Three things I learned about myself and my ego during core learning:
The role of values, empathy and self-awareness in learning and programming:
Working with people one needs to be aware of where others might be coming from. We all have different life journeys and being able to put oneself in others shoes and consider what their perspective might be is important for effective collaboration.
That which surprised me most about core learning:
That it’s considered to be such an important part of being a programmer. Personal skills are such an important part of any working situation, but I would have imagined considered less so in the tech environment.
Most challenging aspects of core learning:
Listening and looping. Getting onto a link and practicing listening to someone f or a couple of minutes, attempting to reflect and having them do the same. It was especially challenging if attempting to loop with someone who didn’t appear to understand the exercise or take it seriously.
Why Dev Academy focuses so much on core learning:
On bootcamp we will be working in an environment where we are forced to collaborate with others whether we like it or not. We will all bring different skills into that mix of people. Some of us will already be relatively skilled programmers, others will be better people persons, others good problem solvers rather than programmers. We all need to collaborate as a team to solve problems. Our interpersonal skills and collaboration abilities will be majorly put to the test.
Core learning useful or a waste of time:
I think the core exercises have helped me realise that through my previous experience as a nurse I developed some quite good core skills, particularly when doing the looping exercises. Learning to listen, reflect and empathise is at the core of good nursing. It appears that it might be at the core of good programming as well.