SV Academy

SV Academy is legitimate. They provide 16 hours a week of online instruction, and you are expected to put in the rest of the effort to get assignments in on time, complete your personal branding materials, and practice interviews. With anything like this, what you put into the course is what you get out. 40 hours a week was not nearly enough for me, as I had no background in sales or tech. I worked about 12 hours a day and 4-8 hours each weekend to keep up. That being said, I have had a very positive interviewing experience and within 3 weeks of graduating, I landed a job that tripled my annual salary. The internship and interview practicing courses were incredibly beneficial. Overall, it's worth it. 

SV Academy helped me secure a full-time offer with a leading startup company about a month after I graduated. The support I gained from their instructors helped me succeed in their rigorous sales training program. Also, their community and culture are unmatched! My fellow cohort members were highly engaged and instrumental in keeping me motivated. Their classroom assignments are extremely relevant to what you'll be doing daily as an SDR and I believe that the content I've learned will be useful throughout my sales career. 

The alumni and mentor networks are Amazzzzing. Everyone responded whenever I reached out to them. Beyond getting the typical on-the-job industry pro advice, they all have been super supportive during various stages of my job hunting phase. One alumni referred me into his company for interview, and coached me from the recruiter screen all the way to the final mock call round. A mentor reached out to his network to help spread the word of my job candidacy, which lead to hiring managers (plural!) reaching out to me to interview me.

Pros
Comprehensive program covering the major pillars of
    - hard skills - core sales development competencies
    - soft skills - EQ, growth mindset, interview skills & practices
    - internship - at a tech SaaS company prospecting real leads

Cons
From my personal experience, super super tough for the 1-month program. I've never been pushed harder in my entire life. Maybe it's just me, I was averaging 5 hours of sleep a day during the SDR course.

This company is literally built so that its fellows enter the tech industry and are successful upon entering. I was in a place in my career where I had built all these skills sets but desperately needed a career change; I committed to the program fully and it paid off. I just got hired at a solid tech company in New York City!!

My success is SVA's success, and that mentality shows through in the entirety of the program. They provide you with teachers, mentors, coaches, etc that are all committed to helping you every step of the way. 

This experience has honestly changed my career and my life. I am so grateful for this avenue that the people at SVA have helped me pave for myself. 

Applying to SV Academy was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

** This is a free program, thus it is highly selective and time intensive. You have to be committed to this. I managed to do it working two (relatively flexible) jobs. I had to make sure I managed my time. It was tough. PLAN ACCORDINGLY. This program is legitimate and thus requires your time. 

If I can do it balancing two jobs, I believe anyone who really wants this can as well. And the payoff is real. Manage your time and commit to the dream.

SV Academy is just phenomenal. The program has changed so many people’s lives for the better, helping them kick start their careers in sales and the tech industry. Would highly recommend to anyone who is hungry to grow and willing to put in the hard work to be great.

 

The Curriculum:

SV Academy’s classroom training and internship program are designed by professionals who have been working in sales for years. It’s designed to groom the fellows to present themselves in the best way possible, improve their communication and writing skills,  hone their time management skills, and learn about sales methodologies. It’s extremely immersive and you can get as much out of it as you put in. (BANT, PACE, AAA. You’ll know soon enough.😉)

 

The Experience:

Get ready to commit at least 20hours a week to this program. You will have weekly classroom sessions with your cohort. Each week you will have a different presenter, usually sales leaders from the industry who will speak about their experience and answer any questions you may have. You will also have to make time weekly to meet with your classmates to do Paired homework assignments, as well as meet with various coaches and mentors to help bolster your mindset and interview skills, among other things. You’ll finish the last leg of the classroom training with a three-week internship. Again, it’s extremely immersive and did I mention time management? Yeah. Get ready for your time management skills to get tested like no other. 80:20 for days.

After the classroom training, SVA has a designated team that is committed to finding you a job. This team is EXTREMELY valuable and very willing and available to help you land that job.

 

 

The Community:

If there is one valuable thing to take away from this fellowship (aside from getting a job), it’s definitely the community. Throughout the program and after, you have a team who is dedicated to helping you succeed, whether it be as a fellow in the fellowship program, or as a sales professional working in the industry. Imagine a community of hustlin’, successful sales people who are all available and willing to share their insights, knowledge, and wisdom. That’s what you’ll get when you join the SV Academy community.

 

My Story:

I was living in San Francisco and was looking for a way to break into tech. I found SVA and went through the program. It was probably the most demanding 3months of my life, but oh so worth it. I learned a lot about myself, learned a lot about the tech industry, learned a lot about how to succeed as a sales professional, and built a solid network to lean upon. After the classroom training, it took me about 6 weeks to land a job at a company that was the perfect fit for me. I can’t thank SVA enough for the positive impact it has made on my life. It was a lot of hard work but SVA will provide you with all the resources you need to succeed. You just gotta do it and make it happen!

What they "teach" you (not much of anything, in actuality) is a joke and just a waste of time for everyone involved. The instructors are totally inept and unqualified -- you'll probably be taught by someone who just went through the bs program themself. The program is also quite discriminatory and the exact opposite of what they claim to be -- if you don't fit the mold of what they think tech companies want to see in SDR candidates, like you have a foreign accent or a disability, you're given the boot, without warning. SVA is run by con artists who couldn't care less about helping people...they only want their $10,000. What they say about how exclusive their program is and how everybody gets a job at the end are big lies. You'll regret going here.

 

SV Academy opens up so many doors for individuals seeking to immerse themselves into the tech field but do not have the experience in the area. I myself, studied philosophy and anthropology in college and did not know which direction to take my career into. I did sales for a little bit and then found SV Academy, a 12 week program where they train you to be the best SDR out there, guaranteed. I am not going to lie to you, it is a lot of work but it is extremely rewarding. You meet weekly with your group or "cohort" for online classes, you are given a career coach that you meet with weekly as well, and are given weekly assignments/ homeworks some of which is group work. All of these things truly prepare you to be the best SDR you could be. You are also paired up with mentors in the tech industry, founders in the tech industry and are truly exposed to the tech world. Finally you are selected to participate in an internship with a tech company, for me it was Talend. You are now putting all of the skills you have learned to the test. You are making phone calls, sending out emails to potential prospects like you would be doing once you find a job as an SDR. Finally, once you have completed everything you get to the best part: the job application process. You get your own team that applies for you, you have an entire team that prepares you for each individual interview/company ensuring and setting you up for success. My only regret is not finding out about the fellowship sooner!