When I look for patterns to read and write about in Apprenticeship Patterns, my interest is first directed at the context and problem sections of the text. Naturally, I’m drawn to patterns which most directly apply to my position right now. In this pattern, concrete skills, the context and problem could not be more true.
I am in a position where I begin my apprenticeship in a scrum team full of skilled programmers. I will be the intern and as such will have the least knowledge or experience out of anyone in the group. This pattern offers actions and solutions I can take so that I won’t need as much as what the authors put it “day care”.
I appreciate the simple wisdom of the advice the authors give. If I am worried about not being able to meaningfully contribute, learn a few concrete skills that will help me take on a few responsibilities, easing the burden on the team to train me.
A few actions I should take to achieve this goal are to make demonstrative applications using the concrete skills needed, as well as looking at similar code from other people and trying to figure out their logic and methods to solving the problem.
In my case, reading this pattern helped me decide a concrete skill that will help me be more of an asset to my future team. I know that we will be working with Spring, so I will try to learn about making components with spring and creating a simple program or two, so that on my first day I am already equipped with some kind of knowledge that will get my foot in the door and make me useful.
From my limited experience reading this book so far, I have already started to change the way I view how to take the first steps of my career. Up until this point I felt as though the wider your experience the better, but the examples the authors use really illustrate how much more value I can get by focusing on a few things, and taking small steps to build concrete skills which will be a bigger benefit for me and my future team.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Bit by Bit by rdentremont58 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.