Reflections on change focused improv and boot-camp events

Andela, as a company , is representative of change; change in the Nigerian software industry, change in the African software industry and lastly, but most most importantly, change of people’s lives. Once a little known company created just over three years ago, Andela has grown to the be one of the biggest software companies in Africa. It is amazing how well known Andela currently is, and the great number of lives they have changed in the way of employment opportunities and skills training, given their humble beginnings. Andela has brought positive change, and managed to thrive at the same time, while operating in Nigeria, a country that is notoriously difficult for doing business. It is therefore no surprise that Andela demands that its employees and potential employees (boot-campers) have the ability to respond positively to change.

As a three time boot-camper (this is my third boot-camp), I have experienced this first hand on all three occasions. Just when you think you have figured the boot-camp out, a new aspect springs up. In December 2016, when I started my software development journey, the Andela curriculum was focused on python. Imagine my surprise, when four months later, during my first boot-camp, I discovered that the programming language for the boot-camp was JavaScript. This overwhelmed me and I never really recovered. You can read more about my hilarious experience here (https://medium.com/@chinemelu/my-experience-in-the-andela-boot-camp-so-far-3d3af08e80f).

That same cycle, I was also surprised to find out that Andela places emphasis on soft skills and communication, and even more surprised that one of the aspects of that was the regular creation of blog posts. This was not a pleasant surprise as my writing skills were not particularly great at the time. I adapted positively, though and for that, I am proud. During my second boot-camp, I went through to the second week of boot-camp, largely because I knew what to expect in the first week. Then came the second week, and I was stumped by the concepts of web frameworks, servers, clients, databases and routing. Again, I didn’t react positively to this change and I crumbled.

This current boot-camp, barely three days to the start, I received an email that was a shocker — the boot-camp format had been changed. One of the major changes was the strict implementation of the syntax of the relatively new es6 (now known as es2015) version of JavaScript. The previous boot-camps were stricly es5 implementations. That was horrifying, and I am currently struggling with the change, but I know with hard work and focus, I will overcome the threat this poses.

That being said, with every boot-camp, I have noticed that my response to change has improved. I now respond better to change, and for that, I am thankful. It remains to be seen how I deal with this latest change, but one thing is for sure, as a result of the experience, I will be better equipped to respond to change in the future. Till next time, see you later, folks.

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