Matthew’s Success After Sabio Coding Bootcamp
By: Sabio Coding Bootcamp
Tags: Programming, Jobs, Coding, Codingbootcamp, Learn To Code

Making the decision to attend a coding bootcamp can be pretty daunting. After going to Sabio, Matthew discovered it was the best choice of his professional life.

Matthew, Sabio Alumnus and Software Engineer at LoanDocSolutions

“I have a degree in biochemistry,” Matthew remarked. “I’ve always loved mechanisms and understanding how things work, so I kind of had the mindset of thinking in small pieces already planted in me. After college, chemistry lead me to the lab industry. I wanted to do research, but I learned that I’d have to get a PhD if I wanted to level up. That was way too big a time and financial commitment for me, especially for something I wasn’t sure that I loved to do. I just started researching my options, and coding kind of popped up, that’s what lead me to Sabio.”

Sabio Coding Bootcamp

Lucky for Matthew, he had a close friend who was herself a close friend with a Sabio alumnus, “She put me in touch with a graduate who had attended DTLA, so I called them and they told me the whole deal. How you have PreWork, where you get to learn and test a lot of valuable things before you go into cohort. The fact that you can get your feet wet before you even get going was extremely helpful for me to sort of give it a test run before I committed. That really put things into perspective and moved Sabio up to one of my top choices. Then I found out that while at Sabio you work on a real project from a real client that you can put on your resume. That sold it for me.”

Matthew felt particularly privileged for the real-world project his team got to work on, “It was for the City of LA which was magnificent. It wasn’t like I was building an application for myself or for nobody to actually use. We needed to build something for Los Angeles that would be used across the county. That’s how I knew it would be in the industry, so it felt like Sabio was preparing me for the best.”

Sabio Coding Bootcamp

At his cohort, Matthew found friends and experiences that would last forever, “My cohort was great, I have zero complaints. I never felt like I was out of reach with an instructor and the people I worked with were great. I still hang out with them, I’m actually going to meet up with a couple of cohort-mates later tonight for drinks. So they really became lifelong friends. I heard people say, ‘You’ll probably work with your Sabio-mates when you get out of the program.’ Sure enough, I got picked up by two Sabio grads from a previous cohort to work at their company. That’s not to say my experience wasn’t difficult. You have to go in giving it your all. It’s a big change and has to be something you really want to do. I found the best attitude was, ‘What did I do yesterday and how can I do it better today?’ and ‘How can I change my attitude about things that went wrong? How can I grow and progress as things go on?’ The experience is only 12-weeks, so you in the end, you’ll get out what you put in.”

Another aspect Matthew love was working with the Sabio instructors, “Brijesh Patel (Orange County Instructor,) is great. He has this way of pushing you when you don’t even realize it. He’ll steer you in the direction with one little hint, but you’re the one who has to work on it. A lot of it can be spoon fed to you, but he wants you to succeed. In the industry you’re going to have to learn new things on your own, no one is there to give you the answers. He’ll give you a piece, but he wants you to struggle, because in the end, it’s going to give you a lot greater yield to your career. Also, he’s just really easy to talk to. All of the instructors, including Gregorio Rojas (Sabio’s Co-Founder and CTO) are all there for you, whenever you need them, without hesitation. Even if it was after hours, I would message Brijesh and he would get back to me within minutes. Being hands on is very much part of the Sabio deal.”

Sabio Coding Bootcamp

Now a software engineer at LoanDoc Solutions, Matthew couldn’t be happier, “One of the employees there,” Matthew continued, “was a Sabio graduate who posted about the job on our Slack. Then another employee head reached out to Brijesh who was the lead instructor, and Brijesh actually recommended me for the job. So I kind of had two Sabio people pulling for me at the same time. I came in, got my interview, and had an offer that Friday. I got the job, not even a week and a half out of cohort and I’ve more than tripled my salary from before Sabio.”

“It’s kind of crazy,” Matthew continued. “I was at Sabio for three months and now I’m a fully functioning employee. Walking up to my desk on the first day and seeing my placard as ‘Software Engineer,’ it just blew my mind. Not only was I loving what I was doing, but it was so quick. I realized I have the confidence to do well in this industry. I know what I’m doing, I’m working with people who think the same as me, and this is all thanks to Sabio. It’s really cool to know that Sabio just breeds healthy, smart people for a healthy industry. The graduates understand and are prepared for how the real world is going to work, because that’s what the Sabio program does.”

Sabio Coding Bootcamp

Beyond the connections, Matthew felt Sabio completely prepared him for the job interview process as well, “Sabio really helped me understand the key concepts foundations in addition to the repetition and muscle memory of coding. We all had a Trello job board with key words and concepts that we would do tests with together, ‘How would you describe this? What’s the program?’ Then you go in for your first interview and it’s literally just the Trello job board. So if you understand that, you’re going to do fine and be great in a job. We also did mock-interviews that were extremely helpful with great critiques. They really help you understand who you are a developer and how you can market yourself. What you’re doing well and what you can improve on. You get constant support so in the end, you really know what you’re doing and talking about. People love that. Sabio builds your confidence to do well and succeed. Regardless of whether you’re going after a degree, the software industry or whatever job you take next, you learn a lot of valuable skills.”

Sabio Coding Bootcamp

Now that his new career is just getting started, Matthew is excited about his future, “I would love to work my way to senior developer, but who knows what life has in store for me. I’m just three weeks into my job and I feel like anything is possible. I used to feel so unsure of my path and even lacked confidence in that path. Sabio had changed all of that. I know who I am and how I work with people. I know what I’m passionate about and I could never have said those things before. Now I have a timeline with milestones that I want to do, and have all these strengths. Not just on a professional level, but as a person. Now when I strive for personal goals, they all kind of fall into place. Everything changes when you have confidence in your capabilities. Plus, I’m making three times as much as I was making before. That’s definitely a step up.”

Sabio Coding Bootcamp

For those interested in coding, Matthew has a straightforward tip, “What’s stopping you from starting now? For me, as soon I realized I wanted to code, I hopped on Codecademy and FreeCodeCamp and took in everything I code. Once you start learning it becomes infectious and you want to keep building and creating. I would encourage people to ask questions, and don’t like you don’t know enough to ask those questions. There are so many resources waiting to be found, whether online or with people. I encourage people to not hold themselves back, but really dive into the messiness, because sometimes you’re going to find a fully formed pearl from an oyster. You really have to make what you can out of it.”

If you’re interested in Sabio, Matthew encourages a lot of the same, “Also ask questions. Go to an info session and ask more questions. The great thing about Sabio too is you have PreWork, so you can try it out. If it’s not for you, it’s not for you. But you can find that out in the first month without committing. I knew right away, but I never would have known if I hadn’t tried it, gone to an info session and asked a ton of questions.”

Sabio Coding Bootcamp

“I want to give a shout out to everyone at Sabio for looking out for their people,” Matthew continued. “I think the biggest fear of a lot of prospective students is being let go as soon as you graduate, but at Sabio that’s not the case. I’m still in contact with the instructors, Gregorio is always on call for anybody that needs him. And they have an alumni room just open for graduates to come work, I spent the week there after I graduated, and that’s not uncommon. I think that’s the biggest thing to recognize, the people of Sabio are dedicated and treat you like family. They’re always going to look out for you, no matter what. I’m so thankful for them.”

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Written by Sassy Mohen