Lighthouse Labs

Lighthouse Labs Web Development Bootcamp was an amazing experience. I had little experience in coding prior to taking the course, and was a bit hesitant on how I'd do, but the instructors and mentors at LHL were some of the best teachers I've ever had.... Read More The amount of support provided at LHL was so helpful, and I found their curriculum to be quite up to date. They really give you all the tools you need to start your career, and I'm so grateful for them!!

After years of changing industries, I decided to look into coding bootcamps to go from a job to a career. Lighthouse Labs fit my needs closest out of all of the options available to me in Vancouver. I had previous experience in development from junior... Read More high/high school and some very basic passion projects.
Having this previous experience I feel helped me along my way through the course as I already had basic understanding of if statements and things like this.

PROS:
Extremely knowledgeable instructors.
A vast curriculum that covers a ton of projects.
Passionate Mentors with real world knowledge.
Once you complete the course you still have access to all curriculum past and future.
All the coffee you could ever need.
Foosball.
Great culture and classmates.
Job placement and resources to help you begin and further your career as a developer. This continues being available to you even after graduation.

CONS:
Occasional instruction that seems under-prepared (usually not by the core group of instructors).
Semi-frequent interruptions from events hosted in the learning space (this could also be a pro, assuming the events are open to the students).
Expensive.
Job placement does not guarantee that you are going to get a job, nor does it guarantee that the jobs have been properly vetted.
Jobs are generally with startups with little capital and generally no support from senior developers.
Job placement generally nets around $500 a week for the first 3 months which can be extremely hard to live off of.

I came to lighthouse with little coding experience, and was able leave with confidence in my ability to code and pick up new skills and languages quickly (although, I know I've only scratched the surface). The bootcamp experience was intense and times... Read More push me to the limits of my ability and sanity, but was completely worth it.

While looking for a bootcamp, I wanted something fast-paced and quick since I had just graduated university, and a program that included some networking since I wanted my best chance at landing a job at the end of it. Lighthouse Labs fit all my criteria!... Read More And their website is beautiful.
* Their project-based curriculum and "try-in-on-your-own-and-then-we'll-teach-you-how-to-do-it" method of teaching really made me learn and understand the material, instead of just memorizing facts short-term
* The instructors and mentors were great (albeit I did get frustrated a few times, since the course is intense)
* And, I ended up getting a job after one of the networking events! I'm now a full time Software Engineer Level 1
Some constructive criticism: my cohort didn't get to see many tech offices like I would have liked, but I think the cohort after us did. Also I would recommend doing the course in-person instead of satellite because you'd get more of a chance to talk to the instructors (instead of over video chat/slack). _But_ it worked out perfectly for me and my fellow cohort members - we're now all employed and we made some great friendships along the way :D. I really, really love my job and what I do now and have recommended Lighthouse to all my friends wanting a career change.

There are very few negatives to choosing Lighthouse Labs. I will get them out of the way first. A lot of the time the temperature inside was either too hot or too cold, and they would often host events in the evenings, which would leave you with little... Read More space left to work. Other than that, my experience could not have been better. They quickly force you to start to figure things out on your own, which is the best way to learn to code, and the way that you will continue to grow as a developer once you are finished. That being said, there is always support and, although they never straight up give you the answers, they will point you in the right direction which is far more valuable. The teaching staff were knowledgeable, friendly, and always willing to answer questions. The biggest plus to Lighthouse though is their career services. Most other boot camps don't offer the same level of help in finding a job as Lighthouse does. I actually ended up with a job before even finishing! The days were long and challenging, but I couldn't recommend attending Lighthouse Labs more.

8 years ago I moved to Canada as a student to pursue a degree in one of the best university in Canada and spent 6 years completing my business degree in management information system and computer science and did some coop/internship. All these 6 years... Read More made me realize that I like to code, solving problem but I need something practical. My degree helped me to understand the theory but I do not understand how to code properly. I decided to join Lighthouse Labs in Vancouver, BC, Canada and here is my review:

There are at least 5 advantages taking a bootcamp (or Lighthouse Labs I would say):

1. The community is fantastic. You are surrounded with people who have experience in coding and they are coming from the industry. Some even come from a background that you never know. It shows diversity and everyone can be a programmer. All of my friends in my batch are very eager and we pursue the same goal: to learn to code and be a good web developer.
2. Very well prepared curriculum and they always update it periodically to match the industry standard and learn the latest technology
3. Access to our building is 24 hours so we can stay late and even some of my friends stay overnight for that week!
4. Lighthouse Labs Vancouver is geographically located in Gastown and it is the Vancouver startup hub so there are many job opportunities after graduation. Beside that the Lighthouse Labs career centre is really helpful, they helped us preparing resume, interviews (mostly technical one) and channel students to companies in Canada.
5. What's really important is the post bootcamp. We are still in touch with our friends and instructors. They give us constant support and feedback whenever we need it. For example, my favourite instructor, Don, always responds and take time to answer to our questions.

There are some cons that I can think of (honestly I did not experience this at all but some of my friends did):

1. It is expensive. You have to see $9,000 for 2 months bootcamp as an investment and some actually need a student loan. I am lucky to have parents support.
2. Some of my friends also relocate so they can maximize learning time. Some live like 1.5 hours from Gastown.

I attended Lighthouse Labs in Vancouver in the fall of 2016 and overall had a very positive experience. I came into the program with essentially no experience in the field other than some Codecademy courses, and was offered a job the day I graduated (a... Read More happy coincidence).

Some thoughts: The mentor and community support at Lighthouse is very good. They advertise a 7-to-1 student to mentor ratio, which is met very consistently. The mentors range in talent/experience/personality, and while for some it is very clearly a side gig that they can kind of just show up to, others become very invested in the program and attached to their students. The only downside is that because everyone's learning style is different, you sometimes find yourself being helped by a mentor that doesn't gel very well with your learning style. That can get frustrating but there are always other mentors around.

The curriculum is challenging, and requires long hours. I stayed in the space from 8:45AM to 9-10PM most days, maybe a couple hours less on Saturdays and even less on Sundays, except for on project weeks in which weekends were full. For this reason I suggest (as does Lighthouse) that you don't try to do this course with other commitments (jobs, travel, etc. Also maybe tell your partner that you will be emotionally drained/unavailable for the next 10 weeks). The upside of this time commitment is that you are truly immersed in the subject matter for that period of time, which IMO is where part of the value of the program is found. In terms of curriculum content, they try their best to update the course continuously, and so it is pretty up to date and covers lots of ground.

I mentioned that I got a job right at the end of the course. While I'm not the best web developer out there, I do interview well, which helped me get the job. From my cohort I believe that everyone who was looking for a job did find one. However, you have to put the work into getting a job. That means either interviewing well (social skills, personality, etc), being a really good developer, or being a super hard worker that has side projects to show, or whatever. Lighthouse doesn't "give you a job", but they make it pretty easy for you to go out and get one.

The bootcamp took 8 weeks on a class of 8 students and all of us was working after 2 months. 2 received a job offer before the end of the course. The price is high, but we had a great support for learn and for our job hunting. They book interviews, review... Read More our curriculum, do job interviews practices and this helped us a lot. After the bootcamp they didn't forget us, we could send emails or book a call to get help if needed.

I started the camp with modest programming experience, which helped me keep on top of the curriculum. If you don't have experience, find a free site online and learn as much as you can before Day 1. It's called bootcamp for a reason.

That said, we learned... Read More pretty much exactly what I'm using on the job. A couple months is not enough to become great at anything, but they do a good job of cramming a lot about relevant technologies into the curriculum while keeping it pretty broad.

The career services alone were worth the tuition. You might be able to learn to code by yourself but good luck getting a job if you're not good at marketing yourself.