The first important note that everyone needs to write down, is that when you are facing a new challenge and being asked to do something that you have never done before, you don’t have to be afraid to step out. This will be the beginning of the better version of yourself. You will find more capabilities you don’t think you have, and you will never see that capability until to try them out.
Growth mindset is a belief of understanding that everything you want, can be developed through hard work and effort you put in. Sometimes, we discourage ourselves when we try to compare ourselves to others, and thus create some perceptions of seeing talents in those people, yet it’s could even be hard work. But nothing could be further from the truth. Talent is an inborn quality that gives you a smart way to do or smartly achieve something. However, hard work can be better than talent
I had an opportunity to do my academic internship at Andela, and it was Women In Tech Workshop program, where I have been trained to use advanced tools used in Agile software development. We use tools like Pivotal Tracker and GitHub to manage and to keep track of the project. I have also seen and learned how professional engineers develop and work on a project from the beginning up to the end, using those tools in an advanced way.
Therefore, I was curious to know how many people work on one project. Before I didn’t have that opportunity to take a look at that. And the funny thing is that some of my friend and classmates used to say that “Don’t do that internship if you want to stay in touch with your friends ”. But because I was curious to know that they do and how they do it, I had to do that internship and I made good progress, though it was more challenging to people like who are still struggling in java.
During the internship period, we have been told that we needed to use new releases of javascript as I have explained in Women In Tech Workshop blog, all of these were not easy. All I had to do, is to accept and understand that no one will do that for me. And also I found that it’s not only acquiring knowledge and new skills but also to foster the ability to solve problems and take on challenges.
I have learned two important things in this workshop, one is that there is a time you work on a certain task that you have given to work on, and you do it with much effort. Then after you received feedback that seems like you did nothing. Many times when this happens to me, I feel somewhere between mildly to extremely defensive. However, this contributes nothing to your work. What to do is take feedback positively and redo the task again. Another thing I have learned is that there is a time that you meet with a blocker that you are the only person to solve it. And many people have this problem. I realized that every time you meet with blocker and you have this mindset, that you will always have someone to help you, we will no longer be a problem solver on your own.
Now, I am attending Andela Bootcamp cycle 13, and I believe that all the struggles I went through in the internship period, drove me on the other level. And will use those skills and experience I got there, to build a product that meets all requirements. Though we meet with new challenged every day and every time, but the good thing to know is that "Life is a series of problem-solving opportunities. The problem you face will either defeat you or develop you depending on how you respond to them" Rick Warren.
I have demonstrated a growth mindset through the challenges and difficulties I met with, and don’t give on them. I couldn’t have done everything I have done with a fixed mindset. I tried to take feedback positively. Additional to that I think no one can keeping spend time on something that you are sure that it will be useless. It was all about learning and believe in myself that I am going to complete the task. If you are brave enough to start, you are strong enough to finish.
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