DEV Community: willy serge iradukunda

Bootcamp challenges and how I have adapted in the last few weeks

willy serge iradukunda — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 21:42:54 +0000

It's been almost two weeks since the Bootcamp started. There has been a lot of learning, challenges, and feedback. As hard as the challenges were, I managed to progress from week one to week two, which is even tougher.

I didn't get past week one because I was highly skilled or because challenge one was easy. It was because I was able to learn faster and adapt to any situation I encountered.

I had to write blogs every day and work on the given feedback. Sometimes it was very difficult to manage because I had to learn first before working on the feedback. This was particularly challenging in the JavaScript part.

Week two is more challenging than week one as we are building upon what we did in the previous week. There is more work and more learning involved. Tasks that are supposed to be easy, like configuring or setting up the development and deployment environment, take time and can be quite challenging. It is possible to spend the whole day on them. The difficulty also depends on your level of experience. As a first-timer, it became the most challenging thing for me at the Bootcamp.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that working alone at the Bootcamp is almost impossible, unreliable, and not recommended. Collaboration and asking for help are what helped me reach this stage of the Bootcamp. I highly recommend it to anyone who joins the Bootcamp, as well as to those interested in Andela in general.

My experience in Bootcamp so far.

willy serge iradukunda — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 21:46:37 +0000

It's been four days at the Andela bootcamp, and it has been quite a challenging journey so far. There has been a lot of learning, as high expectations were set for us.

From what I have noticed, the bootcamp is not only about learning but also about learning fast. You don't have to be technically gifted, but the ability to learn quickly is what might help you progress.

Speaking of progress, learning fast or being technically skilled does not guarantee advancement to the next stage of the bootcamp or even making it to the Stack Up program. Good communication skills are also essential.

Having good communication skills, technical expertise, and embracing Andela's EPIC values are key to making it into the Stack Up program.

An interesting tool/technology I encountered in preparation for Bootcamp

willy serge iradukunda — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 21:54:57 +0000

Andela Bootcamp is a two-week intensive onsite product building. One interesting fact is that it's not just writing code and seeing them running. It's about writing code that meets standards together with project management skills.

When preparing for the Bootcamp, I was exposed to some tools/technologies that I had never used before, and the most interesting one that caught my attention was a software project management tool called Pivotal Tracker. It helped me prioritize what to do and gave me a clear view of my work.

Another technology that I encountered was Git and Git workflow. I can say I had used GitHub before, but I had never used branches or knew their purpose because most of the time I worked alone. I always heard many developers talking about PR (pull request), but due to a lack of team experience, I could not understand what it meant, and now it's a part of what I'm doing for my project.

Now it's day 3 of the Bootcamp, and I'm progressing day by day. My whole idea about writing software until its delivery has changed; now I know there is more to it than just writing code.

I will continue using these tools and integrating them into my personal projects and encourage other aspiring developers to use them.

My reflections on Andela’s EPIC values

willy serge iradukunda — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 14:54:49 +0000

EPIC,a word that you will hear alot at Andela. either you're on the the andela website,youtube channel or you're applying for a job at Andela. Andela's EPIC does not hold the same meaning as what you'll find in oxford dictionary but instead an abbreviation of four letters with meaning that make it so powerful that Andela is built on it.

EPIC in full means Excellence,passion,integrity and Collaboration.all these values represent andela's culture.

E- this stands for excellence.Andela expects you to be excellent at what you do.this means delivering high quality work that meets standards,being responsive to feedback and asking for help if needed.

P- this stands for passion.one needs to be passionate of or love what he is doing which will help him excel at his work,Andela's direction is to change to change the world and positively impact a bigger community which requires hard work,passion and constant motivation.

I- this stands for integrity.this is not just about honesty.its about being trusted and responsible,from what i have experienced so far up the bootcamp
is that one needs to own and understand his work.for example when working on a project you should not copy paste other people's code or outsource it somewhere and pretend that the work is yours. Andela emphasizes on this a lot because at some point you will work with their partners and they should be sure they can trust you with a project they assign you to.

C- this stands for collaboration.collaboration is key to any team success.not just teams but also at work.you need to communicate effectively,treat others with respect and able to share your hard won knowledge.

These values should not just be limited to being used at Andela but should also be adopted in what we do for Us to grow as professionals and people.

How I demonstrated Growth Mindset recently

willy serge iradukunda — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 11:35:31 +0000

"It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be"
From Carol Dweck, a professor of Psychology at Stanford University.she defined that a growth mindset is like a tendency to believe that you can grow.

Prior to applying to Andela.I didn't have any practical knowledge on software development.I was passionate about the field but i always felt the need of something that could push me to follow the career path i always dreamed of.

I had passion but i was doing nothing about it.one of my friends told me that there is a tech company called Andela that is hiring talented aspiring software developers and i started applying.i walked through all the learning materials i was given and mastered almost the whole content which did not only help me go through with coding challenges as part of the application process but also improved my technical skills on software development.

I did not just stop there,i started going to developers community events like devfest organised by the google community in which i was able to meet with many developers in the industry.this changed my perspective on software developers and showed me that they are not just coders but also good communicators and collaborators and some of them leaders which makes a good modern software developer.

for the past few months i went from having basic knowledge on software development to having a a grasp on full stack software development i hope to improve day by day.

A growth mindset is what allowed me to progress through Andela's application phases and now i'm at the bootcamp level and i hope to tackle every challenge given and make it.

With a growth mindset there are no limits to what you can do regardless of your current skill level as long as you believe you can do better and put in hard work and dedication.