What is your long term goal and/or career pathway?
I am hoping to use the skills I gain during this course to be able to contribute to constructive social and cultural change. I don't have a specific way that this has to look, but I would like to have enough skills and breadth that I am able to choose the area I go into, and make sure it is something that aligns with my values and positively impacts others e.g. the burnett foundation. I want to eventually be working on something that I truly believe in, that actually makes a positive difference regardless of how small. I want positive emotional feedback from the mahi I do, and that I am making a positive change to someone.This could be through specifically being a web developer, or through using my programming and problem solving skills in anyway useful. I do have a experimental physics background, so ideally being in an area where my experience with hardware can compliment the work I can do on the software side.
Strengths and limitations
I think my initial view of my strengths and limitations has proven correct over the course of foundations. I have definitely struggled with asking for help over simply syntax questions as I percieved them to be too easy to warrant assistence, and have also been quite nervous interacting with my cohort via discord when I haven't met them in person yet. I am pleased that the internal mahi I have done on ensuring I don't overwork myself and accept "good enough" not "perfect" has resulted in progress, as I have been able to step away from my work once I had a challenge working, and not force myself to make it perfect. My strengths have also been very accurate, and my pacing, time management, and intrinsic motivation has proven reliable over the course of foundations.
I think my hesitancy to ask for help coupled with my lack of confidence with working and learning with others virtually is going to be a challenge for me during my hybrid bootcamp. Most of my developer tears during foundations could have been avoided by simply asking for help - and in most cases it solved what for me was a several hour problem in 5 minutes. However I am confident that my time management skills and intrinsic motivation will really help me during bootcamp, as well as my new strength of being able to listen to my limits and step away from a task when it is no longer adding to my learning and understanding, rather than forcing perfection. Hopefully this will allow me to stay on track with course material and focus on the bootcamp for learning rather than perfection.
Greatest non-technical challenge
My greatest non-technical challenge is going to be asking for help in a timely manner when I am stuck. As most of my issues so far have been "simple" syntax issues from not being super familiar with javascript yet, I have been really struggling with asking for help when I get stuck, and instead getting into a little stress spiral over my coding capability.
Human skills to develop
I would like to develop my conflict resolution skills. I am reasonably confident on how to navigate conversations when I need to take responsibility for my actions, but am not confident speaking up or having conversations where I am asking for someone to take responsibility for their impact on me. It would be good to learn how to do this effectively in a professional environment, the avenues/options generally available, and how to process internal frustration and hurt to allow for resolution.
It would be good to develop my understanding of general professional social expectations and requirements - what kind of "small talk" conversations will I be expected to have and what are the expectations of how to reply, what do constructive, sustainable, and healthy professional relationships include and look like, and how can I adapt my ability to develop very genuine relationships to these requirements.
I would also like to develop my virtual teamwork skills. I didn't have to work virtually on technical problems during any of the lockdowns (I only had virtual meetings) so I am not confident in how to most effecitively use the virutal tools I have available.
Bootcamp team expectations
My expectations of the bootcamp team are the same as that of my facilitators in foundations: that I am treated with understanding and kindess and with trust that I am always doing my best - especially if external impacts on my learning are limiting my learning capability - and that they make an effort with my pronouns.
Expectations of myself
I expect that I will do my best to look after myself, and not compromise on the necessaties to both generally make myself okay, but also with managing my health issues. If my health issues "warning signs" Act Up, I will make sure to immediately reach out to my facilitators and wider support system, and cultivate a plan to keep my learning on track if there is a flare up, as well as how to minimise a flare up eventuating. I will also actively and deliberately work on reaching out for help even when it is uncomfortable rather than struggling by myself - this will be especially important to keep myself from having a spiral and ensure I can work at my most communicative and effective with others. This help can come from facilitators, peers, and anyone else I have available.
What is your long term goal or career pathway?
My long term goal from dev academy is to be able to transition my career
into one that isn't just hardware focused and isn't constrained by only
being able to work in academic and industry research. Ideally I want to be software devloper
adjacent where I can utilise my hardware skills and kinda have
'practical' work to do with my hands, but still be able to do the
software. However anything more software adjacent where I can have the
flexibility to work remotely if required. I hope I can eventually work
for a company/in a space that aligns with social progress I am
passionate about e.g. being a software adjacent person for the burnett
foundation Aotearoa.
My strengths and limitations when it comes to learning
Strengths
- I am used to being quite independent from my degree and research, so I am happy to organise and direct myself, and can also generally solve any issues I have
- I am very intrinsically motivated and stubborn, so once I decide what work I want to do it is easy for me to focus and set aside the time required to acheive that goal
- I have super good time management skills and am a good judge of how much time something will take me to get done
- I know my pace for learning, and can listen to my own limitations e.g. when I get too tired I know to stop and have a break, know how long to focus for, know what kinda break I need, and I can structure my learning around other things in my life
- I prefer to collaborate with others (even though I can work independently) and can generally find my place in whatever team I am in
Limitations
- I can avoid asking for help for things that I either think
are super easy and should know, or that I percieve everyone else to be finding simple.
- I'm so used to being independent I'm more likely to struggle by myself
than reach out for help, so I'll spend an hour on something that would otherwise be solved in 5 mins
- I have a tendency to overwork myself and
ignore my boundaries when I get super stressed about something
- I haven't really worked with people virtually
before (at least not ones I haven't met in person), so I am not particularly
confident in how to approach those kinds of professional social
interactions, and also how to work effectively in those environments
What skills (non-technical core/human skills) would you like to see developed in yourself while at Dev Academy?
- How to navigate conflict resolution in professional spaces when I am the person who is being hurt
- It would be good to learn the social norms/expectations/cues in a specific work environment and be confident with how to exist/interact with people at work
- I'd also like to get better at working virtually with people as I'm not confident in how to read how to interact with people if I haven't met them in person before
- It would also be cool to develop more confidence in contributing to things in group situations, espeically virtually!
A commitment to how you will manage your workload in this programme.
This should include: An explanation of how you will manage yourself to work productively and safely with other learners, Facilitators and industry/community representatives
- My time management skills will help a lot, and sticking to my daily study routine should assist with productivity e.g. continuing my morning and evening reflections, tracking my mood though the day to be able to identify stresses early, planning out my weekly schedule on Monday mornings.
- I will also aim to reach out to other learners or facilitators (as appropriate) with stresses impacting my learning before they make me shrivel into a husk
- I'll aim to consistently communicate kindly and effectively with all other people, and always assume people are trying their best!
- I will also aim to do my best in looking after myself. This includes sleeping and eating well, being kind to myself, and ensuring I am still maintaining my relationships and hobbies outside the course!
- Notice as soon as I can if I'm procrastinating, identify the source, and make a plan for how to overcome it
What you will do when things are building up and starting to get to you
-Reach out to my friends and my therapist to chat about what is going on and get any emotional support I need.
- Check that I have been eating and drinking water regularly, sleeping enough, and going outside at least once a day (and if not doing any of these things, set aside time to incorperate them in as needed)
- Reach out to facilitators/appropriate DA staff to say I'm feeling overwhlemed and get some support in making a plan to get me on track and relieve some pressure.
A commitment as to how and where you will seek help in a timely way
Reach out on discord! This includes the main channels, as well as people in my own cohort and on our homegroup 8 channel
A description of what you expect from the Facilitation team
I expect that the facilitation team treats me with understanding and kindness, and always trust I am doing the best I can (even and especially when it doesn't look like it). Also that they respond to things in a timely fashion during work hours, and that any stresses/external stuff impacting my learning is taken into account. Also that they make an effort with my pronouns.
Any scheduling information such as block-out times when you are committed to other things.
For example, you might have whānau commitments like school drop-offs. It's important to plan these in.
Sport
- Climbing: Monday, and Wednesday (currently a couple of hours in the arvo, but will be in eve for a couple of hours once bootcamp beings)
- Running: Monday, Thursday (1.5 hour mid-morn on monday during foundations (switch to pre 8am during bootcamp), Thursday 2-2.5 hour morn during foundations, will switch to eve for bootcamp)
Misc
- Therapy: once a fortnight on friday morning from 10-11 (not incl. travel time). This time will change during bootcamp
- Mentoring/tutoring on tuesday from 4:30-7 during foundations, just 6-7 during boothcamp
