Sabio

Sabio is one of the best career moves I've made. I really can't thank Gregorio, Liliana, and the whole staff enough for the invaluable experience. Even after graduating, the job support was tremendous, and helped me land two full stack development job offers within a month of graduating. I am still in daily contact with the staff and the friends I made while attending Sabio.

About me: I came from a tech background doing QA, and had been wanting to become a software developer for years. It had been a long-term goal of mine that I’d work at on a daily basis, but it just wasn’t happening.

I tried making the transition into software development using self-learning for a long time, and felt like I didn't need guidance because of my prior experience. I was wrong.

In my experience, the curriculum and support that the staff provide cannot be replicated by self learning. I learned exponentially faster at Sabio than I had on my own. The topics go deep, and by the end of the program, if you put in the work, you will have the capability to make great applications. If you enjoy building things and making ideas come to life, the tools Sabio teaches are invaluable. 

Why Sabio: I worked hard to get into another top bootcamp, and got in (I won't name-drop). I decided to join Sabio after only a few days of being impressed at prework.

 I joined sabio for four reasons:

1. The instructors all have a ton of experience. Sabio has instructors who have decades of experience, while the other *prestigious* bootcamp I got into hires recent grads as head instructors. Seriously, look into it if you haven’t.

2. CIRR reports. Sabio has chosen to participate in third party audits, so they cannot fake their success numbers.  Few other bootcamps do this, and this was a requirement for me.

3. Sabio won’t kick out students half-way through the bootcamp. And If a student needs to leave for any reason (family etc.), refunds are provided. Other bootcamps are not nearly as flexible. And some even kick out students half way through if they are not able to pass certain tests. Sabio tests you upon entry (after prework), and once a student gets into Sabio, Sabio sticks with them. They are extremely commited, even after the bootcamp ends. Which brings me to my fourth point...

4. Sabio cares. They stick with their students and really really care. They provide a tremendous amount of support even after the bootcamp. Applying for job can be stressful, and they are there for you, until, and even after you get a job. Graduates receive support from instructors and both founders even after the three month cohort ends. I really needed guidance after the cohort ended and it was more than provided.

All and all I did my research beforehand, but even so, I really feel like I lucked out. 

My recommendation is, if anything, just check out prework. I wasn't sold until a few days into prework, and I'm so glad I stuck with it. Sabio's curriculum was a big challenge that I pushed though, and in doing so, it helped me overcome an even bigger obstacle in my life. Thank you

I honestly wouldn't be where I am today without the help, guidance, mentorship and leadership provided to me by Sabio. The daily instructions and random mini lectures provided to me by my instructor played such a key role in my success. Sabio's phililosophy isn't just to help you figure out how to do something, but to also understand the 'magic' that happens behind the scenes. That is why I was able to do so well during my phone screens and interview processes. Being able to articulate intelligibly things like JavaScript event loops, or what asynchronous / synchronous functions are, why use one over the other or what happens during the request/response life cycle like model binding or what data models are really helped validate me to my current employers that I'm not your typical junior developer. I guarantee that's one of the big reasons why I was hired. My transition to this career change was a very progressive one (although that wasn't a huge contribution towards my success, I worked alongside a cohort mate of mine who used to be in paralegal and within a matter of weeks after graduating from Sabio was able to find a great Frontend position working for a well known PC gaming company). I used to be in IT support - over 6 years, and I felt that I had peaked professionally. Suddenly what I used to love, just didn't give me the satisfaction and fulfillment it once did, so I knew I needed to change. I'm a U.S. military veteran and fortunately for me I was able to apply my veteran benefits towards Sabio because of their partnership with Antioch. Now, problem is I'm a person of routine, and taking risks is not something I am comfortable with. I needed so much reassurance before taking that big leap, which i ended finding through my extensive research and I'm so glad that I did. I increased my salary by over 30% and am now in an industry that I love, all thanks to my experience at Sabio. If you're like me, over the age of 30 and are seriously considering another career, particularly in the Web Application Development space, check out Sabio, ESPECIALLY if you're a veteran and still have a few months of benefits left. Don't just take it from me though, do your due diligence and research the other hundreds of bootcamps out there. Picj a fee top performing ones and check out their processes in person. Go to their info sessions, if possible sit in for a few hours during their normal instruction days and see what the class day to day is like. Speak with instructors and students alike, ask questions and see which environment resonates the most with you. Sabio, for many reasons ended up being my choice and I don't want to sound like a broken record with this page's ongoing theme but best decision of my life. You really do get out of it what you put into it and for me, i could NOT be more happier with the choice that i made.

Here's my story, right after high school I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life. So I decided to become a server (since they make decent living off tips, sure why not?). After being a server for four years and complaining on why food took so long to come out of the kitchen, I went and became a chef for the next 6 years.

So how and why did I decide to go into software development? Well, one day my computer got a virus. My roommate at the time luckily was really into technology and had a linux USB and told me to install it. After I installed it, my virus went away and my computer was working again. But now my laptop was a Linux machine. How TF do I use this thing? So I googled, and learned Unix commands and Linux CLI I started to feel like some hacker everytime I inputed 'sudo apt-get update'. My terminal just went crazy. But I never delved any deeper than just being exposed to the software. But I really enjoyed technology. (I never wrote any Bash shell scripts, but I'm sure I definitely can now, if I wanted to.)

I then found out my friend did web development and asked him how he got a job doing such things? I asked him if I needed a degree. He looked at me like I was silly, "No, man! If you want to be a developer you just F'in do it!" He gave me some websites to study off of; which I did for the next two years and built some minor web applications. At this point I felt very comfortable with javascript, html, and css. I knew how to use a for loop, while loops, if else statements, ternary if else, arrays, js objects. I felt pretty good about myself. But was I ready to go out there and apply? I wouldn't be a full stack developer. No.. but as cocky as I was(still am, guilty as charged :P), I wasn't ready.

So I looked into bootcamps. Found a few, but I felt something from Sabio. I felt like they actually care. Unlike other bootcamps, I feel like its a pump and dump. And that gut feeling I got about Sabio, really was true! You will learn everything you need to know to get out there and be confident. I know what I'm saying sounds cliche, it's not! LOL I'm super serious! I was super fortunate to have Jeremy Ramos as my instructor! I'm not sure what that guy doesn't know, but he definitely knows coding like a beast.

By the time you graduate, you'll be passing data back and forth in your sleep. I definitely recommend Sabio! I recently graduated August 2017 and got an offer in October. I don't have a degree. I came from a completely different industry. And here I am. I'm going to start my second week of work tomorrow as I type this. 

Ever wanted to be a software engineer? Stuck at a dead end job that you can barely support your family with? Or just want a more exciting job where everyday is a challenge of solving a new puzzle or two? Then I recommend you become a software/web/application (what have you) developer/engineer! And there's not a better start than starting with Sabio!

If you're anything like I was, you have zero experience writing code and don't know where (and if it's even a good idea) to invest your time and money learning to do so. I had plateaued in my previous career and was looking for something that could offer me more, both in personal satisfaction and financially. Working in tech seemed like a far-fetched idea – I had always assumed you had to be some sort of genius to do so. The fact is, you don't. 

Sabio starts you off two to three times a week in Pre-Work. This is where you learn Javascript and C# fundamentals. This is also the hardest part of the camp (though, it's not technically part of the camp) as you have little to no experience coding, and might struggle to build momentum and keep positive. I was surprised to learn that most people attending Pre-Work had already quit their jobs and committed to these sessions full-time. I couldn't afford that and was still working 40 hours a week. Having one foot in and one foot out, I wasn't allowing myself to fully digest the information being presented. Thankfully, when it came time to take the assessment test, I was able to demonstrate enough skill to enter the official camp. This is where you really start to shine.

I mean, you have to. You're writing code all day every day. And that's the beauty of it. On top of that, and one of the reasons why I ultimately chose Sabio, is that you're working on a real-world product. Your cohort is paired with an entrepreneur and his/her pitch, and over the duration of the camp you're developing an MVP (minimum viable product). Your instructor will assign you tasks in various parts of the tech stack, and week after week your product will slowly begin to materialize. You'll be amazed at what you're able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. I believe this to be a huge testament to not only the curriculum Sabio has developed, but the instructors Sabio has chosen to mentor the students. I firmly believe that just because you can do something does not mean you can teach it. My instructor (shout-out to John Lee) was always really good at providing overall context, some direction on what to research, and then sending you off to work through it. 

I'm sure this review echoes a lot of others in this forum. If you're even remotely considering a bootcamp as a means to a career change, I say do it –– it'll change your life. And if you're even remotely considering Sabio as your bootcamp of choice, the best thing you can do is go to one of the info sessions. There you'll meet Gregorio, one of the co-founders, who shoots straight from the hip and will answer any and all of your questions. It was after attending one of these sessions that I knew Sabio was for me. Gregorio is very passionate about breaking down barriers, building community, and getting you to the place you want to be if you're willing to put in the effort.

** if you have your life together this review is not for you but feel free to read it anyway**

In the years before sabio I had hopped from path to path, never fully satisfied with where my life was headed. I had studied accounting, fashion, communications, and felt like i was starting to run out of options. I hated college, and when I got a job in a field I thought I would really enjoy, I hated working too. So I quit my job and was feeling completely and utterly stuck, until I saw a particularly terrible movie in December 2016, where a character in the movie said "Do your self a favor and learn how to code". So I thought, hey I'm not doing anything, why not? I took a code academy module on javascript and had so much fun solving problems with code. Long story short, I found Sabio and their glowing reviews online and about half way into one of their info sessions, I decided that I was going to go to code bootcamp. 5 months later I have a job as a web developer and I couldn't be happier. Was it easy? No. Would i recommend it to everyone? No. Would i do it all over again? Absolutely. I've made life long friends and i honestly truly wake up so happy every morning because I get to do something that i love everyday. I just want to say thanks so much to Sabio, to my Cohort, and to Jeremy, my instructor,  at the Newport Beach campus for everything they've done. 

Summary: Would wholeheartedly recommend. Best investment in myself I've ever made; well employed with a fantastic organization. 

Most enter into a coding bootcamp looking for a second chance, plain and simple. Whether it be to increase earning potential or seek a more interesting field, the core theme that unites the Sabio community is the fact that everyone who comes through this bootcamp is striving for something better. And Sabio's commitment to this community is apparent from the way it operates: (1) hiring senior level developers with a propensity for mentorship to be their instructors, (2) professional development courses after graduation to continually expand skills while employed, (3) extensive job support via resume building and challenging mock technical interviews, and (4) encouraging of fellows to provide curriculum feedback in order to evolve with changing needs. 

Holistically speaking, Sabio was the most complete bootcamp I found when stack ranked against the others I had vetted. From the foundation building prework to the live project experience gained from working on a real proof of concept for an entrepreneur, this bootcamp had already outshined most in the area. However, it was the community Sabio breeds along with their proactive job support after graduation that had won me over. The founders and instructors sincerely care about your success and that's evident in the way they communicate to and guide you. Ultimately though, it's up to you to leverage the knowledge and experience at your disposal to grow yourself; as the old adage goes, "you get out what you put in". Sabio has been a second chance to myself and many others and as such, should be treated as one—work hard, talk code, and forge bonds. Now go make something happen!

Short Version: Top-tier school, incredibly supportive community. I had full-time work within 6 weeks of graduation at $40/hour. Highly recommend!

I spent a while visiting bootcamps before commiting to Sabio. It was one of only a handful of bootcamps that didn't seem a little fishy (e.g. hiring recent grads to teach). Throughout my experience with them, Sabio's program was exceptionally well thought out, explained, and executed. The staff and instructors were uniformly excellent, both in teaching and in creating a supporting community. The mistakes in the program were minor, and when they occured the Sabio staff recognized them and discussed with us how to improve the experience. 

The part-time prework gives you a good chance to sound out the school and its vibe before making a large commitment, and if you're like me and don't have prior coding experience, the prework gives you an idea of whether you like doing it. The coursework itself is very rigorous (I did the .NET course). It's a full commitment during the 3-month cohort period, so I'd only do this if you're able to put most everything aside for 3 months. I was well prepared by the work itself though. When I got to my first contract gig after Sabio, at an investment bank downtown, they decided I knew what I was doing better than the project lead, so they fired him and put me in his place. Along with two other Sabio grads we were able to get the project back on its feet and approved by management to continue.

Sabio does a very good job of transitioning you at the end of the course into job hunting mode. They give you a lot of confidence that it's doable and they actively follow up with you during the job hunt to help you improve. It's during the job hunt that the strength of the community really shines through. There are a ton of people there willing to help and the community of graduates is large enough that you can get a good number of leads through it (that's how I got my first job). I had full-time contract work within 6 weeks at $40/hour and was offered employment after another six weeks at $80K. Even once I was working the staff kept communicating to see how things were going and help when I got stuck.

Summary: I would recommend Sabio in a heartbeat to anyone who can make the 3 month commitment. Really, you just don't find places like this very often. 

It's now been three years since graduating from Sabio, and through the frequent professional development courses, they have been a tremendous help in advancing my career. From fireside chats with the top in the industry (Github, Facebook, and Snapchat just to name a few)  to introducing new languages and methods to improve my skills has been a tremendous help. I'm already enthused for what they do with just becoming a developer, but with introducing use cases for implementing Docker and useful ES2015 tips they continue to show that they value my success long after graduating. 

At Sabio, you will make many mistakes but their curriculum is designed to help you learn from those mistakes. Software Engineering is not easy and learning it in the conventional way is not very helpful. At Sabio, instead of sitting through long lectures aimed at the lowest-common-denominator, you are given a series of videos and tasks to complete with help from instructors when you need it. This style of learning is conducive to real growth because learning is best done when you try on your own and then get help when you need as opposed to having someone hold your hand through the entire process without giving you a chance to fail. I found myself learning at an incredible pace and was able to keep myself motivated because I always had a task ready for me without needing approval to go ahead and start it. 

The curriculum teaches you the very basics of software development and then ramps up the difficulty quickly but never to the point where you feel stuck. The instructors are always willing to help you through your problems and especially when you're transitioning from the various languages and frameworks in the course. At the end of it, you are able to work as a complete full-stack developer and the feeling is powerful. The assessments are hard but fair and as long as you're sticking with the course and utilize the instructors when you need it, you should be fine. 

One of the best benefits of this course is the post-course alumni help and job-hunting. I was amazed at how often I would get help from instructors, alumni, and peers for job hunting, resume work, and even post-graduation lessons and courses. The Sabio community is very active and the help they provide is incredible. I am forever blessed that I get to be a part of this community and I hope to contribute to it as much as I've gotten from it one day. 

When I got out of the Navy in 2020, COVID shutdowns were at their peak, and I struggled to find work. I jumped around random, low-paying jobs just to pay my bills for the next two years, unable to find a career despite having a bachelor's degree and military experience. In August of 2022, I found out about the VA's VetTec program, which pays for veterans' opportunity to attend a job-seeking school in the tech field. Through the VetTec website, I found Sabio, who is a preferred VetTec provider. I started the bootcamp in September, graduated in January, and within 2 weeks of graduation, I received 3 job offers to work as a Software Engineer.

The bootcamp is fast-paced and challenging. You are placed in a cohort and given access to pre-recorded videos to watch/code along with, presented by the cofounder, Gregorio. Gregorio's videos were recorded live and seemingly improvised, which can lead to some confusing moments during the video, but it also allows you to see him make mistakes, which he explains and then shows the process of correcting the mistakes. For more complicated concepts, these videos can be quite confusing, but Sabio's "Queue" is meant to help fill the gaps. 

The Queue is a virtual line you join when you want to ask a question to one of the instructors. When your name is picked up, the instructor sends a Zoom link and you can meet to discuss questions/code bugs. Most of the instructors are phenomenal, with only one or two that I always hoped I wouldn't get because those one or two always seemed bothered by my presence and were never helpful. The rest of the instructors were always willing to go the extra mile to explain something, and I like to ask lots of follow-up questions, so that means a lot to me. Occasionally the Queue lines can be very long, waiting up to an hour and a half for a response, but with lots of work to do, it's relatively easy to skip something and move on while you wait for clarification. Other times, you just have to take a break while you wait for someone to pick up your question.

The most useful and important part of the bootcamp is the Apprenticeship, or what we called, the "Prod [Product] phase". Prod comes toward the end of the bootcamp, after you've learned the fundamentals of full stack coding. You are assigned to a real life startup company and begin to build features for a web application for that startup. This is where you get to apply your skills and make sense of the last 3 months of your bootcamp life. You work with a set of senior developers (also instructors) who give out assignments, organize demo meetings, and provide feedback on the work done. The prod instructors are phenomenal, especially Mr. Snow. Mr. Snow always took the extra time to discuss complex concepts if I pushed him for a little more. I was assigned to work on quite a complex task in Prod, and Mr. Snow was my lifeline. The Prod phase is what makes Sabio so worthwhile in my opinion, because you're finally getting hands on work with real product, not just student projects. This is what set us apart as job applicants when applying for work - we actually had real life experience working on a dev team already.

Throughout the entire bootcamp, we receive a little bit of career coaching, mostly with prepping LinkedIn. In the last month or so, the careers team starts doing resume reviews and a mock interview. With two weeks left in the bootcamp, students are given the go-ahead to apply for jobs. During the job-seeking period, there are weekly meetings with career services and an alumni who serves as a mentor. While this was never my personal expectation, there are some bootcamps that have connections with companies such that upon graduation, it might be easier to get a job with one of their partners - this is not the case with Sabio. You will venture off freely and look for a job like everyone else in the world, but with 2 weekly meetings with Sabio people to help you stay focused and on track. While my story seems like a fairytale to me, I do have close friends from the bootcamp that never found jobs, and it's now 7.5 months since I graduated. It's hard for me to say why they didn't, as I can never know if they were following Sabio's guidance perfectly, or if they were slacking off, or if it's just dumb bad luck. I worked exceptionally hard during the bootcamp. I was at #1 on the WakaTime Leaderboard (a coding time tracker) for most of the bootcamp, and I was one of the top performers in my cohort, so I was able to learn a lot more in my time there than someone who just skated by. I'd recommend everybody try to be #1 if you want the best chance at a job.

It's probably the smartest choice I've made in my life, as my life has changed 180 degrees. I'm making more money than I've ever made, with tons of PTO, I live at the beach now, and I get to hang out with my dogs all day since I work from home. Thanks Sabio!

I recently completed the full stack program with a focus on React and .NET at this bootcamp and overall, I had a positive experience. The program materials including videos and exercises were current and up-to-date, which allowed me to stay current with the latest industry trends. Additionally, the opportunity to consult an instructor in times of need was beneficial in allowing me to delve deeper into concepts that I was struggling with. One notable aspect of the program was the inclusion of interview training and a product phase, which provided a practical work experience simulation. This phase also offered practical tips and guidance for job seeking. In my opinion, this experience was highly beneficial for my career growth. Overall, I highly recommend this bootcamp to anyone interested in gaining practical knowledge and experience in full stack development.

Sabio is a wonderful program to learn coding and gain the necessary skills to land a job in tech. They are also super veteran friendly and take VETTEC (what I used) and other VA benefits to pay for the school. I took the 17 week program but they have a 13 week option you can test into if you are in a crunch for time. It was a challenging experience and they don't play around with expectations. Be prepared to give 80 plus hours a week to learning and applying what you learn. It sounds like a lot because it is but it is not busy work. They care about all their students and want to see you succeed and get an awesome job. All they ask is the same commitment. So prepare ahead of time to make that commitment. They also pair you with a startup company to give you real world experience you can use on your resume and talk about in interviews once you are ready to apply for jobs which is usually around the last two weeks of the program. Good luck and thank you again Sabio!

Before coming to Sabio, I had several years of product management experience in mobile, but I had never touched code inside an IDE. Sabio may seem difficult at first, but it is the reality of the software development world. To succeed is to work hard, learn quickly, and to carry the mentality and attitude that Sabio instills in you as a developer. This is more than just a software bootcamp, it is an education on people management in the software development world, and the reality is with most jobs that they keep you or hire you because they like you.

Don't kid yourself that this will be easy. It's not. You will work 12 hours a day 5 days a week, 9 hours on Saturday and take one day off, and if you're not in LA timezone you will have to adjust. I did this from the Philippines  with a schedule of midnight to noon every day, and I certainly got out what I put in. The teachers are smart, they pick up on those that are there to succeed, put in the effort, and will work with you to achieve your goals. If your goals are small, that's what you'll get out of this program. But if your goals are a good job, and you put in the effort to match, you may just find what you are looking for.

I'd like to add that I spent a considerable amount of time researching bootcamps before I chose Sabio. I took a test for one bootcamp, had interviews with maybe half a dozen, and waited months to make a decision. I read all the reviews I found, good and bad. There are haters out there for Sabio, but the reality is that Sabio has strict guidelines for success, and if you don't cut it, the same standards are applied to everyone, the school is not singling you out. Don't expect to succeed in this program if you half-ass it. My cohort started with around 80 in the pre-bootcamp section, 50 at the start of real bootcamp, and around 30 at the end of bootcamp. This is not a gimmick, a marketing ploy, a game for your money, and the school is not trading you money for a useless certificate, but rather is trading you the opportunity to live in an immersive training environment that parallels the real world of software development, and you have to find a way to make the cut.

Other software development bootcamps offer you network training, if that's your thing, sure. Do it. Some offer Mac book training, if you want to do that also, go for it. But I'll tell you from my experience that once I got my job as a lead mobile developer after Sabio, that it wasn't difficult to add in using a MacBook on top of my windows experience, and working in the windows environment made me a much better developer in the Mac world. Why? Because I could work in Visual Studio, Rider, Visual Studio Code, Jet Brains Equivalent, SSMS, add Docker in there to make a SSMS image on Mac. Mac likes to build on top of windows things, and doesn't have much additional you need to use except in my case for Mobile learning XCODE on Mac for iOS development, which with React-Native also again just piggy-backs on a Windows compatible system that you learn in the bootcamp, React, which also leads to React-Native for Android.

But I digress.

Go to Sabio if you're willing to put in the effort, willing to learn, dedicate your time, learn to work well with people, and believe in achieving something great in the software development world. Don't say you weren't warned if you don't follow this advice and want to write a bad review later.

For my fellow veterans out there reading this

I used VET-TEC to get into this bootcamp for free so my experience will differ from folks paying out of pocket because the VA will only pay the school if I secure a job as a programmer within 180 days after graduation so there was a condition that I would be removed from the program if I fail to pass the section assessments twice in a row.

Review

When I entered the program last year I had 0 knowledge or experience with programming outside of copying code to trick out my myspace page.

On the first day they give you an orientation but its just them telling you that the program will be very challenging and will give you a crazy-ass schedule that totals to about 70 hour weeks. But hey, 4 months of hard work for a tech job with a matching salary is definitely worth it!

The method of instruction is a combination of live Zoom calls with an instructor and pre-recorded videos. There is a lot of self-study involved so bring your discipline and motivation to power through the course.

There are 3 phases to their program which are:

• Learning the basics

There is an assessment every week that covers the material you learn to make sure that you consumed the learning material they give you because the content for the next week will just keep building on top of that so it is imperative to learn everything they give you because falling behind on studying will leave you clueless for the following week and it just compounds after that until you catch up. The first few weeks are relatively easy but it gets increasingly difficult as you move on so my advice is to hit it hard and code as much as you can.

• Live project

During this portion you are assigned by the instructors to work on creating a website with your peers in a real development environment where you are basically given a concept such as make a page where users of a website can register and log in. This is the part where you will use all the things you learned in phase 1 and combine that to make something comprehensive.

By the end of the live project they will also add job searching to your schedule to prepare you for post-graduation and get a head start on setting up your job seeking strategies. So on top of hitting your deadlines for the live project you are now also required to build up your linked in profile and learn how the interview process in tech works.

• Post graduation

After finishing their program, you are given access to resources such as career counselors and programming workshops such as data structures and algorithms. I was really grateful that they give you all of this even if you have already completed all the material. The things I learned about programming was definitely enough to be employable but looking for a job is a completely different beast. This is where the support helped me stay on track even if hundreds of companies send me rejection emails every day.

Overall, I think that they run a solid program and it's not exaggerated that you can get a job with a good salary after going through it. Just know that you will need to dedicate the majority of your time during the program to find success, so make sure that you can commit 100% before signing up.

I graduated back in 2018 C45! and was full of doubt. What if I am wasting 15K? what if i don't find a job after? what if i come of of this learning nothing? Well i didn't waste 15k, i did find a job after and i did learn a lot. Sabio prepared me for this current work environment and i was surrounded by a great group of friends (a handful of whom i still speak to) and an amazing teacher. Of course you get what you put in (i was coding almost 12-15 hours a day because i sucked) but Sabio made this environment possible and i had great support. 

i am currently on my second job and making a lot more money than when i was teaching. if you have the drive, time and passion, this is the direction you should consider.

I'm a Navy Vet and began this bootcamp in May 2022 using the VetTec benefit. Generally, any organization wants to make a good impression so they post everything positive going on, give you a good intro to what you'll be getting into and paint a wonderful picture of what it could be like in the end. 

To anyone wanting to enroll in a software developer bootcamp, I HIGHLY recommend you do not choose Sabio UNLESS you have a decent amount of experience, you just want some extra help and have no kids, no spouse, family, nothing to worry about. I'm talking 1 + year experience as well, not 2 weeks of html and then you start this.

You're expected to get on their "Q" a minimum of 2 times a day where you ask questions if you need extra help. The problem is, it can take up to two hours to get a question answered. When you do get on the Q, most likely someone from an older cohort will answer it for you and you end up more lost then when you got on. I literally prayed I would get specific Instructors (4 to be exact) to answer my Q because the others would just waste their and my time and I'd come out worse. If you didn't get your 2/day, you get your notice of probation.

You're expected to code 25 hours a week minimum and out of those 25, 2 hours minimum need to be done on Saturdays. I have no issues with this, If you didn't do your time then you got a notice for this as well.

The first 4 weeks of Sabio were decent, just your basic hmtl/css/javascript. You get your lectures every week and you're following the curriculum. After that, it's tough! The lectures dissappear and you really need to rely on your cohort to help you out. It's like after the first 4 weeks they expected us to be these competent devs, they gave minimal help and thank goodness for the cohort because to be honest, I would've probably got dropped for not doing well enough if it wasn't for other students. The thing is, I expected that from instructors, not other students. If you have an institution and you're being paid to teach me something, then I want you to teach me, not other students who also don't have experience like myself. 

Any 17 week course boot camp is going to be a challenge though, it's not like Sabio is special for being a difficult bootcamp. The problem is how Sabio is run, very mediocre I'd say. After the weeks went on and speaking to many students, there seemed to be a trend on how most of us felt. It was lack of real guidance and the communication between instructors and us was just terrible.

Apparently I racked up too many probation notices and was let go, the problem I have with this, is the day I finally decided to speak up about this to Gregorio I get dropped the next week. My last zoom call was him letting me know that I've been in the program long enough to be able to do the job search part on my own. I tried to reason with him because I don't like to leave things unfinished. The problem with reasoning with Greggy is that if you put yourself in a vulnerable position, he tries to take advantage of that and makes you feel like you're the one who's wrong and he's doing everything right. I did this before but this time I wasn't going to, I began to critique Sabio and he couldn't handle the truth, I was being honest and wanted to speak my mind, professionally of course. He cut me off shortly and didn't even let me finish half of what I wanted to say and wanted to end the zoom call. I had no choice but to leave without letting him know.

Sabio prepares you to look like a real SWE/SDE and hey, if you want to look the part but not perform when the time comes, this is the place for you.

Instead of a bootcamp, I would have gone on udemy.com, pay for the courses on their website which won't even cost a third of what the cost is here and use 4 hours minimum a day to become a developer. You'll get better guidance, be able to make your own schedule and you'll actually undertand what you're doing and why you're writing this code.

I began with Sabio and was dismissed from Sabio in a matter of weeks. For starters, I'll state what is expected out of you so you have an understanding of that should you decide to proceed. 

Hours are from 9am-9pm Monday-Friday and 9am-3pm Saturday. You will have a stand up at 9:15 to state what you have accomplished, what you will do in the next 24 hours and what your blockers are (any issues stopping you from proceeding in your work). Then after this meeting(about 10minutes), you are released to watch prerecorded videos of Gregorio (co-founder) explaining a concept, you are instructed to code along while he types like its a race(fast) and you are trying to type along and understand the concepts being taught. You will be given an assessment about each week after you passed the pre work phase and if you do not pass 2 within a 30 day window, then you will be expelled.

This sounds fair right? Well thats why they are so successful in being deceitful.
I was dismissed from Sabio about 6 weeks in for failing 2 assessments, and I was one amongst many. Not only were the assignments being assigned far too soon for us to grasp the material, but for those that had technical issues, illnesses, or any reason that you would not have been up to speed with the material that was out of your control, you were still required to pass the assessment or you get dismissed.     

In my situation, I was given instructions to change my computer file paths in order to avoid future issues-as my instructor worded it. This only made my technical issues worse, but I wouldnt know that until later. I later "jumped on the "queue" (a phrase we use where we submit a question ticket and get a response in about 30-45 minutes for a zoom call to address a question)  to fix the issue but the second instructor made it worse. I continued to have issues and reached out for help many times and when I expressed my concern that I would not be ready for the assessment because of the issue (which was caused by an instructor) I I was consistently told I was going to be okay. I was consistently  told to get on the queue and my issue would be resolved, that I just need to ask more questions, however, I was still dismissed. 

For Veterans : After learning more about others that experienced the same thing, I learned that Sabio takes advantage of veterans. They take their VETTEC, and then drop you and ask you if you'd like to use another educational benefit. It almost feels like they drained your credit card and then ask if you have another so they can drain that one too. There was another student before me that warned people against Sabio but I unfortunately got the notice too late. Please do not use your benefits at this school, once you are dropped, you cannot use VETTEC for another 18 months. Do more research, as you are doing now, and please do not make the same mistake I did and use your VETTEC or any other benefit somewhere else that is more creditable. There are many out there. It is not worth the housing allowance you will receive if you cant finish and then be unable to use the benefits for 18 months.      

Okay so I have been out of cohort for a few months now after graduating from Sabio and I've had a good amount of time to digest everything I have done in the past few months while at Sabio. I was looking for a in-depth review prior to starting the program and wasn't able to find much about the program as a whole so I will do my best to inform my future bootcamp grads what they should and shouldn't expect from Sabio! My review will be filled with my honest and transparent thoughts on the program. I will say I checked multiple bootcamp sites for reviews and almost every positive review could be found verbatim on another website which is still weird to me, but I'm not exactly sure how that works. Just know this review is from a real person that attended and graduated Sabio!


So after 3 intense months attending & graduating Sabios fullstack remote course I've decided to break down this review into what I consider the four main pillars of their program from my experience! The instructors, the curriculum, the final project & the beloved "Q" in no order. So after you have attended a info session and probably met with Gregorio or Liliana and been accepted into the program, you are now enrolled and waiting for the camp to start. Expect to hit the ground running on day one. They will meet with everyone and give you a roadmap of what to expect in the coming months. If you have no experience in developing like myself this program will be tough and frustrating but also equally rewarding. You will meet everyone from your cohort and get assigned your first tasks.

The Curriculum-

You will start out slow learning the basics of whatever stack you choose to pursue. For myself it was full-stack meaning I would be learning almost a new language, framework, or library every week. As soon as you start gaining a grasp on one thing you will be tossed into another section of their program to learn another thing! Get used to it because that's the reality of trying to learn code in a short amount of time. A lot of things I learned early in the program I had to come back and restudy later down the line just because some of the sections where just way too tough & fast paced for me to fully understand what I was coding. There will be endless hours of video you are expected to watch and at times it was hard for me to keep pace with the rest of my cohort. I advise you to lean on your classmates, many of them will be going through similar struggles and the more collective your cohort becomes the easier it will be to reach out and ask for help. I would hop on zoom calls constantly with them and we would discuss solutions to our problems. I would say the way the course is setup for you to learn is decent, some sections are far better than others. Some days we would get live instruction which always was awesome but it was never a consistent thing which I really disliked. It was always at random times & unexpectedly for the most part. And then some days you will spend most of your day watching videos trying to understand the reasoning behind the code and coding along, which can be tough at times! Overall looking back now I will say I'm happy with everything we were presented in regards to our development but expect some frustration and confusion due to different things out of your control. You need to realize early on you will not be a master by any means and many of the things you learn wont stick and that has much more to do with the time constraints then Sabio!

The instructors-

Keep in mind I'm writing this early 2022 so the way the program is run now may or may not be different when you go through. This review is strictly my PERSONAL experience. You can expect there to be at least 3 main instructors that share the workload of the cohort from answering questions on the Q, teaching classes, answering personal questions and holding standup. Stand up will be required daily where you check in with your cohort and instructors and give a review of what you have done the previous day what you expect to get done in the current day and a chance to present any blockers you may be having in regards to anything personal or within your code. At any given time throughout the bootcamp these same few instructors were responsible for multiple cohorts which range from 10-40 students. If you multiply that by the workload expected from them you will understand why I think this area of Sabio needs drastic improvement. Many times I was on calls with different instructors & their attitudes were condescending, their answers would be short and concise not providing me the guidance me and my cohort felt we deserved after paying such a large amount of money! If you are the type of person that likes to voice your frustration expect them to take notes of it and depending on what you said or how it was said it may cause you some problems moving forward. There were kids in my cohort who voiced their frustrations openly on our standup calls or our meetings and every last one of them was removed from the program for one reason or another. I recommend being very careful with what you say, not only for that reason but you may notice a different tone in the voice of certain instructors moving forward in the program. Me and my cohort discussed offline and agreed that everyone was not given the same amount of instruction, which in my opinion was caused by the heavy workload required from the instructors! They just didn't have the patience or desire that was needed to give every student the same amount of counsel which at times was severely needed! Overall they were nice people with very polished skills but there was just too many times throughout the camp where collectively the frustration was boiling over because of the lack of instruction from them! I had to hire a tutor and pay out of pocket to get a better understanding on certain concepts that I wasn't able to grasp with their teachings!

The "Q"

So essentially the Q is where you can expect to find yourself anytime you have a question or need guidance on a certain topic. They have requirements to get on the Q so don't expect to hop on there anytime you need help. The reality of this profession is you need to be a self starter and know how to source information and dissect it so you can help YOURSELF first before reaching out for help. The Q for me again unfortunately similar to the last section was just inefficient at best. They preach the idea from the beginning of the program to the end to "Get on the Q" and "Be efficient with your time" well the problem with the Q was there so many occasions where I would submit a question and it would sit in the list waiting to be picked up by the instructors for on average 30-75 minutes and I'm DEAD serious! In that time I would be attempting to research documentation online and find different ways to solve my questions aswell as reaching out to classmates, but the reality is you just need a certain level of guidance starting out in order for your learning to be structured as possible and the Q never did that for me. For the Q to function best as possible I recommend instead of having the same 3-4 instructors answering questions all day from different campuses all at once they need designated instructors for each campus tasked with giving counsel to select cohorts! If I was having trouble with .net one day and had 5 questions I needed help with, I could end up wasting 3-4 hours waiting on the Q while going down rabbit holes creating more problems within my code. It just wasn't effective and early on I realized that and thus felt the need to source outside instruction to learn as much as possible. They will tell you this is apart of their core learning principals to become self sufficient and all by design but you will realize early on that what they preach with the Q just doesn't live up to its expectations as is!


Final Project

The final project for my cohort was nothing short of AMAZING! Sabio did such a good job of replicating a development atmosphere by forcing us to reach out to each other and come up with ideas collectively. Tasking us with many different objectives that would test our skills. We ended up building a website for a real business with real requirements from an entrepreneur. We met with him collectively and got a great understanding on what he expected and then afterwards what the instructors expected from us. It was the first time we were able to see the big picture and have a chance to connect all the work we had done. From building out API controllers to creating stored procedures in the database to building the frontend with react and working on the visual presentation to the customer. It was honestly such a great experience that gave us the confidence to leave the program feeling like we had completed something meaningful as real world devs! 


My conclusion overall is Sabio was a good experience for me. If I were to go through the program again I would lean more towards one strict area of learning i.e the front end or back end opposed to learning a full stack and becoming a jack of all and a master of none. I learned many things that have propelled me forward into the early stages of my development career. Sabio showed me how to code and for that I have much gratitude. The best thing about Sabio to me is not the stages of learning code but the community they have built. There are so many people working in prominent positions that are willing to help you out just because you're Sabio alum! I will say truly there are a few things they can improve to make the overall experience of the program more enjoyable & orderly. I recommend if you are a new dev like I was to dive into some type of code before you start the program whether that's udemy, leetcode or any other awesome websites that can help you begin understanding the fundamentals of coding. It will boost your experience at Sabio. If you find yourself more passionate about one area of development like React and the frontend or maybe the middle tier act on that feeling! This is all about finding a lane in development and making money in the process. Cheers to an awesome 2022 and to all my future Sabio alum!

Coding saved my life in so many ways and it’s all thanks to Sabio (School of Software Engineering) that I’m able to live a comfortable life financially while advancing my career as a software developer. After going to an information session I quickly realized that Sabio was a “good” coding bootcamp - legitimate in reputation in the tech industry and of course accredited, multiple scholarships, a deferred tuition program (which I feel speaks to their efforts in making the tech space more diverse for BIPOC & Latinx women in tech like myself), prepares you for the real-world by assigning you to a project where you gain job experience, etc. It seemed too good to be true so I did my research! To be honest I wasn’t exactly looking to switch careers, although I did want to gain more technical skills when the pandemic hit, but Sabio spelled it out so clearly and even provided statistics on the current demand for people with programming skills as well as their success rates with alumni. Unlike a lot of other coding bootcamps the CEO & CTO, Liliana & Gregorio, were readily available to answer any of my questions from day 1 (because yes, it is a big commitment when you decide that you are going to learn to code and switch careers!). Even though I didn’t have a background in computer programming the instructors are supportive, patient and demonstrate a deep understanding of computer science in general. I’m so glad I didn’t pass up on this opportunity and I have nothing but a deep sense of gratitude for all of the people who have helped me get to where I am, starting with Sabio!