- What is a career journal? The journal will help guide you through the process of discovering who you are as a new developer and how that translates into your career goals. It’s a way to check in with yourself through self-reflection, prompts, and questions, organize your targeted job search, and remember who you met as you build a professional network.
- Make it your own. Add questions and areas to reflect on each week. Just don’t forget to share all of your successes and achievements along the way!
- Ongoing progress checks. Throughout the module, you'll respond to the other prompts and update your progress in your document during professional development workshops and set aside work time.
- Module Expectations. A completed career journal is required for successfully passing the module. The career development team will be assessing your progress throughout the module, and you will submit it for final review in week 6. You will also include highlights from your progress in your end of module portfolio presentation.
- Copy the following into your own gist or Google Doc. You'll be sharing this with the Career Development Team.
- At the end of week 1, you'll submit the link to your journal in a survey provided to you by Allison. Please DM her with any questions you have.
- 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?
- 3
- How do you currently make time for activities associated with your health?
- When it comes to mental health, I currently talk to two counselors on somwhat of a regular basis (once every 1-2 weeks), however, I worry for my physical health.
- What is a small change you could make here to readjust your health ratings?
- Create time for physical activity that I enjoy and is achievable.
- Set a time when to stop working, and start getting ready for bed.
- Work: what you do
- Make a short list of all the ways you work right now
- Code during alloted work time, class time when I need to implement something we're going over, and long after dinner time into sleep time
- Housework on the weekends (all weekened long)
- How much value do each of those things bring to your life? How are those activities purposeful for you?
- Learning to code is a means for financial stability
- An organized house gives me a sense of peace througout the rest of the work week, so I worry less about what needs to get done, and can focus more on learning.
- Play: what brings you joy? Think about joy just for the pure sake of doing it; everyone benefits from this kind of play
- What activities do you do that bring you joy throughout an average week?
- Naps
- Going outside (being in nature)
- Planting things
- Completing a project
- Playing games/puzzles
- Crafts
- In what ways could you make a small change to bring more joy into your life?
- Talk to my family
- Schedule at least 3 full hours across the week to do something that I enjoy doing like dancing, working on plants, gaming, etc.
- Improve growth mindset by seeing things as opportunities for learning, instead of dwelling on the failures
- Love: sense of connection; who are the people who matter in your life and how is love flowing to and from you and them?
- How does love currently show up in your life?
- Taylor
- Mom
- Gumbo
- How do you show love to others right now?
- Listen to and spend time with them
- What adjustments would you like to make in this area?
- Be more compassionate/allow others to make mistakes
- Looking back at the 4 areas, do any problems emerge that you want to begin designing solutions for? Physical Health
- Make time for physical activity at least twice per day
- Resolve issue with Medicaid so I may see a doctor Personal Relationships
- Assume positive intent, communicate with compassion
- 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?
- Develop a balanced work/home life; working from home provides extra time that I can use to perform house work, but I am also working on becoming a software developer during this time, so I have to parse my time into small chunks, so I don't become overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done in a day
- Prioritize my physical/mental health more; talking to a counselor is not enough, I must also do for myself, meaning getting back into the thigs I used to enjoy.
- What do you already know about what you want for your career? What do you still need to find out?
- Currently, I have a broad expectation of what I would like to do after Turing. I am interested in organizations that are involved in community development, specifially those working to provide solutions to social issues, through a collective action and culturally responsive approach. My task this mod is to research organizations that fit what I'm looking for.
- Who or what do you want to grow into by the end of the Turing program?
- I want to be a resource for my community, so I can help in improving/fixing our way of life.
- I want financial stability, so I can help myself, and help others.
- Ideate -- challenge assumptions:
- When you discussed software developers with your small group on Monday, what assumptions came up about what software developers actually do?
- One assumption that came up during the discussion, is that as web developers, we'll be creating new web apps every day.
- What steps could you take to challenge those assumptions and find more facts to answer the question of what developers do?
- I am going to follow up with my mentors, and ask about their daily work life, focusing on the tasks they perform each day.
- In addition to what a typical software developer life could look like, what do you want yours to include?
- Education (opportunity to attend trainings to increase knowlege of the work I'm doing)
- Prototype -- start creating solutions:
- What is the basic threshold that your new career must meet after Turing?
- It must value my voice, by actively asking for my input on decisions that effect all, it myst also value my work through fair compensation and opportunity for professional growth.
- What would you hope WILL NOT happen in your future after Turing?
- Although facing adversity in the tech field is very likely, I do not want to be in a position where my values are compromised (i.e. working in an organization that works against any community's well-being)
- What is your absolute, no-holds-barred, ideal dream for your future after Turing?
- A balanced work/home life, flexibility to work from anywhere in the world, close-nit community where everyone has a voice and is heard, solution-based and strengths-based approach in supporting employees.
- Test –- solutions:
- Based on this week of reflections, write out your vision statement for your career:
- Contribute solution-based efforst to meeting community needs or combating social issues, in a culturally responsive working environment, while adopting a growth-minset and strengths-based approach to my professional development
- Design Thinking Review: Cultivating Beginner's Mind
- How can beginner's mind be helpful when it comes to thinking about your career and job search?
- Having a beginners mind in terms of a career and job search, would mean having confidence in myself to go after what I want.
- It would mean navigating through fears and assumptions of doing something new in a calm and productive way. Those fears will still be there, it's impossible to not have, but accepting them, and knowing that it's all part of the growing process is what I hope to achieve.
- What are some habits you could put into place to cultivate beginner's mind regularly?
- Breaking down a topic into building blocks
- Start using the word "should" less when working out a problem
- Going slowly (accepting that it's okay to go slowly)
Optional additional reading: How to Cultivate Beginner's Mind to Become a True Expert
- 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):
- Lifeview: summarize what you value in life; what matters to you?
- I value being resourceful and being self-sufficient so I can help others
- When solving an issue, I value the voices of those who are directly impacted by said issue, because only through collobaration, do I feel like everyone is listened to
- I value a life that reflects a sense of solidarity
- Where do your views on work and life complement each other?
- When people come together to solve an issue that effects the most marginalized, especially if the process is primarily driven by the voices of those who the work is for
- Where do they clash?
- When quantity over quality is proritized
- Does one drive the other? How?
- My view on what I believe life should be, does drive my view of what work should be too
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Go through the Flower Exercise brainstorming worksheets linked here
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Complete your Flower Exercise final worksheet here
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Write a refined vision statement here (what new things have you discovered this week to incorporate into your vision statement?):
With a growth-mindset and strengths-based approach, I aim to contribute to my community needs through solution-based efforst centered on combating social issues, in a collaborative and culturally responsive working environment.
Reflect on how you’ve spent your time so far at Turing to gauge your engagement and energy:
- When have you been excited, focused, and enjoyed your work?
- When I'm learning something new
- When I'm teaching something to others (only if I understand it myself first)
- When I'm creating something
- When collaborating on a project with one other person
- When have you felt bored, restless, or unhappy?
- When having to explain a concept that I don't understand
- Working with others who clearly do not want to collaborate
- Working with others that do not have a passion for the work and see the work as beneath them
- With people who openly express their discontent with having to work with people they see as beneath them
- When do you feel energized in your work?
- When having a clearly defined schedule
- When working in small groups
- When doing productive struggle
- When is your energy drained?
- When needs are not clearly defined at the beginning of a project, which later turns into an obstacle
Setting up habits and routines to make time for the job search this module:
- Block out time on your calendar this week to work on your job search. When will you make this happen? How will you hold yourself accountable to this? What activities will you focus on during this time this week? What outcomes do you hope to reach by the end of this week because of these activities?
- My goal is to research companies, focusing on their vision. I'd like to see how their vision compliments my own. If I can avoid taking just any job, I feel I would be more successful and bring more to a company whose vision I belive in.
Applying wayfinding to using job search resources
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Go through the resources listed here and explore 2-3 tools. List what you looked at here:
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Apply wayfinding: of what you looked at, what did you discover that aligns with your vision? If it didn't align with your vision, what will you try next?
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Find a job posting that aligns with your vision. What's the posting? How does it align with what you're looking for? Add it to your Huntr.
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What next steps will you take to explore that opportunity and find contacts? Add that information to your Huntr card.
Mind Maps:
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- Engagement. What did you reflect on last week in regards to when you're engaged in your work at Turing? Pull out an idea that resonates with you most (e.g., "Talking through a problem with a partner," "The moment when I solve a problem that I previously didn't know how to do," "Setting up a successful project management process for my team") and break that idea down into parts and make a list (what are all the steps that go into that moment? When do you get to use your strengths? What is fun about this?).
- Providing answers/resources to questions asked during class
- Breaking down an idea/concept into small parts with others
- Reviewing a concept learned in class with others
- Collaborating with others on a project/problem
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- Energy. What did you reflect on last week in regards to when you feel most energized in your work at Turing? Pull out an idea that resonates with you most and break that idea down into parts and make a list (what are all the steps that go into that moment? When do you get to use your strengths? What is fun about this?).
- Collaborating on a project with someone else/others
- Discussing solutions to a problem
- Hearing ideas from others and putting them in action
- Trying out new things learned through Googling, asking others, etc.
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- Flow. When have you had an experience recently in which you were in a state of flow? You can also think about this as "joy" or "play." Pull out an idea that resonates with you most and break that idea down into parts and make a list (what are all the steps that go into that moment? When do you get to use your strengths? What is fun about this?).
- When working on a project and following productive struggle
- Collaborating on a piece of functionality
- Following clearly outlined steps to solving a problem, and recognizing that it can be used in other situations as well
Prototype your mind maps: what do these mind maps tell you about what's important to you as a software developer? What questions do they bring up about what you still want to learn about this career?
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I like to collaborate
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I learn by sharing ideas with others and listening to their ideas
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I work best in small groups
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I value the voices of everyone in a team
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I value exploration as a means to learning
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What does collaboration look like out in the real world?
Prototype your outreach: (Be prepared to share this in your small group discussion)
- Who comes to mind as a person you can reach out to? Why that person? What questions would you ask them? Come up with 2-3 people here to serve as prototypes
- Natalia Colome - current mentor, working remotely for company in California
- Carleigh Crockett - alumni, going through the career search process
- Danny Moran - former student in an internship position
- Melvin Cedeno - current mentor, working remotely for company in Denver
- How would this outreach help you further your job search strategy?
- All of these contacts have unique experiences that can help me answer some of the questions I have about job searching. It can also lead me to learning about other important people in the industry I should reach out to, so reaching out to anyone of them will provide some more insight.
- I have reached out to Melvin, but would like to follow up regarding his new job position, to see what his experience has been like.
Outreach & Networking Plan: Based on your reflections above, create a concrete plan for your outreach:
- Who is the right person for you to reach out to?
- I will reach out to each person, as I think everyone has a different perspective that I can learn from.
- How will you find them? How do you know they’re the right person?
- These are all people I have learned from as mentors, and as class mates.
- How will you reach out?
- Through Slack
- What questions do you need to ask them?
- Their job search experience, how they network, what values they considered before accepting a job offer
- How will you use this information to further your solution?
- Whatever strategies I learn, I hope to implement in my job search.
- How will you follow up?
- I will follow up regarding any leftover questions.
Execute your plan:
- Reach out to your contact THIS WEEK. If possible, reach out to more than one person OR find a meetup to attend also. What happened? What other next steps should you take? If this is a person connected to a company you're interested in, be sure to add it to your Huntr card.
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I've Talked to: Danny Moran
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I need to Follow up with: Melvin Cedeno
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I've set Informational Interviews with: Natalia Colome and Carleigh Crockett
Hey Ana! Can you let me know your status for finishing week 2 and 3 prompts? Thanks!