Lighthouse Labs

I did the full web development bootcamp in Victoria in 2018. It was a 10-week course at the time, but now I see they've increased the length, as they should. I struggled through much of the course but what is disappointing is I felt quite unsupported... Read More for most of the time. Victoria is a satellite location meaning we don't have teachers in-house but watch the lectures streamed from Vancouver. We were constantly being forgotten about by the teachers (they would start teaching without making sure we could hear, etc.). The teaching itself was very rushed. It was just watching a dude rapidly code for 2 hours. Needless to say, I didn't learn much from the lectures. The projects themselves were ok and they were very challenging, and while there are mentors there to help, the range of ability to help varied significantly. There were only 1 or 2 mentors out of about 6 that were knowledgeable and caring enough to sit down with you to work through something. I struggled and cried my way through. I am proud of myself for graduating from the program, but I felt grossly unprepared coming out of the program for any sort of developer job. LHL tells you you will feel like this, of course, but almost 2 years later, I still feel angry that the course was so rushed and I finished the course with huge gaps in my understanding. I am disappointed we were treated so poorly and not given more support. I am not quite sure where to go from here as I was not one of the people lucky enough to get a real developer job right out of the bootcamp, so I am out of practice and haven't built on anything we were taught. I desperately want to get a real developer job someday, but I am now grossly under-qualified for anything. I have resorted to going back to online courses to try to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, but it will take a long time to get my skills to where they should be to get a career in development. I feel like LHL took way too much money for what was offered to me at the time. I know they've improved some things since then, and I wish I could get a refund for the poor education I received in Victoria.

Pros
- Amazing career services. They truly want you to succeed and do everything in their power to bridge the gap between you and companies. Louisa and Lulwa are some of the most hard-working people I have ever encountered and I honestly would not have... Read More been hired if it were not for their support.
- The mentors here are mostly superb. I want to give a special shout-out to Karl who isn't even a mentor but was very supportive and engaging throughout the bootcamp. Tim, Mikias, Vasily, Rafal, James, Justin, Michael, Will, and Zola - thank you all so much for being understanding when I came to you with god-awful questions and for teaching me the intricacies of web development that went beyond the coursework.
- Course material is on average superb, covers the basics and more advanced topics pretty thoroughly. The tech interviews we had were very helpful for actual interviews as well. I really like that they focus more on 'teaching by doing' rather than having you read endless pages of docs / readings.
- The space is accessible by students 24/7 so we could stay as late as we wanted.

Cons
- The React weeks were not good. It needs an overhaul and I honestly learned more from Udemy courses than those two weeks. I love React and it was painful to see how mismanaged that section was. I believe they are looking to do a revamping of the course though in the near future.

Overall, I would unreservedly recommend this bootcamp to anyone who is seriously committed to a career switch. Don't look at the 93% hiring rate and be enticed though; attending this bootcamp is not like flipping a coin and getting hired 93% of the time. This bootcamp gives you some serious resources to succeed, but ultimately it is up to the individual to forge their own path. I suggest that potential applicants try out a course on Udemy to see if they can handle the work before applying.

Unrelated engineering background -> Unrelated job -> 3 month boot camp -> Job right after graduation.

The community is what makes this bootcamp worth it 100%.
Being around 20 other people in the same situation with the drive and motivation to succeed 10-12... Read More hours a day, 6 days a week, really ramps up your learning and motivation. I wouldn't have been able to have learned so much in so little time if it weren't for my peers.

The staff are all absolutely fantastic and wonderful people! The instructors and mentors (as of mid late 2019) are all exceptionally talented individuals who are passionate about teaching and helping new devs! (Shout out to Vasily, Mikias, Zola and Will for being the best mentors!)

The react part of curriculum is okay but could use a little love. Would recommend students to take a cheap udemy course on react or something similar to supplement their learning.

All in all a crazy, hectic and amazing 3 months that I would recommend to anyone seriously considering a career switch.

Best,
Really happy and satisfied Lighthouse Alumni

I came into the bootcamp with previous experience in Computer Science and some coding on the side. My main intent for joining Lighthouse was to learn more on Web Dev and find a job to switch industries.

The courses were alright but I feel that there should... Read More have been some more challenging material outside of the generic "stretch" material they have. Staff on hand to provide assistance ranged in ability but were overall quite good in their ability to transfer knowledge and help through problems.

The largest draw for me was the possibility to get introductions to companies hiring locally and this is where I felt the most let down by Lighthouse. I understand there was some staffing changes happening at that time but I feel like it was basically worthless. I ended up finding a position via another cohort member who referred it to me with the CEO at the company mentioning that Lighthouse had never presented me as one of the options available.

TLDR: Alright bootcamp, crappy job placement that feels like it might provide preferential treatment at the expense of some but some great people working there.

I was looking for a career change from mechanical engineering to software. Lighthouse Labs gave me the tools to get hired and be productive immediately. There is also a good alumni network and support for post graduation. I think it's the best choice... Read More for bootcamps in Vancouver

Good experience, LHL is pretty well respected in Victoria. Hard work, but you come out of it with a decent grasp on the material. I was one of the latest to get a job after ~3 months Job support was pretty weak. Got all my interviews myself. Was OK for... Read More resume review.

I would not walk back into this bootcamp if I were paid to. Their HR department(or lack thereof) handles personal situations extremely poorly. The teaching staff is exclusive and mostly uneducated in the field. You can tell they are getting developers... Read More that have not been in the industry very long to come in and "teach" so Lighthouse can save a buck. The turn-over of staff seems to be high, which to me is a warning sign. I had a friend who graduated from Lighthouse years ago who could not stop saying positive things about their experience, but clearly it has changed in a big way as my experience was significantly different. What a waste of time and money.

I had little to no experience in coding prior to joining LHL but graduated with enough knowledge and experience to change the course of my career. I can now write my own full stack applications from scratch and have become more aware of what technologies... Read More are available to learn. It is a wonderful way to challenge and fully immerse yourself in learning with the goal of getting your foot in the door with a development career.

Highly intensive bootcamp that requires 110% of one's attention for weeks. It was very exhausting but also worth every minute.

Pros:
- mentors - they were awesome and gave that extra to get over any problems
- career service - they are interested in your... Read More success so they do everything possible to prepare you for the job market
- curriculum - even though the it's impossible to learn everything in 2-3 months, their focus was to teach us learn quickly. I utilized this skill very much later on

Cons:
- the building was a bit war-torn but they moved to a new office since I attended