Lighthouse Labs

I did the 8 week web dev bootcamp. It was tough but worth it. I highly reccomend it to anyone serious and I mean geniunely serious about becoming a developer. It is a great way to get your foot in the door. It teaches you more than just how to code but how to learn quickly and efficiently. Covers all the techinical jargon to get you through an interview and this will be embedded in your brain for eons. Also the ability to figure out a code base will become second nature. It is however, not for the faint of heart. You aint got grit, forget about it. But if you wanna haul butt for eight weeks and get a jr dev position then this is the start of your journey. Would do a again if I have access to a time machine. 

I took it when they still had a rails focus, and really excelled in the environment. You get as much out of it as you are willing to put in; if you really apply yourself you will learn a tremendous amount in a very short time.

It does not prepare you amazingly for the working world, but is effective in helping you learn how to teach yourself, and covers the basics in a clear and easy to understand way. You need to be prepared to continue working hard once you graduate and start working, as that is when the true learning begins.

I attend the Bootcamp in lighthouse lab in Toronto in 2016. Their curriculum teaches the core of Javascript and Ruby, and also a lot of development related knowledge. It is profound and well organized. Also, students will take the weekly review to make sure to catch up with the whole courses. And you will have a chance to develop a midterm project and the final project. The job hunting service is also available to the students who are ready for a job. So, on the whole, my experience was good. But I can also feel the content in last two weeks ran into a rush, and I feel zoned out easily. By the way, I really like their mentors. they are knowledgeable to help me whenever I need a help.

I attended LHL during the May01-June2017 cohort. It was a very good experience and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to career shift into development or want hands-on experience. The strongest product of LHL is the curriculum. It is kept up-to-date and is continually updated to reflect industry needs. You will find lots of overlap between job descriptions and the technologies you'll be learning at LHL. 

Like any boot camp, it is important to go into it with the right expectations. You will learn a lot at LHL, but recognize that there will be holes in your knowledge. Their idea that the whole boot camp experience is around ~year is correct -- LHL will set you up with enough to take on a first developer job but the learning will have to continue after boot camp has ended. If you understand this and come in with a good attitude, you will be successful. 

LHL does a good job creating an environment that will allow you to learn an immense amount during the 8 weeks. As a student, its important to get comfortable as soon as you can, and you will enjoy / take advantage of the environment they have set-up. The LHL connection doesn't end after boot camp either, as this community enviroment translate into the alumni community well. 

Instructors are LHL are knowledgeable, and care a lot about student success. They are a valuable resource along with the available mentors, and they all do a good job assisting students in getting as much as they possibly can out of the boot camp experience. 

Career services do a good job of setting you up to be in a position to find work. Set realistic expectations, be willing to try different options, and you'll get a lot of CS. 

Overall, I will recommend LHL to anyone serious about getting into development. I've recommended it to friends but the number one thing is the expectations and attitude going into it. 

 

I am really happy about my time at Lighthouse, the staff is amazing,the overall culture super relaxed and inspiring and the instructors are really awesome, very knowledgeble and always available, even after the completion of the bootcamp.

It was a life changing experience and I have not only adquired knowledge that I would never adquired by myself in such short period of time, but I have learned how to learn, which is the most important skill in the world of programming, and thanks to it and thanks also to the great network I have built at the lab,  I have landend on my dream job as game developer in less than 2 month. I had no prior experience in game development but the coding experience I have developed in the bootcamp allowed my mind to learn fast every coding language.

I definitely suggest to enroll!

 

 

 

 

There isn't much more I can add that isn't already known about Lighthouse. There is a high placement rate for a good reason. The program is popular for a good reason. I attended the Lighthouse bootcamp in Sept of 2014 and it was pivotal in the new direction of my career and life really. I was very skeptical if I would be able to attain the necessary skills to start as a developer in just 2 short months. But not only did I leave with the confidence to start, I also had the tools to continue to learn and grow afterwards. I'm not the best with words so I will put in bullet form the highlights and challenges I encountered during my time at Lighthouse.

*Challenges*

• grinding: for someone coming in with little background in coding or computer science, working on projects/tutorials for the entire day was a grueling process. It was probably the hardest class I've ever taken. The pace is fast and the information comes at you like a firehose. Be ready to feel uncomfortable and make use of the TAs
• stubborn: partially related to the previous point. quality TAs and teachers is what you pay for. Don't bang away at a problem for 3 hours. If you can't find the solution ask for help, it will give you new knowledge, clear explanations and you can be better equipped for when that same problem comes up again. Make use of the TAs.
• life balance: spent my time from 8am to almost midnight some days for the 2 and a half months of the program. It's draining and would be difficult for those with families to take care of. Come into the program expecting a lifestyle change for the duration and a bit after as you look for work and get those interviews.

*Highlights*

• cool peers: the people that make the commitment to do a coding bootcamp are driven, dedicated and the kind of people you will enjoy working/learning along with.
• instructors: I can't stress enough how good the teachers and TAs are at Lighthouse. The lecutures are fun, engaging and clearly explained.
• projects: the project based work keeps things interesting. Which is needed to keep things focused during the heavy workload.
• iteration: Lighthouse is constantly changing and improving their curriculum to match industry changes and make the education better. Even during my time there, little changes and tweaks were made.

 

It is not 36 hrs as it says on the website. Every class starts with 1hr of just going through slides with words with an unethusiatic instructor. After the 1hr, you are free to go or do some exercises that take about 30 min to finish. 

Some days we get exercises to work on and other days we just do some reading written by the company. But the information is medicore and very short (about 5 min reading). We didn't do much. I felt alike it was place to hang out with an instructor. The whole class doesn't really have a goal. Rather, the whole course felt alike " here are list of things you should know related to some coding, and bye go home or whatever."

Honestly, the course can be silently more engaging and challenging or teach students how to learn better so that they can code some basic apps. On the last day we just looked at games (1.5 hrs of my money drained down the toilet) after the slides were done.  Also, I was told that the some course materials were too hard for students, such as learning parsing. The company refuses to change the material because it was in the Vancouver branch, and the instructor gave up on teaching material because he knows students can't learn it at their level.

The course is just so expensive for the materials, and quality. This is almost a scam to make money off people who are naive and not knoweldgeable in coding.

 

Did a ton of research, visited every bootcamp location in Toronto and had a friend go to Bitmaker while I went to Lighthouse. I just graduated this week and my friend and I have been sharing our experiences, and there is no doubt I got the better education. We actually co-coded together, and I think he might be smarter than me, but my knowledge of how things work, different frameworks and how to learn quickly were so far ahead that he said he might go back and tell them he wants a refund. He was near the top of his class while I was definitely amongst the second half. 

I haven't gone throught the Career Services yet, but they have been really transparent with how it works, how it's not a guarantee, but almost all grads I speak to says they got jobs, companies knew Lighthouse and they respect the quality of the grads coming out of the bootcamp as some of the best. 

Was a bit worried in terms of bootcamps at first, but really happy with this whole experience. It definitely matters which one you pick though, which is why I came here to give a review. 

There's little question that Lighthouse Labs is one of the better schools I've come across in the coding bootcamp world. I finished a little while back, but the current and after-grad assistance has been swell. It's been about 45 days since the end, and everyone in my cohort who wanted work as a dev in Toronto has found it. Each and every one.

The curriculum is solid, and has enough flexibility to allow individuals to make it their own thing to suit their interests. Web-framework for a rasberry-pi sensor network? Sure! Web-GIS tools? You bet. Diabetes monitoring templates for insulin pumps? True story, with a proven outcome! They can help you follow your dreams starting from the fundamentals up so long as you bring your passion to the front.

The cast of instructors and mentors are diverse in character as well as background, and are there to help offer results. They can help you build yourself in fundamentals and base frameworks so you can do that thing. 

In the iOS Bootcamp the pace of learning was intense, and it never lets up. And that is one of its best features. You never feel like you had an easy day, or a wasted day. The lectures start with intermediate topics and grow in complexity very quickly from one day to the next. You are always covering new ground, mastering new concepts, and taking on bigger and more complex assignments. By the end of the 8 weeks we were all creating projects we wouldn't have thought possible in week 1. The leap in learning you make in the 8 weeks in truly incredible. 
I had no background in coding, comp-sci, or programming but was still able to handle the workload, just barely. The TA's and instructors made sure that they were available to help, but never just handed you the answer. They insist that you learn as you go, rather than giving you the answer, which I am grateful for. With an extremely low ratio of teachers to students, help is always at hand, 12 hours a day. It is this close interaction with instructors and other class mates that I feel really makes all the difference. It is like having a private mentor for 8 weeks, 12 hours day, sharing all of their knowledge openly.

The staff are amazing. Instructors, Admin, and everyone else really come together to help make the bootcamp experience the best it can be for everyone. There are plenty of social events, as well as meaningful and important opportunities to interact with and get to know many of Vancouver's top tech talent. 
The only thing I wish had been done differently is the prep work they recommend you do before taking the course. It should be more in depth and tougher. I think students would get more out of the course if they were more prepared. Having said that, if you have any programming, coding, or comp-sci experience you will probably not need the prep. My comments are more directed at those of us without any background in tech.

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.

For someone who really wanted to get into a more Tech focused Development role, I found this to be a great option to pursue. I had minor instruction on basic programming fundamentals prior to this course. Originally wasn't too excited about tech but developed a love for the limitless possibilities and practicality of the skills. Lighthouse Labs definitely helps to foster that focus on building things while learning along the way and sharing a space with startup companies using similar technologies to make new businesses and helping people. They definitely create an environment that encourages learning and leaves you wanting more. The teachers definitely put in more time to help you figure things out and the staff including career services put in massive amounts of effort to help you succeed. They really invest in you and do so much more than you would expect from traditional schools or career services. The only catch is that you have to put in the hours to get the most out of it and show that you really want to improve rather than just talking about it.