Bloom Institute of Technology

After accepting a job offer today that has completely changed the direction of my life for the better, I have an immense feeling of gratitude toward Lambda School. My base salary has gone up almost 3.5x from my former career as a teacher in San Francisco!

I decided to join Lambda School on a whim and honestly, it was something I stumbled into by chance from a series of events that happened over a couple of weeks that led me to meet a Lambda student who referred me directly to Austen Allred, CEO of Lambda. After getting special permission to complete the coursework in under a week due to my life circumstances, I joined the CS8 cohort that began in early February 2018.

The curriculum is rigorous to say the least, and my having no previous programming experience, apart from maybe some very basic HTML & CSS, every day and week was admittedly quite overwhelming. With that being said, the instructors at Lambda are A++ and the support system is like nothing I'd ever seen before in my 11-12 years as an educator. The system, though continually evolving , is designed where no student is left behind, and each individual student gets all of the support they need (granted they put in 100% effort) to succeed.

In just a matter of a few weeks, I had gone from basically knowing nothing to building responsive websites. In just a matter of a few months, I was building full stack web applications from end to end. By the time I got to Lambda Labs (apprenticeship program), I was working on a small team to build a first-of-its-kind app to market in only 5 weeks under the direction of an experience engineer/mentor. The progress students make at Lambda in just a short amount of time is truly incredible, and I would attribute this to two things: 1. Lambda's curriculum, instructors and staff. 2. The amount of work you put into the program.

On top of all this, Lambda's career services program is truly revolutionary. I've never seen or heard anything like it. Each student is assigned to an individual career coach and also has access to all of the other career coaches and other student success staff at pretty much anytime. One of the coolest things at Lambda is that graduation isn't celebrated, job offers are. To help you get job, the sales & outcomes teams work tirelessly to bring in new partners. In short, they set you up with all of the opportunities you need to be successful; you just have to step up to the plate and hit a home run when you're up to bat.

After I finished the curriculum in late July 2018, I signed on as a Teaching Assistant (internally known as a Project Manager) for 4 months (in my case). This program, open to most students upon reaching a certain point in the course, is pivotal in growing your skills for the tech industry. Having the opportunity to work more closely with an instructional team and mentoring and teaching others, launched me to a new level. It also helped me understand how much work goes on behind the scenes to run a school at the top notch level Lambda does. The amount of work and energy put into this school to make it an industry leader is phenomenal. 

If anyone is looking to join one of the programs that Lambda offers and launch yourself into the technology industry, this is undoubtedly the best there is. The difference between Lambda & other schools is that Lambda isn't a bootcamp. It's a full fledged CS program merged with your track of choice (web for me) and designed to make you successful on day one of your job as an engineer. Even if you do have a CS degree or have worked in engineering for a while, Lambda would still be beneficial to you. In fact, I've talked to several folks with CS degrees who were in my cohort, and they said the education at Lambda was much better and much more relevant than anything they learned in their respective 4-year university programs.

I cannot thank Lambda School enough for changing my life and the lives of so many others for the better. They are a one of a kind in this industry, led by visionaries, and I truly believe they will come to lead the industry across the world with this model.

*Full disclosure: Lambda asked me to write this review about 2 weeks after I had accepted a job, in exchange for some Lambda swag.

I'm skeptical of any company that promises to replace traditional education, because it's often framed with disingenuous arguments about student debt, the uselessness of educational bureaucracy, and what education should philosophically be. For most people, education is about gainful employment, which I disagree with.

That being said, I'm also a self-appointed expert in educational fraud—where established universities mislead students about outcomes in favor of enrollment numbers, or in my case fees—with the excessive private student loan debt to prove it. Yes, the interest is variable, and Sallie Mae is now a member of my family. Did I mention that my cosigner, my mom, is on the hook for payments larger than her mortgage? (Ask yourself, why is this legal?)

Point being: if you are thinking about taking out student loans, only do so if they are federally backed. NO private loans whatsoever. I have the lovely privilege of having *all* types of student debt.

Moving on. Lambda School. I was in the Fullstack Web track. I started in April of 2018, finished in October 2018, and was on the job market just as everyone was leaving for the holidays. I managed to land a job through my own efforts in January 2019. The career assistance was meager when I graduated, but better than any other career service I've had at the two universities I've attended. As of February 2019, I can say the career assistance has exploded in support and there are unbelievable companies giving presentations every single day that are looking for talent.

This has been my experience with Lambda as an organization: continuous improvement at an unbelievable pace. They take feedback incredibly seriously, because incentives are aligned if you are using the income-share agreement. It was main reason I chose Lambda (alongside the remote nature of the program), because I was weary of financial blunders that I continue to deal with from past educational experiences.

If you have the option to attend and complete a CS degree, do that!

Then attend Lambda!

Or better yet, attend Lambda in your last year of your CS degree.

I say this because of my experience so far at my new job. I made a production level contribution of several hundred lines of code in a framework I did not know on my 7th day of work. They said it was probably a record for first contribution. Am I an algorithm or data structure expert because of Lambda School? Absolutely not. Do I know how recursion affects computer memory and how to avoid writing quadratic algorithms because of Lambda? Yes.

Let's break down some problems I encountered with Lambda:

1. PM groups -  most problems I faced at Lambda revolved around my project manager group, which is just a small group of students you interact with on a daily basis, led by a project manager (which during my time was a Lambda student who had completed most or all of the course). It seemed that people's Lambda experience was largely influenced by who your project manager was, and who else was in your group. The format for these daily "standup" meetings definitely needs standardization, so that the hundreds of hours spent in these meetings are structured for a purpose. (This may have already changed! Remember, I've already been out of the program since October 2018).

2. Code Reviews - I never really felt like my code was reviewed regularly, or if it was, the feedback was not always given, or it was non-technical. If you need help, there is always someone to help. However, sometimes when you are stuck, you don't even realize you are stuck. Lambda really requires personal responsibility and awareness, and making yourself vulnerable if you don't know what is going on.

3. Pair programming - Looking back, I wish I had been forced to pair program more. I did a fair amount of it in the latter half of the program (remember they are always changing things—usually for good reason), and now at my job I realize how fundamental this is to working professionally as a programmer.

4. HTML / CSS gaps - When I attended, this was the first thing we learned, and the teacher was excellent. However, as the program progressed into React, Javascript, and until the end, you could really tell how easy it is to forget everything you learned about web basics. I failed a technical interview partly because I did not know what the ARIA standard was off the top of my head. Lambda did not cover Accessibility, nor a lot of the finer details of many important, native Web APIs that many would consider basic web dev required knowledge. For example, how to access a webcam. (I believe Lambda has introduced something called build weeks throughout the program, which I think would go a long way to closing this gap).

5. Growth stage - The organization is incredibly intelligent, but always be aware that this is an investor-backed venture that could sour for a lot of reasons. Thankfully, the income-share agreement reduces that risk to basically 0 for yourself, and my personal ISA terms are generous.

And for the incredible benefits of Lambda:

1. Lambda for life - you have full access to the curriculum, which is always being updated, for your life or that of the company (whichever is shorter).

2. A growing network of Lambda students all over the world, ready to help at the post of a Slack message.

3. If you get in to Lambda, you will be surrounded by highly motivated people (usually), which is probably a principle that their admissions process screens for.

4. If something goes wrong while attending Lambda, they will go out of their way to help (including financially).

5. A sincerely kind and positive atmosphere, which I hope never changes.

Overall, Lambda continues to surprise me, and I'm thankful to have chosen it and been accepted. It's also not bad that I found some dollars along the way. If you know you like staring at computers for hours on end, and continually being frustrated / elated, then programming is probably for you. Like I said, CS degree first (for lots of silly and not so silly reasons), and Lambda 1.5st because sometimes ain't nobody got time for that CS degree.

I had spent the last 3 years trying to get into the world of software engineering. I'd taken several MOOCs, received two certificates in introductory programming courses, one online and one through a 4 year university's certificate program. I'd even started classes in a post-bac program (I already had a bachelors in Biology) through a different 4 year university's online program, in order to receive another bachelors in Computer Science. The whole time I was job hopping from positions in landscaping, arborist work and house painting. I'd applied for over a hundred jobs in entry level positions and internships, and still didn't feel like I could call myself ready for the workplace. Lambda school changed all that.

From day 1, your broken up into small teams with a poject manager, who is genreally a Lambda student further along in the program. You have daily standup meetings and weekly sprint challenges, which are evaluated and graded. You are encouraged to peer program and both help those who don't have as much experience, or to get help from those who do. This structure is very similar to what you'll experience in the real world of programming, which is just one of the ways that Lambda school prepares you for your new career.

The full stack web development program (which is the program I went through) trains you in modern frameworks like React, Redux, Node, Express, knex, Postgres and even version control like Git and Github. Lambda is ultra responsive to the wants and needs of both the market and their hiring partners (one of whom I recently got a job with). My cohort in particular saw a shift in curriculum from one back end stack to another, all to ensure that we had the most in demand skills when we graduated. Lambda moves in days where other boot camps move in weeks and higher education moves in years. With an education from Lambda school, you can be sure that your skills will be valued. 

The computer science curriculum is really what sets Lambda school apart. I'm confident that my ability to speak about Big-O notation, runtime complexity and various algorithms/data structures is what got me my job. This portion is tough, and they throw not only 2 new languages at you (Python and C) but new frameworks like Django as well. You learn about operations on the CPU and even create a terminal emulator. The idea is getting you used to learning new things, quickly. I found that while a lot of us struggled during this portion, it really helped me to set aside my ego and realize that in this field, the learning never stops, and the most important thing is to stay curious. Again, this portion is what sets Lambda apart, and ensures that you have the tools to learn any tech stack. 

I do feel like I should mention that, like any boot camp, those with prior experience do tend to rise to the top relatively quickly. The important thing is to try and learn from those people, and not see them as competition. If you have the time, brush up on your Javascript, maybe even your C, sign up for codewars or something like it, and put in your prep work. It'll really pay off when you start classes and let you focus on the higher concepts instead of getting bogged down with minor syntax bugs. 

The capstone project was an amazing experience and the closest thing you'll get to real world development experience while still in a relatively low pressure, educational environment. That being said, get ready to work like crazy and learn a ton. We all came away with pretty impressive pieces for our portfolios and I know of at least 5 people who got jobs based solely on the merit of their capstone projects. 

The career team is awesome and if you haven't looked into Lambda Next, check it out. It's basically a continuation of Lambda school UNTIL YOU GET A JOB. None of this "We've fulfilled our responsibility, it's on you now" mentality which has driven higher education for so many years. These people take a lot of time to work with you, even when your out of the program, to try and find something that's the right fit for you. 

If you can, try and save your money, move back in with your parents, whatever it takes to go back to school full time for the 6-8 months. If you can't swing that, maybe go for the part time, year long program which takes place nights and weekends. It's definitely worth it. I more than tripled my previous income and am entering into an exciting field where I'm truly valued as an employee. 

Let me start by giving some background. I have been an accountant for over 4 years. I was always passionate about coding and web development. I have been trying to teach myself how to code for several years now by going through tutorials online, MOOCs, blog articles and what not - just like some of you reading this right now. I was determined to change my career and that's when I found Lambda. What I learned in the past 4 years, I learned all of that and more within just a couple of months into the curriculum. It is amazing how efficient and thorough you can be with all that guidance and structure. I have not graduated from Lambda and I have already landed my dream job as a developer. I have come to a realization that it is not about how much you know, it is about how well you know something. I'm happy to say that "IT WORKS". Whatever Lambda is doing, they are getting it right. I was overprepared for my job interview and at the job I only needed minimal amount of training before i was assigned projects. It is a wonderful feeling going into a job knowing that you are going to standout. Lambda is not just about getting you a job they are actually more concerned about you keeping the job or go higher. We learn not just about computers but also about how to conduct yourself at the workplace and more. Right from Day 1 you will know that everything you do is ultimately going to get you your dream job.

    Lambda School was the most fun and challenging part of my academic career. Every day was a different puzzle that would unravel by days end and I would be better for it. Lambda taught me so many things that I use in my daily work life. 

    Lambda's curriculum as a whole is great in almost every aspect. I really enjoyed the teachers and the coursework. The only reason that I would call it 4 stars is that it was in flux during my time there. It has since grown to a now 30 week program which will be terrific for future students. 

    The job assistance is great. I had fun learning about how best to build emails, resumes, portfolios and a variety of other useful tools. I really enjoyed Lambda Next which is a program that was created to help you succeed in your job hunt post Lambda. The meetings really helped me focus on improving my public image with LinkedIn, AngelList, and my portfolio. Lambda Next is really useful if you put the work into it. 

   As a life experience this was one of the best. This school helped me to get a great job and an even better future. I would honestly recommend this to anyone who isn't afraid of hard work and is willing to dedicate themselves to it. It will amaze you how much more you will learn under guidance from good instructors. 

As an avid reader of fictional novels and a writer of my own, I've found something rather interesting. A great story follows the growth of the character; we laugh as they do, weep when they fall to the ground, then cheer when they get back up and push ahead - clearing all the obstacles in their path as they achieve monumental success. I never would have thought that this fictional arc would come to pass in my own life as well.

I came to Lambda School with nothing to offer. I was living with relatives working a 9-5 minimum wage job, with absolutely no programming experience to speak of. I took the assessment, got accepted, and started classwork on February 4th of 2018. I showed up to class that morning with a burning passion to learn, a massive sense of imposter syndrome, and a hot cup of coffee.

The first few weeks were hard, I hit the ground running and fell flat on my face. What was I thinking? I didn't have any programming experience, there was no way I was going to keep up with the rest of the class. I voiced this to my Teaching Assitant; he helped me up, brushed the dirt off my shirt, put my head on straight again and pushed my right back into the gauntlet. I hit the ground a few more times, but he was always there to catch me and throw me back in. After the first couple of weeks, I was keeping pace without breaking a sweat. The curriculum was getting harder, but I was getting faster and things were beginning to click for me.

Fast forwards 26 weeks, I graduated in August as part of CS8 - that passion I started with burning bright as ever after being used to construct the foundation on which I now stand. I walked through the hypothetical doors of success with my head held high, my confidence soaring, and a bright smile on my face as I plowed directly into a solid brick wall - aka the job market.

This is where things really shined for me, and it's part of the reason I am so passionate about Lambda School. They tell you about this monster when you're in school, the instructors give whole Q&A sessions where they talk about their first jobs - they were not joking when they said it was hard.

We were given access to an incredible resource in the form of Career Coaches - passionate and very experienced people with the soul purpose of helping you find a job with your new skillset. A mock interview and a quick resume building session later, I was eager and ready to go.

Now, as you'd expect from the average bootcamp, I was allowed to jump in head first even after being warned how cold the water is. Trust me, it's very cold. As I pulled myself from those frigid depths, I was greeted by none other than my Career Coach - towel and a warm cup of "Let's get you back out there" in hand.

The next month was trying; I felt my confidence fading, imposter syndrome setting in, but I never once felt helpless or alone. If I had a question, I could reach out to anyone in the school - instructors, career coaches, even Austen (the CEO). They answered any questions I had without hesistation, offered comforting words of support, and with the instructors - they answered my questions as if I was still one of their students. Try going back to your University and asking your instructor about a problem you're having in a personal project.. On their day off no less!

Fast forwards again to the current time, December of 2018. It's been exactly 1 year since I found out about Lambda, 10 months since I started my life as a programmer, and 4 months since I graduated. I haven't paid Lambda a dime of my money, and yet they have been unwavering in their passion to help me succeed.

I accepted an offer this week making more than I've ever made in my entire life, working as a Software Engineer for a company that I would otherwise not have known about, doing meaningful work that will be enjoyed by millions of people around the world for years to come.

Looking back on everything that I've been through in the past 12 months, I just smile. For the first time in my entire life, I have a niche, I have a very valuable skillset, and I get to wake up every morning excited because I get paid to be a programmer.

If you're on the fence, take my story and put yourself in my shoes. Everyone learns differently, and this might just be what you need to succeed. Don't think about what you have to lose, think of all that you have to gain and success will find you.

With humble beginnings come the greatest endings. This is my story.

When I first found Lambda School, I thought it was too good to be true. You hear this a lot because really, it seems too good to be true. The financing through an Income Share Agreement (ISA) puts all the risk on the school and none on the student. The people at Lambda genuinely do care about your success. The school was founded with an altruistic heart, but the ISA ensures that this always remains the case. Lambda only succeeds if you succeed. And for me, they lived up to their promise.

The curriculum is tough, for sure, but it has to be. It's nothing people can't handle, but it does require a lot of time, consistent dedication, hard work, and a balanced lifestyle. Every week, when Lambda surveyed how my week went (because they really care about making improvements and becoming the best school possible), I always answered the last question the same: How likely are you to recommend Lambda School to a friend? 10/10.

When I finished Lambda School, the team there did everything in their power to help get me hired. They worked with hiring partners, they coached me on how to apply to jobs successfully, they encouraged me to stay active as a developer and keep learning, they warned me about the pitfalls, the provided opportunities for mock interviews, the list goes on. In just under two months, I was hired making six-figures at an amazing place. I couldn't ask for more. I'm deeply grateful to everyone there. All of the staff treated me with deep kindness, and I made meaningful friendships along the way.

When you hear about a school that offers no tuition upfront for 6 months, you would tend to think it is either a scam, or the content is not up to par with a bootcamp that charges more.

This is absolutely not the case.

Lambda School has given me the skills to be a full stack developer, both technical skills and soft skills. I have just interviewed and accepted an offer from a company as a back end engineer, mostly because they were impressed with the skills I had coming out of a non traditional school.

Being one of the earlier students, I was able to watch the curriculum evolve to be better and better each iteration. We had to be flexible with the changes, sure, but it allowed us to develop adaptability while learning technical skills. The structure of the curriculum is strong now, with multiple experienced instructors, and enough assistants to allow one-on-ones for each student in the class. Sections are repeatable, so if you don't get it at first, you are able to repeat until you understand it. Each week called a Sprint ends in a Sprint Challenge, which is reviewed, and talked about with the student to highlight weak and strong points, and talk about the week.

The end of the program ends in a program called Lambda Labs, where you build a Capstone Project with 3 other students, led by an assigned Teaching Assistant. The project wireframe and idea is presented, and you have 4 weeks to bring it to life. At the end of the 4 weeks, you have  a Capstone Defense, where you are interviewed by both instructors and hiring partners on the course material, design decisions, and other web development related questions.

Recently released is Lambda Next, and it really is the key to finding a job. Every day is structured to help you land a job, with job applications in the morning, community contributions in the early afternoon, coding portfolio projects after lunch, and interview/ white board practice at the end of the day. It is a really amazing program, and definitely a key factor to how I landed my first Developer job.

In the beginning of Lambda School, there were a lot of kinks to work out, but each week, they have improved more and more. It is an amazing school that no one else is doing. There is a program for everyone here, including part time programs. If you want to be a web developer, Lambda School should be your number 1 choice.

In 2017, my wife and I earned a combined income of $23,000. We did what we loved but there wasn't much money in it. At the beginning of 2018, we were preparing to move states and move into the next stage of our lives. We were going to move back home, spend time with my parents and somehow, survive.

Some background: In January of 2018, I started coding again after dropping out of college (pursuing a CS degree), a few years earlier. I was ready to change my life. I started looking around and bootcamps were all so expensive. I was going to go the freeCodeCamp route but it all seemed so difficult to guarantee a job. I have a son and I needed something more solid before betting our whole life on it.

I heard about Lambda school. I really don't even remember how. I thought it was too good to be true. Or a scam. Or that the school would suck. But I was completely wrong. We're used to being shafted, so it makes sense that I would think that. But boy was I wrong.

Now the review:
Lambda was super fast paced. But the concepts of the school were taught so well, that I was consistently learning and growing. I honestly never felt like I was being destroyed by the code. I was definitely challenged but never overwhelmed. The pace was great, but what Lambda did more than anything else, is it allowed me to practice what I learned. Mornings started with a code challenge, then lecture. Then the afternoon was spent coding - applying what we learned in lecture. I spent time studying before going into  Lambda and it definitely helped. I put my head down and really pushed into the program. I did every "stretch" goal and worked my tail off to make sure that I got the concepts.

See, the thing about any school, is that you only get out of it what you put into it. With Lambda school, they're giving you an avenue to put everything you've got into the school. 

I'll be honest guys, I've probably had too much coffee to write this review. But I'm hyped right now. The reason I'm hyped is because I just accepted a job offer for 4 times my wife and I's combined salary. And I haven't even finished Lambda's program. Lambda school is so good that I finished the first half of the program and had enough experience to apply for and get a job. I went into the job, preparing for the worst, but after taking a coding assessment, I was told that I had the best coding assessment they've seen coming into the company. After that, the company asked me if I would be interested in applying for a senior level position. 

I was nervous about Lambda because I was afraid to take a risk on my education. I was going to have to quit my job, move in with my parents and go to school full time. It was a terrifying thing. And I've heard horror stories about bootcamps. I won't go into the deets, but I've had friends spend over 15 grand on a bootcamp only to be abandoned by them with hardly any knowledge to show for it. Lambda school is not this way.

Austen and the gang are constantly improving the program. They're making sure that students don't get left behind but that they actually obtain the knowledge that the program offers. Lambda school started a cool program called "Lambda Next" that basically keeps grads working on projects and applying until they find a job. I've never seen anything like it. The content is incredible. The instructors are incredible. The support is phenominal. If you told me what I was getting myself into, then I would've started at Lambda in November.

They're pumping so much money into the success of their students that there are only 2 possible futures for Lambda school. Future 1 is that Lambda School changes the face of education in America. Future 2 is that they spend so much money on the success of their students that they go bankrupt. Though, at the rate that Lambda students are getting hired, I really don't think Future 2 is a likely future. I was the fourth "Senior Engineer" hired within the past 2 weeks. 

Lambda School has changed my life. At my current income, I'm going to be paying more in taxes than my family's whole salary last year. I get it, it's not about money. But last year, there were tears in my eyes as I sold one of my most prized positions because my wife and I needed to travel to visit family for Christmas. Lambda school has made it so that I never have to do that again. Lambda's ISA is an EASY price to pay to have my life changed.

If you're on the fence, do it. Your life will never be the same. 

The course i intense but becuse they are teaching you technologies (javascript, react and much more) that carefully help you to manage the moving parts of complex applications , you are up and running and creating maintainable apps much faster than traditional java or C# apps. 
The online tutors are friendly, competent, knowledgeable and willing you to suceed . They use slack zoom and github to teach and interact. you projects are submitted and evaluated on github. They listen carefully to student feedback. 
I'm so glad i did this course.