Our mission is to unlock human potential by training a diverse, inclusive student body to succeed in high-fulfillment technical careers.
When you're transitioning careers, often many other aspects of your approach to work and life undergo a transition as well. Turing aims to be a place where you can work through these transitions successfully. While enrolled at Turing and during your subsequent job search, you'll be provided with tools and strategies to develop the professional skills necessary to enter a new career as a software developer.
The pre-work for career development is focused on introducing you to a set of mindsets that we at Turing believe will make you a successful programmer. These mindsets are:
- Agency: Taking initiative and ownership over your learning and work
- Empathy: Understanding and sharing others' emotions in order to relate to them
- Engagement: Active participation in community
- Grit: A combination of perseverance and passion
- Growth: A belief that your abilities can be developed through dedication, hard work, and resiliency
Your Gear Up pre-work is focused on Empathy, so that is not a focus of this pre-work while the other four mindsets will be introduced to you here. Your objectives in this pre-work are to:
- Understand the non-coding aspects that go into being a successful programmer
- Reflect on your current mindsets and build an understanding of new or differing mindsets
- Understand a strengths-based approach to development
- Begin analyzing how your strengths apply to your development at Turing
One tool we'll be using for your professional development at Turing is the Pairin Survey. This survey measures over 100 coachable and changeable skills. This activity invites you to begin building an understanding of how learning about and developing your strengths applies to your success in your new career. We will discuss the results of this survey more in-depth in your first professional development session at Turing. Follow the steps below to fulfill this part of the prework:
Step 1: Take the survey using this link. It will prompt you to create an account when you take it. There are 2 sections for this survey:
- First section: Choose adjectives to answer how you currently are
- Second section: Choose adjectives to answer how you would like to be. The second section is marked as "optional," but it is highly recommended that you fill out this section in order to provide more data for you on how you'd like to grow.
The survey should take you about 15-20 minutes.
Step 2: Read this post and watch this video to start building an understanding of your Pairin results (5 minutes total):
- Understanding Your Pairin Results (2 minutes)
- Pairin Qualities Overview (2.5 minute read)
Step 3: Please respond to the following questions in a reflection (4-6 sentences):
- What is your greatest strength and how do you know?
My biggest strength is I am very empathetic to other people. My ability to connect with people and be responsive and supportive...it gives me so much energy. It is amazing how this strength of mine has transitioned towards helping others understand a code pattern that I understand. It's a great feeling to be able to show up for someone in that capacity.
- How do you work best?
I work my best when I am leading a team. I can be a good follower, and I know how to step-back, but I do enjoy guiding and pushing and asking and providing the idea that ultimately gets chosen. Even if my ideas sound ridiculous, it's been amazing how many have been adopted simply because it is a simple way to blend several priorities.
- What is your greatest area of improvement?
There are some self-management aspects that I want to address for myself. Making sure that I take the time to recognize what I am feeling and how to navigate and negotiate better situations for myself. Deciphering what honest communication means for me. Learning that making accomodations for others can happen after a more solid communication of my needs, desires, hopes, and boundaries. Even though I love the part of me that is so easy-going with my team, I have to remember that there are moments where I am not measured by how I can help co-workers break-through, but rather on my own deliverables.
- How do you hope to maximize your strengths for your new career in software development?
I plan on being a team manager for a prominent software company and lead the most diverse, successful, and creative team in the company. I love programming. I love problem solving. I love developing people into their fullest potential. I hope I get some solid experience with senior developers that see that opportunity in me (instead of viewed as a liability because of my single-mother-dom.) And once I get my first year under my belt, I want to build and lead a team that sets cultural trends within the organization. I want to be part of the team that pushes for race and gender equity within our code, clientelle, and employee hires.
- How might knowing about your strengths and working preferences benefit you as a software developer?
It can help me identify working cultures that would value me and my experience. It can help me be clear about what I need to negotiate when it comes to salary, benefits, and working conditions so that I can maximize my growth and progress. Also, knowing what my strengths and working preferences are steps towards a fulfilled software development career. It can be the difference between success and a hard lesson.
Step 4: Read Ta-Nehisi Coates' article, "Getting Better at Difficult Things" and watch Kathy Sierra's keynote from Fluent Conf 2015
- Ta-Nehisi Coates' article
- Kathy Sierra's keynote
Step 5: Please respond to the following questions in a reflection (4-6 sentences):
- What efforts do you make to manage your learning process? Are these efforts successful? What challenges have inhibited your ability to manage your learning process effectively?
I make it a point to set a struggle timer. Giving myself a moment to decide if I almost got it or if it's time to reach out to a different resource. I am good at setting time aside to dedicate and focus on a task. Putting my phone and devices on airplane mode for an hour helps me focus on the task at hand. Creating a to-do list for myself so that I stay on task even when I let my mind wander. Embracing my most productive time of the day and breaking the tasks into smaller pieces. Developing a 7-day high-level look-ahead. And most importantly, I give myself a reward daily.
- How do Sierra's and Coate's material relate to your current process for learning?
Sierra really jumped out at me. She was giving me the key to my success at Turing. Every time I watch that video, I feel a sense of urgency and clarity to drastically change some components of my life. I honestly feel that if I take the time to be rested enough where I can let my brain absorb the pattern, then I can skip from not knowing to mastery. My success in this field requires mastery, flexibility, and creativity. Coates reminded me that I don't have to "feel" like I know to accept that I am growing. I am committed to reprogramming my brain to embrace these times of discomfort so that I can truly embrace my growth.
- What role does your emotional state of mind play in your learning? How do your successes and failures at learning affect your emotional state?
My emotional state of mind and my learning all come from one tank. When I am succeeding I need to interrupt the thought that it was just an accident. When I continute to succeed, I need to interrupt the thought that I'm not doing anything special. When I fail, I need to interrupt the thought that I am no longer good. Succeeding and failing do impact my emotional state, but ultimately what keeps me sustained as I learn is the act of continuing to participate even if I failed. It doesn't all accumulate to me being a lost cause. It accumulates to me being better each time.
- How will you prepare yourself to be at your best with your learning process while at Turing?
I will seek housing that helps me protect my cognitive resource. Being in housing with other people going through a similar process as myself is really important to me. This pandemic has made it very clear to me what is working and what is getting in the way of me being my best at Turing. I will prepare by organizing a cohort of other Turing folks who might want to rent a house together with me. I think committing to this plan makes sustained living outside of my brother's house more feasible. I am capable of finding a safe and loving community for my son and myself, and I am capable of securing that community in a timely fashion.
In a gist, please:
- Include a screenshot of your Pairin top 4 results by following these directions
- Include your responses to the questions in Step 3.
- Include your responses to the questions in Step 5.
Submit your gist in the survey here
Optional further reading:
- How the Pairin Survey compares to other assessments
- How to Hire Like Google & Facebook: (5 minute read)
- Four Essentials of Strengths-Based Leadership: (6 minute read)