After Learning at Sabio David landed a remote role at U-haul

David: I know there's been a lot of layoffs with tech companies, but there's software development everywhere. You just got to basically find good companies that, you know, have a strong background, strong history, that they're self-sustainable, and that basically will, you know, take care of their employees.
Back in 2020, I believe, I was kind of looking at different programs for software development. And I came across the VET TEC program and I kind of put it off for a little bit. I kind of started coding on my own, kind of doing the pre-work. Took me a little while to kind of pull the trigger and kind of sign up for VET TEC. But I signed up in August of this last year.

Q: What helped you through Sabio?

David: Kind of having that peer group. Basically when I first started out, I kind of start doing everything on my own and kind of just didn’t reach out to anybody. I kind of was like, you know, I'm going to keep my head down and kind of keep going. But after a while, I started communicating with other members of the cohort and kind of building that camaraderie, like in the military. Basically, I mean, you're all going through the same thing. So might as well kind of, you know, go through it together.

Q: What was the job search process like?

David: For me, basically, I kind of sent out as many applications as I could to companies that I wanted to work for and then companies that just basically were on, you know, Dice or LinkedIn. But from there, basically I had I think I want to say maybe like a couple of phone screenings. I would take notes. So as I was basically finished with the interview, I would write down notes on questions that I didn't know and kind of look up the answer for that way. If I did come across that particular question in the future, I would know how to react and how to answer that question specifically. So I kind of recorded myself as well, like with my phone. So I'd have a microphone and kind of see how I would answer the questions if I was talking too fast as well to kind of slow down a little bit or the way I presented myself.

Q: How much of what you learned at Sabio applies to your job?

David: It was actually very similar. We basically use Visual Studio for everything and we have the Microsoft SQL Server, but Visual Studio, we have all the code in there. We don't use our Visual Studio code. It's basically all Visual Studio. That's where we have everything that we have for the customer service form application. You know, when I go in there and look at different areas, the controllers, the models. It's basically kind of the same we've been working at Sabio.

Q: What benefits does your job offer?

David: I’m working remote right now. Currently overall, I mean, it's been a good experience. It's, you know, the benefits they have are 401k, full medical, dental and tutition reimbursement because I do plan on going back to school for a master's here, you know, in the next couple of years. So I'll probably utilize that, you know, whenever I can.

Q: Talk about your role at your current job?

David: In my current role, I'm the most junior person on my team, like my lead and my other developer both have like ten plus years experience. Being able to kind of grow and kind of learn, that's kind of what they were looking for when they hired me. They're like, they want someone that’s going to be compatible with the team, able to learn and can be coachable. And those are the big things that they kind of told me that they wanted out of an individual that they were going to hire.

Q: Do you have any advice for Sabio students?

David: Don't take a break. Don’t basically kind of put it to the side, continue learning, and you'll basically get a good role at a good company. You can't you can't quit on yourself. Hold yourself accountable. You know, you signed up for Sabio for a reason and, you know, keep that reason in the back of your mind and I think you'll be able to kind of make it far in software development.