Bloom Institute of Technology

The best academic experience of my life.

I dropped out two careers before Lambda School, an Engineering and an Economics degree. Those are beautiful studies, I learned a lot in all those years of study and I owe them a lot of what I am now.

I treated programming and coding as a tool to perform better in my life and career, but then I realized that It wasn't a tool but my passion. Immediately I dropped out the current career, studies and job I had at that time, 2014, with the aim to be a software engineer in a mid-term.

Whilst working full time, I started building and improving my Developer skills with self-passed courses, that really helped me. But then I realize that in order to accelerate my learning path It worth to attend a school, a proper and good school. A school whit a Computer Science curriculum was my objective.

I'm not young and not old, I'm at the time I write this review 37 years old. I would love to attend a university and do Computer Science studies, but that was not an option, it required me to many years of studies, with my current age and family responsibilities that path was not realistic, the goal was to start working as a software engineer in a short-term. What to do? Look for a "boot camp"-like school with a strong focus on Computer Science wich teach modern market-technologies.

In my research, Lambda was the sole school that meet my requirements: Computer Science curriculum, modern technologies and a modern school in contact and exposed to the top digital communities. It looked so great that I thought It was not real and unreachable.

In order to be able to attend Lambda School, taking the best of the curriculum doing nothing but just studying, I had to take a big-huge loan to allow me to cover all my family and living expenses in all the 6-months of the curriculum and a couple of job-search-months.

It was a scary and big life-bet I took. I had to be able to have a better job after Lambda or I would have serious problems paying the loan.

IT WORTHED! I landed a new universe of job possibilities and career growth, much better than the one I imagined before Lambda.

Here I'm graduated from Lambda, starting my new dreamed career working in what is my passion.

Lambda is hard, is not easy, it requires a big dedication and a big effort --> don't be deterred: it worth the effort and time!

I attended LambdaSchool Full Time online my I got my back locked up twice during the time here and the teachers were very helpful in getting me to get back on track and push through challenges. My laptop also died once and I had to miss class for about a week and again was motivated and pushed to get back in the program. At the time i was freaking out about missing those things but at the end of the program before labs I was put in a special class to go back over those things i missed or did not pass in the program. They really do make sure you know what your doing. It was easily the hardest thing i have ever done. My biggest issue is that I misunderstood what was the position of a program manager. Essentially I seen this as someone who should be better than me and push me to complete the course work and more. I was treating these individuals as Teachers and honestly they are just students that have passed the program and and have not gone to labs yet. That being said they can help you with the program but given how well lambda teaches you they don't know that much more than you do. If you accept this and take it just as  a friend to bounce ideas off of it will be a much better experience 100% reccomend but only if your really interested in hard work.

Lambda School was by far the best experience I have ever had with just about anything. Every instructor was super nice and always available for questions. The lectures themselves were tailored to the material of the week and helped cement new concepts while simultaneously building on existing skills already learned. The curriculum starts you off by teaching you the basics of HTML and CSS so that you build a site with them and then you progress to adding interactions with JavaScript. Then after you have a pretty solid foundation of JavaScript you learn React and how to really make sites pop by not only having them look good but reactive as well. From there you learn Node.js and create an awesome backend to compliment your React frontend. Then you will take a brief detour from Web technologies and enter the realm of C by creating a basic and small emulator. Circle back around with Python and Django to complete one of the best courses for learning to program that I have ever had the privilege of being a part of. 

My time with Lambda was some of the best times that I have ever had. I was able to meet a lot of good friends and work with most of them by either pair programming, being a Teacher's Assistant or the final test of skills in Lambda Labs. Lambda Labs is a team based project that aims to simulate a real life project. You will meet your team. Colloaborate with them on the project such as what tech stack to use and also use Trello to set up tasks that you can then grab and work on and keep track of the progress on each task. Similar to the sticky note way that the guys on the HBO show Silicon Valley did with sticky notes and a whiteboard. 

Lambda School is perfect for a specific kind of person:

• you cannot afford to pay a bootcamp up front but..

• you can afford to not work for 6-7 months plus job search time (or at least work outside of lambda’s 40 hours a week))

• you can’t reasonably teach yourself

On the topic of the Income Share Agreement...

If it weren’t for Lambda’s ISA, there’s no way I could have sold myself on this career change. I was already in debt from my bachelors and I couldn’t imagine taking out a private loan to pursue something that I may not have been able to do. That being said, 17-30k coming out of your salary over two years is a lot of money. Albeit this only occurs if you completely succeed and become employed in the field.

I completely understand feeling like this is too much to pay, and for some it’s not worth it. There is nothing lambda teaches that you can’t find elsewhere for free, but for me it came down to three things:

1. It would have taken so much more time to teach myself this stuff. I knew absolutely nothing about coding, it would have taken me so much time to organize myself, to learn, to figure out what to learn. Easily twice as long as Lambda, more likely 3x.

2. I simply don’t have the discipline to self teach. I need some organization, I need deadlines, I need to know someone will care/waggle their finger if I don’t get it done.

3. I already went 30k into debt for a degree that I expected to start making me around 40-50k if I got a job in the field, so why would I shrink back from paying that for something that can make me double (and later more). Because it's only 6 months instead of 4 years? That's not a reason to pay less, really, but it is a reason to be excited.

This is such a huge salary jump for me that missing some of my paycheck for two years is a small price to pay for a career I can stick with for the next few decades. And it’s not a loan that will climb in interest every minute you’re not employed. It starts and stops with your employment and it doesn’t change. Is this more than other bootcamps? For sure, but at least I only pay because it all worked out. That safety net is kind of priceless.

On the topic of structure...

My cohort in Lambda was around 60 people. We were separated into groups of around 8-10 with our own group TA. The schedule was something like this:

• Every morning we would either do a code challenge and then meet with our group, or a peer review for about an hour
• 2 hour lecture with small breaks thrown in to keep us all from overheating
• Lunch
• 4 hour block to work on the day's project. These were either a stand alone project for the day, or sometimes a 2-4 day project that built upon itself each day
• Meet with our groups again, talk about the day, and call it good

This went by very quickly, it was very engaging, and surprisingly very social. I had only ever taken online courses in college and they were completely terrible. But lambda has really cracked the code on how to make remote learning engaging and social and fun. I have made closer friends in this program than I ever made in my four years of college. But of course this is a choice, you'll get out as much social engagement as you put in. But I think it's really worth it.

On the topic of curriculum...

Does Lambda teach enough to get you hired even if you know nothing beforehand? 

Yes. But you will absolutely have to put in your own time to make this happen. Hopefully you’ll want to because the puzzles of programming will entertain you. Lambda gave me an incredible base and with it I was able to determine what I needed to hone and work on in order to land a job. And they stay with you through that as well. When you finish the curriculum they'll keep helping you find areas to strengthen.

I found nearly every project to be worth it and a huge source of learning. A few things here and there felt unnecessary to me, but that's going to be true of any program on earth. Can't perfectly please everyone.

On the topic of instructors...

For the full stack web portion the first instructor I had (Josh) is an actual gem and I can only hope that Lambda keeps him for as long as possible. He made the introduction to this world so smooth for me, and exciting. I feel like he truly understands important, fundamental, pedagogical concepts and he carries everyone through with ease.

My subsequent instructors were just okay. 4/5 kind of rating. Maybe 3/5 for 1 or 2 of them. Did I still learn from them? Absolutely. Will they only get better? Definitely. And while certain lectures may not have been ideal for me and my learning style, the projects were still great, the documentation on the topics was great, and I could of course do specific research and self teach in a highly organized way. This was totally acceptable to me and I don't feel like it's a weakness for the program.

Bootcamp teachers are notoriously so/so, a great programmer does not always make a great instructor. BUT, I think Lambda is doing great despite that common issue.

On the topic of getting a job...

I got wildly lucky and secured a job before graduation. It was kind of a right time/right place sort of deal. I definitely put forth what the company wanted, but I also think I got very lucky. I don't think this is the usual outcome, and I was expecting a much longer application process. I can't speak to the career readiness/job assistance process at Lambda because of this, but from what I've heard they are willing to work really hard with you if you put in effort. They have a lot (everything really) riding on you finding employment, so you can bet they'll be helping you with it.

The most important takeaway in my opinion:

Coding is not for everyone. I do think everyone can learn to do it, but I don't think everyone will enjoy it enough to make it through the learning curve. That requires a lot of effort and its easy to lose motivation if you aren't stimulated by this sort of thing. I think it's really important to keep that in mind and to be very honest with yourself about if it's at all enjoyable to you as you learn it. That's really more important than which bootcamp you choose. 

I tried college, all I have to show for it is debt. College does not prepare you for working in the real world to solve real problems.

Lambda did prepare me for those problems. More than that, they've helped me every step of the way with searching for jobs. They provide interview training, resume building, they even go to speak on behalf of students to companies to champion for us. 

Lambda's model can be simplified to: If the student succeeds, then the school can succeed. 

Most importantly, I got hired as a developer. Don't make my same mistake if you want to get into the Web Dev field, skip the student loans.

I joined in January of 2018 with some light experience with programming, very basic familiarity with a few concepts. The following months were a unique immersive experience that I found very rewarding. From the interesting projects to the incredible speed at which feedback was considered it always felt like the students were the top priority.  Lambda seems to pride itself on having created a special culture and I would agree, they've succeeded.

The Income Share Agreement system they employ is great for several reasons. It gives opportunities to people who don't (in my case didn't) have the money to pay for school upfront and aligns the interests of the school and students perfectly. The quality of their education directly affects the bottom line and it shows in everything they do.  It's life-changing and empowering, truly a wonderful thing.

The curriculum is quite varied and designed to provide you experience with a few technologies and the tools to learn others as needed. Everything is strategically designed to help you become a real software engineer, not just a "React Developer".  Every topic they cover is done rather quickly, and it feels brutal at times.  In the end, it's very worth it and works very well, and most of the things I would have listed as negatives have already been fixed in the most recent iteration.

Job support is now fantastic as well, their Lambda Next program really provides a good balance between guidance, independence, and a solid support network. Everyone wants to help in any way they can and genuinely want to see you succeed.

They move fast, there can be some hiccups but ultimately I think that's their biggest strength. If you thrive semi-independent in a fast-paced environment I would strongly suggest looking into Lambda.

I started Lambda in January 2018. I would 100% recommend Lambda School. It’s very clear to me that they care about their students and they absolutely want you to succeed, hence the income share agreement: they only get paid when you’re successful.

My last job was washing dogs at a corporate grooming salon for $10.50/hr. Yesterday I received an offer for a Web Developer position making six figures, with no qualifications other than Lambda School. I cannot stress this enough: I could not have done this without Lambda and the staff there. I learned so much in my time in the program, and not just programming, I learned how to solve problems, how to talk to people, how to work on a team and how to learn. It’s an intense program, but if you put in the work and actually ask for help when you’re struggling, it’s so worth it.

The curriculum when I went through the program was great, despite being a little disjointed. However, I had the privilege of experiencing the web development curriculum again as a teaching assistant, and it has improved drastically since I went through it, especially the front-end portions. They are always accepting feedback and make improvements based on that feedback.

My personal experience with Lambda staff has only been positive. There are so many people there who have personally contributed to my success and personal growth. They really do want you to get a job, and they will do everything they can to make it happen as long as you’re willing to put in some effort as well.

If I would have stayed in school, I would still be multiple years away from getting a job, tens of thousands of dollars further in debt and I almost certainly wouldn’t have learned a lot of the practical skills I’ve learned through this program.

In December of last year I applied to Lambda School, upon being accepted I began studies towards becoming a Software Engineer with no prior programming experience. This did not come easily for me, I put in overtime effort, and sometimes it was really difficult, but all of that hard work eventually paid off.

The staff was incredibly helpful during the entire process and several of them will surely be lifelong friends now. I was able to gain valuable experience as a Teachers Assitant after I finished the program, but before I entered Lambda Labs (the in-house internship), which helped me to solidify my understanding on some things, and gain more in other areas. 

After completing the Labs portion, the staff was hard at work sourcing job opportunities and helping me to find a suitable position. This experience has changed my life. Prior to Lambda my income placed me well below the poverty line, and after Lambda, well, I can for the first time in my life say that finances aren't a problem. 

After 3 weeks on the job as a software engineer, I can say that my Lambda School experience has given me a rocket boost into a better life and career. My Lambda education prepared me to ship code my first week on the job with next to zero coding skills prior to my time in Lambda. 

Curriculum: A+
The Lambda Curriculum is an exhaustive, but carefully curated, list of languages, frameworks, and concepts that equips an aspiring developer with the skills necessary to be a competent full-stack engineer. When I was accepted and looked at the syllabus, I felt a bit overwhelmed by the number of topics the course would cover and I worried that we would only delve into each subject area on a very superficial level. Boy was I wrong!!! Each topic was covered thoroughly and I felt prepared for our weekly sprint challenges. The instructors and student success team were also incredibly receptive to student suggestions about ways to improve the curriculum. Lambda takes great care to keep the curriculum relevant to the skills its graduates will need to be successful in the job search and I can say that I was comfortable working with an unfamiliar codebase and shipping code on my current project thanks to the curriculum at Lambda.

Job Support: A++++
Everything Lambda does is focused on making sure that you get hired as a developer once you graduate.  From ensuring have a substantive portfolio to show to potential employers, to having an assigned career coach who works tirelessly to help you land a job, Lambda is hellbent on making sure that their graduates land good jobs. If you are willing to trust the process and put in the work, Lambda will stop at nothing to make sure you are hired within six months of graduating from the program. On top of that, you don't pay anything back to the school until you land a job making at least $50k per year, so the school only succeeds if you do. 

Overall: A
There were times that I grew frustrated with the pace of the curriculum and felt like there is no way I could ever become a competent engineer. But the Lambda staff made sure I had all the help I needed to succeed and finish the program. This program is NOT for people who want to just coast by and think they'll land a high paying tech job. If you aren't willing to make learning your full-time job for the duration of the program, then you WILL NOT succeed in the program. Thankfully there is always someone available to help students who feel overwhelmed or fall behind in the curriculum. Everyone at Lambda School wants to see you win, I can personally attest to this because I would have never finished the program had it been for the support of my fellow students, the instructors, and the Lambda staff. 

Because of Lambda, I am a software engineer and I am so excited for what my future holds. 

Hi prospective programmer,

I imagine right now that you're in a similar position that I was in about a year ago. You have a passion for programming and have heard about the industry breaking down walls of entry. So you gave it a honest shot, but quickly realized it's still pretty difficult to break in. They want you to know technologies you've never heard of, to have experience doing things (pair programming, agile, etc.) you couldn't possibly have without being on a team already, and even if you know these things, lots of times they'll tell you even though you know your stuff, you just don't have the experience. It's still tough and feels almost impossible without the right tools and knowledge on how to overcome these objections and prove your value.

I  tried the self taught route but struggled. Maybe instead you're confident with your programming abilities but want the opportunity to network and get some job assistance to boot. For me personally, I had zero experience and knowledge and went into the Lambda School program with a lot of fear and second guessing. The whole first month was me considering dropping out. There were times where I felt I would never get this stuff, more than I would like to admit truthfully. The project manager's, my classmates and the instructors helped me overcome those moments of self weakness though.

That was part of the value of the program. I was forced to be accountable to other people who relied on me to do well. Over time, things that I struggled with became habitual and tedious. As the program extends into the final month before Labs, you start to wonder where the time went. For me, I saw the end and grew anxious. How was I going to find a job? Was I sure I had the skills and knowledge necessary? That struggle was almost negated by my career counselor, Courtney. She taught me how to look up companies, competing salaries in different geographies, how to fix my resume, how to talk to recruiters, interview tips, elevator pitches, briefcase pitch, and once I got my job offers, she taught me how to negotiate a better rate. 

There was not a single point where I felt like a nuisance or neglected. Everyone at the school is invested in you, and just the other day I was struggling with some new software I had to learn at my new job and I mentioned it to one of the instructors and we ended up going onto a Zoom (webcam) session and he shared his screen and showed me how to navigate the program and use it for what I need to at work. That's the real value of this program: it doesn't just end, you're always a Lambda School alumni and the staff are legitimately invested in your success. It's their whole business model!

I now have a job making over the $50k minimum and have begun paying back Lambda School. The cost is well worth it, for the first time in my life I feel fulfilled and a lot less fearful about my future and my family. Lambda School didn't just change my life, they gave me the tools to change the lives of others too. Once I am rich I plan to pay it forward by donating to the Lambda Success Fund and giving other people like me the opportunity to do something that has the potential to change their life.

So let's break this down:

Curriculum: 4/5

The curriculum is excellent, you're learning cutting edge technologies from people who are well versed in how they align with enterprise application as well. However, due to this, the curriculum may pivot in the middle of it due to the way Lambda School works which can be frustrating, but it is for the best. Trust the system, they're doing this because they want to give you the best information possible.

Instructors: 4/5

The instructors are for the most part excellent. They have Beej Jorgensen who is one of the smartest people I have ever met. Josh Knell, Sean Chen, Ryan Hamblin and Luis Hernandez are all excellent as well and each while being very intelligent are still approachable and have all spent time assisting me outside of lecture time and even outside of class time. It's just the kind of people they are.

Job Assistance: 5/5

The job assistance is probably the best in the industry and is truly what makes Lambda shine. It has a dedicated team of career counselors and other business people related to getting Lambda hiring partners and exposing the program and its students to the professional world. They understand the importance of networking and encourage students, alumni and staff to engage with each other and keep each other apprised of their job progress. This adds another level of that accountability which makes the process even better.

Social Environment: 4/5

Lambda School, just like any other organization that has hundreds of students and staff all working together everyday for at least 8 hours a day, experiences periodic drama. It's unavoidable in my experience but the way it is always handled is impressive. The staff are very open minded and do their best not to punish people but to understand. This is a hard program and causes it to be a high stress environment at times, but thankfully the structure of the program allows students to capitalize on their teammate's, their project mangager's, instructors, and counselors to support themselves during those hard times. When it comes down to it, this is a professional environment and most of the drama occurs when people seem to forget that. 

General Advice:

Practice good communication, don't be afraid to speak up and voice your concerns, but do it professionally. Don't worry about how others are doing unless you're done and want to help. Your time in Lambda is rapid and you will want to utilize every minute of your day to dedicate to your project and growth as a developer. If you focus on yourself, your team, and then the rest of your cohort third, ask for help when you need it and participate in your class time, you will be successful. It's a good program, but you only get from life what you put into it. I believe in you!

Overall: 5/5

Lambda School changed my life. I currently work as a software engineer and love my job and all of my new Lambda friends. For me, it was the best thing that's ever happened. Hopefully I did my best to remain objective during this review and that maybe if you had any questions or concerns, they might be answered in this. If they weren't or you would just like to chat about Lambda, me, or anything software development, tweet at me @justinmrigler

Like most people that end up at Lambda I stumbled on to coding and found myself really liking it. So I learned as much as I could using free tools before I decided to find a structured program. I know for a lot of programs the financial requirements have changed since Lambda’s popularity but when I was looking Lambda was one of the few programs that didn’t ask for anything upfront. Nada. So I said what the heck, worst case scenario I drop out and waste a couple of months and best case scenario they live up to the hype and I end up a software engineer.

The short version? Lambda worked for me! I ended up with a really great job as a software engineer.

Now for the somewhat long version. To start Lambda is a startup that is constantly changing. That means if there is some part of the curriculum that isn’t working they’ll take the feedback and push an updated version pretty fast! And students and graduates will always have access to the new and older versions. The other side of that coin is that you’ll have to deal with the bumps along the way and if you want to see these changes made you’ll have to participate in the feedback loop, publically or anonymously.

The instructors and project managers, in my opinion, make the Lambda learning experience special! Instead of someone just lecturing and giving you an assignment that’s due by a certain day, don’t get me wrong the course material and lectures are fantastic, you get a more personal education. You get split into smaller groups where your project manager knows who you are and will hold you accountable. You get to work with your cohort-mates, ask as many questions as you have, and get continuous feedback on how to improve.

After the main course material, there is Lambda Labs an opportunity to work with a team to build applications for other. This portion of the program is grueling by design but its honestly led by some of the most passionate people at Lambda. They work really hard to get you over the finish line and prepared for interviews. And even after finishing, they keep working with you to find the right job.