Sabio

Don't believe the reviews you see on here and anywhere else. I am a former Military soldier and I used Vet Tech, I found Sabio on the VA website that it was a preferred provider. I read the reviews here and said "Wow this must be a great program". Vet Tech has many different rules compared to all the other students in the class. Like going on the "Queue" and asking 2 questions a day. They will close the "Queue" or close your question if it isn't good enough for them. Then they will threaten to dismiss you because you haven't meant the minimum 2 Queue questions. Any little thing the Co-founder will find ways to dismiss you because they don't care about teaching, they care that they are getting money from the VA. But for Vet Tech after graduation if you don't find employment after 180 days they don't get the other half of tuition. When I joined we didn't get an updated one but noticed the new one only 28% of students found meaningful jobs. Day 1 the Co-founder will try and scare you to switch from Vet Tech to another benefit so it's guaranteed tuition money for them if you do the switch. Co-founder Gregorio would constantly pull Vet Tech students in Zoom and threaten to dismiss us because he has the power to do so. He is very power happy and holds that over your head. Luckily I am done with the program but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone because of the Co-founder. Look at the percentages of students finding jobs.  There was a past student who sent every current student an email showing proof of the unprofessionalism by the founder and co-founder. I wanted to put this out because I choose Sabio based on the great reviews reading here and was ready to learn to code. There is very little teaching done, it's all videos that they recorded years ago. Maybe 1 zoom lecture every 3 weeks or so. If  I could do it again probably just go the self-taught route because that's exactly what you are doing at Sabio anyway. The only difference is you got instructors there to ask questions if need be. 

There intentions are good, but honestly there numbers are inflated. A lot of their “instructors” are former students. The whole process is pretty much you teaching yourself and then get on the “que” to ask questions in which they only answer like as if you were an experienced developer. Your better off just grinding it out and teaching yourself and saving the money because they start a new cohort every month, and the curriculum is mostly taught by the ceo. All in all just take there free courses and either go somewhere else or don’t even bothered. They aren’t really professional and they aim to get mostly veterans because they know they can get that GI bill. Save yourself folks

I just dropped out because I noticed how much I disliked how intimidating the owner was and the instructors look like they don’t want to be there. It’s really annoying trying to pay attention to someone that sounds like they are not motivated. Ultimately I dropped out because I got into it with the owner. I told him I liked learning code a specific way and I guess he didn’t like that I was going at my own guidelines. But that’s how I’ve always learned and did well. But he prevented me from taking the assessment when I wanted to so I said I’m out. 

I made a profile on here specifically to warn future potential applicants that this or any other boot camp for that matter is not worth the money.
If you are looking for a sign to tell you if you should join this or any other boot camp, this is it. Don't do it. You will waste money and time without any guarantees.

Of course, this review is specifically for Sabio so I can't speak for all boot camps. At the time I joined the school, I wanted to learn NODE and ended up being the only student in my class that began studying this while everyone else went towards .NET

When my course began, it just so happened the only NODE teacher on campus quit so I was pretty much left on my own because the other teachers were only doing .NET
I spent the entire course teaching myself NODE by watching youtube videos during class and the teachers could not even help because they said they were not familiar with NODE.

I won't go into detail about everything that went wrong during my course because every experience is different and I'm not trying to convince anyone based on experience.

I'm speaking more about the cost of a boot camp vs current modern learning accessibility. Perhaps 15-20 or so years ago, a Boot camp was a smart choice because we didn't have the modern access to the internet we have now.

In our current 2021 time, We have so many affordable or FREE options for learning anything we could ever dream of online now. You will get the same quality(or more) of a boot camp using sites like Udemy or Coursera for pennies vs the thousands of dollars you will spend on a boot camp.

Don't believe the lies they tell you. They will NOT help you find a job, they are NOT structured, you CAN do this on your own and you will succeed.
Stop putting money into the pockets of people who will take advantage of you and your money.

I know many people across the country who did Sabio or other boot camps and they are either still jobless or working something not related to coding/programming.

Final advice: Go to Udemy, Coursera, or EDX and study programming there. You will get more bang for your buck for sure. Join the Reddit programming forums and you'll get a lot of help/info about anything you need.

I attended Sabio in 2019 in their full-time full-stack program. My experience was mixed. My purpose in writing this review is not to talk badly about Sabio but to offer a perspective that seems to be missing from the other reviews on here.

1. Other Reviews:  Yes there are some great success stories. Some graduates do get jobs soon after graduation with good salaries and with good companies. But, this is definitely not the norm, and most students struggle for months and months if not a year or years to land a job, if they ever get one. The reviews on the site are thus very misleading and do not represent the overall success rate.

There are many factors that go into getting a job. In my cohort the students who got jobs (or even interviews) had a few things going for them, be it prior coding experience, experience in a related field, or a good education background.

Also it should be noted that a fair number of these 'reviews' are written or paraphrased by a person working with Sabio. That is why a lot of them sound similar. The information is accurate, but it is based on an interview with the person writing the review. Sabio gently pushes it's successful grads to post reviews, or to speak with their review writer person to get the positive reviews up.

2. Instructors: Before I enrolled in the bootcamp, Sabio advertised their program as having all senior instructors who were not just former students. In fact, ALL the instructors (minus the founder) ARE ALL former students. Looking at their linkedin profiles, these instructorss average just a few years experience. So, I wouldn't say they are "senior" instructors by any stretch of the imagination. In working with them, some of them are definitely better than others. Apparently in the past Sabio had very senior instructors but this is no longer the case.

Often, when working with instructors, it was very mixed how much they would help you. Some would help you very quickly and then move on, not checking to see if you understood. Some students decided to record interactions with this instructor and watch it later to get everything he said. Another instructor   would give you breadcrumbs and tell you to figure it out and we sometimes felt it was because he didn't know the answer.

3. Curriculum: If you are thinking that you will be 'taught' many things during the actual bootcamp, think again. Sabio is not like going to college or any other traditional school. Most of the 'teaching' involves watching videos. Lots and lots of videos. When learning a new skill the assignment typically involves watching 1-6 hours of videos over the course of a day or two.

There are no tests or graded assignments that test for understanding. Halfway through there was a surprise coding test but it was never graded and no one found out how they did on it.

Sabio does put a lot of work into making new videos so that's good. But it just wasn't a great way to learn as it was very passive and there was no way to really check if you were absorbing it. Usually students were told to watch the videos at the end of the day after the instructors had gone home, so if there was a problem with the lesson, or questions, there was no one to ask. Also, I could have watched youtube videos if I wanted to learn that way.

There is little classroom teaching in the traditional sense, and the teaching that is done is all on video zoom calls across three campuses. So everyone in your cohort jumps on a zoom call and one instructor goes over a topic. For me, I would have preferred in-class teaching with an instructor. The zoom calls were sometimes glitchy and impersonal and students tended not to ask questions for some reason, often because we were all so confused.

The primary purpose of the instructors is to answer questions on the que. The way Sabio works is if you don't understand something you get on the que and wait for someone to help you, usually on a zoom call. Most people would be on the que about 1-3 times a day. The crazy thing is each campus has an instructor but your que call might be answered by someone else at another campus, so you may not talk to the 'instructor' at all in your room for the whole day. This always felt like a weird way to do things.

So, most of your day at Sabio is spent stumbling around, googling for resources online, or working with your cohort to figure out what is going on. Finding the answer without help is an important skill to learn when you are programming, and Sabio does do a good job of instilling this practice, out of necessity. But, I feel a bootcamp's main purpose should be to teach base knowledge, not just how to google answers.

4. Outcomes: Is it worth it? It is so hard to get accurate statistics about bootcamp job outcomes. Sabio reports their data on the School Performance Fact Sheet: https://sabio.la/legal/SPFS%20from%20BPPE%20-%202017-2018.pdf. Looking at their data, as well as data from other schools, the results are all over the map and often seem misleading.  What jobs are "in the field"? Also, these are all self-reported statistics so the accuracy and completenesss can vary.

All I know for certain are the results from the cohorts before and after me. In my cohort, less than half have jobs approaching a year out. From a cohort ahead of me, less than a quarter have a job. Of those who do get jobs, like I said before, there were common factors that likely led to their success: previous experience, good education, or professional experience in a related field. Most students do not get jobs, much less even interviews. Companies simply say that they need people with more experience.

Final thoughts: So take all the reviews (including mine) with a grain of salt and know that the very positive ones are not really the norm. Of course students with great outcomes will be featured on Sabio's website and in these reviews because Sabio pushes that. 

I think there is a fear among recent grads without great outcomes to speak out about Sabio, and bootcamps in general, for various reasons. Students spend more than $10,000 for the camp and don't want to feel like it wasn't a good investment. Also, Sabio is a community and speaking out could break bonds and make enemies. Many grads seem to drift away and find jobs in other industries. 

In the end, for me the bootcamp was helpful but I have learned more outside the bootcamp and would recommend that people really consider free resources available online before making a decision. Coding is hard and learning to be a full-stack developer in 3 months, while technically kinda possible, is not very likely for most people. It takes computer professionals years and years, often with undergraduate and graduate degrees to become developers/programmers. As long as you're in it for the long haul you can be successful, but the idea that a bootcamp can magically make this happen is often not realistic. 

If you are self motivated with confidence to accomplish any task, I would recommend going to a different bootcamp. Reasons, you ask? Here are several top reasons:

1. Leadership - They operate from a sense of entitlement and authoritarianism, they are not there to serve but to be served. In my years of being a leader in other positions, I had never met leaders with such arrogance because they knew how to write code from their 10-15 years of experience, this attitude and action is a problem in the tech community. Rather than be of service by guiding gently, my cohort and I were met with a response of aloofness. Despite this being a major turnoff and my personal leadership wanting to put this pride to shame, I simply kept focused because google would not fail me in help. On the other hand, my cohort mates were left to wander and struggle through the wall, maybe they had add/adhd and were unable to read documentation like I did(who knows what people are going thru). Ultimately, many of my cohort mates did not really learn effectively and left bootcamp with a shattered sense of confidence ( I felt horrible for them and could not help them during bootcamp as I would have liked due to my own objectives during bootcamp, I cant be the instructor.)

2. Code - As previously stated, entitlement and arrogrance often leads to laziness. There source code was outdated and I believe it had not been updated for 3 years. We were not using the latest and greatest....Which leads you to ask? "If instructors are not coding and updating with the times, what in the world is the leadership doing? Besides getting a full belly. 

3. Curriculum - The course program will ultimately teach you what you have to learn as far as basics. If you have the ability to learn quickly, by being given the basics which all coding bootcamps will do; ultimately you will learn how to think like a programmer and get a job. Now for some folks, they do not know how to think through major blockades or obstacles, maybe they do not have the life experience in order to overcome. This is where again leadership comes to play, in effectively helping students to think logically in approaching problem solving. This aspect, which could slow down a project was lacking. If you are not a problem solver, develop that before coming to this bootcamp, by solving your own coding problems with different exisiting free projects like freecodecamp and others.

4. Job - What matters to the reader..."Did you get a job?". I pivoted into being an entrepeneur which I will not disclose as this would allow leadership at this authoritarian bootcamp to discover my identity, I rather live in quiet and peace. However, I am writing this review in response to cohort members who still do not have jobs and are suffering economic struggle without the promised help of 5 year mentorship. That is a outright lie. As for me, I did end up finding something that pays at similar to higher levels outside of tech because of my experience at this disastrous bootcamp. I was able to navigate this negative environment and conquer my goals. If I could solve this disaster I thought, "I can do anything really". I ultimatelly decided a future in tech where I would have to deal with this toxic culture, which is coming to surface here with this review on Sabio but also companies like Google, FB, etc.

Out of my group of 10 plus, only three have come out with a job. Of those three that I know have a job. Two have denounced Sabio not even using them as references. 

I leave you with the truth.

Believe the hype? or Truth?

GLTA

Sabio is entirely a product of what you are willing to put in to it. Sabio's curriculum is top notch, and Sabio truly does give you the tools and direction to land multiple offers the first couple weeks out of school (even a Senior position), but please don't make the mistake of thinking that doing the bare minimum is going to guarantee results. 

  There was a direct correlation between people who studied outside of class, stayed at Sabio late, and/or put up big WakaTime numbers, to people who landed gigs quickly. You could get away with putting in 40 hours a week, but at the end of the camp you'd be down about 480 hours on the people that put in 80. When you graduate, and compare your best feature to the jQuery you were writing in prework, then consider what you could have accomplished if you put in 480 hours vs 960 over the course of the camp. Even after my first month or so at work professionaly, I was astounded at how linear the relationship is between time spent coding and skill. The direct gains are unlike anything else if ever done.    'Always be coding' sounds sort of funny, but it's true. Follow the curriculum, hit 80 hours a week, and you will certainly have multiple offers.   My other advice would be to do as much OOP / C# as possible. It can be a bit too dense to focus on while at Sabio, but once you enter in to the workforce, you will absolutely need to know the general language/structure of OOP, and it will get you much *much* further than being an expert with JS (assuming you're targeting a mid-level position). You may know the hot new frameworks, but I can guarantee you that you will need to touch OOP code sooner or later. It's better to learn it while you're not under pressure, at Sabio, than on the job. React and especially Angular employ extensive OOP JS, as well.    In that same vein, don't marry yourself to what Sabio is teaching, in terms of extracurricular education. While I was at Sabio, I used React/React Native/Ado.Net/Express/Node/SQL. In the first month of my new job, I used Angular, AngularJS, and Razor ASP.NET. Sabio *will* teach you how to learn, beyond just teaching you what is in the curriculum, but you should start flexing that muscle before you inevitably have to flex it on the job.    Lastly, *before* you start sending out applications, put up a personal website and GitHub. Every single interviewer I talked to said they looked at both, and it takes a day max to get both up and running.    It's not an easy road, but you can set your watch on a favorable outcome, if you do the work, and you love the work. 

To help explain to you why I'm so pleased with Sabio, I'll run you through how I chose to attend. I did heaps of research about bootcamps after deciding that, though I could probably hack it with self study, I'd benefit more from a structured environment and a foot-in-the-door with provided job search help and networking. Since I'm lucky enough to live around LA, there were a few options, but Sabio immediately popped up with tons of amazing reviews (in other words, the ones right here). Of course, I wasn't going to go on just that, so I started getting ready for info sessions. Other places require you to straight up commit and go in, but Sabio is immediately different. I attended an info session online around Thanksgiving of 2016, and Gregorio was heading it. I loved it. Gregorio pulls no punches. He's always completely honest and answers everything you throw at him, complete with statistics for things like job placements (Sabio really excels here and is even part of a group pushing for complete transparency in bootcamp statistics). I finished and, when I mentioned it to my parents, I already said, "I'm pretty sure this is the one." One of Sabio's best features is their admittance process. You don't go through the college-esque applications of other places, instead you enter pre-work. For a small fee (lower or free with frequent deals!), you both get to see if you're actually interested in moving on and Sabio gets to see if you'll be able to get through the bootcamp alright. The instructors were nice and capable, and you take an assessment test at the end to get into a cohort. Other places just get you to put all of the money in up front, but I loved that Sabio had this model to help make everyone comfortable and confident. Cohort was great. Tons of work, but I learned a lot. One of Sabio's other best features is that you work on an actual project during cohort in a team environment. This means that you gain the skills you'll use in the workplace when it comes to things like working using an Agile methodology and how to deal with code reviews and mergers. The experience I got in Git was invaluable, and I'm so happy it's the way Sabio does things. And it doesn't end there. Sabio is a community, so you have that kind of alumni support that you do from a college. People are always around to help figure out the latest programming problem you hit or to pass along job opportunities. And the Sabio staff is always in your corner, especially Gregorio with his A+ job advice. Between counseling from Gregorio and one of my instructors, I was able to enter into job interviews and negotiations with far, far more confidence than I would otherwise. The result? The in-person interview I attended on the last day of my cohort turned into the job I started a few weeks after. I'm happily employed and make above the median number you see on this page. I couldn't have done it without Sabio's help. It's not literal magic, but if you listen and follow the program it can certainly seem like it by the time you're done. Recommended without hesitation.

Just last year I was approaching 20 years of being a developer for the same company.  I did not have many other developers around me, and I felt like I was falling behind watching the "outside" world of technology expand. My income was favorable and steady; yet, having to make a change was a must, and I felt like I couldn't waste much time with traditional schooling or even through online courseware. 

Learning about coding bootcamps was intriguing as they offered anyone the chance to learn about current development frameworks and libraries quickly, and apply those skills going forward. In my search for a local bootcamp, I found Sabio to stand out because it did not make empty promises. It was very honest about laying out expectations and the level of commitment needed for myself and my family to obtain a measure of success.

I selected Sabio based on multiple factors. The main one was their partnership with Antioch University. From this stance, I was able to enroll and participate in the pre-work through Antioch in evening class sessions. This period was what I called, "testing the waters." Whereas, I was testing whether I could I exert the additional energy to drive to class after work, learn about new tools and coding principles within a structured flow, be excited to be there, do the homework exercises, and continue to be pleased with doing this again and again over 12 weeks. 

Not only was I energized, I felt exalted. I was able to see the potential for more opportunities, and I couldn't wait to move onward to the immersive program. So, I gave ample notice to my employer that I would be resigning my position to commit wholly to the immersive program later that year. Based on my situation, many of my friends and colleagues thought I was taking an enormous risk; yet, as I continued to convey my impressions about Sabio and to the critical need for quality developers in today's market, they recognized my bold outlook and envied my courage.  

The design of the immersive program was one of those other main factors as to why I chose Sabio; it engages you in a real-world project with a real business owner invested in the outcomes of yours and your colleagues' work.  So just days after leaving my previous job I felt like I was starting a new one, via the immersive program.  From day one we hit the ground running, establishing rapport and finding strengths among our diverse group of other "developers."  I viewed our instructors as great team leaders who had extensive knowledge and were always able to balance the notion of providing enough guidance to help you overcome a bug, or understand an intricate design pattern in the code versus just giving away the answer. They would also lead our daily Scrum meetings at the start of the day to promote the principles of Agile development.

As a group of peers, we regularly supported each other through code reviews and publishing.  A useful teaching mechanism used in the program is to identify a topic or a recent implementation of the code and take a break within the day to pause and present to the whole group how he/she accomplished it. Most of these times, the instructors were there to guide the discussion; yet, encouraged us to be comfortable with talking openly about our code, There were instances after the instructors went home for the day, we instituted teacher sessions amongst ourselves. On a personal note, that is an example why I miss the high level of collaboration we had.

While my prior years of development positioned me as senior developer among my peers, I considered myself to be at the same standard level in that we all aspire to learn to code well by using the tools and cloud-based resources many employers are seeking candidates with practical experience. And that's an essential takeaway you should understand. Employers and their recruiters are not looking for dabblers in the hottest new trend in tech. They need people with unique skills that come from practical experience based on working in an environment like this; where specific requirements are given to you to tackle and write code to provide a solution.

The intensive part is that you need to put in the time working with your team, your instructors, the project owner, learning new concepts, coding, debugging, and even dreaming in code. All this effort pays off towards the end of the program when you realize how much you have learned and are indeed able to move forward with your career as a developer. 

Be aware of the final two weeks of the program. It comes at you fast because this is when you shift from developing all the time to preparing for interviews and job searching. It's a bit jarring as I remember many my of colleagues hating this phase because you start to miss coding. During this period, the program directors, instructors, and the support staff do a great job with providing information and setting expectations, and this is when should follow their recommendations and utilize their time and resources as much as possible because you are establishing a momentum for yourself to manage your job hunt going forward.

Some of your peers will find jobs right away, and some will take longer to find the right match. It all varies, but incredibly the jobs are out there, and Sabio is there as a resource even after ending your program, and you're in your new workplace or if you are not. Sabio allows you to be connected and call upon other past graduates as a community to help with code, discuss new frameworks, share job postings, exchange playlists for coding, or get advice on dealing with your new boss or workmates.  

It has been a fantastic journey, and I have new colleagues, and friends to share my challenges and success. A notable achievement includes a 30% pay increase from what I earned before. It is nice to have that; however, my new job setting gives me a better sense of purpose. And I find that to be more fulfilling. In all, I genuinely am reaping the benefits of choosing Sabio.  It is no bootcamp, it is a program that provided a transformative experience where it was a distinct honor to have worked within my cohort, and I feel very privileged to be part of the Sabio community.

Selecting a bootcamp should be treated with great care because you are investing money and time towards your next chapter of finding success and being happy. I applaud you for reading through reviews because I too discovered from the reports that there are a number coding bootcamps that fall short in preparing the world in need of quality coders.  

Selecting one of Sabio's programs and putting forth the effort to code and collaborate with others will set you on a path with many more opportunities.

I wish you well with finding your new career path. Good hunting.

I'll do my best to give what I feel is a realistic perspective of the situation you're faced with as it relates to Sabio's bootcamp experience. You've pry read several reviews that say stuff like, 'changed my life', 'best experience' or 'best decision of my life' which at the time they wrote those reviews was probably a genuine description of how they felt, but trust me that is far from how you'll feel 95% of the time.

In reality you'll constantly question if you've made a good decision. And with good merit you'll doubt your ability. Its hard, its real hard and if you're not putting in a 100% effort they will kick you out. I've seen it happen (no, I was not personally kicked out). It doesn't matter that you paid $15,000+ to be there they will kick out to maintain the reputation of the organization and future students ability to secure jobs. This however, isn't necessarily a bad thing. If they let every random person pass through no matter thier effort your job seeking efforts would be even harder than they already are.

The thing they dont tell you, that nobody tells you (why would they) in the begining is that when you do start looking for a job the fact that you come from a boot camp will work against you at every turn. So much so that they train you to avoid mentioning that you came from Sabio at all costs. You'll be trained to claim you worked for a "Start-up" and then you'll name the project you worked on. If someone asks what you were paid they suggest you claim you worked for "equity" (meaning "sweat equity", not a total lie but, well....). Obviously they tell you not to lie, what respectable organization would? But they tell you to do everything possible short of lying and in many cases it sure feels like lying (see previous sentence). This obviously makes the job search & interview process even more stressfull than it already is. Not only do you have to try to remember years of coding skills rammed into your head over 3 months you have to tip-toe around the fact that you just left a coding boot camp. This is a fact no matter what CEO response might follow this review.

Also, I think its worth mentioning that Sabio fired 3 of the most talented instructors in the organization. Aaron, Varr and the c# wizard Komron (all from Orange County). This left many students feeling abandoned and justifiably so. These were people they struggled with and gained confidence through and then suddenly they were just gone. This considerably diminished the $15,000 tuition value they paid. Many of us students are still confused as to why this happened. We were given a cryptic explanation of the reason for the instructors dismissal that would never allow me to declare if it were justifiable or not.

I dont mention all this to deter you from enlisting Sabio's services. But I do mention it as a reality check, this is not a short cut. This will be a real life struggle. Having said all that I still believe it is the best boot-camp around but this is not the golden ticket you might percieve it to be from the reviews. They provide just enough experience to scratch the surface, just enough to crack the job door open and then its up to you to do whatever you can to break it down. What you're embarking on is a learning experience that will go on long after you've left Sabio. Sabio is just a very small stepping stone in your attempt to cross the Grand Canyon.

Although they often bad mouth those that have paid for the high value "computer science" degrees they are still the ones that get the most attention with those designations on their resumes. My suggestion if you're young is to take the time to get a computer science degree. Be patient, you're young. It will be worth, trust me. If you can afford it, blow your money on Stanford, sure.... why not if you can afford it??

If not, go to a junior college and take a few years to get just an AS with a computer science emphasis or go get a bunch of computer science certifications. THEN, when you've had enough of that come back to Sabio and get some real world development experience. With a computer science degree and the coding experience of Sabio you would be in a really good place. If thats not an option, bite the bullet and be prepared to jump in the fire.

One last thing I want to mention. Pre-work is nothing like the immersive cohort. The cohort experience isn't just about being able to code. Its about being able to code and then get up in front of everyone and communicate what you did in terms you've never heard before that you have no idea if you're even saying correctly. You'll be required to stand in front of everyone, every single day and explain what you're working on, demo your code every week and on special occassions in front of A LOT of people. If you get stage fright, good luck. Your experience may become less about coding and more about how to navigate the anxieties that come with public speaking. It most likely will not be a fun experience but Sabio will prepare you better than any other boot camp out there. Good luck whatever you do.

***My review is anonymous because I do not want to be contacted by anyone at Sabio that may recognize my name. I did not write the review for recognition. I was a recent student that completed the full program and this is my real account of what I experienced. I was not kicked out. I have no incentive to discredit Sabio and any response by Sabio to the contrary is completely false. I've applied to a few hundred positions and received approximately 5 interviews. I have a tentative job offer I am considering.