Andela Bootcamp: Part 2

So far so good, am starting to get used to working on some Andela tasks. No one said it would be easy, but then again, it’s not impossible. A little about my background, I’m an undergraduate in the field of Information Technology, and most of the tasks at Andela are not strange to me. This is at that point that my University lecturer would say, “Gilbert, I know I taught you good, make us proud”. Well, it would be worthy to know that that’s only approximately 15% of what I learnt in campus will come into play with completing tasks at Andela.

To kick-start things, remember when I told you on the previous post that Andela facilitators briefed us on soft skills and technical skills? Yeah, that plays a major role, big time. The part I find most amusing is when you have to think not only outside “the” box, but think outside of other similar “boxes” as the one you were in, to figure out on how to tackle a problem. Here is where collaboration, as one of Andela values, comes into play. At Andela there are Slack channels that you can use to communicate to virtually anyone at Andela, whether (s)he is in Kenya or any other part of the world. Getting to know this communication tool saves so much time and effort, and even though it doesn’t have the blue-ticks found on Whatsapp (good job Slack, thumbs up), someone will respond to a message when best available.

One other aspect that I’ve got to experience is the Andela labs. Sigh! For starters, this is a client facing portal at Andela that allows candidates to check whether their code satisfies what Andela is expecting. If a Code fairy were to appear now and ask me, “Give a one-word remark for the Andela portal”, well, it would be Picky. So let me explain this. First of all, if you trust your instincts, follow along, but if you need some clarification before hand, feel free to Google the meaning. By being picky I mean, there are times you know that you have done your best, you followed all the best practices and still, the portal will just throw an error at you like “blegh, there is an error somewhere that I will not tell you, fix it”. You will scratch your brains out trying to figure it out, and when you finally do, the only feedback it gives you is “Done”. This isn’t that bad, it may be annoying to some candidates, but for me it takes me to thinking in other perspectives that I had not thought of in the first place.

Of course, there are some challenges that are hard to wrap your mind around, and need to seek some assistance from the Andela facilitators, and they are really doing a great job. Earlier on today, there was what I’d assume as a “glitch” in the Andela portal, which made candidates go bananas, but at the time of this writing, it has been fixed (Kudos!). I am looking forward to sharing more of my experiences with you, but right now I need to solve some code error, then help out a fellow candidate. Cheers :)