- Describe one of your strengths What is something you have learned to do well (list a skill)?
I can… resolve conflict well, ask important questions to get needed information, create welcoming environments, and explain industry-specific concepts in more simple terms.
- What is something you know about (list some knowledge/expertise you have)?
I know… some principles of education, some communications strategies, and a lot of trade-specific skills.
- What is something you have a natural ability to do well (list a talent)?
I am... creative, commanding, and compassionate
- How could you combine these to describe a specific strength?
I would say a specific strength would be engaged leadership.
- Read through your Top 4 results from Pairin In your own words, what do these top 4 qualities tell you about yourself?
I would say these qualities show that I am an independent self-starter, with a discerning eye for how things could work better, and more fairly.
- Do they resonate with you? Why/why not?
In a lot of ways they do, and in some ways they represent parts of myself I have tried to “tone down” or detract from historically. Realistically I have always prided myself on “Intuitive-Conceptual” thinking, and the ability to distill down situations and quickly problem-solve. But my confident free-spiritedness has often made me a target, and in some professional environments historically I was encouraged to just “be less”. I have actively cultivated an intersectional approach to all the work I have done/do and it’s not a secret that justice and equity are large diving forces in my life.
- How do they relate to the strength you wrote about in Prompt #1?
I think in a lot of ways they do, if not just immediately by looking at them. I have always sort of “stumbled into” leadership roles, due to a huge variety of factors. But I think a large one has been my ability to point out ways to improve existing systems, to speak with (sometimes unearned) confidence, and to lead by example through my own “maverick” approach to things. But as I saw myself ending up in leadership roles and teaching roles I wanted to really cultivate skills and knowledge/expertise that might not come naturally to me, around the understanding of others, communicating effectively, and resolving conflict effectively. I think my drive for justice helped motivate these skills so that if I was getting into leadership roles just for being a brazen white man, I could at least use that power for understanding and advocating for underrepresented people, and helping teach so that these people felt comfortable taking my roles.
- Challenges with strengths What can make it challenging to recognize your strengths? How can you work through those challenges?
I think I struggle to identify mine because there is some dissonance between what my strengths are, and what I want them to be, as well as a lot of engrained coding around diminishing some things that really were natural strengths. I am working on those challenges through therapy, but also by finding voices I trust to observe me.
- 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?
I think I tend to overuse my self-reliance, so as to not bother others, I can lean too heavily into my critical eye to an extend of mistrusting authority, and I sometimes struggle with time management because of my self-assurance and historical ability to usually figure it out on the fly. I would say I could use my own skills of identifying associations and patterns to see when I am burning out and not asking enough. I could use my egalitarian approach to temper my criticism, as often there is a party I am ignoring or undervaluing in those instances. And I could redistribute my confidence into faith in my ability for preparedness, but also acceptance of mistakes made and learning from them.
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?)
I would say I work really well with a loose scaffolding of rigid structure (larger deadlines, easy to identify and expect rules/norms) and then freedom and independence to work how I see fit in those spaces. I like planning from a larger outline, beginning with the end in mind, but also enough room for improvisation and comfort to adapt as needed since there will be things I couldn’t anticipate.
- How could you describe these working preferences to your project teammates? Your mentor? Your instructors?
I would say that I want to know their expectations right away, big goals and concepts that are important for the work, and express that I can and will ask for help when I need it. This often allows me to communicate early and feel “on the same page”, and define some independence that isn’t derived from recklessness. I know I have a tenancy to bristle against micromanaging, but unless I express my strengths and intentions of asking for help, I can’t complain about follow up and unwanted guidance.
- What would you need to be aware of when working with people who have different strengths from you?
I want to know their confidence level first and to gauge if mine is threatening or empowering to them, how much engagement and involvement they need to not feel abandoned, and to express that I genuinely really value different perspectives and to empower others to speak up and challenge me.
- How could your Pairin results help you better understand your everyday working preferences?
I think they give some positive verbiage to things I have historically seen as “issues” and give me an angle to take that is me fostering a strength of mine and not a detracting from my strong personality. It is good to know that I am just am as independent as I am since I think coming from a large family, I have gravitated to really hands-on groups that might not actually be my comfort zone. I also think Turing is the first time I have really been able to see how much more comfortable in, and trusting I am, of an environment that addresses change and is comfortable knowing they will be constantly improving.
Power of self-reflection
- What is challenging about self-reflection?
Separation from ego, “objectivity”, and realizing that reflecting on yourself is the most biased party you can reflect upon. It’s uncomfortable because it forces you to look at things you might not usually look at.
- How can you continue to build the habit of self-reflection at Turing?
Regular journaling, getting and trusting feedback, and talking to peers, other students, and graduates.
Reflect:
- What does your social identity tell you about what you already bring to the tech industry?
I would say that I am bringing an outside perspective having not historically been in tech, but I think its sort of hard to orient how these things really relate?
- 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?
I think the tech industry is really diverse, so I struggled to see how these traits would be issues with the industry. And as far as having them be assets, it feels like just a matter of leveraging how and where I might specifically fit in.
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Values mapping Pull out 5 values for each bullet below from this list:
- Always Value: Impacting People Accountability Communication Diversity Truth Often Value Aesthetics Adventure Being in control Wholeheartedness Simplicity
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Sometimes Value Orderliness Risk-Taking Spiritual Growth Optimism
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Seldom Value Wealth Sportsmanship? Marriage Patriotism Legacy
Reflect:
- What do these values tell you about yourself?
These tell me that I am a straight forward honest person, who cares about how I occupy space and interact with other folks. I care about considered spaces, autonomy, simplicity, and pushing the boundaries, but not at the expense of engaging with growth and accountability for your actions. I don’t really resonate with core “American” ideals it would seem.
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):
This is a difficult one for me, my relationship to work is being heavily reviewed. I historically viewed it as being something that was giving back, helping communities, and that often didn’t consider myself nearly enough.
- Lifeview: summarize what you value in life; what matters to you?
What matters to me in life is pursuing growth and wellness, engaging with honest and productive conversation, and appreciating people for who they are, environments for what they are, and the actions I take for what they are.
- Where do your views on work and life complement each other?
I think that work is a huge usage of my time, and it is a means of accessing and distributing currency. And currency is energy. So work can be something to really elevate what I regularly would like to engage with, but also to fund the things I would like to do with my life.
- Where do they clash?
Work doesn’t always promote self-care, being available to others, and self-care.
- Does one drive the other? How?
Work used to drive my life, and I don’t want it to any more.
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?
This is a great question that I don’t really have an answer to. I would assume they should be dynamic, flexible, creative, and circumspective. Capable of working in teams, in communicating complex ideas on a more refined scale, and good at knowing what they don’t know.
- What are the habits that this person demonstrates to embody the identity of a software developer?
Likely they are timely, able to meet deadlines, able to bring new ideas to the table, and open to discussion and conversation. Concise but detailed notes, future-proofing.
- 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?
As a software developer, I want to be someone who is flexible, creative, reliable, and empathetic. I am already someone who is pretty considered and make a point of reading new perspectives, understanding bias, and systemic inequity so as to avoid perpetuating it wherever I am able. I make a point of sticking to agreed meeting times, following up when I say I will, and engaging with folks in ways that show I am someone they can depend upon. I could be better about having more of a reliable routine for myself, and studying even more so I can be more flexible and able to think on my feet as a developer.
- 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.
Wake up between 7:00-8:00 (tends to be about 7:30) could be more consistent/earlier Check my phone fine but not great Figure out breakfast/tea could plan breakfast earlier since timing varies dramatically Pull up my computer (use what time I have left) to prework: look over lessons, read articles, review notes Good habit, more please Get on class call by 8:55 latest + Set up a computer with Water and Tea, notebook for handwriting notes and pen, and format my computer to only have relevant programs open, notifications off, and tabs closed on chrome. + Lunch: figure out food and how to fulfill another lacking need (could be social, could be stretching for physical tensions, could be a power nap for 20-30 minutes) good, but could plan meals better Be on next session by 12:55 with similar if not the same set up to the morning, sometimes in a different part of my home + Class till 4:00 Usually immediately walk away from my computer could have more of a closing ritual Come back around five and answer/send messages, address the amount of project work I need to do to dictate my evening need better structure, so it isn’t so case by case
- 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)
I will read through my tabs, bookmarking what still needs to be referenced, finishing what tasks can be done in under five minutes, and closing tabs as they are “resolved”, at four or five when my class day is done, and get to where I can turn my computer off comfortably. After I finish my day, I will go through this closing ritual before walking away.
- 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?
I think designating a place for work will help me not feel like I have to immediately disconnect to free up my kitchen table or other areas of my house, so I can feel comfortable taking the time to wrap things up well. Also planning calls with folks after more like 4:30-5:30 to schedule in that ritual time.
- 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?
This is honestly working great. I have enjoyed feeling like I can comfortably leave my desk, and not mentally trying to run a task list of half-finished tabs, and it sets me up fo more success in the morning.
Habits Reflection:
- How have you seen yourself become more aware of your habits? Have you tried implementing anything new? What have the results been?
I have seen myself becoming much more aware of my habits, but so far not really changed much other than having a “closing ritual” at the end of my day. There is more I will likely want to shift, but currently, I feel like I am “just getting by” and will reflect more over the break.
- 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?
Maybe a 3.5-4 depending on the day, I set short term goals, and try to have my household keep me accountable on fitness since we tend to work out together. I would say planning meals farther in advance will make sure I am eating good things and not just easy things.
- 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?
I am a student primarily, and the purpose is self-improvement and striving to an end goal. 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? In what ways could you make a small change to bring more joy into your life?
Very few these days, I watch silly youtube videos, I spend time with my partners, I have been hiking some.
- 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? How do you show love to others right now? What adjustments would you like to make in this area?
I have two partners, my roommate is my best friend, and I have a close sister in town and these are my priorities while I have to trim back the time I have to engage with folks. I have also been on a family zoom call with my immediate and some distant family every Sunday. And overall I actually feel like I am managing pretty well in the love department.
- Looking back at the 4 areas, do any problems emerge that you want to begin designing solutions for?
Mostly having fun/being healthy. I could take better care of myself and should engage more with things that just make me happy.
- 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?
Primarily for finding time for myself, and not keeping the Turing model of workload on into my career. I know I want a flexible career, that will allow me time for myself and what makes me happy outside of work. I am not sure what I still need to find out, but I am excited to learn.
- 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?
We didn’t have many/if any assumptions. Mostly my group was all folks with limited familiarity with developers. We all assumed they make more money than we were.
- 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?
My new career must pay me enough to offset the debt I have taken on, and the hourly compensation must make sense (anything past 40 hours is overtime, all my work will be compensated). I hope I will not struggle to find a job, find a job that has unethical labor practices. I dream post Turing is to work in an environment that is light-hearted and engaging enough to not exhaust me, but that will still feel like I am accomplishing things. I’ll work in an industry I feel comfortable contributing to, but still be excited for my life outside of work, that I can afford to live comfortably, travel through, and support those I care about in.
- Test –- solutions Based on this week of reflections, write out your initial vision statement for your career:
I want a career that is mine first and should give me the agency, availability, and power to live my life in a fulfilling way, that considers my health and wellness, the communities I engage with, and the impact I would like to be able to make.
Mod 1 Week 5: Creating Your 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?
I have seen myself become more aware of my habits, I also have made a habit of connecting with folks to share gratitudes from the week. As I was closing out my day, I realized I also wanted to close out my weeks as well. This has really helped me feel more connected to the community, and also put work into ending my week on a positive note, even if the week was stressful.
- 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?
It could be really helpful to put aside preconceived notions of what the industry is. It’s also helpful to keep in mind that I know so little going into this, and I don’t even know what my ideal job is yet, which helps suspend some imposter syndrome around if I can get said job. I would say habits to cultivate the beginner’s mind is to seek out new information in tech regularly, to remind myself how much there still is there to know and to remember the most flexible creators, are those without rigid rules of whats “right”.
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?
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Creativity
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Creativity
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Distillation of issues
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Dependability
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Flexibility
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Resourcefulness
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Keeping an open mind
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Flexibility
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Commitment and follow-through
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Beginner’s mind
I would say they aren’t nearly as far off as I initially feared. I think I am actually a much better fit for development than I started the week feeling.
Write a refined vision statement here (what new things have you discovered this week to incorporate into your vision statement?):
I want a career that is mine first, where I can show up as a creative engaged technologist, that will give me the agency, availability, and power to live my life in a fulfilling way, that considers my health and wellness, the communities I engage with, and the impact I would like to be able to make.
Ideas here are adapted from Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Reflect on your habits from last module. What behaviors and activities were helpful for you? What activities and behaviors could be more effective for you? What processes would you like to try differently this module to become more effective at your work and as a software developer? Last mod I did end up building some habits that felt like they oriented around how I interacted with coding and Turing: prelearning, having a closing ritual for my days, engaging more with the community and expressing gratitude. And I think having more structure as far as time spent will help build in consistency, and free up blocks for self care regardless of progres on work. So less so having an approach more of “do this list of things and then I’ll be done” and more so saying “I have _number of hours to work on school, here’s what I’d like to do in that time, and here’s what I can continue to work on should I complete everything on my check list.”
- Setting intentions for this module: who do I want to be this module? What specific habits would help me get there? How are those habits tied to the identity of a software developer? I would like to be someone with a time budget, who can comfortably and easily know what they can sign up for, and who has time and availability to both work and exist in my life. Habits around planning ahead of the week, planning ahead of the module, and building in weekend time to have more freeform time spent will allow me to have that structure. Also adhering to the schedule I have self imposed will motivate me to continue building that out in advance, and trusting the schedule I have planned out. Software developers are reliable, flexible people who can manage large projects and a variety of projects at once.
- Incorporate temptation bundling to create a new habit by using this template: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED TO DO]. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT TO DO]. After I close all my tabs for the day, I will look over my calendar for the coming day and week. After I build out my calendars for school/professional obligations, I will try to make plans with someone I care about.
- How to enjoy “hard” habits: Reframe your habits to consider their benefits rather than their drawbacks; name 3 habits that you have to do and explain the benefits of them. How do they further your goals long term? How will they add to your processes as a successful developer? At the end of the day, how do they add to your life? Regular Exercise More stable mental and emotional health Longer life due to health Offset the time spent behind a chair Pre Learning on lessons Allows me to get more out of every lesson Gives me better foundational skills for the long run Long term will set me up for technical success as a developer. Calling my family regularly Keep sme connected to where I came from Allows me to continue to foster relationships I will always have Gives me better developer empathy to not always talk to people in tech
- Assess your habits from week 1: how did you spend your time this past week? What was effective in your habits? What could be more effective? What steps will you take to make that happen? I spent my time doing a lot more Turing work than last mod. I did effectively manage my time to get things done on time, and felt like despite struggling with the presentation of materials, I was able to do enough pre/post learning to not feel lost. I could more effectively have worked out/took care of myself and by body. My personal life took a hit, but I did manage to still spend time with important people. I think I need to schedule working out earlier in the day, because my evenings keep “running over” and I am more likely to cancel plans “with myself” than those with other people.
- Write a draft of your professional story here as 1-2 paragraphs. Focus on answering the questions who are you, why are you here, and what’s next? Consider how to talk about your motives and values, the turning points that led to your career change, and what you envision for yourself going forward. I think it’s easy to want a single “moment” where you decided a career is the right one for you. And in reflecting on how I made it here, I can’t say there is one. I think in many ways it was less a switch flipped, and more a warming to an idea. I had always been good in stem capacities, but felt it was at odds with the creative human work I wanted to do. I wanted to create art, to impact people, to be present for their stories, and to share my own. And for years I did. I was an artist, makeup artist, and hair stylist, working in the beauty industry for about five years. And with time I felt a combination of an itch for something different, a want for a career where I had a wider reach, and realistically better benefits and financial security. An easier thing to pinpoint now, if not a moment I knew was right, is one where I should have known I would be good at this. I was working on my second large installation at my school; I had landed on a painting in the center to represent the work I can produce and put out and building out from it was a collage of found quotes from surveys I gave to members of the community, to illustrate how the experiences and interactions after are much larger than a single piece of art. What I didn’t have the words to say at the time, was I was synthesizing a huge pool of user created data, into a flexible expressive interface that new users could interact with, and that art and humanity cannot be separated from technology. I have really enjoyed seeing the limitless possibilities of a tech industry that remembers the human element, and I’m excited for the work I will do.
- Update your LinkedIn profile with the following: updated photo/headshot, headline, summary statement using your story, and Turing added to your experience and education sections. Include a link to your profile here in the journal. Remember the guidelines and tips from the lesson here. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-m-94a259165/
- What other steps will you take this week to update your branding or practice your story? I need to update all of my social media, to express a career shift and access career networking in a network I already have. I also plan to connect with my cohort, and members of the Turing community on linked in.
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Assess your habits from week 2: how did you spend your time this past week? What was effective in your habits? What could be more effective? What steps will you take to make that happen? I was able to effectively exercise a bit more as I asked my partner to help hold me accountable to it. And I reliably woke up earlier than the week before. Giving me more time to make food/exercise in the mornings. Reflect on how you’ve spent your time so far at Turing to gauge your engagement and energy: I have really enjoyed working with others to help them understand concepts I have really enjoyed refactoring/debugging problems on code basis I am at least familiar with I have felt the most engaged and energized when I am getting javascript/DOM communication working and ending up with someone I could see a user using I have also invested time in student groups and building more one on one connections with other folks in the community
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When have you been excited, focused, and enjoyed your work? When have you felt bored, restless, or unhappy? When do you feel energized in your work? When is your energy drained? Boredom/restlessness has most come in working with folks not interested in feedback (ending up with a driver who won’t accept navigation) I haven’t spent as running through Mythical Creatures and JSFun alone And my energy is drained when in group with or being taught by folks who don’t know “where we are”. I really enjoy expanding upon concepts but not orienting from ground zero with someone. I don’t need folks to keep pace with me, so much as be able to explain where they are so I can meet them there.
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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? I’ll do this during PD time, and after my project is turned in/before the next is assigned. I will do more research on linkedin and also find more first hand accounts of folks in the industry.
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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: I spent some time on google searching top tech companies for queer folks and honestly didn’t find much that was helpful. It feels like there is a lot that will be tossed under the umbrella of tech and I needed to use more dev specific verbiage. Also spent some time on BuiltIn navigating through a few articles and got oriented on the site in general, enjoyed looking through benefits and seeing how much jobs differed.
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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? Decide what tools to bookmark to explore later. I honestly was surprised by how much front end work seems to deal with marketing. Which should have been intuitive to me, but I realize a lot of sort of general marketing isn’t inherently interesting to me. I am excited to use Owler to check out a companies more in depths as I start finding specific ones I am interested in.
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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. https://www.builtincolorado.com/job/engineer/junior-full-stack-engineer/69899 It is full stack, and ruby specific, but I know I am someone open and flexible to other languages. I also have been able to do an incredible amount with just a few months, and I can’t imagine where I’ll be in a few more. I love the idea of “cross pollination”. And I am interested in a company with a solid mission.
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What next steps will you take to explore that opportunity and find contacts? Add that information to your Huntr card. More research in general. Likely look into linked in to see if there is any overlap. Also look into the turing network to see if they have any anecdotal experience.
- In week 4, you’ll have a job experience activity with employers. The next two prompts are designed to help you both prepare and reflect on that experience:
- Prepare for Job Experience: AEIOU
- Activities: what questions do you have about the activities that a software developer does on a daily basis? What does a day in the life look like? What does “teamwork” actually mean? What’s genuinely being looked for in the application process?
- Environment: what questions do you have about the overall environment and culture of this workplace? What does inclusivity look like in the context of your company? What are the strengths of your company culture? What do you feel sets you apart from other industry companies?
- Interactions: what questions do you have about the team at this company? What do you hope to learn during this experience? I am curious how they address teamwork, and what that actually means in terms of responsibility and interaction. I also wonder about how leadership and promotion is structured/ Objects: what questions do you have about the code or the product? What languages do you use? What challenges does your company face technologically, and how are they handling that?
- Users: what questions do you have about how the company interacts with their users? I am mostly curious who they assume their user is, and how they treat them. After the Job Experience, reflect on the same questions; what are your takeaways from the activity? Activities: what was engaging to the person/people you met with? He was really invested in progressing technology in the company, and spending his recreational project time to push forward the code base of the company. He also really emphasized pairing and stand ups in the context of where he spends time and finds team work to be the most rewarding.
- Environment: what did you notice about how they talked about the culture and environment of this company? It seemed really comfortable, casual, and potentially a bit homogenous. Interactions: what did you notice about your interactions with this person/people? He seemed really excited to be there, and was willing to answer all of our questions. I did feel in the three company panel he came across as one of the more relatable developers since he started in the company outside of a dev role and later took it on.
- Objects: what did you learn about their approach to code and/or product development? There was a lot of emphasis on “issues” and more atomic work for maintaining and pushing their product forward. It felt like there was less building from the ground up, and much more maintaining and progressing existing code.
- Users: what did you learn about their approach to their users? This was interesting because their users are sort of a two fold relationship. Their real clients are companies using the software, but the software is being interacted with by those companies' clients. There wasn’t a huge emphasis on user experience, but they did seem to have a lot of teams based on how divided the experiences they are working for can be. What are your main takeaways from the shadow? How will you use this information to help you with your job search strategy? I don’t need to love software to enjoy a company of people building or maintaining it. I also the digital presence of a company only goes so deep for how things actually operate. So in my job search I will try to be more open minded on “what” a company is, and more so how they do the work they do. I will also try to have candid conversations with folks about how the company actually/shadow and experience it before signing up for anything definitively. Ideas below are adapted from Atomic Habits by James Clear Assess your habits from week 3: how did you spend your time this past week? What was effective in your habits? What could be more effective? What steps will you take to make that happen? I may look at some kind of habit tracker, or something that keeps me more aware of and accountable for the work I am doing. Because I don’t ever feel prepared to answer these questions. I feel like I am in survival mode, which is worse than not knowing my habits because I am on autopilot, the stress and time dilation is making it hard to differentiate days and weeks. But with so many of my decisions being reactionary, I have not been able to plan ahead as much as I would like. I have been helping one partner move, and helping the other with doctor’s appointment after doctor’s appointment as we are on seven weeks of a fever and symptoms no one can explain. Mornings feel like the only time I can really guarantee anything. And luckily I feel like I am using those well. I also must be doing fine because I am passing content and sometimes even feeling like I am excelling. I also tried to build more time before therapy so I wasn’t running right into my appointment time from a project. Implement a reinforcement strategy: to make one of your habits more satisfying, what is a reward you can give yourself immediately after completing the habit? How will this reward encourage you to continue completing that habit? “Don’t Break the Chain”: Use a habit tracker
- What is a habit that you want to make sure to do every day? How could you visually cue yourself to complete it (i.e., moving a paper clip)? How can you visually track it each time you’ve completed it? Could you automate the tracking? How will you do that? Starting really small, and relying on an app with aggressive reminders I decided to focus on practicing spanish every day with Duolingo. (Update I am now on a 23 day streak) Need help? Check out one of these habit tracking apps How to get back on track when missing a habit: if you miss a day or two of completing your habit, how will you get yourself going again? I want to get a whiteboard over the inning so I have something to write on that I don’t have to open, like an app or notebook. Pick an accountability partner (your cohort accountabilibuddy, your mentor, a close friend, etc.) and create a habit contract with them. How often will you check in with each other? How will they hold you accountable? I have exchanged numbers with someone in my cohort so we can still keep up with each other even if we have closed slack.
-Review your habit tracker: how did you monitor your habit(s)? What does this tell you about your overall progress becoming the person you want to be? In general, how satisfied are you with how you spent your time this module? What could be improved next module?
So I am honestly really torn. In a lot of ways I don’t like how I spent my time in this mod, but I was able to maintain small habits around practising spanish, maintaining creative outlets like painting and listening to music, keeping in touch with people in my life, and staying hydrated. I think I do have grounds to be proud of myself at the end of this mod. I feel like I performed really well on my assessments, I was able to continue a lot to the teams I was on, to the cohort as a whole, and the study hall lessons I was “teaching”/facilitating felt genuinely really helpful to my peers. It is also worth noting this was also an incredibly rough time for me basically from start to finish. I obviously was behind on PD, basically all inning, which made me really anxious. I hate being late, really in any capacity. This inning I wasn’t able to front load my project work in the ways I did in previous innings, I didn’t keep up with my rock or mentor nearly as well, and I barely met my pebble (she is doing well though), and I just generally felt like I was always “a day late and a dollar short” as my grandmother would say. So I don’t know how to hold pride in the work I have done, and how well I am clearly managing this content, with how miserable I was a large portion of the time and that I didn’t look successful in a lot of the ways I was used to.
I think improving that next module is going to take talking to more folks about how I am doing earlier, so as to get a better litmus test of how I am managing in relation to the cohort. Plan meetings with mentors waaay farther in advance. And celebrating the wins I am making along the way. As for time better spent, I am hoping my partner’s health improves some, and I can just find more time that doesn’t feel like constant problem management.
- Mind Maps: i. 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?).
I really enjoyed setting up and maintaining goals with my project team. This was able to happen by structuring in a retro at the halfway point, setting aside the last 30 minutes of every meeting to plan for our next weeking/what we would bring to the table then, and then messaging the group with a recap of expectations between then and the next meeting based on what we talked about. I got to use my strengths to direct the flow of the conversation, listen to what team members wanted/needed and concisely sum up a larger conversation into a few smaller bullets.
ii. 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?).
I felt the most energized while planning/communicating with my team as well as other teams.
iii. 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?).
I was able to schedule and facilitate a retro with another group. This started with checking in with myself, and when I am doing well and feel I have some free time I would have already been investing into a project or concept, channel that into helping others with it. Then it’s seeing a need, making sure the folks I am trying to help are consenting to that engagement, and doing what I can to help with the skills I have, and referring to other resources when I don’t have them. It was really fun to see how my higher level organization and understanding can contribute to planning conversations. But also to just enjoy knowing that the strengths in teamwork come from the variety of backgrounds, skills, and strengths of each member. 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?
It shows me that I do have skills that are valuable to a team, but also that I can balance both loving a high level conceptual understanding with enjoying really line by line efficient code and details. This makes me wonder how the industry has treated new developers, how they have grown and changed early on, and how much planning vs doing they find themselves involved with. 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 I have a few guests who I used to do their hair. I also have a friend from highschool model UN who is a developer now back in Albuquerque
These are people I know personally enough that I feel comfortable asking about the more emotional parts of the job and their unique experiences.
How would this outreach help you further your job search strategy?
This can help me better know how certain job roles feel, and what roles I would be more drawn to. 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? How will you find them? How do you know they’re the right person? How will you reach out? What questions do you need to ask them? How will you use this information to further your solution? How will you follow up? 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.
I sparked a conversation with the highschool friend that has been a little slow back and forth since we are both busy, but I am excited to ask more questions and catch up farther. I also want to use this break to reach out to the salon contacts I had and schedule calls to talk to them more specifically about their work.
PreWork: Please list the top 3-5 industries and companies you'll pursue in your job search as of right now. I am interested in working with UX designers, in mission based fintech companies, and tech companies working in renewable resources. Why did you pick the industries/companies that you listed above? How do they relate to the values and goals you have for yourself in your job search? I picked these because they felt like realms that in my job search so far align best with what I would like to be doing: making a positive impact with my work, and felt like companies I could see myself in. Working with ux designers feels like the closest to the creativity and art I was historically more familiar with and were the more quintessential “front end” sort of roles. I was pretty quickly interested in a few companies using finance with a mission, and looking at renewable resources. These both feel like ambitious fields trying to do what they can to positively impact the world, which I love. How does your LinkedIn currently reflect your goals and industry interests? What changes will you need to make to your LinkedIn to better reflect these? I don’t think it really does honestly. I want to do some work this week to really update my linked in/other platforms to start to project my vision as i start job searching. I also saw a prompt on linkedin where you copy job descriptions from the job postings you want and put them in a word cloud, and that gives you an idea of the sort of buzz words that companies I am interested in are looking for. I am also wanting to work on a static site for myself that I can also link on these various platforms that can better showcase my work, as well as give my a digital landing pad for my resume and other important information.
- Refine your career vision: What are the values that will drive your job search? What are your goals for your job search? What kind of role do you see yourself pursuing in your job search? Based on your latest version of your career vision, list the top 3-5 industries and companies you’ll pursue in your job search as of right now. Why did you pick these industries/companies? How do they relate to the values and goals you have for yourself in your job search?
My job search is primarily targeting companies that value diversity, that care about the impact of their work, and that have clear missions and ethics. I am primarily looking for junior developer roles, or roles that emphasise room for growth and learning in the role. I would be open to full stack positions if the company felt right, but am obviously prioritizing FE roles. Currently industries that pop out to me or renewable energy, financial tech, and working with UX designers. These are sticking out to me currently because they feel like work I could do, would be good at, and that I could see a valuable impact coming out of the work I am doing. The goals and values I have in my job search are mostly to find fulfilling work in a field where I know the work I am doing is at least not doing harm, and ideally creating a positive impact. Build your resume
What will you emphasize in your resume that directly relates to your targeted industries? A passion for progressive change, adaptability, and investment in education and growth
Reflection questions: What do you want this portfolio to say about you? I want this portfolio to show that I am creative, open minded, adaptable developers with a strong sense ethics.
How will you continue to add to this to portray your story and showcase the kind of work that demonstrates your brand?
WorkSheet
I am going to try and work on better integrating the student leadership work I have done.
I also want to design a "creative enough" resume that doesn't detract from the effectiveness.
Find a position or use a position you’ve put on your Huntr board and write a cover letter for that position in a Google doc or gist. Reference these cover letter resources as well as the session to complete your cover letter. Post the link to your cover letter here
Review your cover letter with a peer some time this week. What feedback did your partner give you? What next steps will you take to make your cover letter even stronger?
If you were to apply to this position (and you should!), how will you customize your resume for it? What other next steps would you need to take here?
Answer the below questions in a separate gist and link them into your career journal using this template:
Back to your resume and cover letter you’ve been working on: What other next steps do you want to take to make these two components stronger? I have better project to update onto my resume, and I want to spend time over intermission building a large "main copy" resume that have everything I could possible include in a resume, and then for specific job I can cut out what doesn't apply and get it back to one page for applications.
Outreach Brainstorming: Either explore the company you wrote a cover letter for or find a new company to explore this week; Go to their company LinkedIn page and start to explore the employees. Who are a couple people you could reach out to? Why?
I have looked at two companies. One company only has the CEO and CTO on linked in, which does feel like a pretty intense person for cold outreach. However I have followed the CEO, and they're an interesting person to follow in terms of what they are posting in the industry. The other company was from my job shadow, so I have already connected with one employee on linked in, however there are a few more eployees from the company I could use him as an employee contact if I want to reach out to more specific folks.
Finalize Your Plan: Who have you decided to reach out to? Why that person? How will you contact them? What do you want to talk to them about? How will you follow up? The second company I am planning to reach out to the connection I already have over the intermissions to see if there is anyone in the company he would like to connect me with. He was specifically standing in last minute for a different employee, so I might
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 did you learn about the company? What other next steps should you take for pursuing this company? Be sure to update this in Huntr. For the first company I reached out via their "contact us" page since I felt uncomfortable reaching out to just the CEO, even though it is a small company. I haven't heard back, but they did just post a job listing, so I may reach out again specificall inregards to the listing itself.
Prepare for Job Shadow: AEIOU
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Activities: what questions do you have about the activities that a software developer does on a daily basis? Are you primarily writing new code, or refactoring/maintaining existing code? Do you work alone, paired, on teams?
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Environment: what questions do you have about the overall environment and culture of this workplace? How does your environment include diverse opinions and people?
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Interactions: what questions do you have about the team at this company? What do you hope to see in your interactions during the shadow? Why do you enjoy being a part of this company? Did anything surprise you about working on this team?
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Objects: what questions do you have about the code or the product? What technologies do you primarily use? What do you think is worth investing in during the job hunt? What did you find benefitted you getting a job, what have you enjoy learning on the job? What parts of the code base do you not want to touch? Users: what questions do you have about how the company interacts with their users? Security seems important, but what does that really mean? Describe your ideal user?
After the Job Shadow, reflect on the same questions; what are your takeaways from the shadow?
- Activities: what was engaging to the person/people you shadowed? While it did seem like he was doing a lot of "solo" work, he was really excited about the conversations had on code reviews. They did seem to be writing a decent amount of new code, but on existing code bases or using reusable react elements thta have already been previously build. It felt like a really good happy median over all, of new code and maintaining code, as well as solo and team work.
Environment: what did you notice about how they talked about the culture and environment of this company? The culture felt very interested in collaboration, having lots of conversations over the code being written, and beaking up code in really excutable smaller chunks, specically two week chunks and sex week review periods. The culture felt inclusive for how small the team is, and aware of the limitations of being that small of a team.
Interactions: what did you notice about your interactions with this person/people? He was pretty nervous having just been tossed in last minute, but he was surpringly warm and receptive given that. He did a great job of knowing his audience, and following what I was and wasn't understanding.
Objects: what did you learn about their approach to code and/or product development? His approach was suprisingly relaxed, and it was a lot more "issue" oriented than we tend to be at Turing.
Users: what did you learn about their approach to their users? The approach to users I admittely learned the least about, but it was interesting because their users still aren't standard consumers. They are making products for companies, so there is a degree of training and involvement you might not get to have with just standard public apps.
What are your main takeaways from the shadow? How will you use this information to help you with your job search strategy? Size of company really does make an impact on how working conditions feel, and I will likely ask earlier about that.
Interview Prep: Pick a successful project and write about it with the STAR method (What was the situation/scenario of the project? What was the task/target of the project? What action steps did you take? What were the results?):
Write about a time you failed and what you learned from that experience:
Write about how you’ve approached working with a team using a specific example: I approach working with a team aiming to be agile and receptive to what a team actually needs. Being entirely honest I do tend to fall into leadership positions, and I find myself naturally comfortable filling in where there are visible gaps in a team. But I think any good leader has to know how to do every step of the process before that, so I have really enjoyed being one of the less experienced members of a team.
What other stories will you prepare to share?
Do some research into your top companies’ tech stacks; what do you already know? What can you compare to your own learning? What do you need to learn more about?
Using this interview prep resource doc, pick out at least 3 resources you will use to prepare for interviews as well as 3 behavioral questions you could practice:
Taking stock of where you are: what have you accomplished this module? What have you learned? Where are you stuck (have you not been able to follow through on outreach? Is your resume not finished?)? My resume and cover letter aren't finished, though both are half complete franken documents atm.
Create plans for 3 different companies you want to target:
Questions to reflect on here: Why do you like this company? What makes you want to work there? Why are you a good fit for this company? What do you bring to the company? What transferable skills do you have? What do you already know about the company (product, team, culture, company size, location, etc.)? What do you need to learn?
Steps to take: Outreach: look at the company’s LinkedIn page: who could you reach out to? What questions do you want to ask that person? Experience: once you’ve made a connection at the company, how could you find out more? Consider setting up a job shadow or exploring their tech stack in your projects
Read back over the plan. How does it reflect your vision?
Imagine that you get the job. A year later, what have you gained from this experience? How have you started to fulfill your vision?
Plan #1:
Plan #2:
Plan #3:
Make it actionable: rank each plan on a scale of 1-5 for how much your plan aligns with the following: Available resources to help you pursue it: contacts, time, knowledge of the company, etc. Coherence: how it aligns with your career vision Confidence level: how feasible does this feel to you? How excited you are about it?