seeing as tech experience would only help in any of the potential future jobs I could think of for myself.
Apart from the rigorous training, Le Wagon also set up various talks and company visits that we were incredibly lucky to get the chance to be a part of. I very quickly realized that Le Wagon is much more than a bootcamp, it’s a far-reaching community and network of helpful, intelligent, and passionate individuals. The community and network aspect is the biggest contributor and reason I was able to move into freelance so seamlessly right after camp.
I’ve definitely learned the pros and cons of freelancing over the last few months, and have constantly had my boundaries pushed, but that’s what has forced me to learn and grow post-camp. Most importantly, as was so valuable during camp, the Le Wagon community and network has been the biggest change in my life. Not only do I have all this new knowledge that opened a completely new realm and sea of opportunity, but I also have these incredible supportive peers, many of which have become some of my closest friends.
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Jake Tompkins
From Chinese/English translator to Augmented Reality (AR) developer
September 2018
After having graduated the program I was offered the opportunity to take on projects dealing with AR (Augmented Reality) technology. At first I was intimidated, as I was very much aware that I would be working in a language that I had never touched before, on a platform I knew nothing about, and creating products for a medium that is very different from the websites and WeChat Mini Programs I had created in Le Wagon. However, I quickly found that not only were these new technologies and concepts accessible, but the same learning methods, thought processes, and debugging practices I’d learned in Le Wagon were directly applicable. As it turned out, by simply going through the Le Wagon program and overcoming the challenges therein, I’d already taken many of the first and hardest steps to learning a new system. Within a week I had attained sufficient competency in the system to begin taking paid work using it.
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Grace Yang
From marketing manager to freelance UI/UX & Front End Development
September 2018
I worked in marketing & digital strategy brand-side, and always got caught up in workflow, user experience, and creating digital solutions to make tech work for us instead of the other way around. My lack of ‘hard’ tech skills constrained my obsession with designing tools that could centralize, unify, and provide a cohesive and fluid experience for both users and my team members, so I attended the 9 week bootcamp.
Learning code is the last piece of the puzzle for me — and now I’m excited to be able to conceptualize, design, and code my very own projects. I’m also able to work across a variety of industries; it’s helped me stand on even ground with clients looking for consultations, but also allowed me to communicate better with tech teams and developers.
Connect with our teams:
🚩 Le Wagon in Chengdu
🚩 Le Wagon in Shanghai
🚩 Le Wagon in Shenzhen
