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What is your greatest strength and how do you know?
It's not what I'd have thought to call it, but Pairin refers to my greatest strength as entrepreneurialism. I do agree that I am a flexible yet pragmatic person - I feel that I am good at analyzing information, recognizing the best in the circumstances present, and combining those things into a workable solution. I'm willing to keep seeking new information and adjust my methods if something is not working out. I believe in not settling for a base level solution, but continuing to improve on something because it's the right thing to do and I enjoy newness/challenge as well.
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How do you work best?
I work best in a team environment that still makes room for individual work/differentiation. A team provides opportunities to share and improve on ideas through communication. I benefit from having a shared sense of accountability and a shared goal that's being worked towards, especially if the goal is personally meaningful.
I need a supportive environment to do my best - it helps to give and get feedback about what I'm doing well, and areas I could improve on. I feel that working in a team allows the group to help each other see their blindspots and get more creative with solutions.
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What is your greatest area of improvement?
According to the Pairin survey, my greatest area of improvement is emotional self awareness - which is being able to acknowledge my own emotions and how they might affect others. I think that relies on the next two areas of growth Pairin recommended - self-assessment and self-alignment. I have a tendency to discount the positive changes that I've made and then feel overwhelmed by everything else I feel I should know/be doing. I think the ability to acknowledge my growth and allow myself to be happy for what good has already happened will help me be more energized and optimistic so I can continue growing.
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How do you hope to maximize your strengths for your new career in software development?
I hope to maximize my strengths by first learning to recognize my traits as strengths. I want to stop my assumption that everyone already knows what I know, if not more, and believe my strengths are valid and necessary so that I can be more assertive and take more initiative at work. I hope this knowledge helps me recognize when a workplace is/isn't working for me/my strengths. I want to find a work environment that values me as an individual and values the strengths I bring with me.
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How might knowing about your strengths and working preferences benefit you as a software developer?
This exercise reminded me of a quote I had on a mug: "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." A strengths-based approach makes sense to me, that you'd want to know about and use what you already have in your toolbox so I can build on as solid a foundation as is possible. It lets me know how to be the most efficient with my time and energy so I can continue to grow. It provides insight on where my next steps forward might make most sense and be most enjoyable too.
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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?
The biggest change I'm making to manage my learning process is practicing good self-care. It's strange to be learning this as an adult (over and over) - that adequate sleep, exercise, healthy diet, and spending time outdoors and with supportive people are all necessary to help me feel good enough to be able to learn well.
The biggest challenge at the moment is the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. I've lost a lot of time, energy, and sleep to anxiety over the uncertainty of the pandemic's timeline and economic impact. The necessary quarantine measures make it harder for me to exercise and go outside and connect with friends.
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How do Sierra's and Coate's material relate to your current process for learning?
Coate's essay really spoke to me - it is truly difficult to feel motivated to learn when you feel like you aren't making progress and continuously "stumbling around in the dark." I agree with him that it's important to relish the moments where I notice progress - one alum recommended I make a list of the things I feel I accomplished at the end of each week as a way to highlight those moments.
Sierra's talk was also very relevant: I agree we have one "tank" of cognitive resources that is very easily depleted, so it will important for me to listen to the signs of lacking self-care so I know when and how to re-fill my cognitive tank.
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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 know my emotional state of mind plays a large role in my learning, and that my emotional state is impacted by my daily habits.
I've noticed that I can only take so much failure (which I'll define as either unsuccessful attempts to learn or apply a skill) at a time. I have noticed when I start looking at an unfamiliar problem, I start exhibiting symptoms of stress (sweat, higher heartbeat, a feeling of strain). I want to get more efficient with discerning when something's just not clicking the way I've approached it, so I can take a break to bring down those stress symptoms, before coming up with a new plan to tackle the problem.
As previously mentioned, I think I could benefit from celebrating the successes more. I think it'd help me build resilience so I can stay engaged in a problem longer.
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How will you prepare yourself to be at your best with your learning process while at Turing?
I'm planning on using a combination of learning tactics and building resilience against the feelings that come with failure.
I liked Sierra's diagram of the learning process - turning something you don't know (A) to something that takes effort to learn (B) and familiarizing yourself with it to the point it becomes something that takes little to no effort to do (C). I'll use her method of breaking down skills into smaller sub-skills can help me create more moments I can savor (Coates), the ones where I feel I am progressing in learning FE engineering.
I also noted from her use of diagramming that I should get organization materials that are more tactile (post-it's, memo pads, etc) so I'm not wasting cognitive resources trying to store things I don't need to store in my head.