Carlos Alumni Spotlight

CARLOS:

The main skills that you need to learn is like GitHub and how to search. If you learn GitHub and how to search, it’s okay. You are a developer already because you can figure out everything. 

Before Sabio coding, I was in the military. I was in the Marine Corps. And in the field is where I learned to code websites. I was the one in the sleeping bag and with an iPad inside just trying to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. 

Q: How did you hear about Sabio?

CARLOS:

I remember I saw an ad for Sabio and then my wife told me about Sabio and she told me, Hey I got a feeling that you should go to Sabio. 

Q: What was your experience like at Sabio?

CARLOS:

We used React, C#, .NET. We created a database using SQL and everything. It was a really good time. And actually I learned a lot. I'm not going to lie. I got a little bit burned out, but I had like three good friends there. And we would always be like talking to each other. Everything that we were doing, it was like, Hey if I get stuck I'll ask him. I think it's crucial. 

Q: What were your job interviews like?

CARLOS:

One day I was having an interview and everything was going well and I was going to I was nailing and I was super happy for it and I was super happy. I was excited. I was telling my wife that this is it, I think I'm going to get it...Get to the third interview. And it was a coding challenge, full PHP. And I don't know nothing about PHP. I tried to do it on PHP just there at the moment. I said like, you know what, I'm going to try. And I was close. I had to connect to an API using PHP and I managed to figure it out using Google search real quick and the spare time. And then after that they said like, Oh, we're sorry we decided to go forward. That really took me down. But I just decided, you know what, I made it this far. Why am I going to quit now? 

Q: What is your advice for those starting their jobs?

CARLOS:

The next week after, I had five interviews and one of them was the job that I got. So the best advice once you get your job is just concentrate on your job, because now I got new skills to put on my resume. So don't be like chasing every tutorial that you see. Like, oh, or saying like, oh, the GitHub is not updated. No, learn from it. Learn how to use it. Learn how to use legacy and the tools that you're using so you can get better on your job. If you have time, maybe in the weekend, start looking into Soft Skill. I cannot emphasize it enough. Just do a draft in Soft skill and it will take you like long.

Q: What’s your work-life balance like?

CARLOS:

Being a developer is a dream job. Coming from the Marine Corps and all the other jobs that I had. Like I woke up every morning, I don't feel like I'm going to work . Like I could be sometimes at 8:00 and I'm just there chilling on my sofa and then watching TV. And then I have my laptop next to me and then I just open the laptop. It is something that is on my mind since I've been doing it since I was in the field. Like, it's something I just think I do automatically. I just get bored, open the laptop and I start reading and trying some code. Like for me, my work, it feels surreal. It feels like, dude, literally a university is paying me instead of me paying the university to go there. It is like a university is paying me to create a website.