How Lighthouse Labs is Getting Graduates Hired

Table of Contents

• The Career Curriculum at Lighthouse Labs
• What types of jobs do Lighthouse Labs graduates typically land? 
• What are today’s employers looking for in developers and data professionals? 

Lighthouse Labs boasts a careers curriculum that includes face-time with employers before a student even graduates! Jack Lee, Manager of Employer Partnerships-North American Market at Lighthouse Labs, shares why employers love hiring Lighthouse Labs grads and how the career services team supports students for coding and data interviews at companies of various sizes and in all industries. From mock interviews to code review to direct matchmaking with their worldwide employer network, find out how Lighthouse Labs students are landing jobs typically 1-3 months after graduation.

Meet Our Expert: Jack Lee, Manager of Employer Partnerships-North American Market at Lighthouse Labs

• Jack builds connections with employers in Canada and the US to partner Lighthouse Labs graduates with career opportunities.

The Career Curriculum at Lighthouse Labs

Career services at Lighthouse Labs start on day one of the bootcamp. Our department of career service coordinators work with students 1:1 throughout the 12-week bootcamp. Students also have access to our network of over 500 mentors. Lighthouse Labs is committed to student career growth, and we offer hands-on support through: 

• 1:1 meetings
• Get To Know You check-ins
• Resume and interview workshops
• Dry runs for a student’s Demo Day 

The career curriculum at Lighthouse Labs is packed with workshops, intros, orientations, 1:1 interview coaching, plus an alumni support group post-graduation. Career workshops include building your LinkedIn profile and negotiating salary. We do 1:1 resume curating, which we send out to employers and offer the opportunity for students to talk to employers. 

Did Lighthouse Labs update its curriculum due to the large global shift in 2020?

When Lighthouse Labs shifted online in 2020, we adapted some of our career services to make sure we could still be there for our students. We adapted our career services to accommodate our students’ new needs, such as online support, info sessions, and increased frequency of check-ins. 

How does Lighthouse Labs prepare students for job interviews? 

We understand that interviews with different employers follow different formats, so we prepare students for a variety of interview styles: 

• In week 8-9, students practice technical interviews for 3-5 sessions.
• In week 10, we hold 1:1 behavioral interviews with students.
• Post-graduation, bootcampers go through mock interviews with employers to get technical real-world experience. It depends on the employer, but during these technical interviews, graduates may be offered a 48-hour challenge plus a sprint on technical terminology.
• We offer tech assessments, where we review a student’s work and offer feedback. 
• We practice whiteboarding during the bootcamp, breaking down the structure and the creative process. 

Is there a difference between preparing for coding interviews versus data interviews?

The interview format is the same, but the tech stack is different. For data interviews, students may be asked about data analytics and Python. Developer interviews are more tailored to questions regarding front end and back end skills and tools.  

What types of jobs do Lighthouse Labs graduates typically land? 

Students who graduate from our Web Development Bootcamp land roles like front end developer, back-end developer, full stack developer, and software engineer.

Data science roles often have many different names depending on the company or organization. Students who graduate from our Data Science Bootcamp typically land roles like machine learning engineer and data scientist.

What is the typical median salary for Lighthouse Labs graduates?

On average, Lighthouse Labs graduates are earning between $50k-$60K in the Canadian job market. Students who start working for US companies may see up to $80K and $100K. 

How much time should Lighthouse Labs students expect to be on the job search? 

The tech job market changed a lot when the pandemic began, and graduates struggled to find work in the initial hiring freeze of early 2020. Since then, graduates that have dedicated themselves to their job search are typically hired 1-3 months after graduation. 

What types of employers are Lighthouse Labs grad partnered with?

Lighthouse Labs has an expansive employer network that ranges from large companies to medium-sized organizations, accelerators, and startups. We also partner with a few government institutions and nonprofit organizations. Our employer network covers a wide range of sectors, from health tech and fin tech to gambling and sports tech. As the pandemic increased access to remote work, there are now no boundaries to where developers can get hired. 

How do students engage with the employer network at Lighthouse Labs?

Students engage with our employer network at different levels: 

• Our career services team directly connects Lighthouse Labs students with employers.
• Our internal alumni network is over 5,000 members strong, many of whom have become employers or CPOS.
• We hold information sessions with employers so they can speak about their companies and hiring process. We also bring in previous graduates who now work for that company to offer insight on the organization. 
• During Demo Days, employers are able to see the final projects and identify candidates that could be a potential fit for their specific hiring needs. After the Demo Day, employers receive resumes and a few grads are invited to interviews.
• We send students information about certain employers we work with, job postings, and certain workshops or other sort of events that we bring the students in.

What are today’s employers looking for in developers and data professionals? 

Employers today are looking for confident skills. They are often open to hiring someone with 0-6 months experience if they can pass the technical interviews. Personality counts, too! But the tech assessment indicates an applicant's skill level and gauges if they can do the job. 

What do employers like about Lighthouse Labs graduates?

Lighthouse Labs grads have had to pass certain criteria to get past our rigorous admission process, so employers love to see that level of technical background and determination in our grads. Plus, our grads are engaged and determined to succeed, building code, and learning new tech stacks even after graduating.

How does Lighthouse Labs help students with negotiation and compensation?

Yes! After an interview, alumni usually bring their offer to our careers team to review. We coach students to have flexibility in their asking salary. Instead of asking for a range of $50K-60K, one negotiation tactic is to request anything above $50k because we've seen offers come in at $70k. Students then apply salary negotiation techniques with different companies.

We also encourage alumni to consider what else is in the package. Are there equity, profit share, other perks? Most developer roles don't just come with salary but a lot of other benefits as well. We suggest to our students and grads that they ask their employment contracts to include a clause about a salary increase after three months of improving skills on the job. 

What can Lighthouse Labs students expect to have in their portfolios when they graduate? 

Lighthouse Labs students graduate with a portfolio of five projects, which includes their midterm and final capstone projects. These projects showcase the student’s breadth of experience as well as their skills and passions. 

How do you recommend students incorporate their past work and education experiences into their elevator pitch, cover letter, or resume?

Start by telling a story about your past experience, leading up to your journey about your passion for coding or data. Then take a deep dive into highlighting your bootcamp journey. To close, talk about what you want to see in terms of your career and next steps.

Passion plays a key in hiring, no matter what sector you're in. If you're a past nurse pivoting into coding, a health tech employer is going to love seeing that you have first-hand experience in the problem being solved. 

Can Lighthouse Labs bootcamp grads reach back out to Career Services when they’re on the hunt for their 2nd or 3rd developer job?

We support our students for their lifetime in the bootcamp and after! Bootcampers can return to us on their 6th, 8th, 9th job if they want to, but honestly, once our graduates get their first job, they have no problem getting their second job. What we do see is employers come to us asking for more developers!

Jack, what’s your favorite student success story?

One of the most memorable students to me was a graduate from 2019. This graduate struggled during the bootcamp and had a hard time finding work in the pandemic, so he reverted back to his previous career as a logistics coordinator. I wanted to help him get a job in tech but knew it would be hard work to get there since we were kind of starting from scratch with no experience. This graduate took my advice, did the coding assignments, went through the interviews, failed, tried again, improved, eventually got better at coding. I remembered a logistics company that was in our network, so I forwarded his resume to them and got him an interview. The employers loved him and hired him! It was so inspiring to see someone who had struggled so much come out on the other side of it successfully. 

Find out more and read Lighthouse Labs reviews on Course Report. This article was produced by the Course Report team in partnership with Lighthouse Labs.