Great curriculum with an incredibly supportive staff. SVA will teach you all you have to know to succeed as an SDR including what the role entails, tech tools you'll be using, successes and struggles you'll be going through, and the best strategies to be successful in winning over prospects. 

In addition to the curriculum, SVA provides an enormous amount of resources and mentors, so all you're questions and concerns are answered with depth and care. 

I took this fellowship very seriously and landed a job as an SDR in Tech.  They delivered on their promise from A-Z.  This fellow goes from training material, interview prep, then it is YOUR job to execute on the interviews.  

I wish we went over Salesforce a bit more, but you'll pick it up once you work at your company. (Minor detail)

Finding and being accepted into the SV Academy Fellowship has been life-altering in the best possible way. I was stuck in a comfort zone (aka - a rut) for some years with the jobs that I was used to doing. I have lived in Silicon Valley for over a decade now and had never felt like I could actually be part of it career-wise. Breaking into the tech sector, even as an entry-level SDR, is NOT easy. I'm so thankful that a couple of great minds came together and saw the opportunity to help open that door for people like me.

The program is very intelligently designed with very practical assignments and educational material. They have coaching for every arena pertinent to the endeavor. And, they follow-through and deliver on their promise all the way. That being said, it is up to YOU to put in the work. They won't hold your hand or check on you about late assignments. The threshold for lack of effort is low, but their employer network is counting on them to deliver the best, ready-to-go SDR's around. 

Having recently graduated, I've already received two job offers and have officially accepted. I'm very excited about the future and the continued support through the SV Academy Community over the next 12 months!

I had a great experience with SV Academy. I thought it was too good to be true: a free bootcamp with guaranteed placement at a top startup in NYC. After asking around my personal network I decided to take a shot and it was the best decision that I've ever made. Within two months I was placed at a startup and tripled my salary overnight. Two things especially contributed to this: they had great interview prep with one on one coaching and they were able to leverage their network to get me in front of two companies a week until I was placed. The interview process was hands down the toughest I have ever been through and I thought very highly of my interview skills going into the program. You will be expected to demonstrate you can perform the duties of an SDR: creative prospecting, conduct a discovery call, explain how you work with a sales stack etc. You will have the experience of the training to draw from.

There are a few things to keep in mind: one is that while the program is remote there are some parts of the program that are not asynchronous. If you live on the East Coast, expect to make some adjustments as the times are usually based on PST. The staff was great about working with me on that. Another thing is the time committment- if you work full time any "free time" you have will be occupied by this program. Be sure to submit your assignments on time. If you keep up with your end of the bargain they will set you up nicely.

I was accepted to be part of the SVA fellowship in December 2018 while being based in Peru. During the training phase (first three months of the program) I learned everything that I needed to be successful as an SDR:  using empathy and active listening to engage in meaningful conversations with prospects, how to approach a cold call, write creative emails, how to take rejection on the head, develop my own workflow, and understand deeply the SDR role, among others.

Once the initial training and internship were over I moved to SF to start the interviewing process. During my first week in the Bay Area, I interviewed with 5 high potential start-ups that offered technology solutions aligned with my experience (business and data analysis). After two weeks of phone calls and on-site interviews, I was extended an offer by Alation (creators and leaders in the enterprise data catalog market), a top tier fast-growth start-up. All of the anxious feelings that I had (moving to a new country without a job) were replaced by reassurance, knowing I had a great organization that cared about my professional growth and were true to their promise.

After several months of hard work at Alation as an SDR, with more than a couple of thousand cold calls and more than many successfully qualified prospects under my belt, the second milestone in my career materialized. I transitioned to a closing role as an account executive for another enterprise SaaS start-up in the Bay Area. All of these events unfolded in a quasi-celestial manner all thanks to the support from SVA coaches, mentors, the network of partners, fellows and founders Rahim and Joel. Without them, this would not have happened.

In summary, it has been a crazy ride… moving from Peru to San Francisco, getting my first job offer within two weeks of relocating to the US, and signing for an AE role within a year.

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!