My greatest strength is my ability to genuinely connect with other people. I know this because of the ways that people are able to open up to me, to be vulnerable and confide in me, to feel safe expressing themselves, to ask for advice and guidance and to develop friendships. Besides being curious about a career in coding/programming I've long been interested in the field of psycotherapy and strongly considered pursuing that path before deciding to attend the Turing school. Connecting with others has always been a major source of energy and reward for me; I delight in getting to know somebody on a deeper level and to learn about new people, particularly in collaborative settings. I also am quite patient; I enjoy holding space for others and making people feel heard/seen, valued, validated and cared for. Kindness, compassion, patience and understanding are certainly at the core of my set of values.
Working as a composer, collaborative musician, teacher, and in the service and retail industries I have had to learn to be efficient in many different working styles. As a composer, I really enjoy the isolation and internal process of chasing creative sparks, having the freedom to try many different things, being in control of my working environment and the self-imposed discipline/motivation that is required to work on creative and demanding projects by yourself. As a collaborative musician working in teams, I deeply appreciate the process of combining different perspectives and ideas to support eachother and find a solution together. Figuring out how to communicate effectively and respectfully, (especially when working with the creative visions of others), often leads to delightfully suprising new places that wouldn't have been possible to reach on your own. There aren't many feelings as satisfying as finding a solution together that every part of the team is happy with, and results in a beautiful and exciting whole that is without a doubt greater the sum of all parts. Having worked a lot in the service industry, I also have learned to thrive in a more fast-paced, detail-oriented and customer-focused environment. Having the pressure of time-sensitive tasks and attention to detail tends to unlock a deeper level of the brain's potential to organize and execute efficiently. I also really enjoy the ability to both support and be supported by co-workers in settings like that.
One of my biggest ares of improvement is knowing when to call a project finished. I tend to pay a lot of attention to details and am a bit of a prefectionist, especially when it comes to my own creative work. I feel that there is always something to be improved upon, always a way to do things better and improve the quality of the end result. In musical settings, this can interfere with my ability to see a project through to the end. I am working on letting that go, and learning that I can always put those improvements to use in making each next project better than the last, rather than getting hung up on the absolute perfection of each individual project. To use a metaphor about walking: It is better to focus on applying what you've learned to make each step progressively better, instead of being so critical of the quality of each individual step that you end up going nowhere at all.
I hope to hone in on my personal and communication skills to become better at important things like networking, and working on a team. The social aspect of networking is something that comes pretty naturally to me, but sometimes I lack the confidence to fully show up in a networking situation. While the face-to-face interactions are where my strengths shine, it is often the act of following up and nurturing the connections that can be a hurdle for me. I am looking forward to having the opportunity to practice, and further develop those skills. Working in teams is something I have plenty of experience with, as a musician I have been working on creative projects with teams for almost 20 years. Sometimes, especially when dealing with more creative projects, I can get so attatched to a certain standard of quality or specific vision about a project that it can be challenging for me to share the driver's seat and give up control of a project's direction. The older I get, the more important it becomes to get out of my own way, and detatch my ego from the process of creating things with others so as to allow and encourage collaborations to bloom to their fullest potential. I have made a lot of progress in that area over the last number of years, but is something I'm always actively striving to improve upon and I am grateful for the opportunities I'll have to continue practicing that at Turing.
Knowing about my ability to connect with other people, and my adaptability of working preferences helps me feel prepared and capable of working as a software developer. From networking, to working with a team, communicating with management and conflict resolution, my interpersonal skills are going to be very important in helping me succeed in my new career. My experience in different working styles will help me be versatile in how I can apply myself as a developer, whether it's working remotely at home, with a team in an office, responding to time sensitive comps or needing to debug a program. My varied experiences and strengths will help me to know what I am good at and what might need more attention or effort for me to accomplish, so that I can manage my time & cognitive resources accordingly. Knowing these things about myself also helps me better assess how I can most effectively contribute to any given project or job situation.
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?
One way I manage my learning process is by really tuning in to how I am feeling in mind and body as I work on understanding new concepts. I try to break up work into smaller chunks, and give myself consistent short breaks to incorporate new information and let my mind rest so that my processor does not become overloaded. I try to make sure that I am nourished and well rested so I can best absorb new information (especially as I make my way into my early 30's, these things have become imperative to my learning process). Repetition, and practical application are also very important to help me solidify and install new information as I learn new things. I can sometimes be pretty easily distractable, so doing things like making sure my phone is out of sight, closing windows and programs that arent involved in what I'm currently working on, and making sure my workspace is clean and organized are very helpful.
I just recently began teaching myself how to play Clawhammer banjo and even though a lot of the basic mechanics are similar to the guitar, (which is my primary instrument), and I generally pick up new instruments fairly quickly, the banjo has been one of the most challenging instruments I have ever attempted to learn. As with many musical conquests, it can be really discouraging to put in so much practice and yet see very small increments of improvement, so it has been very important for me to celebrate those small successes and lean into the enjoyment of the process, rather than fixating on fluency. Enjoyment of the process helps things become more deeply embedded into your brain, and there is less resistance when trying to recall/execute things that you enjoy. With the banjo and music, as with the start of my coding journey, it has always been really important for me to spend a enough time with the challenges in box A (referring to Sierra's concept of congnitive resource management) in order to solidify the foundations, and work to expedite the movement of those skills to box C and avoid stacking up items in box B. As somebody who usually lives in many worlds (both professionally and artistically) I cannot afford to overload box B and create traffic jams that deplete my cognitive resources, or risk plateauing and scraficing quality.
What role does your emotional state of mind play in your learning? How do your successes and failures at learning affect your emotional state?
I find it easier to learn and incorporate new things when I am in a state of emotional balance, and am more capable of believing in myself. I have been though some serious periods of depression in my life, and have had my share of percieved failures as well. Where I used to take pity on myself, and really beat myself up when I believe I have failed, I have learned that those moments are in fact the best opportunities to grow and practice picking yourself back up; to develop strength, resiliency, self-care and self-reliance. I have gotten much better at recognizing that moments were I am struggling or feel like I am failing are in fact opportunities to learn something new, figure out a different way of accomplishing something and discover more about who I am and how my mind works. Being able to re-frame the feeling of failure like this has helped me turn discouraging problems into exciting and invigorating challenges; opportunities to improve, love myself more and grow stronger because of it. Cracking open the fruit of failure reveals the seeds and nutrients essential to self-discovery and growth.
The biggest thing I can do to prepare myself to be in an optimal place to learn and integrate information is to prioritze taking care of my mental, physical and emotional health. I find that I can best maintain these states of balance by first starting in my body. Stretching and exercising every morning when I wake up, eating well and staying hydrated have become incredibly important practices to help me take care of my physical well-being, which result in feeling much more mentally and emotionally balanced. I combine those things with practices like meditation, journaling, creating to-do lists and reminders, building in time for me to wind down at night and make sure I get enough sleep, making space for creative expression/exploration, listening to my needs and connecting with people I love to address my mental/emotional well-being. I have learned that making these rituals & practices a priority in my daily life greatly increseases my capacity to show up fully, deal with challenges, absorb information, hold space for others and increase my level of productivity and cognitive resources. Knowing when to reach out for help and support will also be essential to taking care of myself and optimizing my learning process while at Turing.