Sabio

I have been working in tech since I graduated from Sabio in 2018.  I definitely make more than the median that is listed for Sabio graduates.  I changed careers much later in life than most people, as my college major was Communication.  I had done some highschool coding classes in Pascal, and done another certification for programming in some quick tech school, but that was years and years ago, before the advent of the modern paradigm of MVC and JVM's.  And Sabio helped start my new career in tech and all, so I do owe a great debt of gratitude.  So, you may ask, why the not perfect scores?  I'm glad you asked.

This was in the spring of 2018, I joined the Sabio bootcamp in Culver City.  At the time, there was a pre-course of javascript before you joined the actual cohort.  The problem that stuck out to me was at the end, when we first encountered asynchronous operations.  That should have been a good teaching point to end the javascript pre-course, but that didn't happen.  We were left to wonder why were our ajax calls coming back in some crazy order.  Maybe even hint to us to look for the MSDN for "promises."  Nope.  So, I was just this frustrated little ball trying to figure this puzzle out on my own.  Whatever.

On to the real cohort.  We had a choice:  .NET or Node.  If i could go back in time and pick one, I probably would have picked .NET.  Technology wise, they were about the same.  The problem lay in the magic behind Sabio.  Sabio Instructors are AWESOME.  They have tons of experience in the technology field.  They're smart, charming, and John Darragh was especially handsome.  None of the stuff Sabio did matters, if the instructors weren't as awesome as they were.  And this is also where the problem lies.  If the instructor was thrown in last minute into a technology he's not 100% in, it's going to be a problem.  I don't fault John for making the attempt; I blame Sabio for putting us all in that position.  Someone made the decision to go through with the MERN stack cohort.  It would have been a lot simpler to have two cohorts of .NET.  I made friends with people in both cohorts, and I was able to see the difference between instructors.  John was doing his best and he's awesome, and his experience in the tech field really shone through.  On the other hand, in the .NET cohort, because there was a someone who was much more familiar with the tech stack he's teaching, it allowed that cohort to become more ambitious (which ultimately bit them in the butt) and comfortable.

John's experience carried our cohort:  we were less ambitious and our focus became that of deliverables.  Our cohort was awesome, because, once things picked up, we definitely got going.  Thinking back to our MVP, we could have used a little more time architecting out our app, and could have looked at the algorithms we were going to use and optimized it.  But, at the time, we were still struggling to deal with asynchronous operations.  That and that steep learning curve from JQuery to React.

Another critique was during our morning stand-ups, we should have been pushed into deadlines.  ie, we should have been guesstimating how long our features were going to take to build.

Oh... and the curriculum?  We kinda did the work, ran into problems, and problems became the curriculum.  One thing sooorely lacking at the time was code review.  We merged our code into main almost willy nilly.  This would have been VERY frowned upon in 3 of the 3 companies I worked for.  Usually the senior guy, or a peer would need to approve the merge.  Not in this cohort, lol.  That code review could have very well been part of the curriculum.

At this time, even if the instructors would stay from 9-6, some of us would stay waaaaay later than that, to get more code in.  Literally, the security guards would have to kick us out from the classrooms at night so they could lock the doors.

Then came the day of the presentation.  Both the .NET and Node cohorts had list of features that were unimplemented or incomplete.  Come to find out, there was another cohort in the OC that barely got anything done (there was some drama).  Remember I told you about the ambitious .NET cohort?  They had a ton of great features, but it lacked the polish our limited scope of a Node app had.

Btw, it was months before I found anything.  months.  I had relocated to be near the school, so I couldn't take advantage of going to the nearest Sabio (I lived in San Diego) location.  Eventually, I did find a job... but in a totally different tech stack...

Overall, would i recommend Sabio?  Hell yeah!  Having said that, this course is very, very driven by the amount of work YOU put into it.  It is very, very easy to slack off during the day, because no one is supervising you.  If you need to take couple hours off, no one will bat an eye.  If you don't complete a feature, it doesn't get merged to main.  You'll still complete the course.  Sabio will gladly take your money and give you a certificate.  The environment Sabio puts you in is very much the environment you'll find in tech.  You're expected to figure it out.  The seniors might not have the answer (or could be flat out wrong).  You.  Yes, you.  Its okay to not know, but it's not okay to not deliver.  Copy that code, change the parameters.  Get the output you need.  Get it working 1st, then when documenting, figure out why it works.  Don't get hung up on the how/why, implementation comes first.  If that bothers you, Sabio probably is not for you.  There isn't enough time to teach everyone theories of Computer Science, but there is just barely enough time to drill implementation steps of a technology stack.  You'll learn all that other stuff, with enough time and effort.  (Think Big O, data structures)

TLDR;  Tech stack, technologies don't matter in the long run.  Get to know your instructors before jumping into the cohort.  They will make or break your experience in Sabio.  Focus on IMPLEMENTATION.  If it workas, and passes tests, it's good.  Wonder why it works later.  Sabio will make you uncomfortable, and you have to be okay with it.  What you learn, and what you eventually put in your resume is completely up to you.

Attending Sabio was the best decision I ever made!! 

The curriculum was superb, they teach you real life skills. The coding part is only the beginning, they teach you to ask questions, work together as a team, how to speak to product owner, and in the end they give you the fundamentals to take with you to interviews. The way the curriculum is structured is the way your everyday work life will be structured. 

All the instructors are extremely knowledgable, have worked in the industry for years, and are extremely patient. No question is a dumb question. In fact, the more questions you ask they more likely you are to succeed. 

Once you are done with the bootcamp, they don't just kick you out the door. There is a wide range of alumni at your disposal that are either trying to get you into their company or are helping you with mock interviews and what to expect along the journey. Liliana, one of the founders, was always willing to lend a therapeutic ear when I felt down on myself. There are not enough words to tell you how grateful I am for this community. 

Two months after completing the bootcamp, I signed an offer letter to work with a company that not only values their employees but also encourages them to learn and grow in their field. The money I invested into going to Sabio came back twofold in the amount I increased my previous salary. 

If you are on the fence about what bootcamp to attend, or if you want to attend a bootcamp, I strongly suggest attending one of their information sessions. There they will answer any and every question. Literally the way they are in the information session is the way they are through and through. One of the deciding factors for me was their Latina in Tech scholarship, they believe in closing the gap in tech and helping a Latina like myself change careers for the better. 

I love Sabio, and if I had to do it over again, I would do it in a heartbeat. 

Making a career change is nerve racking as it is exciting. My biggest concern was will I succeed as a professional in this new field. I’ve learned  everything I need to know, now what?  Where do I start?  What calmed some of my fears was my experience with Sabio. The curriculum is based on in demand skills that employers are seeking right now, which definitely gives you an edge as a candidate. Whether it’s an instructor, alumnus or classmate there is always someone online to answer questions, help you get through a tough spot on a project or give interview pointers. You can self-teach and find resources to learn how to code everywhere. Sabio’s value lies in the support you receive as a student, an alumnus during the job search and as a professional. They are committed to your success. Sabio is more than just a coding bootcamp. It’s a community, a professional network and one of the strongest support networks someone can have when starting a career as a Software Developer.

I have been genuinely shocked at how dramatically my life has changed. Thats probably how most of these cheesy reviews start. I expected "okay" results coming into this. At least I would come out knowing more than absolutely nothing about software development. Nope. This program set me up. Starting with the fundamentals to the job search process Sabio is the complete package to break into the industry. I landed a full-time role as an Application Developer. I loved it so much I post all the jobs that come my way in their slack jobs channel. Many other alumni do this as well. If your looking to break into the industry this is the way. One caveat, this program will consume your life for the duration of it. Give it serious effort and you will reap the rewards. Slack off or expect to be spoon fed information and this will be a waste of your time and money.

Before the course, I had always had an interest in programming. I have always dabbled in a few languages but the way things connected eluded me and I had no idea how to solve even the simplest programming task. I did the Remote Fullstack course and now I am literally about to publish the first web app ever, and I did the programming for the frontend, middleware (c#.net) and the backend. I feel extremely confident in my abilities. The instructors have a big emphasis on self-learning, so be aware that you will not have someone giving lectures or holding your hand the whole time. But you will learn the process of troubleshooting complex programming issues and digging through documentation and programming. The teachers are always there to help give guidance and feedback along the way. 100% recommend!

I was in the military for seven years and had a job lined up that would allow me to finish my degree in Management in Information Systems. It was a great plan- till COVID 19 hit. A lot of things changed, and the job I had lined out at separation fell through. I decided that I need to make a hard pivot and make a change. I looked through my VA benefits and found that I could receive funding for technical training. I explored my option, and while researching, I found Sabio. I did an info session and quickly decided to put all my chips into this career path.

You do a free Pre Work course that ensures that you have the base level skills to do well in the program. At the end of the Pre Work, you do an assessment. If you do well, you are chosen and accepted to participate in an incredible and intensive program.

Ensure that you have all your personal affairs inline because for the next three months, it is 12 hours days Monday-Friday and an 8 hour day on Saturday. You'll be pushed to learn a great deal of stuff in a small window to perform challenging tasks. It sounds like a lot because it is. However, do you want to change your career into a high paying job with a bright future? Then it is worth it.

At a certain point in the program, you will develop an application for an entrepreneur. They'll have demands and needs that you'll have to fulfill. Doing work for an entrepreneur is great because you are now essentially working as a contractor on a real product and working in an Agile environment.

There is assistance during and at the end to get into employment. Just because you finish the program doesn't mean that your time with Sabio is over. They continue to engage with you. There are other opportunities to listen to speakers, enroll again for certifications, and be surrounded by dedicated programmers. Sabio Nation is incredible.

I got my first job as an Associate Software Engineer position 11 days after graduation. This position provides for my family and puts me on a path for many different opportunities. I can't express the amount of gratitude I have for Liliana and Gregorio. I went from no options after the Navy to being a desirable worker in the tech space. 

For those of you looking for a quick summary, Sabio is... a bust. You're lured in with excellent marketing, a plethora of well produced testimonials, and, if you're like me, the rap video starring the school's cofounder and CTO is the straw the breaks the camel's back. "This is the perfect coding school for me," I thought. But, just like a damsel awaiting her prince in shining armor, my expectations were too high. 

Things started off well. I was a VA student using my VOC Rehab benefits to cover tuition, and Liliana and Gregorio were eager to have me on board. They made exceptions for me, allowing me an extra month of Prework and access to the Irvine campus while it was supposed to be closed (Covid-19). I found myself a bit frustrated with the Prework process and lack of access to live instruction, but they assured me that once I was in bootcamp, my instructors would be available to guide me as much as I might need. And so I pressed on through the Prework, taking them at their word, passed the entrance exam with only one incorrect answer, and was excited to start the bootcamp that following Monday.

Monday came, and I was ready. I'm the type of student that's eager to jump in, is the first to speak up when asked for input, and I'm not afraid to encourage and support peers who need encouragement and support. I'm confident that if you asked any person in my cohort (C88), they would agree that, up until the final month of training, the characteristics I've assigned myself are true. But slowly, along the way, I grew increasingly discouraged, and as much I've tried to find my own fault in it, I cannot, at this point, deny that Sabio's failure to provide patient, positive, and meaningful instruction, as well as their tendency to intimidate and bully student's who're unhappy with their pedagogy, ultimately drove my discouragement to disillusion.

The first time I spoke up, it was too late. It was July 6th (nearly 4 months into my time at Sabio, counting Prework), and I sent Gregorio a private message on Slack, detailing my growing sense of despair. Instructors on the Q did not take the time to ensure I understood a solution to a problem, rather they solved it for me or gave such vague guidance that I found myself more confused. On the Q, instructors frequently seemed bothered by my questions and lack of understanding, and I was met with condescending tones often after waiting an hour or more to even ask my question. The Wiki (online reference guide for code) was more a collection of code snippets, rather than something I could turn to for deeper understanding of things I needed to grasp. I felt, strongly, that while others may have been able to work through these barriers, I was "slipping through the cracks." And those were my words to Gregorio. I pleaded for the instruction that I needed, deserved, and used invaluable time and resources to attain, and the response I got? "I told you so."

Gregorio went pointed me back to the orientation videos in which he tells you to prepare for feeling like you can't do it. But if he'd at all took the content of my message seriously, he'd have clearly seen that I was confident in my ability to make it, confident that I could learn the skills they claim to teach and confident that I would be, in less than a years time, a Full Stack Developer with no prior background in tech. But rather than asking that his instructors be more patient, rather than asking that they adapt their attitudes and approach to teach briefly, to support a student who wanted to learn skills they possessed badly, I was told that I should drop the course. "Listen," Gregorio said. "If you're not confident that things are going to work out by now, then you should just drop the course." He went on to explain all the ways in which he felt I failed as a student. I didn't ask questions well. I didn't make sense of the Wiki the way I should have. I shouldn't have been so sensitive to the instructors passive-aggressive, dismissive, and belittling tones, because people in tech have strong personalities. I felt ambushed. I felt defeated. I felt that in asking for help, I would receive it. And instead I was scolded and rebuked. But I'm one to always put a positive spin to things. I tried to see it from Gregorio's perspective, and convinced myself that should I head his advice, I could still come out of Sabio with the knowledge and ability to creative beautiful, responsive, scaleable web applications and land my first gig as a Web Developer.

Fast forward to August, I've headed all of Gregorio's advice, and find myself essentially in the same place. My graduation date is set for the 14th, and I can build components in React, but not build a React App. I can tell you what I need to build an API on .Net, but I can't actually build it. The only place I truly felt like the training clicked, was in building databases in SQL, and that's really not much more impressive than learning to count to 10. And so, when Gregorio sent me an email on August 11th asking why I hadn't been very active on the slack channels or morning standup meetings, I told him that I had not made progress. That I felt disappointed in the quality of instruction and training I received, and that all the same issues I'd said were contributing to my sense of despair in July had consisted, and prevented me from completing my training with satisfactory competence.

And that's when they really let me down. Without my knowledge, Gregorio and Liliana contacted my Voc Rehab counselor, requesting that I be removed from the program. They claimed that I had communicated to them that I could no longer participate in the program, something that was not remotely true (particularly as there were 4 days left for my cohort). I confronted them in an email which CC'd my counselor, informing them that their claim was not factual, and clarifying for my counselor what was actually said. I then received another message from Gregorio, separate from the string in which my counselor was CC'd, which claimed I was in violation of Sabio's attendance policy, and that they had grounds for dismissal. I reviewed the policy, found that I was not in fact in violation of it, and responded to Gregorio asking that he explain what exactly qualified me for dismissal. I asked that he ensure any further communications include my counselor, to ensure that no further accusations were made without proper representation being present to witness. I never received a reply, and the next day, with 2 days of training left, my access to Sabio's training site, as well as my cohort's slack channel and all other lines of communication, were cut off. I emailed Gregorio asking that he clarify whether I'd been dropped from the program or not, and again did not receive a reply.

Tomorrow is my graduation from Sabio. I participated for the entirety of the program until my access was blocked. I contributed to the "Client Project", and my work can be seen on the site still. They'd already sent a copy of my Certificate of Completion to my counselor, and yet, I've been dropped from the program. This, without any explanation or further communication from any person at the school.

I truly hope that my experience here has not been anyone else's, and that if Sabio is successful, it's because they've recognized their flaws and corrected their course. I do not recommend this school to anyone, though at one point I even helped them promote the school on my personal social media. Sabio was, by far, the worst decision I've made in my academic and professional career to this point. Do not make the same mistake I did.

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I came back to the United States after 4 years abroad with no job prospects, no idea what I was going to do, and zero programming experience whatsoever. I found my way to Sabio and just over 6 months later I had 4 job offers and literally went from 0 to 60K. But make no mistake, learning full stack web development from nothing is not easy. It takes a tremendous amount of time, hard work, dedication, and determination. Show Sabio all of the above, and the entire Sabio community will support you for your entire web development career. Sabio delivered exactly what it promised. Sabio works.

This is not just another online class. Sabio was there 100% of the way to help you on this coding journey. The instructors are knowledgeable, ready to help and is always full of great advice. Even though I was remote I was still able to get valuable instruction and help when I needed it. Everyone at Sabio is comitted to your learning experience and success and that is a wonderful feeling knowing that they care and want you succeed. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to be a part of this program and I have a coding family for life! Thank you Sabio!

Sabio is the best investment, in time and money, you could possibly make for yourself!  The course is very rigorous but as long as you give it your best effort you will be alright. Gregorio and Liliana run a great program and all the instructors are top notch. There isn't any hand holding throughout the cohort. The instructors are not there to give you the answers to all of the problems that you run into but they are there to guide you in your journey to figure them out for yourself. This is where I feel that Sabio is the greatest at. Anyone can learn to code but the difficulty lies in learning how to understand problems and solving them in the most efficient way possible. 

After graduating from the cohort and many interviews and rejections you do start to wonder if you have the skills you need to get that dream developer job. Well do not worry because you undoubtedly do. The support you get from everyone at Sabio is amazing. Even after graduating I was able to get on zoom calls with my instructor, Danny, and he helped me with a problem I was running into. Now just a month after graduating I have landed a job in career field I would not have thought possible just a few months prior. So do yourself a favor and give Sabio a chance, you won't regret it.

 

I had the opportunity of attending two coding boot camps before I was offered a coding job and would like to compare and contrast two coding academies, Sabio and Hack Reactor. Sabio, As per https://www.coursereport.com/schools/sabio is a 5 stars coding academy and Hack Reactor a 4.5.

Sabio is an outstanding place to learn for several reasons, Sabio is small (they do have campuses in LA and Irvine) so you get a one on one approach directly from the founder or from one of the instructors. During the precourse, they provide 3 hours of one on one assitance with an experienced instructor and since the school is small some days you have an instructor for 3 hours providing exclusive assistance with your prework and you also get a promptly response in one of their slack channels.

Their prework is pretty awesome, you solve individual problems that connect to an API (Appliacation Programming Interface) that will let you know immediately when you have solved each specific task. The entire prework was developed and updated by the instructors evidence of their coding knowledge. The prework is organized in components and each components has a video explaining the concept and each component.

Hack Reactor was purchased by galvanize and is a pretty fancy rich school with lots advertizements so their classes are so big that you get the feeling that you are just a number. Their prework is a bit ambigious, you submit it and never hear from the instructors, they don’t have xoom conferences until you pass the prework, so you are really on your own during prework. Their slack channels do provide assistance but most of it come from other students.

Overall, I recommend a small school that can give you attention and is not a beurocratic juggernut.