For the second week of reading, I chose to read the pattern, A Different Road. This is a continuation off of Draw Your Own Map and discusses an issue. The issue is when you have followed your own path as a software developer and hit a road block. This road block is not about whether or not you could become better and rather that of a change in interest. It details the possible outcome of leaving the industry to pursue another interest and what could happen upon returning. There is a chance that the gap from working in different industries could work against you in the end. It is said that some organizations will deem the inactivity from the field as suspicious and will question your return. The risk is big, but it is still important to follow your road map where ever it leads.

What I found useful about this pattern is that it encourages others to follow their hearts or road map that led them up to the decision where they might be leaving the profession. Everyone only has one life, and usually the saying is to do what makes yourself happy. Sometimes, people need a change of pace and it’s important to recognize that. However, I am not surprised that some organizations will question your absence from the profession if you chose to leave for a while. I’m sure many of us who chose to study computer science has realized the type of field we are going to throw ourselves into. Another interesting part of this pattern is about the work experience between two different jobs can sometimes be used effectively. Depending on the context of course, one experience in a separate field may be used to fix or provide a solution to a problem in a different field. This also goes back to the organizations who might disregard any experiences that an individual has that isn’t related to the experience needed to fill the desired position. I feel that the only choice after leaving the long road for a while is to work twice as hard to get back in. Lastly, I do believe there are probably plenty of ways to accomplish that and it’s not a lost cause overall.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Progression through Computer Science and Beyond… by Johnny To and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I have a bad case of impostor syndrome and oftentimes get discouraged when comparing myself and my work to more experienced developers. This week’s apprenticeship pattern helped me understand that being farther behind on a stronger development team with intent to catch up (a small fish in a big pond) can be more beneficial than being more of an outgrown member of a team that doesn’t challenge me as much (a big fish in a small pond).

“Be the Worst” describes the problem of plateauing in new knowledge, as the apprentice continues to work in a team that doesn’t push them to challenge themselves. As a result, the apprentice may start to grow out of the team. The solution is simply for the apprentice to look for opportunities in stronger teams. By establishing themselves in such a group, the apprentice should be more motivated to work harder to catch up to the level of their teammates. While this poses a risk of potentially falling even farther behind, it has the immense reward of learning more, at a faster rate.

This section definitely reassured me that even if I am farther behind than my team members, it just means that I have more room to improve, as long as my teammates are supportive of my growth, in spite of me not being as strong of a team member (yet). I’m sure that initially, I will have difficulty removing the feelings of intimidation of working in a more challenging group. One of the additional risks of joining this kind of group is the possibility of feeling incapable or under-performing. However, as the section explains, I would be able to recognize how much I have truly advanced in skill when self-assessing.

This section also changed my thinking regarding comparing myself to other developers. With my current mindset of impostor syndrome, it may not be best for me to compare to those who are more experienced than me. But, as my attitude towards my own skill improves, it’s not a bad thing to look up to those people as an example of what I can also achieve. By seeking out more challenging opportunities, this comparison to other developers is also necessary.

Thanks for reading!

From the blog CS@Worcester – Hi, I'm Kat. by Kat Law and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

To start off with Apprenticeship Patterns, I’m going to look at Expose Your Ignorance from Chapter 2. This pattern jumped out at me largely because of something I brought up in my introduction post regarding “putting on airs” in order to appear more qualified than you currently are.

The problem that this pattern is looking to solve is for when external pressures are demanding that you deliver high quality software. This often becomes an issue when you’re unfamiliar with a required technology. Sometimes you’re brought onto a team for a particular skill and you haven’t expanded your skillset to encompass all of the team’s work. Or, perhaps, you’re the only one that they could find to do the job, even though you may not be as qualified to do it as they’d prefer. Those around you are relying on your ability to perform in the face of inexperience.

The solution that is offered is to approach the situation humbly. Accept your inexperience and seek the answers. “Putting on airs”, as I said before, will only make your job harder. If you convince those around you that you’re more experienced than you are and you end up delivering a subpar product, your inexperience will be exposed. On top of this, you will have inadvertently rejected learning opportunities to maintain your image of expertise. Instead of this, aim to be open about your lack of knowledge in this area. This will allow you to perform better than you would otherwise, as you get to genuinely learn the technology on your path towards development. It shows those relying on you that you’re capable of learning and doing sufficient work (or better) in a pinch — and it’ll strengthen your bonds with them as well. We want to work with people who are capable, and including your peers on your journey in self development will show them exactly that. Not only this, but as the book says, rejecting this opportunity to grow can cause people to get settled into one particular niche and become experts in their area. That’s never a bad thing, the industry needs experts. However, an expert is not the same thing as a craftsman. A craftsman is flexible and always searching for the chance to learn and grow as opposed to locking themselves into one discipline and learning it through and through.

What action can an aspiring craftsman take to usher themselves towards the solution for this problem? Make visible your ignorance to your coworkers — the book suggests a list with 5 items on it that is in a visible place. Maintain that list well, update it and refresh it as you expand your skillset. It’s important to show others that you are constantly seeking growth in your craft.

From the blog CS@Worcester – James Blash by jwblash and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

            The “Concrete Skills” pattern is described as a way be able solidify and maintain skills that would be helpful in a work environment. The book explains that many teams don’t really want to hire someone who won’t be able to help with the workload. There are too many situations where you would be a detriment with the lack of experience and skills. The books then goes on to talk about the possible solutions, one being to gain the ability to learn quickly. This can help show the team that you can be put to use in a working environment and not need to be supervised. It can also build a better relationship with the team by reassuring them that their efforts and time are not being wasted. Another strategy that is important is a great understanding of your first language since it can help you create a starting point within your first job. The book explains that communication and professionalism can be a strong driving force that accent your skills within your first language to better show off what you learned to employers.

            I found this pattern to be interesting in the sense that it relates to many new software developers looking for jobs. The through-provoking idea of being thrown into a software dev team that took a chance with a new developer is daunting to me. I find that if I was in that situation, I would need to work twice as hard to prove that I’m worth keeping on the team and that I have skills that can benefit everyone. This pattern shows me that concentrating on my programming skills and knowledge will be useful, but I will also need to have good communication skills as well to make sure that the team understands my viewpoints. I haven’t really thought about how important these communication skills and professional attitudes interlock with each other, but this pattern has shown me the importance of both. I agree with this pattern for the most part, however I found that it didn’t seem to give enough information about how someone could find their concrete skills in a team setting where many team members are already much better than you at your own language. Overall, I found this pattern interesting and very insightful.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Student To Scholar by kumarcomputerscience and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

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.