BloomTech

No college degree, attended school from October 2019 to July 2020, first tech job started in October 2020, been there ever since. I make six figures, and the school helped me negotiate an extra 20k onto my salary. I had run a court transcription business... Read More for over a decade prior to that, still do a little bit on my off time, and so I hadn't looked for a job in over 15 years. They helped me extensively with the job search. I liked the classes; they were pretty fast paced. But while I was attending, I didn't just study what they told me to; I searched out job descriptions and studied what I thought would make me more valuable. You really do get out what you put in here; it's not just handed to you. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations, don't be afraid to make mistakes there, and soak in everything you can in terms of learning. They aren't telling you to do things just because; they're telling you what they're telling you because it works. At my current job, about half the stack is stuff I wasn't exposed to at all in school. My employer is very happy with me, and I love my job.

The recruiters said that no prior coding experience was required and that we would be taught what we needed know rather than having to teach ourselves. I became skeptical of both when I was doing the test to see if I could be admitted. Over half of the... Read More test was coding in python and the pre exam material was a written course on python pandas. I decided to reach out to a recruiter and point out the test to get accepted was programming in python. I told them that learning to program for data science was what I was going to lambda for, I asked if I were to get into lambda would I be signing up to pay up to $30k for what isn't anymore than basically watching YouTube videos (the instructors were live but with how fast they went and their tendency to go off topic meant in some cases a prerecorded youtube video) and reading instructable articles. The recruiter that was not the case, told me the definitely teach and don't have us teach ourselves, then waived my pre testvand accepted. Everything I was told by the recruiter was not true. Including what I said about instructors was accompanied by 5-6 hours trying to get the assignments right because the instructors didn't teach what the assignments were having us do, and between being told "read tge documentation" and "it was hard for me too" by the TAs getting help was excruciating. Not to mention that the assignments and test expected a pretty high level understanding of programming on there own from the get go, trying to fo them alone even though "no prior programming experience was required and you wouldn't need to be able to teach yourself" was impossible.

I completed Lambda and immediately started mentoring for Lambda X (post-graduate employment preparation program). Within two weeks, I was hired as a contracted junior front-end wed developer for a fortune 10 company. After a month at that company I was... Read More hired full time. Since then I have been promoted and work as a senior lead engineer. I now make more than double what I made in my last career and haven't looked back since. - Lambda is NOT a scam and is a real educational program that gives back whatever you put into it. It isn’t always easy but if stick to it and ask for help you too can get through it. - There is an amazing and vast community you have access to learn and grow together, even after graduation. - Lambda’s program is 100% designed like the real-world Agile framework (at least in my case). You are not only learning tech work at Lambda but also how to work in the tech industry. - There are so many Lambda “extras” as you can utilize like after-hours help, hack-a-tons, career mentors, Lambda X, etc. These are all offered to Lambda students at no extra cost and only help develop your technical and career skills. - Lastly, there is no money up front and the ISA agreement is completely reasonable for what you get out of the program. - You have to remember you are trying to cram an entire careers worth of knowledge into a few months. At times it's hard work. You have to treat the school like a full time job. For me it really was a full-time job. I had to quit my job and had no personally income during that time. If you are not willing or able to work whole heartedly throughout the entire program it may not be the best program for you or you may want to consider the part-time program. - You're career after Lambda is your responsibility. Lambda has countless opportunities, programs, groups, and mentors to help you after you graduate to help you find and land a job. But you have to put in the time and effort to get and nail those interviews. You have to take the career side just as seriously if not more than the school itself. Networking and out-reaching is essential and only you can do that for yourself. Lambda can't guarantee you open positions after graduation but they can prepare you for finding and obtaining those opportunities if you put in the work.

I started Lambda School in November 2020. This was right after they made the change to their Full Stack Web Development (FT) program from 9 months to 6 months. This school is designed to help you succeed. They genuinely care about your career success,... Read More and about your learning. They throw many different resources out at you to use, and lots of 'safety nets' if you don't get a concept the first time around. All of that said, you are still very much in charge of your learning, and if you want to succeed, you really need to put in the time that they expect you to. The full-time track is a FULL-TIME JOB! It should be treated as such if you want to succeed with Lambda School. Lambda school is very fast-paced and intense, but I've seen firsthand that people from very different career and personal backgrounds have found success with this program if they had put in the work. I've also seen the inverse, where people really dislike this program, yet they also just didn't put in as much work as some others! I have personally found nothing but an insurmountable amount of support and pointers for success in this school. The projects you get involved in prepare you for greatness and equip you with real-world experience that you can speak on in interviews. A Bootcamp/trade school can never be perfect and teach you everything you will need to know in your career, but I'd say Lambda School does an incredible job getting you to the correct point to begin your career, not stopping short at all.

Just don't bother. They give up on their students very quickly, if you have family emergencies come up? and need quite a bit of extra time off to handle them, and then request to start back a few months later, they'll tell you it's against their policy,... Read More and still hold you to the ISA agreement. Their student success team also never responds to students, or if they do, it'll be weeks later and just be two-four sentences in length, usually never answering the question that you actually asked. The CEO is full of crap and lies constantly in order to get his way, he's just a manipulator. This school IS NOT WORTH IT, take it from someone who went through the program, and who was a TL for them for a year before they got rid of it. It's absolutely not worth it. If you plan on using an ISA, look somewhere else, do not bother with Lambda. They are a failing bootcamp, they average like 2000 students currently right now, two years ago that number was probably close to double. They don't hold anyone accountable, don't waste your time and money here. I've seen them do too many people dirty.

I joined Lambda during the time when the pandemic first hit. I had virtually no background knowledge in tech, but Lambda assures that that no prior experience is needed. This is the part that is mostly false. Lambda is incredibly face-paced that you pretty... Read More much have should already have had some programming experience. Throughout my time at Lambda, I've seen them change many things about our curriculum, and it mostly seems to be more determintal to our learning than helpful. Here's my biggest beef with Lambda. They promise that they can "turn you into a web developer" in 6 months with no prior knowledge, but that isn't even close to reality. What they don't tell you is that you pretty much have to put in extra hours (on top of the 9-5pm schedule they have for you already) to learn things that go above and beyond what they teach. For example, they never even mention the word AWS while you're in the program, but after graduation, they somehow expect that you should already have known not only what it is, but how to utilize it. Same with Postgres, Docker, and other tools. They don't teach you enough. They teach you below the bare minimum, and they kid you into thinking that they're teaching you "enough". When you graduate, you'll quickly learn how underqualified you are for entry-level positions. Those entry-level positions will be asking that you have some experience in AWS, SQL, or even how to host a site. When you don't even know how to deploy a website, you'll start feeling like Lambda really ripped you off. Bottom line (TLDR): Lambda is not going to teach you all you need to know to become a web developer in 6-months. They'll teach you the absolute basics, and sometimes, they won't even teach it well. You'll graduate and realize just how grossly underprepared you are for even entry-level work. Those who find success are those who either already had prior experience or those who took the initiative to learn MORE than what Lambda taught. Those who probably knew where to look.

Lambda has honestly been the best experience of my life. They can take anyone and then turn them into a developer! I didn't know any coding before joining lambda and I got through the whole program without needing to take their flex option. If you reach... Read More out to career coaches or faculty, they will take the time to help you become job ready on top of teaching the material to you. Lambda greatly cares for their students and works hard to make sure everyone gets a job. There were quite a few ups and downs with the program, but it evolves to adapt to the ever changing nature of the tech world and it makes us better developers in the long run. I completed lambda school during the beginning of the pandemic (2020), and it took me exactly 6 months to get hired from the day I completed the program to the day I signed an offer letter as a full stack engineer. If I could get hired within 6 months (which is lambda's goal under normal circumstances) during a pandemic, then there's a ton of hope for people who are graduating during a time when people are getting vaccinated. If you really want quality education, a strong community, and a strong team backing you in your career search, then you should attend Lambda School.

I hope this helps others not make the same mistake. I joined Lambda School with high hopes. I began the program when they still had Tech Leads (minimum wage paid students to help you). The Tech Leads were advertised to some degree as subject matter experts. ... Read More Once they were removed the value of the program diminished greatly. We started each day with 1hr lectures from mediocre instructors, then you are left to code by yourself all day. If you're stuck, well there is google. Lambda tells you they're not there to hold your hand but to give you the tools to learn on your own. Honestly, I do not know what those tools were. We covered several topics that you can find online for free with much more in-depth coverage of the material. I quickly realized FREE CODE CAMP, CODEACDEMY, YOUTUBE, OR A $10 UDEMY COURSE WITH 100 HOURS OF CONTENT was a much cheaper and better investment. I signed the ISA because they advertised that professionals were there to help. One month into the program they announce changes are coming. The TLs are being removed, and we would teach each other instead. It was made out like the changes coming are SO good and innovative. I decided to leave the program after a week into the transition. My ISA went active.  I couldn't justify spending $30,000 to learn from anyone other than vetted professionals. I asked if they could make an exception because it was only 24hrs after the ISA went active. They did not care. They exploited the situation to get money from me.

Lambda School is good place to gain confidence if you're starting completely from square one and/or struggle with the concepts on your own. They have many different resources to seek help if you need it. That being said, if you're smart enough to get... Read More through Lambda without any major hiccups, you're smart enough to self-teach with some Udemy courses for fractions of the price. If you're looking to come here for accountability or to have someone personally review your code on a regular basis, this is not for you. I'd recommend attending the first month or two at the max if you're interested and then leaving before you owe the full 30k. The price is not anywhere close to the value and was a major reason I left the program. Build weeks are a joke - half the team doesn't show up and no one bats an eye. Theres no project manager to hold any individual or the team itself accountable if they're contributing poor code or lack thereof. Attendance is "monitored" but it's not enforced (i.e. no consequences as long as you are submitting assignments that no one even checks for completion to begin with). Attending long enough to participate in a build week (Unit 2) may be beneficial just to get an idea of how the git flow works on a team but you could just as easily sign up for a hackathon for free and get the same experience. The lack of leadership is also a major problem. I've messaged several staff in the past for help and have gotten no response from them - if you're not congratulating on a job well done they'll turn off notifications and ignore you. The mentor/mentee program needs some work. It's great if you have someone that's genuinely interested, but since being a mentor is unpaid and required, most people find mentoring to be a distraction from learning how to code themselves and don't make a real effort. Overall, please don't sign up for this unless you're just looking for an expensive networking opportunity. The accountability and the community just isn't robust enough to justify the price of completing the whole thing.

The pros were relevant content, experienced instructors, great network, many opportunities. Working to solve real world problems. The cons were that it changes often, sometimes not for the better. Removed TLs which were a part of many people's journey.... Read More