So far this term has definitely been a little bit stressful at times. My capstone project has honestly felt like I imagine the first few days in a new software engineering role would feel. There’s legacy code, a lot of it, and I have been tasked with learning new technologies on the fly in order to containerize and push a dated program to the cloud. When I say that out loud it sounds like something I never would have been able to do 2 years ago. It’s when I look at it that way that I start to see how far I have come thanks to my education at Oregon State University.
These first few weeks I have been learning a lot about being a software engineer. I have honestly been feeling like maybe I am not making the progress I should be. I have felt hopeless and wondered “Can I even do this?”. It is always around this time that I dig deep, rally, and start making progress. I’m starting to realize that sometimes projects work in baby steps. It isn’t always going to be a straightforward and simple path, but it you stick with the problem, you will solve it.
I’m starting to accept the small steps and appreciate them as giant leaps. Project management can be difficult and dividing work up into manageable chunks is not always the easiest to do in the beginning. I am now seeing the importance of splitting hairs when developing a project plan. If you think a task is going to just be easy and a little bit of work, think again. Give it some more consideration. I bet if you try you can most of the time break one step down into three or four more. These are the small steps that build the giant leaps. Then after struggling through them you realize “Wait a minute, I thought I wasn’t getting anywhere for the past three weeks but now I have this thing containerized!”….SO what is the take away from all of this?
- If you are working on a project sprint be realistic about your sprint goals.
- Don’t feel discouraged if you don’t meet every single sprint goal, it happens.
- Appreciate each small victory and recognize that the small steps build the big leaps
- Don’t give up and stick with the problem, you will solve it.
- Its always easier looking back down the mountain after the climb. But remember to enjoy the climb and appreciate the process of software development.
- Know that you will succeed and that you can do anything as long as you don’t give up.
Thanks for reading, and as always, Happy Coding!
The Mighty Code Beard
