#My Career Development Pre-work
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The article entitled, "29 Behaviors That Will Make You an Unstoppable Programmer" outlines 29 different helpful tips for how to be successful and progressive as a working programmer. Here are 3 of these behaviors that I feel I already exhibit and try to implement in my life. Finding the right tool for the job/Using Google aggressively I will lump together and re-label "research and self-education". I find this to be very useful and important for all aspects of life. Knowing that resources are a click away is very empowering. If I have a question (about anything) I love to self-educate online using as many viable sources as I can find. I also find the behavior of how to recieve criticism very important. It is not always easy to recieve feedback or criticism but the practice of analyzing the feedback and not taking it personally is a great way to learn from your trials and mistakes as well as see the perspective of others on your team or identify a more specific need or desire from your employer. I also find the behaviors of "saying I don't know" and "work in a pair" to be extremely useful. Asking a question about something you aren't sure of will usually allow you to see multiple methods or solutions to your problem. There is a chance that others have the same question as well. Working in a driver/passenger team can be a great tool for learning and problem solving.
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I tend to use checklists at home to help me accomplish tasks and complete projects. They can be extrememly useful in how they organize different sections or functions of tasks or items on the list. In a case where there is a particular order to a procedure or steps in a set of instructions a checklist is a perfect tool to use so that each step is completed in the correct order. Checking off items of a list have a great pyschological impact on the sense of accomplishment after a list has been completed. I plan to be using checklists to help with organization of school work, time management and to implement steps in coding procedures and I hope to form great habits that will carry thru into my developing career.
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My impression of Strength-based Development is that it focuses in on the current strong behaviors or skills exhibited by an individual and pairs them to jobs or tasks that best match. It seems to me that people would be more enthusiastic and efficient with their work if they are given the oppurtunity to work on what they are passionate about and also to be paired with teammates that balance out others stregnths and weaknesses. I guess a question I have is how do employers measure and use changes in strengths and weaknesses in an individual over time? If I had to identify some of my strengths I would say that problem solving comes to mind first. I have always enjoyed puzzles and I tend to look at any problem solving task as such. I really enjoy finding more than one solution to a problem and using creative methods. I have been able to employ this strength in all of my previous job positions. Another strength I feel that I possess is empathy. I am often thinking about others' perspectives and experiences and pondering about how we all relate to eachother and our surroundings. This has greatly helped me work with all types of personalities and people. I hope to develop my current strengths and discover more by exploring a variety of experiences within the coding world and working with a diverse team.