Lighthouse Labs

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. 

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!

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?).

I just finished this program and I had a good time! I liked that my cohort was very supportive and friendly to each other, sharing bits of information like about meet ups or the outcomes of their interviews. We started not knowing anyone to becoming friendly enough to make jokes with each other or go out for food together. Looking back, we have became so proficient in something we didn't know or knew very little of in a short period of time, only two months! Although, the mentor support can be improved by having all mentors proficient in all skills and not having some mentors sit around not helping anyone when there is a queue, they were still valuable in providing support when we needed it. We didn't always have mentor support, like the Sunday before our midterms were due, causing a lot of stress but taught us to better use our resources. The staff were friendly and professional, yet fun!

Going to bootcamp is not the easiest thing I've done in my life. The hours and weeks were long, the material was challenging, and often we were left to explore the concepts on our own.

These may seem like negative things, but let me tell you, they are not.

The hours and weeks were long because I chose to put everything I had into this course. You cannot become a great junior developer in two months. Lighthouse admits this themselves. What you can do is take a huge leap in the right direction to getting there. Now, in my opinion, the size of that leap is directly proportional to how much effort you put into it yourself. Our lives are filled with challenges, and on the grand scheme of things, sacrificing two months to change your career is entirely worth it.

The material was challenging because programming is challenging. Especially at the start. But I think it's attainable for every person, especially with the support that you recieve at Lighthouse. The teachers and assistants are top notch. Most of them don't just give you the answer either, they help you explore your own path to the solution. This becomes extremely important for your career later on. Being able to solve these complex challenges on your own is what being a developer is truly about, in my opinion. Once you can handle problems on your own, you can start sharing logic with others. That's when things really get exciting!

I'll be honest, I didn't expect much from Career Services. To me, no one should have to hustle for me to get a job. I'm here to do the work. I must also do the post-bootcamp work. This is the work ethic I was raised on. However, I was blown away by the sheer support of the team after grad. A lot of people will get interviews (and even jobs) as a direct result from the Lighthouse crew. That's pretty impressive if you ask me.

As you can tell, my experience was definitely positive. Yours could be too, just make sure you don't take it lightly. Hustle. Be the best you can be, and don't let anyone make you think you can't do it!

I made the decision to go to Lighthouse Labs after evaluating all of the bootcamps in Toronto and I found the teachers and founders at Lighthouse to be the most genuine and knowledgable.

The experience at the bootcamp was fantastic, I really had to push myself to learn everything everyday but the teachers and the mentors were always helpful and working with the other students was a great experience too.

When I took the course back in 2015, the curriculum was focused on Ruby on Rails but recently they revamped the course to be more javascript focused which I think is great, more forward thinking, and better aligned with the industry.

Near the end of the bootcamp the career services helped all of our cohort receive interviews with various tech companies in the city and I was lucky enough to receive a full time offer at a company by time I graduated.

Many people have asked me how to get into the industry and I can never say enough good things about Lighthouse Labs!

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.