Mod 2 Week 4 Journal Prompt

mod2_week4.md

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: FinGoal

• Activities: what questions do you have about the activities that a software developer does on a daily basis?
  • What does a normal day look like?
  • How should you approach the interview?
  • What do work weeks look like (hours per week)?
• Environment: what questions do you have about the overall environment and culture of this workplace?
  • What does the workspace look like? Is it a cube farm?
• Interactions: what questions do you have about the team at this company? What do you hope to learn during this experience?
  • How approachable are others when coming up to them as a junior developer with questions?
• Objects: what questions do you have about the code or the product? *
• Users: what questions do you have about how the company interacts with their users? *

After the Job Experience, reflect on the same questions;

• What are your takeaways from the activity?
  • The job experience activity gave me some good insight into what life looks like inside of a startup. I would've also loved to have been able to attend the experience breakout rooms for larger companies.
• Activities: what was engaging to the person/people you met with?
  • The speakers were all very approachable when it came to us asking questions.
• Environment: what did you notice about how they talked about the culture and environment of this company?
  • I noticed that they kept emphasizing the small community feel to it where everyone knows everyone due to the size.
• Interactions: what did you notice about your interactions with this person/people?
  • My interactions with them were mostly the question asking parts. During the code review, they were using JavaScript and I was definitely lost.
• Objects: what did you learn about their approach to code and/or product development?
  • What I learned about their approach to code... I learned that they use GitHub projects to assist them with managing their daily tasks, they also utilized dream driven development.
• Users: what did you learn about their approach to their users?
  • From what I heard, they want to ensure that their users are comfortable with their application, they want to increase the security of it as well so they are able to better care for the information that people input in to their app.
• What are your main takeaways from the shadow? How will you use this information to help you with your job search strategy?
  • I realized, that I my preference is to look for a job with a larger company/start up. I like the ability of breaking down in to specialized teams instead of being a jack of all trades.

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 feel like I was better at keeping up with my habbits, There is definitely always room to improve, I know I tripped up on some of them, but am looking at moving forward. Steps I will incorporate are utilizing a habbit tracker. I downloaded Habitica.

Implement a reiforcement 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? I will be incorporating use of Habitica to keep track of my habbits.

• 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 will get back up and keep trying. Nobody is perfect.

• 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 will reach out to my close friend, I'll ask him to keep me accountable

Looks good!