Adaptability

Why Adaptability on Andela Bootcamp

Being on my second week at Andela Bootcamp has been both a challenge and a fascinating experience. Working on Andela Developer Challenge(ADC) seemed so hard to me at first, but I was not alone. On Bootcamp, we were given challenges to work on and provide a solution within a specific timeline. This sounded not easy to achieve, but for one to get to Andela, you have to endure all challenges.

Challenge one was more familiar and not that hard, but again I had to meet the required requirements. This was just an implementation of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I was somehow familiar with this and I did my best.

Then, The big fish

Challenge two came on week one of Bootcamp and I had all types of emotions. I was scared that I never knew enough to enable me to make it. I was full of fear. Later after checking on my colleagues at the Bootcamp, I found out that there was no need to be afraid. We were all learning and one was just required to understand what he/she is doing and do it right. I was happy to be part of the boot camp.

But I don’t know this stuff(python API)?

This was the question I always had on my mind. It was hard to believe it as a beginner in writing an API can come up with one actually. Being a beginner or an experienced doesn’t matter, what matters is who you are and how you do it. One person from Andela told me this. He really advised me on what to worry most is how I do what am being told.

I believed in myself. No matter who you really are, when you want something, you will have to do as it required. On my challenge two, I became adaptable to the normal stress level of working on coding for a full day. It’s not that easy, doing something new all by yourself for a full day. But at the end of each and every day, I had an output. I overcame my blockers whenever I got one through help from friends.

Through the previous two weeks at Andela Bootcamp, I have learned to become adaptable to different conditions, requirements, programming skills. For example, I had in the course of the last week I had a plan to do some other API features. But only to be given feedback to implement something else. I had to switch and tackle on the feedback immediately and later implemented the other features. I had to weight on the most required task and do them immediately.

What I have to learnt

• Emotions are important to adaptable situations
• Personal desire is the drive to adapt to different situations
• Don’t fight yourself back, make concrete decisions
• Consult, talk to a colleague when stuck
• Decide and do it to the best

How I became Adaptable

• Team collaboration in case of blockers and to help out others. This is where I really learned things I never knew. Facilitators and colleagues were more open to any questions even if one never knew. They would always refer you to somebody.
• Asking questions and feedback in case I never understood. Feedback is what helped me to improve on my week areas.
• More research on what I was to do and what to do. I had to learn the new stuff, I was hearing about at the boot camp.
• Time management on project implementation. For every stakeholder, time is a crucial thing for every project being implemented. I ensured I kept a good timing of what I was doing.
• Kept going even if nothing was working. Some things never worked and it felt like time to give up, but I kept on moving.