Lighthouse Labs

If you don't know how to code - do not take this course.
If you do know how to code - why do it in the first place?
The mentors are mostly great, but everything seems to be rushed and if you fall even a little bit behind because you are struggling with something, you will not be able to recover. Again, what is the point of the course if the only way to complete it is when you actually know how to code in the first place.

I just stayed for one month during the bootcamp in Calgary, and their GM recommended that I withdraw because I am too slow, lucky for me that I only paid half of the fees. While their instructors in Vancouver are good and some of them are very good but their curriculum requires a lot of work. I also got attracted that I would get to learn a lot of technologies but in reality its a lot to learn in such short time. Their prep work does not prepare enough to be ready for the first week. While I did learn a lot in the first month but they made little effort to provide the required support in Calgary, because they do not have staff in Calgary and most of them are in Vancouver and stream the lectures and communicate online.

I also relied on those reviews before making the decision to join ...

Studying at Lighthouse Labs was the first time I really dove into writing code. I had been learning on my own for several months prior on Treehouse, but I wasn't able to take that knowledge and apply it elsewhere.
At the end of the 8 week program, I got a job at a startup. Despite this, I was not very confident. I did not feel that I could provide much of any value at a company or startup, and certainly not confident in building components and an app that would be ideal for a future developer to take over. I was right.
Lighthouse Labs was a great way to start learning software development, get comfortable with UIKit, Xcode and to be mentored by more senior developers. Granted, some of the mentors / instructors were actually very junior as well, having only recently graduated from th...

is a great experience overall. They put a lot of effort into their course content and their community.

I entered as a hobbyist web dev and general interested in programming. Professionally I was working in live production for shows and events, so I'm no stranger to technology, however Lighthouse Labs enabled me to expand my knowledge into a brand new career.

The bootcamp is tough. Some of the material is tough. However, for me the big value in taking the time to do the course was the access to mentorship. If you got stuck, you could have a mentor explain things to you until you understood. Or if you were simply stuck with a technical hurdle, they were there to help.

I am glad I've done the program and knowledge gained from the program has helped me land my first job as ...

A person must know some aspect of coding / programming: front-end (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) or back-end (databases, logic, architecture) before a person enters Lighthouse.

Otherwise, a person is overwhelmed and gains nothing. It is, after all, 8 weeks. In that time, a person can compliment one's existing skills, not learn an entirely new profession.

If they claim otherwise, one must think very carefully about this, and question them in as much detail as possible.

In 2015, their curriculum and half of their TA's were absolute rubbish, their exercises, assignments and tests utterly pointless and useless towards the meaningful projects.

Bear in mind, Lighthouse is a commercial, business entity. A student's fees is their source of revenue, not their post-Lighthouse success or fail...

I'm so glad I stopped self-teaching and took on this bootcamp. I had a comfy but low-paying job before this. I researched online a lot at first and found Lighthouse Labs was the most available with resources about their curriculum and their student outcome report. Since it's a full time (60-80 hrs a week to be expected) curriculum, I quit my job and took out a loan. I believe they're accredited for student loans now (a month after I started the course), so that's awesome.

One of the best things about this program is that they teach you to become a polyglot and an autodidact - fluent in multiple languages and able to learn new languages on your own. Due to this, my group went with building our final project with two main technologies that we hadn't touched on throughout the course. I ...

I applied at Lighthouse not fully knowing much at all about programming. The first week was rough; tons of new information to take in, mostly concepts and a huge workload. Every week only got harder. There was less work to do; but much harder assignments as time went on. Week after week was non-stop working; I dreamed about code and then woke up to do even more code... I'd say that if you are to take this course, DEDICATE yourself to it because your whole life for the next 8/9 weeks will be Lighthouse Labs. Also, please make sure you do like coding before starting this bootcamp. Quite a few people left due to realizing that this type of work is not for them.

I am a big fan of the way they did the curriculum (mostly). The cohort I was in focused on JavaScript for 6 weeks, then Ruby o...

Attending Lighthouse Labs' bootcamp was a serious kick in the butt. It's an unconventional approach to teaching, but very rewarding.
It's no stroll in the park, hence why they call it a bootcamp. However, if you're committed to learning and are serious about taking your education in your own hands, and make the effort, the instructors will go above and beyond to help you.

High quality curriculum and hands-on training. Excellent instructors, mentors and staff.

I wasn't taking the course for job support but more as a side course to further my skills for my current job. I learned quite a bit but what made the course interesting was the passion that exuded from all of the students as well as the lecturers. You can tell that coding is something they definitely do as a hobby apart from Lighthouse so when you ask them questions out of the curriculum, the are able to answer most of the time! What's also great is that they share offices with Launch Academy so you can see what startups are working on and mingle with them to learn more about the technology!

The main selling feature of this bootcamp is the career services and the massive alumni community you become apart of when you graduate. Lots of industry connections who frequently hire right out of the bootcamp. Several exclusive Slack channels immediately give you hundreds of connections who you can troubleshoot with and help you with finding work. The value of this program really pays off after graduation.

The bootcamp itself is super intense, but this is what you want. Learning code is tough, and you have to put in the hours. But theres lots of mentors on site to give you one on one help and the instructors are the bomb. An in house made learning management website gives you a great reference tool. In addition to teaching you how to code, they also teach you the tools of the tra...

I came with no prior coding background whatsoever and managed to find a full time job after graduation.

Pros:
- Accelerated learning: It would've taken me twice as long to learn this stuff on my own
- Awesome TAs: Talking with TAs is where you learn the most
- Excellent job support: They do everything they can to help you land that first gig
- Friendly and helpful staff
- The network opportunities

Cons:
- Curriculum's over emphasis on passing tests is at the detriment of learning
- Too many team projects: you end up learning and doing less overall as you never get to build a project from beginning to end by yourself.
- Upon graduation, there will still be a lot to learn. You end up feeling like you know a bit of everything, but not much to a great depth.

Overall, I feel...

Attending the lighthouse labs boot camp was an extremely stressful experience of consistently being pushed out of your "comfort zone" to learn the basics of teaching yourself how to learn.

I hit "brick walls" multiple times over the course of two months, and every time there was a mentor or T.A. available to help me through the problems.

While I have not found a job after graduation yet I feel very confident in the support that I have received from the career services from the labs and am hoping that it will help me lead to full employment soon.

Pros:
-I ended up with a job
-Some very good instructors
-Met some cool people
-Learned more than I would have if I had spent 2 months learning on my own

Cons:
-Difficulty was pretty over-hyped. The "One size fits all" approach that they market doesn't really work out very well, as I found a lot of the material to be time-consuming, but not especially difficult.
-Some of the lessons were pretty awful, to the point of being a waste of time, either due to poor instructors or trivial examples.
-Along the same lines, the TAs were pretty hit and miss in terms of quality.
-Poor job setting expectations re: jobs. It seems fairly misleading to say graduates make ~50k/year when in reality almost everyone gets an internship (or a temporary job) that pays close to minimum wage hoping to...

I've earned a BSc at a large university, a Diploma of Technology at a small one, and I've done Web Development Bootcamp at Lighthouse Labs. Of the three, Lighthouse has by far the best overall teaching quality, student/teacher ratio, and continuing support of alumni. The Lighthouse crew works to make sure the school's vibe is welcoming and inclusive - e.g. we have trans-friendly bathroom signs. There is a strong sense of camaraderie and community. The place is full of amazing people - instructors, mentors, TAs, classmates... everyone, really. Whenever I felt overwhelmed or in over my head (which you should, at a bootcamp: if you don't, you're not being pushed hard enough, so you're not getting your money's worth) I always knew help would be there when I asked for it. Not just for spe...

In the iOS Bootcamp the pace of learning was intense, and it never lets up. And that is one of its best features. You never feel like you had an easy day, or a wasted day. The lectures start with intermediate topics and grow in complexity very quickly from one day to the next. You are always covering new ground, mastering new concepts, and taking on bigger and more complex assignments. By the end of the 8 weeks we were all creating projects we wouldn't have thought possible in week 1. The leap in learning you make in the 8 weeks in truly incredible.
I had no background in coding, comp-sci, or programming but was still able to handle the workload, just barely. The TA's and instructors made sure that they were available to help, but never just handed you the answer. They insist that you...

When I first decided to attend LHL, I was excited, but also full of fear. That disappeared quickly when I realized that I would gain out of the program what I put into it, and that as long as I was committed to succeeding, the instructors and TA's would come in early and stay late! Super supportive bunch, and probably the best group of people I've ever met.

TL:DR
===============================================
=> Like hands-on learning? Enroll in Lighthouse.
=> Want a job where you can apply what you’ve learned? Enroll in Lighthouse.
=> Struggling with self-directed learning, or hit a limit to what you can do for free? Enroll in Lighthouse.
=> Looking for an explanation of binary, computer languages, and making your own artificial intelligence and/or programming language? Do a CPSC degree.
=> And absolutely the most important point, are you capable of self-directed learning? If you aren’t, bootcamp is not going to work for you.

The Long Form
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Just this past September I found myself enrolled in a two-year Computer Science degree which, I hoped, would get me into an industry I longed to joi...

Lighthouse Labs was pretty great. The instructors, TAs/mentors are actually so so so passionate about what they do, you can tell they truly enjoy helping students and answering questions. They don't simply give you the solution to a question, they'll get you to talk through your thought process, your debugging process, and ask questions to help you come to solutions on your own with their hints.
The curriculum is pretty good, but I've heard they're going to be adding more javascript focus as they rethink the program (for web development). They have good guided tutorials that get more challenging as they encourage you to add 'bonus' features to the applications you're building.

I get that some people have been happy with their decision to go to lighthouse, but i’m pretty shocked that lighthouse has close to 5 stars. Who is writing all these perfect reviews? I’m sure a lot of people are happy with their decision to take this course, but I know plenty of others who are not. And it’s not because they didn’t work hard enough because believe me, pretty much everyone in my cohort worked their *** off. The reality is that two months of coding just can't make you anywhere close to a competent coder….and not everyone has months to spend afterwards trying to learn everything else they need to know.

I’m not trying to ruin the reputation of lighthouse or anything because the people who work there are really nice people. I just really want people to know the truth befor...

As someone with very little coding experience going into this bootcamp, I don't think I got as much out of it as others. Most of the people who did well either had engineering backgrounds or spent quite a bit of time coding before starting the bootcamp. I'm not saying it's impossible to do well without that background, but it will probably be a bit of an uphill battle. Plus, there is A LOT to learn after bootcamp to get yourself ready for technical interviews. I don't understand why lighthouse can't just make the program a bit longer but actually teach us most of the stuff we need to know to get a decent job...

If you're not a fast learner and you have had very little exposure to coding, please rethink taking this bootcamp (or maybe any bootcamp). Get some more experience coding firs...

This course may be marketed to the general public but in reality the way in which Lighthouse operated requires a person to already have experience, not just familiarity, with either design or programming.

A backend developer can practise at being a full-stack, as can a front-end dev. or designer, by supplementing their existing skills in one area with the other.

If a person has no experience or only familiarity in either area then it is too difficult. It is, afterall, a bootcamp, so there is no gradual process. Often, there wasn't even a process.

It was a bit like being visually shown a parachute then being thrown out of a plane. A person has only so much time to learn to find the lever and learn to use it.

This review is for the PART-TIME Web Development course. They have recently implemented a new curriculum. I already had some basic HTML/CSS knowledge prior to taking the course and found the first 4 classes very slow. Classes did not take the full 3 hours scheduled because it was teaching the very basics. I took this course to gain an introductory level overview of what the full-time web development course might be like and to get a better feeling of how I would like web development as a career. It has shown me that I do not want to pursue it as a full time career and I am glad I did not dive straight into the FT course.

Pros
- open to feedback and continual improvement of the course content
- knowledgeable teaching assistants and teacher to assist students during the hands on/cod...

LHL revived my love of learning following a few years of university. If you dislike the traditional hours of lectures and lack of hands-on activities then this is the program for you. Expect to be challenged constantly and maybe a little sleep-deprived for eight weeks.

As far as the instructors go, they're both knowledgeable and hilarious. You'll also be exposed to a ton of super helpful TAs with very diverse backgrounds.

11/10 would do it all over again if I could.

I attended Lighthouse Labs to jumpstart a career change from chemical engineering to iOS development. Pros: The class size is small, there is plenty of one-on-one time with instructors and mentors, I learned two languages and many other tools and frameworks, employers are begging to interview me. Cons: Lighthouse Labs is a young company, so there are some minor inconveniences and oversights, for example, they scheduled our demo day for a week later than normal this cohort and forgot to tell us until week 4.

The program focuses on improving a student's ability to learn the answer to their problem rather than have it given to you. It also puts emphasis on learning different technologies and languages. Overall very useful skills when considering that web technology moves and changes at a fast pace.

Instructors show that they themselves are also learners with even one instructor being very knowledgeable about web development but learning ruby while teaching. While this may seem as a red light to some, it is actually a green light as he shows the process of how a pro figures out what he needs to know.

One improvement that could be made would be giving Nodejs the same level of attention as Ruby/Sinatra/Rails. Learning Javascript seemed to be a hurdle to more than a few of my fellow cohorts.

8-weeks can really fly bye.. This 8 week course taught me more in the first 2 weeks then I learned during my first year at computer science. Really hands on, they make you learn by trial and error. What is extremely helpful is the numerous TA's that are always there to help you when you get stuck. Highly recommend if you need to learn the ins and outs of developing application from the ground up!

Lighthouse Labs was a good experience. I had the chance to learn Ruby, Rails, Sinatra, Javascript, jQuery and general programming concepts.

I believe that the course structure is really good for a beginner, the path you gonna follow in the course is sequencial and by the end of the course you are able to create an app by your self, and for sure you are ready for learning programmings concepts a lot quicker and break the barrier of programming a lot faster

The number of students in class was quite big, and it was a little bit frustrating to do not be able to get help from one of the instructors or a TA some times. I believe the classes should have a small limit size.

In general it was a very intense time, +10h of programming everyday (including weekends) for 2 months, with a ...

+ One certainly is given an exposure to multiple prominent tools, frameworks etc. e.g. Sinatra, Rails and Node.

- Often the purpose or utility of the exercises / assignments was unclear; often, the assignments provided no useful knowledge / skills towards the projects; so many assignments feel of no use at the end.

+ If one works hard, one shall be impressed with the projects one produces. Lighthouse successfully creates an environment for that.

+ There were some excellent TAs / assistants / mentors who helped to understand the problem and the solution.

- Sadly, they were all in the evening. The morning TA's mostly provided band-aid solutions or solved one problem only to introduce another.

+ Lighthouse encourages that relationships with it and one's cohort mates be maint...

Lighthouselabs was really good at introducing me to the wonderful world of coding. They have a great space in Vancouver and a well-structured program. They focused on teaching the programming language and then the framework.

One thing that I would have changed from the curriculum is the amount of lecture time. I think some more lecture time would make it an even better program.