Bootcamp Learning Plan

What is your long-term goal and or career pathway?

My goal is to set my career on a new path and be employed as a junior web-dev in 2020. I’d like to be an example of mid-life career change and to show that it is possible. My long-term goal is to be employed in a flexible arrangement that allows me to put my family, as well as my employment, first.

What do you think your biggest strengths and limitations will be in Bootcamp?

I think that my biggest strengths during book-camp will be my experience of working in higher stress environments and knowing how I handle being stressed myself. My inner-confidence should help me to see the bigger picture and the light at the end of the boot-camp tunnel. I love learning new things, which will also help me. I’ve realised, after completing the last 10 weeks, that I can reach out for help if I am failing or stuck. I’ve also realised that when learning new things, failure is something that helps you learn, which I will embrace.

During foundations, I’ve made sure that I’ve reached out for help, instead of internalising problems and trying to fix them myself and getting lost for hours. I’ve also realised that I need to work on seeing the bigger picture first and that I really need to understand the problem first before jumping in to solve it.

What do you think your biggest non-technical challenge at Bootcamp will be?

I think my biggest non-technical challenge will be staying on top of the workload and keeping my understanding of the material at the pace of the teaching, without getting stressed out.

What non-technical skills - human skills - would you like to see developed in yourself while at EDA?

I’d like to work on stress management and learn how to cope with a situation that makes you feel like you’re sinking. I’d also like to work on my leadership skills and communication as well as self-awareness. I believe having these skills will be a great pairing to my technical knowledge.

What are your expectations from the Bootcamp team?

I expect the Bootcamp team to teach us relevant technical skills that will really help us succeed in gaining employment in a web-development role in 2020. I also expect to be taught in a manner that will help us to digest the huge amounts of information that we will be taking in as well as be given hints and tips on how to do this well. I also expect the Bootcamp team to understand that I have young children, therefore the pressures I face will be different to those without children at home.

What are your expectations of yourself on Bootcamp?

I expect myself to be kind, calm, collaborative and to ask for help.

I commit to putting in maximum effort during bootcamp. I will manage my workload by attending each day and then logging on each night after I’ve seen my children, as well as learning on the weekend. If I am feeling stressed, I will speak to my facilitator as well as take part in yoga and meditation. I also commit to being professional, kind and calm with my fellow students, teachers and any industry/community representatives. I understand that how I conduct myself reflects on me as a person as well as EDA.

Foundations Learning Plan

What is your long-term goal and or career pathway?

Become a web dev at a company I’m proud to work for. Once I have that I want to build up my experience enough to take on remote work so that I can work from home and work while travelling. Ideally, I’d like to work 4 days per week with flexible hours to fit in with family life but understand that may not be possible to begin with.

What skills (non-technical - human skills) would you like to see developed in yourself while at EDA?

I’d like to increase my ability to take criticism and learn how to use criticism positively; become more robust against failure and mistakes; learn how to handle conflict within a team or one-on-one relationships; improve my ability to converse in the mornings – aka become a morning person! Learn problem solving skills, such as seeing a problem or occurrence from all sides and perspectives and also learn how to think outside the box more.

Describe your strengths and limitations.

After doing some self-analysis and using online tools I believe that my strengths can be defined as: Self-Believer - I have inner confidence and self-motivation; Deliverer - I follow through on what I say I’m going to do. Once I start a task, I finish it; Philomath - I love learning new things (that I’m interested in!) and Believer - My objective is to believe and to do 'the right thing'. I have a certain set of values I am not ready to compromise. My values guide my life’s direction.

My limitations are that I’m not very good at taking criticism and can be too sensitive. I avoid confrontation and conflict and I also internalise client problems or work problems as mine own personal problems and not solely ‘work’ problems, which can make me overly worry about things that went wrong. I am not comfortable with failure or making mistakes as I’m yet to work in a workplace that doesn’t look down on these.

How will you manage your workload with the EDA team and fellow students? Based on your discoveries about yourself, how will you commit to this course?

I don’t like to cause conflict and feel bound to deliver what I say I’m going to; therefore, I have huge motivation to not only complete this programme but to have put my upmost in to it. I like to finish things I start and do them well, there’s no point doing it if you don’t do it properly.

I will manage my workload with the help of my facilitators and family. My family understands the time commitment I have made during bootcamp and I have my parents and in-laws to help with my children. I plan on doing study in the evening as well, to allow me to see my kids over dinner. If I am stuck, instead of using hours trying to become unstuck, I will use Toggl to manage my time and ask facilitators for direction.

I have 20 years of experience working in teams and have attended several tertiary institutions in the past, so I will draw on that experience to work productively and safely with others. To destress, I plan on using yoga and walking with podcasts to ‘get out of my head’ and relax. I’ve also learnt over my lifetime to ask for help and direction instead of being lost.