Lessons Learned from Module One

November 23, 2015

Last week I finished Module 1 at Turing. It was challenging and stressful, but overall a lot of fun. I learned so much in six weeks; I did not think it was possible to learn that much in such a short amount of time. I love my cohort, everyone is so excited to learn and help each other out.

On Saturday I met one of the new members of the next cohort. She asked for any advice I had for her to prepare. I told her to cram as much studying in this week as possible, because the more you know beforehand the better. Her question made me reflect more on what advice I would give to other new students, so here it is:

  1. Breathe, just breathe. There will be so much thrown at you on a daily basis, there’s nothing you can do to prepare yourself for the onslaught. You will be fine. It will seem like you can’t get the project done in three days, but then you will find yourself finishing the last iteration on Wednesday night.
  2. Spend at least two hours a week studying something that’s not homework or project related. I wish I had done this, but instead I focused all my time on projects. Attend some extracurricular activities. Do it!
  3. Pairing is not scary or annoying, and it’s so much fun as long as you communicate well. I was scared to start pairing because I was afraid I wouldn’t be as fast as my partner or that I wouldn’t be able to problem solve as well with someone constantly next to me watching me type. First, you need to “define the relationship” (DTR). Tell them what you need to work well, when you need to take a break, etc. You will be spending a lot of time with your pair on the last project, so make sure you constantly communicate with them. Pairing is great because when you reach that point where you hit a wall in problem solving, you aren’t alone. Two heads really are better than one.
  4. Don’t try to go to sleep 10 minutes after you’ve stopped coding. Go read a book, listen to a podcast, watch TV, get your mind of off your project and you will sleep so much better.
  5. Meet with a mentor at least once a week. Plan to meet with your mentor even if you think you are doing fine on a project. When you get to a point when you are stuck, then you won’t be scrambling to schedule a meeting with them at the last minute.
  6. Ask for help often and from anyone. Chances are, if something doesn’t look right in the project spec, other people are having issues with it too. Definitely ask students in later cohorts for help, they will always help you, that’s just the way Turing is.
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