Lighthouse Labs

I came to this review site before quitting my job and doing this bootcamp, so I thought it would be nice to come full circle and leave a review after starting my career in tech. Overall, the bootcamp is great - you learn a lot in a short amount of time. I would recommend a bootcamp if you are in a hurry to change careers. That being said, LHL is not responsible for the overarching job market / economic climate. When I graduated every tech giant was doing mass layoffs. Bear that in mind before making a decision. Nothing is guaranteed. After a total of 8 months (which includes 3months of bootcamp) i finally landed a junior dev role. And I was lucky. That being said, the support from career services was good. They help where they can. If I were to use an analogy: they are a passenger in the car you are driving. Is it worth the money? I'm not sure. I think that they do a lot of behind-the-scenes work that indirectly benefited me. 

Overall, if you are passionate about tech and want to start your career, give it a go. Life is too short.

For curriculum I would prefer not spending a week on Ruby. I think the curriculum would be better served with an extra week with React or learning Typescript. Pivoting out of Javascript for a week didn't feel worth it to me. On top of that none of the TAs who picked up my request-tickets knew the language. The only fringe benefit of the Ruby week was that it was nice to see the MVC approach. Read less

The curriculum provided by lighthouse is great. They do a good job of going over legacy code bases like EJS, all the way through to modern frameworks like React. The instructors are very knowledgable and you come out with a good base understanding of industry knowledge.

That being said, DO NOT DO CAREER SERVICES. My expectation of career services going into bootcamp was to get some help spreading my resume, even to just know more about what companies and positions I should be applying for. Instead I had a hard time even getting a hold of my career services coordinator, and when I did they seemed to have no interest in helping me find employment, only advice on structuring my resume. while resume building advice is helpful, it is not worth the 3000$ spent on career services. I was baseline expecting some help on where to apply to. There seems to be a lot of people employed under the career services department and it is crazy to me that the only thing they can provide to you is advice on your linkedin profile and resume, I hope you use my money well. Read less

If you have even think about taking the bootcamp, the I would say take it for sure!!

I have graduated from LHL in March 2021. I've  accepted  one month after as a Full stack engineer with a really good salary. I am writing you to express my gratitude and raise my hat for LHL.
I have a master's in computer science and I have been in many courses and programs during last 10 years. I've been always scared of coding even though I got my masters in this. The way LHL teach coding is far different from what I have ever seen. Every part of this program is well-thought and at the end of the program It gave me the confidence that I was looking for it for almost 10 years. 
 
Apart form the program and it's organization the people in LHL are amazing. LHL staff are willing to help unconditionally. mentors and they're attitude and their willingness to help is also amazing.
 
I want to  thank LHL team for all the amazing experience and unconditional support.

Read less

Do it!! Before this course, I had never seen a line of code and I had seen a terminal used but never used it myself. This is a bootcamp and it is intense! Everyday is something different! A new topic and material to cover. You get your day started with reading and a couple exercises then the lecture starts. You have more time to work on it and a few days a week there's an afternoon lecture to go along with it. 

 

They throw a lot of basics and topics at you so you understand the concepts and the purpose/ real world uses. You will not graduate an expert but employers know this and are mostly looking for this as you don't have poor habits they have to break you from. 

 

The mentors are amazing. They dont just give you the answer, they explain the reasoning behind what you're doing. They figure out your thought process and help you get the answer in the direction you want and they also explain if it's not the best/how they would go about doing it. there are so many ways to get to an answer in code so being that accomodating is essential. 

Good luck on your journey!

Read less

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 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.

Read less

Lighthouse labs have a special effect on people. It takes what you knew as your limit, destroys it, and don't let you build a new one for a few weeks, not until you have learned everything they have to taught.

And all that with an imense support from the teachers, mentors, and staff.

Read less

I graduated from Lighthouse Labs' Vancouver Web Development Bootcamp in April 2019, and really couldn't rave enough about the program.

Coming from some basic coding knowledge (I had taken one of the part-time introductory coding classes that Lighthouse offers), I found the bootcamp to be a difficult yet supportive and rewarding experience.

With tons of mentor support, awesome teachers and a curriculum that's regularly updated, it's clear that Lighthouse cares a lot about their students.

Read less

I enrolled in the Web Development Bootcamp at Lighthouse Labs with very little prior coding knowledge (I had completed a couple code academy courses in CSS and HTML) and I came out the other end a Full Stack Web Developer! I loved the learning environment, and I don't think I would have made it through without the encouragement and expertise of my teachers and mentors. And at the end they even helped me find a job! A 10/10 learning experience that I would highly recommend to anyone looking to jump into the world of web developement!

Read less

I would highly recommend the Web Development Bootcamp with Lighthouse Labs. From the instructors to the mentors to the support staff, it really seemed like their main focus was ensuring the student's had the best experience possible. I felt supported throughout the entire bootcamp and there was constant reassurance when things got tough (which they did & will - this is not a simple program. It definitly requires a lot of work and dedication). 

One aspect I really like about the bootcamp is the life-time access to the course material. I'm currently going back over some of the topics we learned as a refresher and it's been immensly helpful! I also think it's extremely beneficial that you complete the bootcamp with a full portfolio of web applications to show employers. Upon completion of the program, there are events to connect with the mentors, alumni, etc. to help you become part of the tech community.

All in all, 10/10 would recommend this program to anyone who's contemplating taking the leap! It will provide you with the skills needed to make a career change.

 

Read less

Its tough work but my god is it worth it, I graduated less than a week and a half ago and with the help of their career services (shoutout to Kat!) took me outta retail and into a 60k/yr position with a company I can grow at. I know this is gonna sound like one of those ads but honestly if your feeling stuck in your position or need a change of pace, this is a quick, fast-track path to do so. Anyone could benefit from the bootcamp in some way!

 

Read less

School never really worked for me - I was often bored, often distracted, and when high school ended Computer Science was definitely not in the cards. But I always enjoyed coding and dealing with technologies. 15 years later after a few career changes the idea of a bootcamp came up and I asked around a bunch and landed on Lighthouse as having one of the best reputations and...man...I'm so glad. Those 10 weeks were some of the most challenging but ultimately most rewarding of my life. I met 13 amazing other cohort mates and great - really great - instructors and mentors and by around week 7 I realised I could barely recognize week 1 me. By week 10 I'd learned a tonne and created a web application from scratch that I'm really proud of. 

I am a bit of an evangelist now. This experience was incredible, and career services was so helpful - I'm about to start my first job in the field in 5 days and I graduated only 2 weeks ago. If I had it to do over again I would do it in a heartbeat. 

Read less

I came with next to no coding experience and a background that had nothing to do with tech. I started doing some basic coding online and then immediately applied to Lighthouse, Bitmaker, Brainstation and HackerYou.The rundown was simple: 

Brainstation had no admissions, and it only took two discussions with their alumni to know that are the least respected amongst the web programs. 

Bitmaker was interesting, and I think their alumni network of GA is great but I thought they were trying to sell me more than actually seeing if I was a fit. They also were the only ones who outright trashed the other bootcamps in the discussions and I really thought it was tacky. 

HackerYou had a great vibe and amazing people, and I liked their interview process, but ultimately, they were primarily front end focused and in talking with a few employers, evvery employer said that developers were way more respected coming from Lighthouse than HackerYou. 

Lastly interviewing with Lighthouse, they were serious, they pushed me to think about my decision and research all the bootcamps, they told me more about their curriculum, asked me how I handle failure, got in depth about how they help you find you jobs, and gave me a logic and tech test. To me it was clear who took their program the most serious. A friend of mine applied (and they did have coding experience) and they go rejected so I know that it means something to get in. 

The program changed my life. They had developers who were there until 9PM and who I still talk with now that I'm out of the program. They had curriculum that seemed to push even the best in our class with big stretch goals, and an education manager who would talk to me regularly to make me understand where I stood vs. where I should. All my code was reviewed, though I wish I had more Tech Interviews. When I was struggling in the first week and a half, and was actually considering myself maybe not good enough, they gave me some extra support and then around the 4 week mark, they allowed me to rollover and start again for free because they felt I worked really hard but would benefit from the extra time. I told my mom and she was amazed. Like they spent so much time helping me while never babying me. It's incredible how much personal time I got. 

I made it through the program and my final project was pretty great to work on, especially because I was able to take on Python which I had not learned in the class, so I kept working on it after the program with my team, applying lightly to a few companies. Within a month and a half, their CS person, Carmen, got me an interview with two very different but good companies. I chose a small startup instead of a bigger company and have been working here the past two months where my CTO has said he is super impressed with my level already. 

I was in journalism before. The career was going nowhere and I had gone through to major degrees never receiving education that was either as hard or as attentive to me. I'll never forget this place and thought I would put a review here because I feel like it's hard to make a decision and I couldn't say more about how good this place is. 

Thanks to Lighthouse and all the amazing people there. You guys are the best. 

 

 

Read less

A great experience! The staff at Lighthouse Montreal are kind, generous, and always willing to help. They often staying past sheduled hours to assist the students, and constantly supportive of all our endevours. They strive to make the bootcamp a wonderful experience, taking note of student comments and concerns, and responding to any situation that a student may have a problem with. An excellent culture/enviroment has been developed by the staff.

They work constantly to find employer and oppurtunites in their career services, always trying to find what will fit for their students and the respective skills they have been taught. Allowing their students to network with all of the Lighthouse contacts and connect with companies interested in hiring junior developers. They do everything to set you up for the future and possible career paths by providing excellent job-seeking workshops and tutorials.

An excellent resource for those wishing to break into the tech industry!

 

Read less

I had a wonderful time at Lighthouse Labs taking into to front-end and JavaScript. I liked the way two of ours instructors thought us, the used pre-made project and show us how to develop it better using new material from each class. So that we can actually see how the web-site will look like. Two of the projects that we completed were amazing, I could never imagine that I could 2 websites by myself. I am currently taking internship in start up tech company as an app and web-developer, and I can’t describe my happiness how lighthouse helped me that job. I want to thank everyone in lighthouse and will be back soon to take another program. 

Read less

Lighthouse Labs was an excellent overall choice for the iOS Development Bootcamp. Most of the instructors and staff were friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. The course was designed in a way that allowed us to practically apply what we learned in lecture every day through challenging, robust assignments. Having now started a job as an iOS developer, I believe the course taught us all the fundamentals required to start working and hit the ground running as a junior dev. The career services team, and Carmen in particular, did an excellent job of giving each student the 1:1 attention required to help them find their first job based on their particular skills and their needs/wants. LHL puts on some great employer events, where the students had opportunities to showcase what they have been learning and working on throughout the course.

Read less

The strength of lighthouse labs is in the resources made available to you while studying. The primary resource being the incredible community mentors who are on hand at all times to give you real world advice on the problems you're challenged with in the curriculum. If you can fight the urge to finish your work and go home ASAP each day then you will be taking full advantage of one of the most important (and hardest to find) advantages in any career. 

The career services team is more impactful in some communities than others but whether that speaks to the teams or to the communities is difficult to say. Either way you'll want to take your future in your own hands and hustle hard to get that first job. 

All in all this is one of the best decisions you can make in setting yourself up for future sucess in your career, no matter what your background.

Read less

It was a great experience for me. I have not background in Web Development and it was quite challenging for me, but the methodology of many assignments a day and good ratio of mentors make your practice a lot and don't notice the time is passing. The mentors are a key part of the Bootcamp, if you stuck and try to figure out and did not get around you request an assistance, and all of them are seniors who can help you find an approach or think another way to solve the problem. It makes you motivated to keep going and going. 

The platform that runs the course is amazing, you can give feedback to classes, teacher, and mentors. Also, you submit your assignments and request assistance from there.

The teachers were amazing, some of them I consider as showman they grab your attention during the whole class.

One thing I think it should be improved is the preparation course.

I did this course before the Bootcamp start and I did not like the Javascript's book, it was to advance for a newbie in JS. I did have an introduction to CSS, and HTML was only a few things. In my point of view the preparation course should adopt a book like JavaScript for dummies and more assignments with HTML and CSS.

Read less

I recently graduated at the end of August 2017 at Lighthouse Labs Toronto from the iOS Development Bootcamp and I had a tough but amazing experience. I'll try to keep things simple and point form.

My background:

• Graduated Bachelors of Kinesiology & Psychology.
• Worked in a research lab as a programmer for 3 years so I had programming experience but couldn't find a job as a developer. This is because I knew how to program well but did not have a lot of fundamental knowledge a developer should have.
• Looked to switch careers from health to tech permanently and went to LHL for iOS Development.

My experience @LHL:

• The instructors are amazing and knowledgeable. I asked questions every day and they're very willing to teach you. I really appreciated that they share their own experiences working as developers. I bulldozed through the course material by spending 13-14 hours every day and asked questions beyond the course material. Therefore, I really got a lot out of the course and the instructors.
• The course material is really good and it trains you with all the knowledge you need to become a Junior iOS developer. I learned many tips and tricks from actually working as an iOS developer. However, the course material can be slightly confusing and could be explained better. It's a little open to interpretation in some questions/projects.

Job Searching:

• It took me a month after graduating to find a job. It was difficult as not many jobs were responding to me after sending out many applications. While job searching, you should still be honing your skills and continue learning to show employers that you're proactive.
• Lighthouse Labs helped me set up 2 interviews with their connections approximately a month apart from each other. I got hired in the second interview at a health tech company as an iOS developer and I'm loving it!
• They have job searching workshops and tips/tricks on how to get a job as a developer. If you're still having trouble, they'll help you set up another time to demonstrate your skills to potential employers. However, you really need to put effort into job searching as well.

Overall Comments:

• This is a really good course. You receive based on how much effort you put into it. I really recommend learning some programming prior to this course from free resources like free code camp. I recommend anyone that is serious about making a career change to take this course.
• If you do plan on taking this course, go above and beyond in prepping before the course. I did that and studied ahead of what was required in the prep course. The result was, I was so comfortable with creating regular iOS apps that I dived into making a 2D game for my midterm project. (P.S. Gaming frameworks are not taught at LHL)

All the best coding,

Errol Cheong

iOS Developer @ Rthm Technologies Inc.

Read less

I attended the May 2017 cohort at LHL Toronto, graduated June 23rd, presented final project on June 29th and accepted an offer to join my dream startup on July 14th. 

The decision to attend LHL was one that I would make over and over again. Do I think that anyone with any background can show up and become an employable junior dev in 8 weeks? Absolutely not. But, if you’ve done some serious self-reflection, understand the skills needed to become a programmer, have a genuine interest in programming (spend 3-6 months teaching yourself and solving problems to see if it is for you), then I 100% attest to the fact the LHL greatly accelerated my learning and I would not have been able to achieve the same results on my own in that period of time. I could not be happier with my decision to switch careers and attend their iOS Bootcamp.

As for my background, I spent just under 6 years working my way up to be a Sr. Account Manager in an Experiential Marketing Agency and had a lot of the non-technical skills necessary to excel as a programmer (project management, time management / prioritization, problem solving, people skills etc.). I also spent the year prior to joining the bootcamp casually learning Swift on evenings and weekends, finished the prep work 1 month before bootcamp started and spent an additional 5 hours a day leading up to it studying. I rented a condo in DT Toronto to reduce my commute from 1.5 hours to .5 hours to make the most of the experience. Burn the ships, as Steve will tell you.

The Lighthouse Labs experience was fantastic to say the least (with the exception of the paper towel dispensers). The first 4 weeks are spent learning Objective-C (the language itself) and how to build iOS applications using Objective-C. This portion of the course was very heavy, 12 hour days were the norm, sometimes longer and this is without completing all of the additional readings. The teachers and mentors were always able to answer any question I could come up with. In the rare cases where they didn’t know the answer immediately, they found the answer with me and helped me understand. Bouncing ideas and questions off the teachers and mentors was the way that I solidified my understanding of the concepts that I wasn’t able to figure out at home on my own. This was one of the most valuable pieces of the bootcamp, having all of my questions answered and clarified.

The back half of the course you teach yourself Swift as there are not as many lectures focused on the Swift syntax, but more on continuing to learn programming / iOS concepts and completing the assignments in Swift. Some extra focus on writing Swift would be beneficial for lots of students in my opinion, but it didn't slow us down. The first week of Swift will have you missing Objective-C and then from week 6 on you will never want to write Objective-C again. However, my understanding of Objective-C is strong enough that I can write it and more importantly, I can understand any reference materials I find online that are written in Objective-C. This is a valuable skill for my own problem solving and solution discovery but also valuable to employers as many companies have legacy code that is in Objective-C. This is why LHL still teaches Objective-C and after going through the course, I agree with the decision.

My job search was so short that I didn’t actually apply to any jobs on my own. I had started to reach out to a couple of companies on Angel list but I had a job offer from a startup the day after I presented my final project and then accepted a different offer less than 2 weeks later from my dream job. Both of these companies interviewed me purely because of Lighthouse Labs and their connections with the community. Career services came up large for me and I’ll be forever thankful. That being said, the introduction is only half the battle and I did excessive preparation for my interviews. This included white boarding and string/dictionary manipulation questions (common first iOS job questions) outside of the course, on top of all of the typical interview questions in order to better prepare.  One of the biggest areas of improvement for LHL would be on technical interview prep. It is very important and every student should practice solving problems from sites like Codingbat to get you in the groove. Lighthouse Labs did very thoroughly prep me in the theory and practical understanding department for the interviews. If you take anything away from all of this feedback, the more you prepare, the more you will get out of the experience (magic, right?).

 

 

Read less