Sunday, November 30, 2014
Part of the DBC experience is pairing with others in solving challenges together. This has been really new to me because throughout college, I didn't have many group projects or group study going on. Initially, I was pretty nervous about it.
I still get a little nervous before each pair session but overall, I've found it as a great way to enhance my communication and technical skills. I worry that I won't be able to contribute much to the session. With a pair, we typically can finish the challenge around two hours, whereas if it were just by myself, it'd take me all day. To mitigiate my nervousness, I typically prepare for the challenge for a couple of ideas so that I can at the very least offer suggestions on how to approach the problem. It is very rewarding when we are on the right track, I understand what we are doing, and overcome an obstacle together.
I've only checked my feedback twice, even though I realized now that I should be checking it weekly. I think it's because I am worried I will get a negative review and it'll break my confidence for future pairing. Actually, that is something I need to work on: building my confidence. The feedback is helpful because it points out that I am my own worst critic and that there is probably a positive correlation between confidence and skill. I think it is a weird counteractive defense mechanism, I tend to be too open about my weaknesses and feelings. So something I need to work on is to start believing in myself because it takes too much energy to doubt myself.
It's hard for me to give feedback because a lot of times I don't pay too much attention to people's weaknesses - I am too absorbed with how I am performing. I usually think they do great and my mind goes blank when I try to think of something actionable, specific, and kind. I think the only time I am disappointed is when my pair isn't communicating with me what they are doing and leaves me wondering what is going on.
Pairing has really helped my learning because I love learning from others who know what's going on and it feels good to explain things to those who get a bit lost.
