Pick out 3 behaviors that resonate with you in the list and describe why they resonate with you in a reflection
I am still amazed that the philosophy of open source projects has taken such hold in the tech world.
In a society that is so defined by capitalism and placing monetary value on everything we do, the fact that even for-profit companies are seeing the benifits of open-sourcing their code is a dramatic shift that I'm not sure we have fully come to appreciate yet. It's incredible that people like me have the opportunity to dive in to code built by some of the worlds best developers to learn from and gain inspiration.
I have a good friend who works in process automation, and its very impressive to see how much time can be saved with simple scripting tools. The same concept applies to everything - the core of any skill is the ability to use the tools of the trade well. It's an important learning goal of mine to use my time at Turing to not just learn front end development, but to get very familiar with a key set of tools that I can use going forward.
I love web design, but I don't always like it. There have been many times that things just haven't worked the right way, and I felt like throwing my computer out the window. But I also know that those moments come so often, that if you don't know how to deal with them you won't last more than a few hours in any technical field. And in the end, the feeling of satisfaction that you get when you finally figure out how to vertically align an SVG with text in div makes it all worth it (I would assume - I still haven't figured that out).
After reading, consider the idea of checklists. Write a reflection (4-6 sentences) on the benefits of a checklist and how an organizational system such as a checklist might help you first as a student and later as a full-time developer.
A checklist can serve as a game plan, a breakdown of the steps you need to take to reach your next objective. Most importantly, it can help keep you grounded and focused on taking tangible steps. A lot of people, me included, sometimes get so caught up in the big picture that we focus too much on where we want to be in 5 years instead of how we are going to get there. A checklist is what turns a dream in to plan.
What is your impression of strengths-based development? What questions do you have about this kind of development?
This is a hard one! On the one hand, one of the most important ways that we grow as individuals is being forced in to situations that don't play to our strengths. Seeking out opportunities work on your weaknesses can be the difference between have a skill and really being good at something. On the other hand, knowing your own strengths and the strengths of others is the most vital aspect of performing well in "crunch time". My biggest question is how one should balance their time between dedicating themselves
to their areas of weakness and working in "strength" areas.
What do you feel are your top strengths? How do you know?
Creativity, ambition, and problem solving. It's hard too say how I know these are my strengths, but when I think about how to describe myself they are always the first three words that come to mind.
How do you hope to develop your strengths for your new career in software development?
I hope to develop my strengths by complementing them with skills that I would not count as strengths right now. Even though I consider myself creative in a lot of areas,I have less experience with the more technial areas of visual design and UX that I will need to be really great at designing web page experiences. And even though I'm a great problem solver, I need more experience working on problem solving code specifically.