My Learning Plan
My long term goals and career pathway
My long term goal is to begin a career in software development, and possibly expanding into data science if the opportunity arises. I have struggled to find a proper career path that is both satisfying and offers upwards mobility, therefore I am commited to make this journey into software.
Another long term goal is to grow a career where I am able to live and work in Japan alongside my partner. Having met and previously lived together in Japan, we both feel that between New Zealand and Japan, the latter is the better place to settle down long term due to career opportunities, family, and cost of living. I'm currently hoping to achieve this by either getting a job with a Japanese company/startup, or in a remote working position for a New Zealand based employer.
My strength and limitations in learning
My main strengths and weaknesses both come from my ADHD. I can lock-in and focus on whatever I am currently interested in, such as learning new and simpler methods of organising web-pages and writing code. As long as I am interested or see value in something, I can passionately work and push myself harder than most of my peers. However, this is a double-edged sword, and I can burn myself out without realising it, and focus on things that I find interesting but aren't actually important to my learning. This includes getting distracted by frivolous things and having 5 minute breaks turned into 30 minutes of watching meaningless videos or suddenly deciding my apartment needs a makeover at 11pm.
I have only recently been diagnosed with ADHD, so I am still learning how best to manage it in my daily life. Up until now, I have just assumed that I was lazy and unable to concentrate on anything important (despite being able to focus heavily on things I am very interested in). I am beginning to get medicated and trying to balance exercise with the medication and self-management through mindfulness and other tactics I'm still learning. Additionally, I need to manage my unfortunate want for perfectionism, which is apparently also tied to ADHD. I've already learnt while making this blog that I tend to focus on things that are not that important such as perfecting a navbar instead of actually writing the blog itself.
The non-technical and human skills I'd like to develop at DevAccademy
I would like to develop good working skills in regards to cooperating with others on software projects. I have had prior experiences working with others on larger overall projects within the University of Auckland, however I believe the dynamic is very different on software projects. As this is the first large undertaking since I was diagnosed with ADHD, I'd also like to learn how to manage my time and utilise the benefits that my condition presents me if I can control it.
My commitments to managing my workload
I want to commit myself to working each day following a principle of working in sprints, each trying to focus on a specific aspect of the code I'm working on. I believe that by subdividing the work I have in front of me, I can manage my own expectations and lower the potential stress I may feel from taking on projects that feel unasailable from the start-line.
I want to make sure that I don't push myself too hard and burn myself out due to my ADHD overfixation on my work. I worry that by pushing myself too far I will not only burn myself out, but negatively affect the moods of other learners around me. I would like to maintain a professional but friendly attitude when interacting with the rest of the cohort, the facilitatirs, and any and all industry/community representatives. I want to be mindful of those around me and work together on projects without getting competitive and feeling that I have to compete aggresively with my peers.
My commitment not to suffer in silence
I've learnt from bad experiences that if I don't seek help I will self-destruct in an awful way that has derailed me in the past. I have no qualms with seeking help from facilitatirs and DevAcademy staff while I am learning here. I would prefer to contact staff privately away from the rest of the learners, partly from slight embarrassment, but mostly because I do not want others to be affected by me seeking help in a negative way. I would have no trouble helping others seek help if they also felt in a bad way.
What I expect from the facilitation team
I expect the facilitators to be able to help me with most run-of-the-mill problems I'll have at DevAcademy. In addition, I expect them to be polite and happy to help out the learners with their learning journey and offer tips on how to improve our code. At the end of the day, the facilitators are humans, just like me, so I won't expect them to perform miracles, but I would love to create strong bonds with them and learn from their experience.
My prior commitments and "block-out" times
While I don't have any times where I'll be fully blocked-out of learning during the bootcamp period, I still have most of a week left of my current night-shift job. So far this has got in the way of my foundations learning by distrupting my daily study plans. I'm hoping that any potential block-outs from part-time work are consistent each week so I can plan around them rather than being random.