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Write 1-2 paragraphs about your StrengthsFinder themes: How have you seen yourself using these strengths at Turing? Has your understanding of these strengths changed since you first reflected on them? If so, how?
My main themes are all related to strategizing, learning, and actively pursuing goals. I identify strongly with the ‘Learner’ strength, which is one of the main reasons I enjoy Turing so much. Much of my life has been defined by this strength, driving me to experience new things and challenge myself. This goes hand in hand with the ‘Achiever’ strength which drives me to accomplish something every day. Learning is an accomplishment, and so these two strengths supplement each other, especially in learning code. The ‘Strategic’ and ‘Activator’ strengths are almost at cross purposes, and can effect how I approach new challenges. I do tend to think through strategies, but I am constantly driven by the ‘Activator’ to start as soon as I have a rudimentary plan. This can result in a stuttering approach to problem solving, and plays out in my code constantly. Build a basic strategy, try to put it into code immediately, fail miserably, rethink the strategy, try again and so on.
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Write a story about your Turing experience so far: When have you struggled? How have you dealt with struggle? When have you succeeded at Turing? How did you accomplish those successes?
My experience at Turing has been one of the best in my life. So far the most difficult conecpts are the Computer Science aspects of the projects we are building. Understanding the structure of each project, especially understanding without any visual concept of what we are building is difficult. With each challenge I have grown, both in my ability to code, and in my understanding of what I don't know yet. One of the most difficult aspects of learning to code on your own is not knowing what it is that you don't know. The further I get in the program, the more I understand how much there is to learn, and the better I get at learning new things.
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After you practice storytelling in the session, answer this question: What was particularly easy or difficult about telling your story? What are 1-2 steps that you can take to continue to improve your abilities to tell your story, talk about yourself with ease, and examine your strengths?
I have a hard time talking about my struggles. Particularly, I have a hard time admitting that I have struggled. Writing part 2 of this reflection took me hours of writing and rewriting. To overcome this difficulty I have to be more comfortable discussing when I have trouble with something, and why I am struggling. To that effect, I am going to seek out mentors who I can talk to about their own struggles. Maybe by relating to someone who has gone through the same program, I can open up about some of the difficulties I have faced. I also plan to continue writing here, to update how I feel when talking about myself, and to track my own progress.