Student Spotlight: Dan MacDonald, Lighthouse Labs

Lighthouse Labs is an immersive coding school in Vancouver that focuses on modern open source web frameworks and tools. Lighthouse Labs graduate Dan MacDonald tells Course Report about his experience and his favorite instructors! 

Remember, the Course Report community is eligible for a $250 scholarship to Lighthouse Labs!

What were you up to before deciding to go to Lighthouse Labs?

I headed up marketing for a local men's underwear brand.

Did you apply to other bootcamps? Why did you ultimately decide on Lighthouse Labs? 

I was planning on applying to Dev Bootcamp before learning about Lighthouse Labs.  I decided to attend LL as it would allow me to stay in Vancouver.

Which instructors/mentors were especially helpful to you? Did you feel like the teaching methods worked with your learning style?

Khurram Virani, Head Instructor, and Aaron Dufal, one of LL's TAs, were especially helpful.  The hands-on, labs-based teaching method perfectly suited my learning style.

Can you talk about a time when you got stuck in the class and how you pushed through? 

Halfway through one of the exams I got stuck on a problem; failure to answer it would have kept me from passing the exam.  After spinning my tires for a few minutes, I moved on to the other problems, returning to the problem in question once I completed the others.  Taking a second look at the problem, I was able to work through it and ended up acing the exam.

Tell us about your final project- what technologies did you use, how long did it take, what does it do? 

Stefan Krahn and I worked on an app for a local foundation that would allow it to receive applications for grants online through its website.  We spent a couple of weeks on the project, which consisted primarily of RoR and jQuery/Javascript.

What are you working on now? Do you have a job as a developer or entrepreneur? What does it entail? 

I'm working as a Ruby on Rails developer for Better Office Apps, a local startup building enterprise apps for the lending industry.

Would you have been able to learn to code and get a job without Lighthouse Labs? 

Sure, but it would have taken much longer!
 

Want to learn more about Lighthouse Labs? Check out their School Page on Course Report or their website. Connect with Dan on Twitter!