What are three new things you have learned about yourself and your ego as a result of the core learning?

One of the things I learned about myself is that I can keep improving my intelligence by repeated practice. Before I thought that I could no longer become smarter because my intelligence was fixed, but after learning about neuroplasticity and the growth mindset I was given hope that I can become smarter.

My emotional intelligence seems to be below what it should be. This is because I don’t spend too much time building it up and could definitely use some work. I understand it is important to have a good level of emotional intelligence because it allows us to form good relationships with others and become more self-aware.

I also noticed that I look down on my abilities a lot especially because of my experiences with university and I focus too hard on the grades that I achieved. I am always comparing myself to the average grade and if my grades are not above it I tell myself that I am not smart. What core learning has taught me is that grades are not as important as I thought they were.

What are the role of values, empathy and self awareness in learning and programming?

When learning new things, having a set of values is important because they help us to define our goals in life and what we want to learn. This is the same for programming because values will help shape how we code. This could mean we strive to write code that prioritizes user experience and code that is easier for others to work with. 

Empathy is important in learning programming because we are designing for clients and we need to understand their wants and needs. We also must try to be good team members by being empathetic towards them. 

Self-awareness allows us to know our own strengths, limitations, emotional state, and other attributes , which is important when learning new things. This is because we need to manage our mental health well when learning programming, not trying to learn too much above that is above our limits. It also allows us to know which areas we can improve in, whether it be our technical abilities or our ability to work well in a team.

What has surprised you the most about the core learning?

I was surprised that it would teach me a lot about myself because it has made me more aware of my own strengths and limitations. This means that I know which areas I need to improve in.

What were the most challenging aspects of the core learning?

The most challenging part of core learning is reflecting because it requires a lot of thought into what we experience and requires us to process many situations.

Why do you think we, a programming school, are spending so much time focusing on core learning in a web development bootcamp course?

It is important to learn about these things because being a programmer is not just about knowing how to write good code, but is also about being able to be a great asset on a team in terms of its culture. 

Does the time you spent studying core learning here feel like a waste of time? Should you have just used that time to practicing programming instead? Justify your answer.

Learning about core topics does not feel like a waste of time because they help me become more aware of how to be a better programmer.

What is your long term goal and/or career pathway?

My long term goal is to work in the tech industry as a full stack web developer.

What do you think your biggest strengths and limitations will be in Bootcamp?

My biggest strength in bootcamp will be my problem solving ability and my biggest limitation would be my memory.

What do you think your biggest non-technical challenge at Bootcamp will be?

When I speak in front of a group, I become very nervous and forget what to say. Public speaking will be my biggest non-technical challenge at bootcamp.

What non-technical skills - human skills - would you like to see developed in yourself while at EDA?

I would like to see improvement in my emotional intelligence because right now I can sense that it is not very high. This is because I notice my lack of ability to maintain relationships with some people and also my lack of emotional awareness.

What are your expectations of yourself on Bootcamp?

I expect that I will be able to persevere through the challenges and will learn a lot from the experience. However, I feel like my memory will prevent me from remembering some things if I don’t practice them repeatedly.