Professional Development:
Reflections
Google aggressively - No matter what you're setting out to do, you're going to run into questions and roadblocks. Understand how quickly coding languages can fall in and out of favor, it's important to constantly be learning new languages an evolving your style. Upon graduating from Turing, I will be on my own for learning new languages and Google is a developers best friend in continuing their learning. Also, my friend told me that pretty early on, Turing School Instructors stop answering questions and tell you to "Google it"... gotta learn quickly and on your own in this world.
Say "I don't know" - Having worked in sales & management for the past 4 years, the most difficult part of that job is helping people who don't seem to think they have anything to learn and therefore, never ask for help or claim to not know about a particular subject. The best way to learn is to get off your high horse and acknowledge that there are a number of things that you can still improve (always) and that will help you grow and avoid pissing off those around you!
Absorb criticism - To say that I’ve never been a star student would be a gross understatement. It most areas of my life, I had to work a little bit harder than everybody else just to keep up. If it hadn’t been able to accept criticism and use it to make improvements, no chance I’d be where I am now. It’s all about listening to people around you to constantly get better and take criticism to heart. If it’s productive criticism and you’re in the wrong, learn from it. If you’re right, you have to know when to stand up for yourself.
Consider the idea of a checklist
As a student, it will help me keep track of everything going on and stay organized. In life, it's easy to become overwhelmed when you have a number of different projects going on at the same time. A checklist (I use Trello) along with my Google calendar has proven to help me stay on track with all of my assignments and deadlines in order to ensure I'm finishing my tasks before the last minute and that the quality of work is what is expected of me (by myself and others). In the real world, you're going to have even more projects going on at the same time and a checklist is still a wonderful way to avoid the feeling of desperation and producing sub-par work.
StrengthsFinder
- I think it's the best way to manage and develop however some structure and accountability is 100% necessary for it to work. I've been fortunate enough to work in environments that are completely hands-off and others that are exceptionally ridget and you're expected to be a robot who can do every single task with the same excitement. It's unrealistic to expect a "1 size fits all" approach to work.
- My best strengths are unwavering excitement, building relationships and boiling things down into very simple concepts that are digestible for others. The reason I know is because I've been tested in sales. When I first started, I was extremely robotic and tried to be like "process-driven" sales people and fell right on my face. Once I realized that I would get fired if something didn't chance, I gave my own style a shot and became brutally honest and genuine. Clients and coworkers appreciated the candor and I broke out of the losing streak, became promoted to Team Lead and started helping others learn sales who might not fit the mold of classic sales person.
- One of the driving forces behind jumping into software development was becoming somewhat obsessed (unwavering excitement) with Blockchain technology. Understanding that in order to work in this field, I need a very strong technical background and that will help me continue pushing myself in learning a new skill that will ultimately take me to where I want to be in life. How this excitement will help in software development is that I'll always been obsessed with new and cutting edge technology and once I learn a framework for how to get started, I'll constantly want to learn about new languages and tricks to improve. Building relationships will help me work with other students in group settings and also when it comes to sharing knowledge with others. There will be students who know things I do not and also, areas where I'll be stronger. Understanding how to effectively communicate will help me in group sessions.