Lighthouse Labs

The bootcamp I attended met my expectations. Reflecting back, my instructors were top notch. 85% of the TAs I received help from more than answered my questions. Working along-side peers who were all highly motivated also helped. None of these things... Read More particularly came as a surprise. Looking back, I probably would have taken more out of the program if I came in prepared each with better questions for instructors. Also, I would have learned more if I requested more feedback from my peers as well as code-reviews from instructors. The third thing I would have done differently is applying each week's material to side-projects on the weekends. This would have enforced some key concepts/principles better. Lastly, I would have looked for more teaching opportunities. Forcing oneself to explain concepts further clarifies what I know and don't know. The several code interviews in the bootcamp did this. However, I would have benefitted from applying this technique more.

Overall, what I am finding is there is great amount of value post bootcamp. The alumni community/network is amazing IF you take advantage of it. There is a vast number of people accessible at your finger-tips. Simply, seek people out, be curious, and be willing to ask. Furthermore, the school does a great job of running alumni events and providing opportunities for young & maturer alumni to stay involved. While building access & floor space is very limited for alumni, the staff (& instructors & mentors) are willing to go out their way to assist if I or others ask for it. I think most students, like myself, only view the bootcamp as an intense short program assisting in a career transition. While that is completely true, I also found that it's a world of people and resources. Also surprisingly, I am seeing older alumni as well as new alumni finding new career opportunities through the alumni network. My original assumption was that a person would do a bootcamp, get a job, and move on never to be heard from again. Well, I was off with that one. It's been a great ride with the end ultimately different than I expected.

I went through Lighthouse Lab's Web Development Bootcamp without any prior CS knowledge. A quick logic assessment was the only technical prerequisite. The course had a steady ramp up from fundamentals to more advanced topics, and there was a midterm project... Read More and a final project. Typical bootcamp format, a few hours of classes per day, followed largely by student collaboration, and interaction with TAs.

What I found the most valuable was the environment and the TAs. Being in the space where everyone was doing their best to learn, made it easier for me to concentrate as well. Of course there was foosball, coffee, and the likes. Good restaurants nearby for students to socialize in between tackling problems. The TAs were the real value-add to this program. Whenever I had a question, they were not only able to answer it, but also put it into a broader perspective of _why_ things work the way they do.

Career services was very helpful, I landed a job almost right away. However, I wish more employers were vetted, as some of the employers I've talked to were simply looking for cheap code monkey labour - aka career traps.

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... Read More 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... Read More 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 lighthouse bootcamp, but I wish I had someone helped me understand how important the support system is for learning. If anyone wants to really invest in a bootcamp, I would suggest to take it in person. For online a lot of good quality and economical altervatives available such a codeschool, and lynda.

I cant comment on the Job support because I had to leave in week 5 so other members of the may-june cohort are in a better position to comment on that.

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... Read More 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 the bootcamp months prior.
As someone relatively new to coding, I was not at all prepared to provide value at a company or startup.
All in all, I am not sure about my recommendation to attend Lighthouse Labs. It is extremely expensive, but in 8 weeks, you are extremely limited in what you can learn and apply.

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... Read More 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 developer, as well as assist me in forming solutions for my own projects. The general vibe of Lighthouse is very welcoming and the approach from the lecturers, mentors and staff is very friendly.

All in all, if you're already interested and have a decent aptitude for this kind of thing, go for it!

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... Read More 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 failure. Once the refund date is past, the fates of the significant minority of ill-suited students does not affect them.

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... Read More 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 also took a remote tech test and it had some questions in C on it. So I taught myself what I could from resources online in the time provided and gave the questions a stab anyway.

Curriculum: Always being updated and constantly absorbing student feedback to make it better for the next month's cohort.
Job Support: Warm introductions with companies with a dedicated staff helping grads/alumni land jobs quickly. I wish I had this in university. LHL has a name for themselves in the Vancouver tech scene which is a bonus. Between refining your dev skills, attending tech meetups, refining your interview skills with career services, and how the software development job market is expanding, It's a very safe way to get experience to gain an entry-level profession.

You will need to set aside the time to take the course - I assume as with any bootcamp. You can't take a day off, other than maybe a weekend day. Ask for help, put in the hours, take breaks and sleep, don't compare yourself to others (just compare yourself to you yesterday), be comfortable with being uncomfortable because you're going to go through so much material. Oh, and my tip is form a sense of community with your cohort because it's so intense that people get overwhelmed. It helped me by remembering you're all going through it together.

Cons (not really a con, but was a concern):
I remember thinking $9000 seems like a lot for such a short amount of time, however you can compare how developed your immediately employable skills are to a Comp Sci degree. How much more time and money university is, I'm so glad I went this route. Less money overall and in the same 4 years you will have 3.5+ years being on the job in the tech scene? Makes the most sense to me.

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... Read More 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 on Rails and a few other odds and ends for 2 weeks. The last week included 'advanced' lectures which taught interesting subjects not really correlating to any specific language, but more so useful things to know and real world knowledge. Lighthouse Labs has a beautifully designed website (Compass) which hosts their course work. On Compass, you can only view the current week's work, and anything prior; I guess to avoid people from going incredibly ahead which is nearly impossible if you have not a ton of experience. There are 4 technical interviews laid out on Week 2, 3, 5 and 8. Each one tests your knowledge base and allows the instructors and mentors to gauge your progression through the course. Along with that, there is also a midterm test given at the end of Week 3 (that date may have changed now), which tests your ability to adapt and think. The midterm is well done; where you are allotted three hours to complete a series of coding challenges which can be run through a testing module and linter. It is a 100% pass or fail. Any students who fail are given a few options; to drop out of the program, continue ahead if the staff deem acceptable, or to roll back into the new upcoming cohort. The last option is taken by many; you are not charged for your extra time spent at Lighthouse, and are absolutely not shamed in any way. I believe that in every cohort there are a few students who need that extra time to catch up; especially since programming may be a whole new ballpark to them.

The career services, in my opinion, was very good. Lighthouse Labs boasts a 95% employment rate which is immensely impressive! However; they have been known to sometimes push people into taking their first job offers. I understand that we should not be picky with our first jobs, but I can also see that the pushing is a way to keep up their employment rate. We were given a resumé workshop in Week 5, an Employer Speed Dating event in Week 6, and many of us found ourselves employed before Week 8 (the final week). Our cohort was 14 people; and 5 or 6 of us were given job offers before graduation; some even multiple job offers. Career services does send out your resume to employers for you; and also encourages you to be actively searching. They are also available to help you post-graduation, or post-job if you decide to come back a few months down to road for some career help. The only downside for me is that you are given a terrible internship wage that is pre-defined by Lighthouse Labs: $12.50/hr for 3 months (they say $500/week, which sounds mildly better); however you are offered pretty good salary if you make it through those initial three months. I understand the internship wage; as when you leave Lighthouse, you have your foot in the door to becoming a developer, but definitely not enough skills to make good contributions as a developer until a company takes you under their wing for a few months and shows you the ropes; at that point after you internship do you truly become a junior dev.

Overall, my experience was extremely positive. The staff were all incredibly friendly; the students in my cohort were fantastic. I would probably never want to do 80 hour work weeks for 8 weeks straight again; but hey, definitely a life changing experience. I am employed, and a happy dev now!