Cong H Alumni Spotlight

CONG:

Before Sabio I just graduated from U of M, and so I just took up coding as a hobby while I was taking some other courses. And then I realized I got an email for VET TEC. And I was like, Oh, what's this? Sabio. Seems like a cool place. It was just a random choice. I'm really glad I picked it.

I did the pre-work, which was extremely helpful and got me where I needed to be and really successful down the road because, you know, things just keep compounding, compounding as you get through the course.

Q: How did you work through problems at Sabio?

CONG:

I'm more of a visual learner type of guy, so a lot of the exercises that you do at Sabio, you know sometimes they won't click right away and you're just staring at the wall, beating yourself up. You know, maybe you go cry a little bit and then you come back with a different perspective and you try to do it a different way. And if you reach out to somebody and see how they're doing it, they could be doing it completely different, you know, and that can really change how you think. 

Q: What was your schedule like at Sabio?

CONG:

Yeah, I had no choice but to stay up till 11. I was Central Time. So it was 11 to 11 for me. But yeah, just gotta eat and gotta get back to work. I mean, that was me. I was like a robot, just trying to try to learn as much as I could. Step away, get some exercise, get some food, and then get right back into it. I was just completely dedicated at the time after the pre-work, so I just made time for food and learned as much as I could.

Q: What sites did you use for applying to jobs?

CONG:

I didn't have a LinkedIn account before Sabio, by the way. You guys really set me up there, which really saved my butt. I shot out maybe 200 applications on LinkedIn and like 100 on Indeed. LinkedIn was really nice because you can do Quick Apply, so it goes straight to the company and to the recruiter and they just read your information right away and they shoot you an email. So it's better than an Indeed, which can be like an automated response, right? But that was my tactic, just bombard LinkedIn with as many applications as I could. 

Q: What was the interview process like?

CONG:

For the interviews, you know when something's not going right and if it's you or if they're asking you a hard question. You just put a mental note and just come back to it later. Have a better answer. You know, if you can, email them a better answer, which is what I did to my employer or to my boss now.

Q: How would you answer the experience question?

CONG:

My answer for that really depends on if you're a recruiter for a company or recruiting for a staffing agency. The reason they're asking that is trying to put you in a box or in a certain salary range or something. So if I'm talking to a real person for the company and then I'm going to tell them, hey, you know, I have this many months of experience. I just came from, you know, this school. I learned a lot. I actually worked on a project, you know, But if I'm talking to a recruiter, I'm going to tell them, hey, you know, I have the equivalent of two to three years of experience. This is what I did. This is, you know, I can try to explain these things, just show my skill set at that point.

Q: What coding languages are you using at your job?

CONG:

The language is a little bit different, so it's kind of frustrating in a way. But luckily, you know, we have Senior Devs we can reach out to and you just can't be afraid to reach out. Hey, I don't know how this works. Can you show me? This is what I've done. This is what I'm looking at. You send over screenshots and, you know, you hop on a screen share and you just talk like regular people and just try to figure out the solution to the problem. Just like you're doing now. Nothing is different.