From the Outskirt of Tech to the Belly of the Beast: Sabio Helped Joseph Infiltrate the World of Software Development
Joseph had some general tech experience prior to joining Sabio but nothing could’ve prepared him for the onslaught of information that comes with a bootcamp. As he puts it, he held “a couple web developer roles” but no in-depth coding experience or extensive know-how. After poking around a bit on the Internet, he quickly found Sabio to be the right program for his career pivot.
Even though he did the program completely online, Joseph was able to walk away with strong skill sets, an understanding of back-end development, and a good grasp on methodologies. The qualified team of staff instructors, their lectures, and their regular availability for support are to thank for that. Specifically, the one-on-one support channel known as “the queue” really helped Joseph when he got stuck. But perhaps what helped him more than any traditional top-down teaching approach was the peer-to-peer collaborative environment that Sabio fosters. Joseph remembers, “Even your cohort can help you…anyone in your cohort,” because they’re all going through the same struggle.
His cohort worked on a web application that processed and distributed medical support information to its subscribers. “They wanted to provide like newsletters, events, stuff like that, to their users. My end result was they can make an event and if they want to do a live hosting on Zoom for that specific event they were able to just create a Zoom meeting by just clicking a button and they were able to email the links to the subscribers.”
If Joseph could go back and give his past self one piece of advice, this is what it would be: “I would tell myself to not jump to the next step unless you really understand what you're coding. I know the pace is pretty fast and you have to learn so many things in a short period of time. But I did make the mistake of like rushing to finish the lessons and homework and stuff like that.”
But a coding bootcamp is just that – a bootcamp, an intensive program where you cram as much information in as possible, right? Yes, but there are small steps you can take to help solidify the concepts so that they don’t dissolve and crumble within a few weeks. Here’s Joseph’s tip for that: “...say your class starts at nine, then maybe you can get on your computer at 8:30 and try to solve one or two LeetCode problems just to get yourself ready. And it can kind of helps you like warm up your brain before you start the lesson.” Joseph stresses how important this regularly conceptual training is because when you get to the job interview stage, trying to explain in words something you know only by rote can be the difference between seizing or losing out on a great job opportunity.
As Sabio preaches, upon graduation Joseph blasted his resume out every which way. “I think I averaged about 15 resumes per day.” But totalling about 100 resumes, Joseph is actually a rare case of someone who under-spammed their application. Regardless, a few stuck and he got five job interviews from that initial push.
What Joseph remembers of the job interview is not a series of behavioral questions (other than the expected “What sorts of problems did you face on your last job/project and how did you overcome it?”) but more conceptual or technical-based questions. What really helped him prepare for this were Sabio’s study guides and mock interviews. “You can do it as many times as you can. So people who get on there really help you understand what kind of answer the interviewers expect. If you get the question wrong or you don't know the question, then they will explain it to you. And that really helped in the next interview.”
It only took one successful job interview and now those grilling evaluations are a thing of the past. As a systems integration engineer, Joseph is now enjoying the peace of mind of steady employment for his much in-demand skill set. Also, he makes within his salary requirement range of $80k - $85k a year and enjoys full benefits. So going from the outskirts of tech, from a general pond where his soft skills were capped in their long-term viability to an ocean of possibility where his in-depth coding skills are highly marketable, Joseph has Sabio to thank for helping make that important transition.
Joseph was hired by: 