Bootcamp - Learning Plan

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

Generally my answer here remains as it is in the previous iteration of ones learning plan - to live and work remotely, using as wide a breadth of my skills and abilities as is enjoyable and sustainable.

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

A notable strength I suppose would be a re-developing capacity for technical problem solving. It's nice to be seeing that come out again. Limitations? Abilities in time/energy management, and self-sustainability.

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

Surviving it. Keeping myself alive, fed, motivated, and engaged on an unsustainable student budget.

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

To be honest, I do not feel that I have an answer for this at this time. I do not feel that I presently have the emotional capacity to consider a thoughtful answer.

What are your expectations from the Bootcamp team?

Compassion and understanding around limitations in ones various capacities.

What are your expectations of yourself on Bootcamp

To survive as best possible. Thrive where possible. I'm trying to keep it as simple and realistic as possible at present.

Sprint 2 - Learning Plan

What is your long term goal or career pathway?

My primary long-term goal is to be living and working as remotely as possible, using as full a range of my wider skill set as possible. I'm a fairly solitary person by nature, and thrive on domestic stability and routine. I do however easily stagnate without an engaging diversity of intellectual stimuli.

I have a few side quests. I'd like to earn a PhD, and spend some time working for a national institution like Radio NZ or Te Papa. I'd like to work on both software and hardware engineering in the audio/visual realm, and continue to evolve my application of my wider skill set in niche events.

A description of your strengths and limitations when it comes to learning

A key strength I've long had is to be highly adaptable, and especially so when it comes to a new field of interest where my ADHD-fuelled hyper-focus may be effectively enabled, and supported.

A very clear limitation is the inverse of that. My brain doesn't deal with learning well when there are what may consider as being 'mission-critical' threats to ones baseline stability. Unfortunately this is something that is typically ever-present to some degree.

What skills (non-technical/human skills) would you like to see developed in yourself while at Dev Academy?

I hope to be able to develop ones capacity for balancing out the aforementioned duality. My current life circumstances considered, I see my time here as a valuable opportunity to work on this.

What is your commitment to how you will manage your workload in this programme?

To endeavour to as best possible, structure and engage with ones workload as I may most effectively comprehend it. I have no doubts that I'll encounter many alien concepts and obstacles, and I've faith in my ability to find a suitable means of working through them both individually and collaboratively.

How you will manage yourself to work productively and safely with other learners, facilitators and industry/community representatives?

Curious question. As a general rule for myself at present, I'm trying to piece back together the sense of routine and wellbeing that I'd developed for myself before suffering a string of reasonably serious injuries in recent years. Against all odds, I seem to be doing okay with this at present, so should things continue to stabilise and improve, all in my view should be productive, collaborative, and well.

What you will do when things are building up and starting to get to you?

Hopefully quickly identify when things are getting a bit much, and take proactive measures to self-regulate before ones brain gets carried away with it's long-held tradition of self-sabotage.

What is your commitment as to how and where you will seek help in a timely way?

Beyond reaching out to either our faciliators, or fellow students, I'm fortunate to have a number of friends with considerable experience in many areas of software development. I've no shortage of potential assistance where necessary, and generally I have no qualms with asking for help with whatever I'm working on.

What do you expect from the facilitation team?

Good humour, useful pointers and insights, honesty, empathy and compassion, etc. I do not feel as though I have any concerns about the facilitation team lacking in such qualities, going off what experience I have with them thus far.

Do you have any scheduling information such as block-out times when you are committed to other things?

Nothing set in stone at this stage, however I do have semi-frequent medical errands and appointments that I usually try and schedule as uninvasively as possible. With my also exploring academic pursuits next year, it is also likely that I may have irregular appointments to be similarly scheduled as conveniently as one can.