Sabio

Pragmatically speaking, I made an average of roughly over 25k a year last year and now make 65k with a 5 year technical mentorship to boot. If that didn’t get to you, read on.

Before going into this program I was working 3 odd jobs while going to a CC. Through the odd jobs, I'd met people in varying professions as I was in the midst of my indecision for what I wanted to pursue as a future career. Had met people from an array of fields ranging from musicians, managers, professors, accountants, and athletes; though those who'd always stood out were the developers.

Developers were quirky and had their little idiosyncrasies to them that made them stand out, though they all shared an underlying character of being able to adapt to change. Technology is an ever growing field and nothing is obsolete. To be a high quality developer entails having to constantly learn new concepts and functions while staying up-to-date with the tides of technological change. So, when you're starting out, have a solid foundation.

Sabio will give you that solid foundation.

If you've tried learning how to program on your own, you'd see there are a number of resources out there that range from teaching you the fundamentals of programming to the syntax and basic functions of a language; though they rarely, if ever, teach you the soft skills that programming entails.

Sabio gives you the opportunity to learn those soft skills, allowing you the chance to collaborate with a team.

If you’re looking for a good money maker, then look no further.

Sabio teaches you the .Net and now MEAN stack. Both of which are stacks where the money, is definitely, where it’s at.

The bootcamp pushes you to your limits. It'll allow you the chance to become well acquainted with the realm of professionalism. And chances are, you'll be with a group of people who may as well be just as experienced as you are in that field. Sabio gives you an opportunity that honestly can’t put into coherent words. It’ll have you feeling a flurry of emotions, make you feel uncomfortable in your own skin, and yet, give you a small push in the right direction towards your definition of success. And at the end of the day, when you get the guts to put your best foot forward, it’ll all be worth it.

My review may not be as detailed as the others on here though that hadn't been my intention. Its intent was to tell you readers looking for a bootcamp to invest in the unconventional and to: Just Do It

It's important to understand what Sabio is so you could understand what it isn't.

It's geared to help you land an entry level developer role (unless you're coming with some experience to learn more). If you're like me without a tech background, it means having Gregorio and the instructors help build a foundation for yourself to enter the field and teach you how to continue building on what you know. Your cohort instructor won't necessarily stand at the front of the classroom and lecture you all day. Instead, you're pushed to learn "on the job". You're given aspects of an overall product to build out and when you get stuck, you're encouraged to google for answers or ask your instructor by putting your name on a queue where you then receive one on one attention. I struggled a lot initially because I was someone who excelled in a lecture setting, but coding is best learned through hands on practice and you have to push through it even when it seems like you don't really understand all the pieces. If you're someone with a little more experience, they'll make sure you're challenged. Overall, you have a responsibility to put in the time and effort and communicate your concerns/struggles/goals with Gregorio, Liliana, or your instructors just like they have the responsibility to try and help you get to where they genuinely want you to be.

Sabio won't spoonfeed you the knowledge you need or get the job for you. You are the one that needs to put in the 70 hours/week. You are the one that will eventually be applying to jobs and studying for those interviews. But Gregorio, Liliana and your instructor will be with you every step of the way. 

My job search data: I applied to 179 jobs in total (definitely on the lower end of what we were supposed to), I received 21 rejections, 10 in person interviews and countless assessments and recruiter calls. On day 90, I received and accepted my second job offer with a company that understood the value of a Sabio graduate. You may be the person that gets a job within a month of graduating or, like me, it might take you a little longer and that's okay. Job searching is a stressful complex mess and there are all sorts of barriers and factors. Keep at it anyway. On days when I felt like I couldn't do it anymore, I dragged myself to the Antioch campus so that Gregorio, Liliana and my instructors could keep pushing me. Trust their process and their wisdom.

Being a part of Sabio means being a part of a community that I've personally seen Gregorio fiercely protect. I deeply respect what he and Liliana are building here and can tell you that they are committed to help you succeed. They are readily available to answer your questions and are constantly improving their pre-work, lab and cohort processes. Without Sabio, I would've been stuck as a temp receptionist with a college degree and I owe them so much not just for the tech skills I've gained or my cohort I've grown to love but for helping me find the confidence I needed to keep going. 

I did not like Sabio's deceptive practices regarding job interviews and resumes. They have their students work on a web development project from a random company that wants a website done. (They claim that they "no longer" receive payment from the company for this.) Then, when the students graduate, they are instructed to lie on their resumes and to list that they worked full-time as a "junior developer" for the outside company, and to never mention Sabio on their resume or in interviews "due to negative stigma associated with bootcamps." As part of this deal, the outside company gets the free website and agrees to play along and tell any future employers calling for references that the student was a good "employee." Obviously, this is a complete lie, since it was not the student's first "junior development job." Rather, they were a student the entire time, started from practically no knowledge of coding, and Sabio was using the web project as a training exercise. Sabio is telling their students to commit resume and application fraud, and to lie during interviews, and I'm sure many employers would not be very happy to find out about this later on. Also, what happens ten or twenty years from now when the student applies to a company, or a government agency requiring a security clearance, where an in-depth background investigation is conducted, and the future potential employer learns that the student's career was started with resume fraud? One only needs to do a Google search to find news articles about a company executive, etc., who was fired when their past resume fraud came to light. So, while this helps Sabio have good job placement stats, in the long-run it hurts students' future careers.

FIRED UP!

I can honestly say that making the decision to go through Sabio was one of the best decision I've ever made. After having spent the majority of my professional life in the car business, wearing just about every hat, I was not sure how I would adapt to being in an school type environment for 12 weeks. It turned out to be nothing like your typical school structure and that was part of the magic that makes Sabio work. This bootcamp has a really strong emphasis on a learn by doing approach as it is comprised of TONS of hours coding building a real application.

Before I came into this program I was not very computer savy but the beauty of this program is that you really can come from any walk of life and as long as you are willing to truely dedicate yourself throughout the course of this program you will come out of it with a long list of very strong capable abilities to help you get the job you're looking for or launch that startup you've been thinking about starting. 

The truth is Sabio and its instructors really challenged the hell out of me to put everything I had into the program and although it was tough on my life at the time I really have to thank them from the bottom of my heart for helping me put things into perspective as to the reason why I was there. Afterall 3 months goes by in a flash and the rewards for putting in your ultimate effort will benefit you greatly once you're done with the program.

The last thing I like to mention is the community and mentorship. I've currently been working on my own application as I've chosen to go the entrepreneur route. If anyone would have told me I would have had this kind of support after cohort I would have totally said "c'mon please.. there's no way" afterall they already have my money why would anyone continue investing time/resources into me after the contract ends. I guess the car business made me way too skeptical and bitter. Lol. It turns out when you graduate from Sabio they SERIOUSLY STILL HAVE YOUR BACK. I can't tell you how amazing it is to have access to the Sabio community. From getting unstuck when you have a coding or build issue to ongoing professional developement. Boom! I hereby vouch for Sabio being the best coding Bootcamp ever!

(Insert Shia Labeouf "JUST DO IT!" GIF here)

Thank you Sabio!

I graduated from Sabio and was interviewed by Course Report: 

https://www.coursereport.com/schools/sabio#/news/alumni-spotlight-dan-tutolo-of-sabio

tailored insturction:

What I would like to add to that is that Sabio has all the bases covered. For one, it doesn't matter how much experience you have becuase with their student/teach ration which is like 5-1 or 6-1, you get tailored instruction based on your level. They will give  you what you can handle and will always give you enough to challange you and force you to grow, whether you have zero experience or 20 years in another IT field. I came in with three years of Oracle database and some C# and python experience and my instruction was tailored to focus on my front end skills. Yet, there were people in my class with zero experience who walked out at the end of the program as competent junior developers with the capabilities to wire up the full architecture for any web app event starting with the html/css/js, shttleing the data to the middle tier api endpoints and using services to insert or retrieve data from a db. So this means they could consider any backend, middle tier, front end or even full stack positions. 

amazing post graduate support: 

Not only are you well prepped for interviews including whiteboarding and being forced to talk professionally about your code and prepare a professional resume, once you gradulate the school is there to advise you on dealing with recruiters and will even review your job offers with you. Super hands on. But not only that, there are multiple Sabio channels on SLACK where graduates can ask technical questions and get prompt replies from Sabio instructors and other graduates. The network and support grows with each cohort and you will always be part of the Sabio family. 

Whatever you do, espcially if you are vet and have housing allowace (because you can use your GI BILL at Sabio), make sure Sabio is on the top of your list for consideration!

 

 

Making the decision to join Sabio's developer program was hands down one of the best decisions I've ever made. After working as a producer/actress for several years, I was looking for a career change that would allow me to utilize my analytical and creative sides and earn a more money while doing it. When I started learning more about coding, it seemed like something that would check all boxes. So back in September, after reading all of the rave reviews on Course Report, I decided to attend an information session to find out for myself if everything was as great as folks were making it out to be. At the session, Gregorio did a great job of answering everyone's questions and by the time I left I was convinced that signing up was the absolute right move for me. I love the fact that they offer a pre-work class before you start the 12-week developer program to help you ramp up to building a real-world application. I started pre-work in October and the 12-week program in November. Considering the fact that they're teaching you the full stack, along with the various frameworks, libraries, and technologies that come along with that, the program was definitely intense and thorough. Our instructor Mike was amazing and did a phenomenal job making the concepts plain and encouraging us through each and every step of the process. Our cohort was also blessed to have Gregorio teach us part of the time,which allowed us to experience a different teaching style that helped all of us reach our full potential as developers. Even though we worked really hard, I have to say that my cohort was a ton of fun and we all grew really close. It's great having so many people rooting for your success and everyone looks out for everyone else's best interest. For anyone wondering about employment after successful completion of the program, I'm pleased to report that I got a job offer before the end of the program with a salary that I'm very satisfied with! I'm so incredibly grateful for Gregorio and Liliana's vision, hard work, and dedication to all of us. I truly thank God for the fact that going through Sabio's developer program has given me an opportunity to attain an awesome skill set that will help propel my career and dreams forward while allowing me to provide a better life for my family. If you have the opportunity to do the same, you have to take it because you will not regret it!

If you're reading this then it must mean you've taken the scary step in changing your life for the better. Brief history about me, I was in the finance industry for a long time and I wanted to make a change. I kept seeing how the world is now centered around technology and felt that I needed to be a part of this industy else I'll fall behind in life. 

I was TERRIFED about starting a new career, and had a lot of doubt in my mind about making the move. The worse comes from family and friends and some will try their hardest to convince you that there's too many "unknowns" about this and to not make the move. But at the end of the day, it's your life, not theirs. If you're not satisfied with your career, don't listen to the doubters and make the move!

I attended an infosession (every wednesday) and was convinced that Sabio is the bootcamp for me.  What set them apart from the others is they don't try to entice you with how much their graduates make or how "cool" their campus is or any other of that "sales talk" jargon. Gregorio kept it real and told you EXACTLY what to expect when you come in. And they offer extensive interview prep during the end of the bootcamp and 5 years of guidance and assistance after you graduate.  No other bootcamp offered this and this sealed the deal for me.

What to expect:  HARD WORK and LONG HOURS! This isn't a sugar coated statement. This bootcamp will challenge you. You and your cohort will be coding on a project for 10+ hours mon-fri (weekends are optional).  You'll be introduced to many challenges from backend with writing simple to complex TSQL queries, to the middle tier coding in C# all the way to the front-end working with javascript.  Trust and listen to your instructors. They all have more than 10+ years working in the industry.

There will be days where you feel overwhelmed, there will be days when you feel like everyone is smarter and faster than you, there will be days when you question yourself if you made the right choice.  So how do you combat those feelings? It's really hard, but STAY POSITIVE.  The instructors are there to guide you not only professionally, but emotionally as well.  And they do a dam good job of it too.  Do not be afraid to approach them with any trouble you have, they encourage it.

But don't let this scare you.  This really is a "work hard, play hard" environment. Gregorio and the instructors do a great job providing that kind of atmosphere.  Your cohort and Sabio will be your family for the next 3 months and you all will have a lot of fun. My cohort had 12 people in it and we all got along really well and had lots of fun coding together.  My cohort ended late December 2016 and a lot of us are still friends after the bootcamp ended and more than half of us (including me) already have jobs. 

So if you're still on the fence with Sabio, take the plunge and do it. I did and it was one of the best moves I've made in life. You gain credible professional experience and you make life long friends at the end. I would not trade the experience for anything. Thanks Gregorio, Liliana, John and Jimmy for everything!

 

If you've already decided that you want to dive into the land of development, and that the bootcamp route is right for you, look no further than Sabio.

Deciding to put your life on hold and invest so much time and money into a life-changing program like a coding bootcamp can be daunting, and if you’re going to make the leap, you want to make sure that you’re going to be in good hands. To help you make your decision, I’ll share a bit with you about why I am so thankful that I went with Sabio, and why I think it’s a no-brainer choice for anyone who is still on the fence.

Prior to starting Sabio, I had researched coding bootcamps throughout California. I read about various camps throughout socal, and was also drawn to the highly selective, “big name” camps in the bay area, thinking that since they were seemingly the most competitive and widely touted, there had to be something to them. I even went all the way through the admissions process for one which had a ~2% acceptance rate, jumping through hoops all the way to the end, before becoming disillusioned with many aspects of the program: I saw that they funneled recent bootcamp grads back in as teachers, so that they could inflate their employment statistics, despite the fact that that lowered the quality of teaching; they were impersonal to the point of being cutthroat, apparently administering tests every couple weeks during the program and then kicking to the curb anybody who didn’t meet very particular criteria; and they appeared to merely “teach to the test,” aka teach students how to solve isolated word problems, rather than preparing students for real-world job experience.

All that being said, after that admissions experience, coming to Sabio was like night and day. Throughout the cohort and beyond, I have been thankful every day that I went with them over any other camp, and the program more than exceeded my expectations.

Here are my top four reasons why I think Sabio sets itself leagues ahead of all other camps:

(1) The practical experience: Pretty much every other camp out there will have their students graduate with nothing more to show than an individual pet project that is, at best, a good imitation of an existing popular app. In contrast, over the course of a Sabio cohort, students work together in an environment that very closely resembles that of a real development team. The class collaborates to build out a real product for a real client, following a real-world software development life cycle and responding to feedback from product meetings. Everyone works in a full stack capacity, taking ownership of their features and integrating them with their classmates’, and in the end, everyone’s built up the skills, practical experience, and code necessary to prove to employers that they have what it takes to step into a job. Along the way, the instructors guide the class through the different layers of the stack, striking a balance between teaching, advising, and giving you the independence to solve problems on your own.

(2) The instructors: I can’t speak highly enough of our instructors, Aaron and Varr. Varr guided us through the prework, while Aaron took the lead for the 12-week program, architecting the project and spearheading instruction, with Varr assisting. Unlike at other places where recent bootcamp grads with no practical experience are funneled into teaching positions, Sabio’s instructors have years and years of professional development experience between them, and it shows. This means that you get to skip past a lot of the newbie mistakes that it takes junior developers years to sort out, and instead learn best practices right from the get-go. It also means that you can trust in your instructors to guide you correctly, even when it comes to the most difficult or unexpected of problems. Beyond that, our instructors helped foster an environment full of both hard work and banter. Along with my awesome classmates, they helped keep our spirits up even through the toughest of times with a zenlike calm and a healthy dose of humor, both necessary things for bootcamp survival :)

(3) The network (family): The Sabio network is large, tight-knit, and ever-growing. It is comprised of a diverse and enthusiastic group of current students and alumni from every cohort, who support each other and bounce ideas off each other even long after the 12-week program ends. The bootcamp itself is a family-owned business, founded and run by husband and wife duo Gregorio and Liliana, and they truly make all Sabio fellows feel like family. Gregorio and Liliana have your back, and they work their butts off to make sure that everyone is set up for success.

(4) The overall value: Sabio doesn’t just take your money and run. Far from it. Instead, the founders and instructors are sincerely invested in your career and your growth as a person. This means that you are not merely tossed out of the nest after your paid 12 weeks is up. Instead, as a graduate of the program and a Sabio fellow, you are then welcome to attend a huge variety of events for 5 years after you graduate, including hackathons, professional development workshops, meetups, job fairs, etc., and you are also able to keep in touch with your instructors and ask them for help with anything ranging from technical to career advice. I graduated less than two months ago, and already I’ve participated in a hackathon hosted by Sabio at USC, and have also learned AngularDart from a Google software engineer at a Sabio-arranged workshop. Moreover, I’ve been able to ping my instructors with questions about new languages and frameworks, interview advice, career guidance, and salary negotiations.

As for me, I am now happily employed as a software engineer at an exciting startup, making 50% more than my previous salary. But beyond money, I have also gained the skills, confidence, and support needed to flourish in the industry; have made wonderful new friends along the way; and have had a life-changing experience that I will continue to cherish as I grow in my career.

Honestly…if you’re still reading this and are still deciding, just go ahead and contact Gregorio and Liliana through the Sabio website, and attend an info session to see what it’s all about. You won’t regret it.

6 months ago, I was accepted into and deciding between two different coding bootcamps when, at the last minute, I decide to do another search for coding camps in the LA/OC area. Lucky that I did, as that was what led me to Sabio. I chose Sabio over all the many other choices for several reasons:

• Pre-work: I am always wary of jumping into anything new without heavy research first. Having the option to be on-campus and get a taste of how Sabio teaches and the work that gets done is the best research evidence to add to the pros and cons list.
• .NET stack:  I was hoping to learn a strongly typed, structured language since C, C++, and Java was always more intimidating to me than Javascript. Most places seem to have their curriculum based in Ruby or Javascript (MEAN stack, which Sabio now offers too). Sabio is one of the few coding camp that offered the .NET stack, which includes .NET, C#, SQL, Javascript, jQuery, and AngularJS.
• Work with real companies: After attending an info session, I learned that Sabio provides an opportunity for their students to work on projects belonging to startups or already established companies. Some past cohorts built a company’s app from the ground-up and others revamped an existing company’s site. Working on a company’s product seemed more interesting than working on multiple smaller projects.
• Experienced instructors: I was feeling nervous about the other camps after they confirmed their instructors for my cohort. They were both graduates of the camp they were teaching, which is definitely not to say that they would not be great at instructing a new crop of students, but it really does not put an already doubtful mind at ease. It also brings into question the validity of the school’s hiring rates. Sabio hires only industry professionals with over 10 years of experience in the field.
• Limited classroom size: Sabio limits their classroom size to 10 students per instructor while my other options had 15 students per class and the other over 30 students per class.
• 5 years mentorship: I really liked the idea of a coding camp maintaining an open line of communication with their graduates. It showed a long-term investment in the skills they help develop.

The 12 weeks at Sabio were grueling and tough. Be prepared to put your personal life on hold during this period and give all you’ve got to the program. There was a lot to learn in a (relatively) small space of time and every step of the way our instructor was there to guide and teach us, and nudge us down the correct path when our code seems to going awry. The instructors at Sabio are coding wizards. They all have over 10 years’ experience with programming and it really shows. It is not uncommon that I would go up to John or Jimmy with a problem have been struggling with for over an hour and for them to resolve it in under 10 minutes. But my cohort members and I were not taught to be solely dependent on our instructors’ help.  At Sabio, we were taught how to finds solutions to our problems on our own and were introduced to developer tools and new ways for thinking about the problems to better come up with our own solutions.

I am especially grateful for the Sabio network and 5 years mentorship promise now that my 12 weeks has come to an end. Sabio provides monthly professional development events and facilitates team set-up for hackathons. The owners Gregorio and Liliana truly care about further developing the coding abilities and career paths of their fellows. In addition to this, Sabio grads are now also part of the Sabio alumni network. Having the help and support of fellow alums—their interview tips, advice, their offers for additional mock interviews, inside knowledge of a job opening within an alum’s current place of employment, and stories of the alum’s own experiences—was invaluable during the job search.

My cohort completed our training 5 weeks ago and half of our group are now employed. This happened in spite of the awkward timing of the Christmas/New Year holidays when most companies’ recruiting and hiring process went quiet. Prior to Sabio, I was at a stable but unfulfilling job that paid well. After Sabio, I accepted an offer 5 weeks after graduating and will be making about 29% more than my previous salary with much better benefits.

If you have narrowed your bootcamp list down to just a few strong candidates, Sabio should be on that list. Remember that you do not only have the words of past fellows but also the option of going to an info session, attending pre-work, and speaking in-depth to Gregorio and Liliana. In the end, Sabio will be the right choice.

Let me start of by saying I’m making 70k+ a year for a starting web developer role! What makes Sabio better than any other bootcamp?  Sabio will do almost anything to land you that programming job you have always dream of! They will teach you concepts that are highly in demand in Southern California. They know what employers are looking for and they will polish you to be the ideal candidate.  No college degree? No problem! Sabio graduates who does not have  a college degree has found employment. If you are looking for a bootcamp that has amazing results. Join the Sabio community!    

The results first.  It took me 5 weeks to find a job (83K), extremely good considering the following points; bootcamp finished right before Christmas; I had a massive gap in my work history; I've never had a real job for nearly 5 years.  Before I started the bootcamp, I was going nowhere in life and had been floundering for a long time.  I messed up earlier in life but knew deep down I could do better.  Sabio gave me the know-how and confidence to do so.

I did my research before choosing Sabio.  I went to info sessions for GA, Coding Dojo, and spoke in length to a friend who graduated from Hackreactor.  I found Sabio to be the best fit for two reasons; one, they taught in the style that I preferred; two, they cared the most (see Gregorio about caring). Sabio offers pre-work classes (with instructors!) which none of the other bootcamps offer. Pre-work with an instructor shows they care enough about their students to have them be on the same page before starting the bootcamp and it allows people to explore the possibility of a bootcamp without fully committing.  This kind of open learning environment is what I love most.  The bootcamp did not dissapoint in this regard at all.  All 12 weeks in the bootcamp were spent fully immersed in coding with guidance from an experienced teacher who you can seek help from anytime throughout the day.

I am a terrible student.  I suck at studying, memorizing, and learning in the traditional sense.  I learn best by doing.  And Sabio provided that environment for me.  If you are a more traditional learner, fret not.  They provide tons of reading material, video lectures, powerpoints, and have a very helpful wiki too.  Yes, I did have some background going into this program, but I was three years out of practice and never finished my formal education.  To summarize, its a very nurturing but challenging learning environment.  As long as you put your full effort into it, you will learn enough to get a job!  Thanks John, Jimmy, Gregorio and everyone at Sabio!

P.S. I miss bootcamp but alas they don't pay me :(