Weekly Journal : Improvement Reflection

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. —Will Durant

Submitting your Work

Submit a Markdown formatted plain text file, named week14_improvement.md, to the individual portfolio_NETID repository provided for you in the course's Gitlab group.

Specification

As the semester nears its end, review your journal, your projects, your team experiences to reflect on how much progress you have made during the semester, and also where you can still improve after completing the course.

Habits

A goal this semester was to practice and develop new habits in order to improve your program design and your experience coding. It is important for you to reflect on this goal because you are the result of your habits: they shape how you start, make progress on, and ultimately finish projects. But, perhaps, ultimately it is not just ensuring that what you are doing habitually results in better code, but ensuring your habits also improve the quality of your life.

Take a moment to think about all the possible habits you were exposed to this semester (beyond simply clean coding, such as when to design, individual coding sessions, how you think about programming process, project management, teamwork, learning, etc.).

• What habits do you think will be worth it for you to continue beyond this course?
• What habits do you think will not be worth it for you to continue beyond this course?
• What habits did you learn about, but did not have time, or understanding, or whatever to practice, that you think might be interesting to explore in the future?
• Do you think you would continue to use check lists (like our Design Checklist) to learn or retain habits in the future? Why or why not?

Programming

Programming can be a fun activity (and hopefully it is most of the time), but it is also often a frustrating, unforgiving, activity. This is especially true as projects get larger and more complex. One thing that can help is to find a "super power", a skill beyond basic coding (e.g., designing, debugging, testing, managing, or GIT, command-line, XML, etc.), to develop a deep understanding of that can bring you personal satisfaction and help you stand out from your team mates.

Take a moment to remember the fun and what can be learned from any programming experience.

• Describe any code that delighted you this semester (your own, a team mate's, a class example, a tutorial example, something from StackOverflow, etc.)
• Describe your best coding experience or most important thing you learned about coding during this course and what you learned from it
• Describe your worst coding experience during this course and what you have learned from it to help prevent it from happening again in future projects
• What specific technologies or skills beyond basic coding did you find most interesting or develop/discover an aptitude for?

Personal

Job interviews will certainly assess your technical skills, but they will also ask questions intended to see if you have good soft skills, and just as importantly, to see if you are self-aware of your own abilities and weaknesses. Everyone has weaknesses! Do not pretend to be naturally good at everything! The point of a “what is your greatest weakness” question is not to ensure you have no weakness, but rather to see if you have thought critically about your own skills, can do honest reflection, and care about self-improvement.

Take a moment to reflect on your answers to these questions because they can often make the difference in who gets hired between two technically competitive applicants.

• Think of what you have previously identified as a personal strength. How did this course help to reinforce that belief or help you find new strengths?
• Think of what you have previously identified as a personal weakness. How have you worked to improve upon your weaknesses this semester?
• How have your communication skills and ability to empathize with others (teammates or users) developed due to your experiences in this course?
• What personal development steps do you want to take to continue to develop your skills after this course?