◄► Foundations reflection ◄►

What are three new things you have learnt about yourself and your ego due to the core learning?

I tend to rush things, and need to take on the growth mindset more. I'm better-off learning slowly, so I can understand each concept before moving forward.
Emotional intelligence is something that I think I'm usually pretty good at, however when I'm stressed I tend to be pretty hard on myself. Learning more about this has helped me know when to stop, start and ask for help with technical questions.
I CAN learn JavaScript! It's just going to take a lot of repetition and looking at it in different ways to get it in my head.

What are the role of values, empathy, and self-awareness in learning and programming?

Like in any area of life, values, empathy and self-awareness help you relate to other people, interact positively and understand your impact on them. They also allow you to reflect on how you feel about yourself and your learning.

This will come in particularly useful when we start peer programming. I'm expecting to feel a bit vulnerable at first, and likely others will too. So it's important that the people we work with are empathic and understanding.

What has surprised you the most about the core learning?

How useful it was for getting me through some of the content. At times I felt like I wasn’t smart enough to get it, but the early information about how the brain learns made me feel more stubborn about it and that yes, I CAN do it, I just need to repeat it and not get too mad at myself.

Being aware of this really helped in some of the more stressful times. Also related to that was the idea that you need to kind of be patient/ask for help/step back etc and I’ve found that useful. I definitely have a point where it goes from a fun learning challenge to an emotional event so it’s helped me recognise when to stop (still haven't mastered that though!).

What were the most challenging aspects of the core learning?

I have felt a little vulnerable sharing some of the stories and my thoughts... but not too worried. I'm a bit of an open book in general.

Why do you think we, a programming school, are spending so much time focusing on core learning in a web development Bootcamp course?

From personal experience, developers are not known for being fantastic communicators or particularly good with people. The stereotype is they are highly technical and smart, but struggle to put what they're doing in layman's terms. This can make communication with managers and the wider company hard, as struggling to explain why an update is taking so long may just come across as "lazy" if it can't be well explained to people you have a good connection with.

It's a pretty broad stereotype, but common enough to need to focus on this area. Additionally, you need to pass an interview to get a job, so having these skills are key here. People don't want to work with a robot!

Does the time you spent studying core learning here feel like a waste of time? Should you have just used that time to practise programming instead? Justify your answer.

No! I think it was helpful to learn this information! It's not a heavy time-sap compared to the tech parts of the course. Even if it wasn't helpful (which it is!) it was really nice to switch into a different mode but still be getting the coursework done and feeling productive.