Dan Farino Brings a Lifetime of Technical Experience and a Passion for Instruction to the Sabio Family
“It all started with a Commodore 64.”
A Commodore 64 home computer, a textbook on basic computer languages for Christmas ignited six-year-old Dan Farino’s journey into computer programming. Nevertheless, working on his Commodore 64 home computer was forced to take a backseat to music lessons, homework, and social interaction with his peers. However, this computer hobby soon preoccupied the bulk of Dan’s waking hours.
Dan joined the Marine Corps after high school. Thanks to the fine-tuning of his analytical mindset, he quickly absorbed the lessons of graphic design layout and wrote computer programs to assist with the functional/technical designs. Since his programming skills already had a natural process, Dan became the designated go-to Marine for all computer and office technical fixes.
Dan moved to Los Angeles after being discharged from the Marine Corps. He landed an entry level performing phone technical support at Stamps.com, a leading provider of Internet-based postage services. Dan’s role was assisting customers with their printers and software glitches. At the same time he wrote computer programs in basic for his fellow workers in the technical support group. His comfort level performing all these tasks told Dan he belonged in the I.T. department monitoring the network, fixing hardware and software disruptions.
Dan Moved from Systems Infrastructural Engineering to Programming Applications
Soon enough Dan worked his way into the IT department and naturally rose up to become Stamps.com systems architect. Nearly six years later, Dan moved on to MySpace.com where he became the chief systems architect writing programs that allowed a small team of network/system engineers to manage a network of five thousand servers. At MySpace.com, Dan met and worked with Gregorio Rojas, who was a lead developer there at the time. Dan moved on to Intelligent Healthcare, a health analytics provider in Santa Monica, where he seamlessly moved from the Network Infrastructural area to the development side programming applications.
One day, Dan was at an industrial park cafe and saw Gregorio having his lunch. They reconnected socially and technically updating one another on what they were currently working on. At this time, Gregorio had already co-founded Sabio and had the bootcamp up and running. He shared with Dan what he was working on and his vision for the Sabio fellows. The conversation regarding their need for more experienced programming instructors continued every time they saw each other at that lunch cafe.
“I was now at a crucial junction in my career,” reflected Dan. “I was working a lot from home, doing a lot of solo programming in complete control of my world. However, I suddenly felt at that moment that I needed to embrace some outside culture to expand my knowledge and share it at the same time.”
Gregorio’s conversations about Sabio finally found their way into Dan’s future plans.
A Lifetime of Technical Knowledge Leads to Teaching at Sabio
“I actually enjoy sharing my knowledge and helping people understand the computer programs I was building,” Dan finally admitted to himself. At that acknowledgement, he realized what a great opportunity Gregorio was offering him to be a Sabio instructor.
“I can’t describe the satisfaction I feel when I see the light bulb go on after explaining a solution to a programming problem,” Dan said. “Those core concepts that have been dancing around in their heads suddenly making sense.”
The fact that Dan’s instructional approach is empathic makes him uniquely qualified to work with neophytes. He is not the type of instructor who is going to phone his teaching in.
“All the students run into an obstacle and in most cases numerous obstacles daily. If that doesn’t happen, then I know I am not connecting with them,” Dan explained. “I don’t mind repeatedly explaining the blocks of information that make up these core concepts. I have had a unique experience literally growing up and interacting with a computer from a very young age. I know that I am crossing oceans of time to bring these students up-to-date with current programming technology and how it actually works. This challenge for me is the ultimate fulfillment.”
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