Lighthouse Labs

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 before dishing out so much money. Wish more people would leave reviews about their experience because if I had read them I probably wouldn’t have gone to lighthouse and I probably would have been better off.

***Make sure you read that outcomes report VERY CAREFULLY. It only covers students who were at lighthouse BEFORE sept 25, 2015.

Light House Labs is a scam... In the 8 weeks they cover very little as far as material and what they do cover they race throgh. They are very rude and inconsiderate. Your treated as if your lucky to be there and its an honor for you to pay they money.. They staff are paid $35k/year and promise that after you graduate you will make hundreds of thousands... Its a royal joke! Be very careful!!!

May 16, 2013: Course Report Admin combined the following with a duplicative review titled "Not Satisfied! Beware!​"

I went through a rushed interview process that seemed staged. As if the company was making false barrieres to entry to seem exclusive... I didnt worry about it becuase I was drawn at the "opportunity" to get a good job in the tech sector after... I pay over $9k to take the course and they had as work off www.codeacademy.com most of the time. We learned very basic material when it was marketed as cutting edge. No employers take these guys serioustly... Shortcut ... To make things worse, next door there is code core where they get an extra month of teaching/mentorship for the same price. I got ripped off and lied to by the staff at light house labs. Be careful.
 

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 first. If you don't fit into the lighthouse educational model, you will be quickly left behind. Lighthouse actually makes you roll over into the next cohort if you don't pass the first two tests. And they don't tell you ahead of time that rolling over is a possibility or that there are tests. I found out for the first time on the first day of classes, and of course you never think that you will be one of those people.

You can get a lot out of Lighthouse if you have the right background. If all you've done to date is some codecademy courses, you need to rethink your decision to enroll. I learned a lot of awesome stuff and the TAs were great, but I probably wouldn't do it again to be honest. It's just not worth the time and money.

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

+ 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.

+ 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 maintained after graduation.

+ Lighthouse provides career services

- Those career services may be slow, especially on the Toronto side

May 16, 2013: Course Report Admin combined the following with a duplicative review titled "Prior exp. in design / prog. needed."

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.

I wrote my first-ever line of code in mid-September 2016 (i.e. the prep course). So no doubt, I got destroyed by this course, and had to roll over. Flash forward to January 2017, and within 1 week of graduating, I was employed by an awesome start-up, and I am finally putting my skills into real practice. I am certainly not an amazing developer, but by continuing to code and learning on the job, I am on the road to becoming one. Best of all, I have already significantly contributed to my company, which is an incredibly rewarding feeling!

Just to put things into perspective... right before I joined LHL, I had just graduated from one of the best business schools in the world with an MSc degree, and was still struggling to find meaningful work despite being bilingual. Now, not only do I have a job, but I didn't even have to send out a single resume/job application! I can't tell you how much of a relief that is - no one hates job-hunting more than I do(!). All I did was present my final project with my team, and I was approached afterwards directly, because many employers come for the final Demo Day, and my boss liked my work.

Joining lighthouse was easily one of the best decisions of my life. It is NOT EASY at all (prepare to feel stupid and frustrated!), but packaging the education into a 2-month curriculum is the best way to work hard, because it doesn't really disrupt your life. The best thing BY FAR was the one-on-one mentorship, where I learnt the vast majority of my stuff. Not only are the mentors extremely encouraging, but they are really nice and cool people who are great at explaining things, and can do so at your individual pace. Furthermore, it's great to come out of this school with lots of connections - other students, mentors, staff, etc. Considering I hadn't lived in Canada for the previous six years, it's pretty impressive that I know so many people in the tech industry in Toronto now. As you can imagine, that's a very good thing for one's career.

I am assuming that the lower star-ratings are from graduates who did not find employment like I did. I too may have been skeptical of the benefits of lighthouse if I had not found employment so quickly/easily... but there you have it. I'm living proof that if you work hard, even if you don't have a programming background, one run through the LHL bootcamp and you can find a job. In fact, I found two jobs. How's that for bootcamp employability?

IMPORTANT ADVICE: Don't do what I did... practice the very basics of web development (especially Javascript, stuff like HTTP, and maybe a bit of HTML & CSS too) BEFORE you come. If you spend 1-3 months (depending on your progress) learning the basics, you can spend more time learning more advanced topics in class. That way, you can take full advantage of the curriculum. I never had that luxury, which was regrettable (I was always playing catch-up)... but now that I've graduated, I can learn at my own pace with a foundation that would've taken about a year to get under my belt.

Rather than wasting my time in yet another degree, I'm glad I wrapped this up in 3 months. Awesome experience.