Matt completed both our Part-Time Intro to Web Development course and our Web Development Bootcamp in Toronto. He is also a beloved part of the LHL family as a former Junior Web Development Intern of ours. Today, he is working as a Junior Developer at BuySellAds, where he is helping to develop an internal sales software solution. He also spends his spare time creating coding solutions for his parents’ dentistry practice. Read further to learn more about how he ended up taking the part-time course and how that led him to where he is today.

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What is Your Background?

I graduated with a degree in Economics at Queen’s University. However, I never actually pursued a career in Economics because I felt like there wasn’t enough creativity in that field. Professionally, Economics really constrains you to only a few different career paths and none of them really appealed to me.

What Do You Do Now?

I currently work as a Junior Developer for BuySellAds, an Ad Tech company that is connecting publishers to advertisers through an unique platform. In this role, I am building software for the internal sales team that helps manage the ads that are being shown.

What made you decide to take an Intro Course at Lighthouse Labs?

Before taking the part-time course I dabbled a bit in coding, so I knew that I was interested in the subject but I wasn’t 100% sure if I wanted to make a career out of it. That is the main reason I wanted to take the part-time course. I also used the course to learn what Lighthouse Labs was all about, from the learning environment to the teaching style. Before the part-time course I was afraid of committing to web development full time, but it didn't take long for me to learn that I loved it. After finishing the part-time course, I decided that I wanted to do Bootcamp so that I could become a Developer professionally.

How Has Your Experience With Lighthouse Labs Affected Your Work?

The part-time course prepared me really well for my next career step, which was the Bootcamp. It gave me a great overview of the content and taught me how to think through problems. Of course Bootcamp itself has been a huge help in building my foundation as a Developer. Immediately after Bootcamp I also took on a contract as Junior Developer for Lighthouse Labs, where I had the opportunity to work on the internal CRM. A major responsibility of mine in that role was adding new features, such as new pages to the website and fixing bugs. That experience working on the CRM has been very helpful in my current work.

Are You Doing Anything to Keep Up Your Coding Skills?

Working full time as a Junior Developer.

Are You Working on Any Tech Related Projects outside of Work?

I do a little bit of coding for my parents business. My parents are dentists and are really busy throughout the day so they often don’t have time to manage information effectively, so I have worked on a few small projects around that.

Is There Anything Else You Want to Add?

The part-time course is the best for people who are where I was, thinking to themselves “hey this is kinda cool but I don’t know if I’m ready to work my butt off for 8 weeks and pay 10 grand”. By the time I finished Week 3 of the part-time course, I knew that I wanted to do Bootcamp.