To transition into tech, I'd argue that the things I've learned at Le Wagon are essential. If you have more experience and you don't agree with one of my takeaways below, please share your thoughts! If you're new to this, like me, I encourage to embrace the three principles I've taken with me. The way you think about this journey makes all the difference!
A Professor in my Master's program used to tell us something like this, on many occasions:
"When you graduate, you're going to be a Master. That means everyone will come to you for answers."
At that time, I really was inspired by his words because I knew that what I was learning mattered and with it I could make a difference. It's funny though, it's three years later and only my Mom's friends are still impressed that her daughter is an 'Educational Psychologist'.
Moving on from Mastery
Now that I've graduated from a a 10-week bootcamp for Full Stack Web Development with Le Wagon, I'm leaving with something I did not have at the end of my 4-year bachelor's or 2-year master's: Humility.
As you might guess, humility was not what I thought I'd leave with at the end.
It's not that I was prideful after my first two degrees. I simply thought I was supposed to "know" something. And with a similar expectation, I started the bootcamp in January. But it turns out, in this industry, there's really no such thing as mastery. You start learning.. then tech evolves.. and so you keep learning.
Recently, I heard someone speak who had co-founded a start-up and has been in tech for about 8 years. He said that he goes into meetings where he's expected to make decisions and he knows he's going to be wrong sometimes, that other people will know more than him. And he depends on them. Humility is key even for him. (I'm sharing that piece of wisdom here as a bonus.)
As you might understand if you're learning, this is relevant every time you face an error or you break a big thing while trying to fix a small thing. You could either take it as a threat to your pride or a boost to your humility. Don't think you need to master it. Choose to boost your humility. And think of errors as if they were road signs. Sometimes they tell you where to go and sometimes they tell you where you can't go.
You're going to be a Master Confident
After 10 weeks and more than a little money (#WorthEveryPenny), I can apply to jobs with a LOT of confidence. Why? Because I humbly want to learn even more. And I'm confident in who I am today because I think differently than I did at the start of the year.
Others in my cohort, whether they had more knowledge or less, gained the same confidence in how they were learning. That confidence, which excites us and reminds us that we have a lot to learn, is the very reason why peer reviews were so helpful. Even if my peer didn't know more than I did, being able to talk through potential solutions and hear how another person understands the problem is the best tool!
My three takeaways:
- Errors don't indicate failure. So, be humble and learn.
- Peer code reviews are irreplaceable tools for learning.
- I'll be learning for the rest of my life.
Dear Professor, I'm not on a road to mastery, I'm on a road of discovery. But you're still on my list of favorites.
Dear Staff at Le Wagon, welcome to the top of the list.
Top comments (8)
Wow. Good post! I literally just wrote a post that is a good parallel to this, about how debate and dev are similar. What a coincidence.
Oh interesting! I'll check it out!
Thanks! And I absolutely agree with this: "Learn to program, analyze, divide, to think top down or bottom up." That's what I will continue!
The bootcamp was effective for me because when I was teaching myself to code, I didn't have peers or a community, errors were discouraging, and that made learning feel like a task that I wanted to reach the end of. Because of the bootcamp, I've completely changed how I think on top of gaining the experience analyzing, breaking problems down, solving problems and building products. That's why it's a foundation I can build on :)
Great Insight
Thank you for the insightful post
Your takeaways are spot on! Wonderful post!
Excellent words by Janaya. This making be confidence more
Learn fast fail fast! Feature flags are your friend