This is something I’ve struggled with throughout my computer science career.
I self-studied for a year prior to coming to this program and I was filled with doubts as to whether or not I could become a software engineer. Every time I struggled with a LeetCode problem I blamed myself and thought that by “cheating” and looking at the answer, I wasn’t meant to do software engineering. Eventually I enrolled in this program and found myself surrounded by other people who were struggling to learn the same material that I was. The fact that I was able to see peers doing the same thing as me made me feel a lot better about where I was. In addition, being able to secure internships and survive the internships helped me realize that I do have some potential in this career.
The biggest thing, however, was developing a growth mindset. For those who don’t know, there are typically two kinds of mindsets: a fixed and growth mindset. A fixed mindset believes that intelligence is fixed and so if you aren’t good at something, no amount of hard work will make up for it. A growth mindset, on the other hand, believes that talent and intelligence aren’t fixed, and through hard work and perseverance, anything can be improved.
Either mindset leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy where if you feel like your efforts will improve the results then you’re more likely to put in the extra time and effort whereas if you feel like your actions won’t make a difference you’re less likely to put in the effort. As a result, people with fixed mindsets tend to avoid challenges in order to avoid failure, ignore feedback, feel threatened by the success of others, and hide flaws in order to not be judged by others. People with growth mindsets, on the other hand, are more likely to put in the effort to learn, believe that effort leads to mastery, believe failures are temporary setbacks, and view feedback as a source of information.
Research done on this topic have confirmed that a growth mindset is the way to success.
I believe that I grew up with a fixed mindset and was always afraid of failing and comparing myself to other people. I’m now actively practicing a growth mindset where I encourage myself to grow and believe that I can get better. I’m starting to focus more on the little wins because I know that eventually they’ll lead to bigger wins. It’s been a journey to get to where I am in terms of this cognitive shift but I know that believing my efforts will get me somewhere will pay off in the long run.
With that being said, what are your thoughts? What kind of mindset do you have?
Leave a Reply