So far, I have looked through all the patterns in the book as learning patterns. This pattern is somehow different it shows not a formula for growth but a remedy against decay. It tells us of things to come in our professional lives. It warns of the possibility of professional demands that can crush one’s soul. It tells stories of individuals bravely breaking through barriers imposed by different situations in life.

This pattern may seem unwarranted to the steps we are about to take, moving in fresh to the work force, but I believe it applies just as well now as it probably will 4 or 8 years from now. With the semester coming to an end many students probably had an internship opportunity, but many more probably didn’t. Finding out what makes someone tick can be hard especially with the lack of reasonable experience in different subfields. There is a lot of opportunity out there but not all of it are the best fit. I refrain from saying good or bad because I believe these are relative qualifiers.

Knowing what you want is important and changing your mind about what you thought you wanted is part of the process too. A lot of us will start on the first opportunity that comes out. Some of us may be luckier and have a short buffer to sort through a little. None will truly know what they are handed until they take the first step. But regardless of when and which, we must know the direction we want to take. Even not so glorious opportunities can serve us well as long as there are steppingstones in the right direction. We must watch for the fool stones, and this happens a lot I can say it from personal experience. You may find yourself in a place filled with opportunities that do not apply to you only because systematically maintaining you where you are is of greater interest to your employer and believe me, they will do the dance to have you stay there as long as possible. The author warns for that specifically. I think we are at a better place than the examples the author mentions. These people where stuck for years and the longer you take to move the greater obsolescence in your skill set. We must not wait long when is time to move. Employers have their own interest, and it is perfectly fine and healthy. But so should you have your own interests at heart and if they don’t align, then perhaps it is better for the employer, as well as yourself, to part ways.

From the blog CS@Worcester – technology blog by jeffersonbourguignoncoutinho and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The main idea for this pattern is to help one maintain his level of excitement for the field. The author presents warnings of moments where one’s career can be the culprit of discouragement and discontent. He presents a few ways to remediate the situation some by which one could steer their environment to a better place. He doesn’t stop short of recommending leaving a toxic environment if nothing works. The drastic measure is something I would like to avoid because the reason I return to school was the result of it.

This pattern is linked to a lot of other very good patterns, and I am not surprised so many fit well with it. Nurturing one’s passion is the best way to achieve excellence in any filed. Particularly I feel that “Draw your Own Map” is very descriptive of I what plan for myself. I haven’t read this pattern yet, but I think it will be my next one. This support pattern, as explained within “Nurture your Passion”, states that one should know what it wants and pursue it. I like this idea because it removes the self-pity victim mentality away from the equation. This mentality can induce a state of paralysis that is not healthy and hinder you from accomplishing what you want.

My goal after school is to try to find something I am really excited about and maybe even sacrificing pay or title for it. The field of software technology offers the opportunity for a lifelong learning experience. It is so broad, intersects so many fields and industries that it allows for a vast array of choice in which anyone can find something they are passionate about. It also offers the opportunity to trade your convictions and passions for financial gain and we should be careful about that. Some of the things I hear the author talk about I think relate well to what I hear from the gaming industry where is said that they work long stressful hours, and their pay is not up to par to other types of developers. This is a good cautionary tale because most people probably go into this subfield for passion, but passion can become obsession, and that can be very unhealthy.

From the blog CS@Worcester – technology blog by jeffersonbourguignoncoutinho and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

The long road learning pattern sets its premises on favoring rather than quick results cumulative progress. I believe that working towards a 4-year college degree and the tradeoff that comes with it puts us in that category. We all know that even after the switch from student to paid professional the road doesn’t end. In fact, one of the reasons, I decided to pursue a career in technology was the promise of perpetual learning that the field offers.

The author mentions the constant change in technology and a deeper intrinsic knowledge we developed over time to deal with them. In a sense I believe, he meant that as we acquire experience, we become more sensitive to patterns.  These patterns can help us become more agile in adapting to new tech as well as seeing projections of how they would unfold ahead of their full development. Regardless of how far we get we must not give into the ego and assume things with certainty we can’t guarantee.

We must watch for hardening during the long road. The author doesn’t offer any cautionary warning for this pattern, but I believe it warrants one. In many professions I see how the long road can become a trap to steer you away from self-development. It is extremely easy as you gather knowledge along the road to become a know-it-all. To me there are 2 versions of the know-it-all; the flexible version where one knows a lot but is open to change; the hardened version where one knows a lot and cannot change. I think it has a lot to do with egos, the flexible one is probably perceived by others as knowledgeable but does not care about the title itself so it makes it easier in the long run to reshape knowledge; and the hardened one sees itself as knowledgeable, the title is important so no exterior knowledge that conflicts with its own can be accepted. The hardened one should be avoided; professional life is about social interactions and the hardened one will become isolated or be avoided by others while the flexible one will flourish in a social environment and grow with it.

From the blog CS@Worcester – technology blog by jeffersonbourguignoncoutinho and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Being a beginner have very few perks so we must utilize them to their utmost extent. The authors make the point of arguing that the new guy has the ability to bring new life into a team that could perhaps have gone stale or that maybe could be improved by such addition. I must confess this learning pattern, or I would better describe it by calling it a resilience building pattern, is a pattern that can help with confidence building and narrowing the aim for purpose. When working with a team in an environment that is new, you don’t only confront with your team’s expectations of what you can do, but also with your own expectations on what you think you should be able to contribute. This ties well with something I think every student struggles with and may carry over to the professional struggles of transition called impostor syndrome.

I have read about impostor syndrome before repeatedly in quorums in which professional developers as well as other professionals talk about it or answer questions about it. I should say that the mere volume in which these topics appear in the wild is a telltale of what should be expected in the first few years of a developer. As a student we easily fall trapped by the illusion of being undeserving, when we grapple with the idea that we have much to learn still. Sometimes it is true that we are unprepared to complete a task or that some of the background knowledge needed for the task was under evaluated in the past and have become a barrier to present issues. But even on the eve of such failures we must not succumb to the temptation of self-assigning ourselves with the impostor role. The imposter would not put in the years of instruction and struggle to become the product of these experiences.

There are little cautionary tales in this pattern as well. This is something I think the authors were very smart to add. In the wild dealing with real world social interaction there can be no one fits all solution. Feeling out group dynamics while applying these tactics is very important. We all have the tendency to grow a little cynical over time so we shouldn’t be judging too harshly an individual or group’s receptivity. If we use just the right mix of the appropriate beginner enthusiasm, we can feel like we belong, or even better, like we have something to add.

From the blog CS@Worcester – technology blog by jeffersonbourguignoncoutinho and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

This learning pattern is very important it exposes us to a very delicate issue. Although the Software Development community is built around everchanging technologies, and we are all shooting at a moving target, the fear of letting others know what you do not know is constantly present. Particularly to me, another analogous fear that I think is related to this learning pattern is the fear of you believing you know something and being shown the opposite. I think that at this level in our learning careers, so close to graduating, this pattern is extremely important. This period of entering the field officially, is the period in which we feel the need to show what we know, coupled with doubts and the lack of experience which rob us the confidence we need.

I hope that once we internalize this pattern regardless of the fear of using it, the field, out in the wild will become gradually more amenable. Perhaps this is why I think that a job with a grounded company with tradition in technology is the best steppingstone to a software developer. Every company small or large today relies on technologies that we must understand. This is the reason I fear the non-tech companies that need tech people. The fear that they will expect the newbie to know it all, or worst, not understand what it really takes to get what they want. I think that this fear will probably gradually disappear maybe at about 2 years in the field.      

To sum up I must say that this pattern served me well in my career as a student and I think it will serve me just as well as a developer. I feel lucky to know that I can relate and count on people that are either having the same problem as me or have surpass it to help me. Reaching out to ask people for help is not only better than staying ignorant but help build confidence in the person whom you asked. Even when you ask someone who does not understand the field, their out of the box answer may guide you to a better understanding. I found that I discovered a lot of the answers I needed just by formulating the question and dissecting it to a non tech aficionado.  

From the blog CS@Worcester – technology blog by jeffersonbourguignoncoutinho and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.