Career Journal Prompts
Mod 1 Week 1: Understanding your strengths
- Describe one of your strengths
Answer: I believe I am a creative problem solver. I have the ability to break down a problem into manageable chunks and look at things from inobvious angles and perspectives. I believe I am well-suited to programming because of my ability to find creative solutions.
What is something you have learned to do well (list a skill)? I can...
Answer: I can write and speak in a very professional manner with a well-developed vocabulary.
What is something you know about (list some knowledge/expertise you have)? I know...
Answer: I know how to present myself as a dependable professional.
What is something you have a natural ability to do well (list a talent)? I am...
Answer: I am naturally intelligent and am able to find solutions to complex problems efficiently.
How could you combine these to describe a specific strength?
Answer: My talent, knowledge, and skill could combine to equal leadership.
Read through your Top 4 results from Pairin In your own words, what do these top 4 qualities tell you about yourself?
Answer: My top qualities (imaginative thinker, enthusiast, self-confident, lover of courage) tell me that I could be a strong driving force of positivity and may mean that I could be well suited for leadership
Do they resonate with you? Why/why not?
Answer: They do somewhat, I do think that I'm self confident and appreciate courage. As for being and imaginative thinker, I think that I can often come up with creative solutions to problems.
How do they relate to the strength you wrote about in Prompt #1?
Answer: The most obvious connection is to the imaginative thinker designation.
Challenges with strengths What can make it challenging to recognize your strengths? How can you work through those challenges?
Answer: The biggest challenge is self doubt and lack of resolve to push through difficulty. When I'm feeling less than capable or defeated I tend to feed into self-deprecating thoughts and it can be hard to re-motivate myself from that point. I think the best thing to do is prevent the negative-self talk from the beginning by recognizing that all problems have a solution and that being stuck doesn't necessarily mean defeat.
Do you ever see yourself overusing certain strengths? In what circumstances would you want to use them less and amplify other strengths? How could you adjust your approach in those instances?
Answer: Sometimes I can be a bit overly-confident and it can prevent me from being proactive, it can tend to lead to procrastination.
Strengths in action Write 1-2 sentences describing how you like to work (i.e., Do you pre-plan? Do you talk through your ideas first? Do you work better with deadlines? How do you stay organized?)
Answer: I work much better with deadlines. Being a procrastinator by nature I find it difficult to motivate myself to start projects in a timely manner. When I am proactive I tend not to pre-plan too much but rather just tackle whatever the project is and figure it out as I go. I don't know if that's the way I should continue to approach projects.
How could you describe these working preferences to your project teammates? Your mentor? Your instructors?
Answer: I dont know if these are really preferences or just habits.
What would you need to be aware of when working with people who have different strengths from you?
Answer: I think it's important to keep a gentle approach when dealing with new people so as not to stifle someone who might be less outgoing or comfortable with type A personalities.
How could your Pairin results help you better understand your everyday working preferences?
Answer: I'm not really sure how I could implement the information from the Pairin results.
Continued growth Is there any particular strength you'd like to sharpen while you're at Turing? Any area you consider a weakness that you'd like to strengthen?
Answer: The lover of courage strength could definitely use some sharpening, I tend to internalize frustration which is eventually externalized. I wish I were able to overcome discouragement as easily as the strength report suggests.
What are some steps you could take here?
Answer: The biggest step is anticipating getting stuck and being ok with it rather than allowing it to snowball into greif and self-doubt.
How could you be aware of progress you're making?
Answer: By being mindful of my own thoughts and energy while I meet difficulty in projects I will likely complete tasks more efficiently and feel encouraged by them rather than feeling like it was a struggle.
Week 2
Power of self-reflection What is challenging about self-reflection?
Answer: The challenging part of self-reflection is bypassing ego blockages that prevent me from admitting my miss-steps whether they be internal or external.
How can you continue to build the habit of self-reflection at Turing?
Answer: Keeping up with the career journal is very helpful. I also believe my new best friend my fox planner could be a key tool in facing myself with the details of my reality that my subconscious glosses over. I am also a fan of meditation, and need to develop the discipline to schedule it in daily.
Social identity mapping First, create you own social identity map on a piece of paper (or print this out):
Outer ring: write words that describe your given identity
Answer: White, male, american, straight, 33
Middle ring: list aspects of your chosen identity
Answer: Liberal, CO resident, boyfriend, rock climber, fit, good friend, good person
Center: write your core attributes—traits, behaviors, beliefs, values, characteristics, and skills that you think make you unique as an individual. Select things that are enduring and key to who you are.
Answer: empathetic, kind, compassionate, driven, competitive
After you complete your map:
Underline the items that are important to you Put a + beside the items that you believe clearly demonstrate that you fit into the tech industry Put a - beside the items that you believe do not demonstrate that you fit into the tech industry Put a ? beside the items that you're unsure how they could show your ability to contribute to the tech industry Reflect: I think the inner circle items make me a good fit for the software development part of the tech industry, not sure about the entire tech industry as a whole. My choices of lifestyle maybe don't play such a strong role in lining me up, perhaps being intentionally fit and active will help. Being a resident of CO so close to Denver will likely be a benefit from what I have been hearing about the industry in the area.
What does your social identity tell you about what you already bring to the tech industry?
Answer: My social identity tells me that I am already part of the largest demographic that the industry is comprised of. Beyond that I think being liberal will be a good thing as the industry seems focused on being quite liberal as well from what I have experienced thus far.
What would it look like for some of your minuses or question marks to turn into pluses? In other words, how could some of these traits be assets for the tech industry?
Answer: I put a question mark next to competitive which is at my core. I am competitive by nature but as I've aged I've focused on tempering that side of me in favor of being a supportive person. I think that being competitive can be healthy in a way, if it helps drive me to better myself and my projects.
Values mapping Pull out 5 values for each bullet below from this list:
Always valued: kindness, altruism, authenticity, integrity, love
Often valued: openness, joy, balance, fun, adventure
Sometimes valued: Ambition, Creativity, Hardwork, Persistance, productivity
Seldom valued: Patience, Accountability, Initiative, Optimism, Contentment
Reflect:
What do these values tell you about yourself?
Answer: I am unsure if I understood the prompt but I wrote down the values as I tend feel about them with regards to myself. Always valued reflects the things I value that shape the best of myself at my core. The second two categories reflect things that I intentionally value based on the things in life I admire or enjoy. The third category reflects values that I dont not hold myself too enough but will need to in order to reshape into my vision for a better self.
Workview & Lifeview Summarize what good, worthwhile work means to you (Tip: this is NOT about what work you want to do but about why work matters to you):
Answer: Good, worthwhile work to me is anything that is productive in helping others or myself to create a better reality. I was taught the value of hard work at a young age and I believe it is simultaneously therapeutic and cathartic, it instills a sense of self worth and community. I generally believe that any work done with altruistic intention beyond personal gain is worthwhile and good.
Lifeview: summarize what you value in life; what matters to you?
Answer: I value love, kindness, happiness, friendship, personal growth, and enriching experiences. I value things that are real, in a way that tangible physical items cannot be.
Where do your views on work and life complement each other?
Answer: My views on life and work meet at my belief that being a kind person beyond the interest of oneself. I believe it is the responsibility of the priveleged to help spread their good fortune, whether it be their ability to help with physical labor or easing the suffering or disenfranchisement misfortune of others in whatever ways they can. I believe no person is an island and lives are best lived when they are lived for others.
Where do they clash?
Answer: My belief that everyone should have an equal share clashes with my drive to achieve more success and attain more wealth. I dont want there to be any disparity in the world but at the same time I so want to travel and live a comfortable life free of financial worry.
Does one drive the other? How?
Answer: My desire is to live a rich life full of different experiences and personal growth. This I believe is directly tied to the distance and time one spends traveling. To travel I need financial progression. This is at odds with my desire for contentment, but it is so deeply driving me that I have no choice but to better myself professionally so that I can better myself personally.
week 3
Habits of a Software Developer
What do you think are the traits of a good software developer? What are they like in the workplace? What would you as a co-worker think of this person?
Answer: Traits of a good software developer include self-motivation, self-reliance, cooperative(ness?), forward thought, and empathy.
What are the habits that this person demonstrates to embody the identity of a software developer?
Answer: A productive and efficient software developer likely has a habit of keeping a writen schedule on a day to day basis as well as a daily routine that ensures self care as well as productivity. They would be very dilligent about being communicative by checking channels and messages and responding quickly. They would be aware of deadlines and use their time efficiently and intentionally.
Who do you want to be as a software developer? What kind of behaviors do you already have in place to be that person? What behaviors would you need to put into place? How will you do that?
Answer: I want to be a software developer who is a master of their craft. I want to be a life-long student and have the capacity and dilligence to learn every day. I want to be organized and efficient and reliable, and an indispensible part of every team I find myself on. Behaviors I currently have in place that are conducive to this goal are limited as I am a fairly disorganized person, I tend to overcome disorganization with obsessive input of time. However I am working to change this, I invested in a nice planner (the fox daily planner that was recommended to us in an assigned reading) and intend to commit to utilizing it every day.
Working on the 1st Law of Behavior Change: Make it Obvious
Bring self-awareness to your current habits by making a Habits Scorecard. Make a list of your daily habits (examples: wake up, turn off alarm, check phone, etc.) as a way to bring awareness to what you do. Then, decide how effective that habit is for you and your goal of becoming a software developer. Put a + next to habits that are effective; put a - next to habits that are not effective; put a = next to habits that are neutral.
Habits: wake up = check phone - (shouldn't be first thing I do) drink .5 liter of water + turn macbook on, check slack, check mod1 agenda + class time + make lunch + take doggie out for fetch + class time + meet with project group + work on project + workout for 1 hour (every 2-3 days) + 20 min full body stretch (every 2-3 days) + make/have lunch/dinner + work on project + play videogame - watch some cartoons w/ gf = go to bed 12am-1am -
Pick 1 new habit you'd like to build and create an implementation intention following this template: "I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]." Then, stack the habit onto something you already do: "After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]." (Hint: make this highly specific and immediately actionable)
Answer: I will do a full body 20 min stretch every day after lunch at 1230.
Design your environment for success: what changes could you make in your space to better implement your habit? How could you remove any triggers for bad habits? How will you implement these changes?
Answer: I could set a strict screens off time of 10pm to help promote a sleeping time of 11pm, this will allow me to wake up at 7am every day fully rested. Instead of watching tv or scrolling my phone from 10 to 11 I could read and update my daily planner.
Respond after a few days of this implementation: What are your results? How do you feel about this method? How will you move forward with this habit?
Week 4: Creating Your Vision, Part I
Habits Reflection: How have you seen yourself become more aware of your habits? Have you tried implementing anything new? What have the results been?
Answer: I have become more aware of my habits this week. I have been using my fox daily planner and saw some positive changes with it at first, it definitely made me aware of time leaks in my day. Unfortunately when I hit a few unexpected difficulties that derailed my schedule I tended to get off track for the rest of the day and by the weeks end I wasn't utilizing the planner as much as I'd intended.
Start Where You Are (Empathize with the user -- you) Health: how you answer “how are you”; intersection of physical, mental, and emotional health
How would you rate your overall health on a scale of 1-5? How do you currently make time for activities associated with your health? What is a small change you could make here to readjust your health ratings?
Answer: My overall health, probably about a 3.5 right now, has been declining due to my lack of attention to how much time I've been sitting without breaks. My posture has been getting worse and I've been stretching and exercising less. I think making sure I stand up for a few minutes every thirty and doing full body stretches at least every other day will make a big difference.
Work: what you do
Make a short list of all the ways you work right now; How much value do each of those things bring to your life? How are those activities purposeful for you?
Answer: Currently the only work I do is Turing related. About 85-90% of that is on whatever given project I have due. This is something I've been trying to intentionally change as I know that doing practice exercises and assessments will be not just beneficial but absolutely necessary to progress as a student and developer.
Play: what brings you joy? Think about joy just for the pure sake of doing it; everyone benefits from this kind of play
Answer: Climbing, snowboarding, and dancing to live music are probably my favorite physical activities. It seems I won't be able to enjoy any of these things for a while however as they are either time consuming or impossible right now due to quarantine. I do have other activities that I enjoy but it just feels like there is no time to spend doing them. I don't think it would be wasted time to go out and roller skate with my girlfriend for example, but it seems like there is nowhere to squeeze that in.
What activities do you do that bring you joy throughout an average week? In what ways could you make a small change to bring more joy into your life?
Answer: I suppose I could try to schedule some more space to go out and rollerskate with my girlfriend. The limited time just feels so constricting.
Love: sense of connection; who are the people who matter in your life and how is love flowing to and from you and them?
Answer: My incredibly supportive girlfriend has been crucial in helping me through. Right now the love seems to be flowing in one direction towards me and not enough from me. I'm not sure what I can do to change that beyond just expressing my gratitude towards her. My parents and best friend are also very supportive of my efforts, I speak to my parents about once a week but my best friend has been travelling so we haven't had much contact.
How does love currently show up in your life? How do you show love to others right now? What adjustments would you like to make in this area?
Answer: Love currently shows up in my life through showing it to myself by taking the frightening step of career change. Beyond this I show love to my girlfriend by making sure I continue to pull my weight around the house and spend time with her when I can. I think adjustments that I could make would be to call my family more, as I don't get to talk to them a whole lot.
Looking back at the 4 areas, do any problems emerge that you want to begin designing solutions for?
Answer: The biggest shortcoming right now is my lack of communication with my family. I haven't spoken to my brother or sister in months, which I feel terrible about.
Define your needs, problem, and insights: Based on what you wrote about above and your group conversation, what problems have you identified that you'd like to design solutions for? What do you already about what you want for your career? What do you still need to find out? Who or what do you want to grow into by the end of the Turing program?
Answer: I want a career that I feel confident in that will allow me to build a life beyond living paycheck to paycheck. This will require me to become a more proactive and disciplined person, which I hope to shape myself into during my Turing experience.
Ideate -- challenge assumptions When you discussed software developers with your small group on Monday, what assumptions came up about what software developers actually do? What steps could you take to challenge those assumptions and find more facts to answer the question of what developers do? In addition to what a typical software developer life could look like, what do you want yours to include?
Answer: This wasn't discussed during the group discussion that I was in but I think some assumptions that I have would be that maybe software developers live a very solitary existance and that maybe they dont make much money. I'm learning that the former is not necessarily true and that there is a tremendous amount of collaboration that must continuously take place. I'm hoping that I can make at least a decent wage throughout my career and start to develop some savings.
Prototype -- start creating solutions What is the basic threshold that your new career must meet after Turing? What would you hope WILL NOT happen in your future after Turing? What is your absolute, no-holds-barred, ideal dream for your future after Turing?
Answer: The basic threshold for me post-Turing would be a job within 2 months with a salary of at least 70k and a workload of no more than 45 hours per week at the most. My ideal dream for post-Turing would be a job within 2 weeks of completing the program, 100k salary with benefits, and a reasonable workload of no more than 40 hours a week remote.
Test –- solutions Based on this week of reflections, write out your initial vision statement for your career:
Answer: My career would be well underway within a month of completing Turing, with a job paying 80-90k salary with benefits, resonable schedule, and interesting work that I feel confident in doing.
Mod 1 Week 5: Creating a Vision, Part II Habits Reflection:
How have you seen yourself become more aware of your habits? Have you tried implementing anything new? What have the results been?
Answer: I have noticed that I'm able to squeeze in more self care throughout my days if I use my day planner and set clear intentions the night before. This has been difficult to maintain however because I've had several nights where Im so absorbed in working on my project that I end up going to bed/waking up late without having written in my day planner ahead of time. It's something I will continue to try implementing on a regular basis regardless of my workload.
Design Thinking Reflection: Cultivating Beginner's Mind
How can beginner's mind be helpful when it comes to thinking about your career and job search? What are some habits you could put into place to cultivate beginner's mind regularly?
Answer: Firstly I think being in a place to even realize that I should approach tasks with a beginners mind has already been resoundingly helpful for me. Intentionally maintingin a beginners mindset has been helpful in dealing with frustration which occludes my mind inhibiting problem solving. I think the biggest difficulty with maintaining a beginners mind is allowing myself to be comfortable with not knowing how to do something. Since I will be in a perpetual state of learning it is important that I learn to be comfortable with lack of knowledge so that I can efficiently learn without feeling frustrated.
Optional additional reading: How to Cultivate Beginner's Mind to Become a True Expert
Go through the Flower Exercise brainstorming worksheets linked here. Then complete your Flower Exercise final worksheet here (go to File > Make a copy) and link that finished worksheet here.
Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vlrEBtLaJASeqvly-XTPLdQ0I9qtJikkKriQ-hNIRhs/edit
Write out your top 5 strengths that you've seen in action this module; then write out the strengths of a software developer. Where do you see these lists overlapping? Where are they different?
My strengths:
- Perserverance
- Creativity
- Adaptability
- Intelligence
- Positivity
Strengths of Software developer:
- Perserverence
- Motivation
- Cooperative
- Even-tempered
- Self-reliant
Answer: These lists overlap most importantly with perserverance I think, which always needed to push through problems. Positivity and adaptability lend themselves to perservering. It seems like a base level of intelligence is needed to be proficient but more important than high levels of intelligence are the ability to continue learning throughout efforts to complete projects.
Write a refined vision statement here (what new things have you discovered this week to incorporate into your vision statement?):
My vision is to be able to maintain positivity in the face of all difficulties and continue to learn my entire life.