Patience Is A Virtue
The major key for a journey to accomplishment.
A month ago the CEO of the startup that I interned for this summer, Stackfolio, gave me a coding challenge to test my knowledge of the web development curriculum he had given me back in late April. I worked in the role of a QA intern on our product team where I tested our web product by individually testing features, creating user stories, and running those user stories in acceptance test in our development cycle. If you don’t know my educational background, I have a bachelor’s degree in computer science which to the average individual would mean that I have the necessary skills to take on an entry level position, as a developer of any sort, in some company. But to be honest, I didn’t. I took every shortcut known to man in most of my undergrad classes and it showed in my lack of ability to execute in a timely manner when I attempt coding challenges.

In the beginning of my journey at Stackfolio, I had many hesitations. I always asked myself, “Am I smart enough to work for this company?” “Do I have what it takes to perform at a successful tech startup that is on the rise?” Within the first few weeks I wasn’t really sure of what I was supposed to be doing or how I could truly make an impact in my role. Whenever I felt that I had one thing figured out, it soon lead to me finding out that I really didn’t. I referred back to the many different conversations and videos of meaningful advice when in an internship, and I carried out rule number one daily…ask questions. From that point on I had a foundation that would lead to me being able to take full ownership of not only my position but a portion of our software development cycle as well.
When you work around a team as smart as the one at Stackfolio you can do one of two things, crack under the pressure or strive to be better each day. I chose the latter. But with the choice to want to be great there are countless obstacles. Back to the coding challenge I mentioned earlier, my CEO knew that I had aspirations of becoming a better developer and overall enhancing my tech skills. He gave me what seemed to be a simple coding challenge, which he was able to complete in 45 minutes, that I thought I could knock out in no time after completing the curriculum that was given to me. I soon found out that you can’t rush the process of learning. When attempting to complete the challenge I hit numerous road blocks that really made me question is this really the path that I wanted to go down. I have a bachelor’s degree and it’s taken me over a week to complete this challenge so I thought to myself, “maybe I just need to stick with doing QA”.

The competitor in me would not let me be defeated. One day when I was walking to the common area to grab a snack I was asked, “Hey, have you completed the challenge?”. I responded, “no”, with a discouraged look on my face and then I was given a response of, “It’s fine, don’t try to rush. It’s about understanding the process of how things work.” That alone turned my perspective 180 degrees and it just seemed like everything started to fall into place. I focused my time on gaining a strong knowledge of the principles being implemented in the challenge and soon enough I figured it out! I had successfully implemented a simple Django web application that contained an original REST Api along with making AJAX calls to that data.
While I was only supposed to work 10 hours a week, I easily spent 30+ hours at the office testing the product, learning to become a better developer, and most importantly, strengthening the bond I had with the team. The growth that I gained over this summer is indescribable. The feeling of knowing that you’re truly capable of doing anything you put your mind to with simply a peerless work ethic and positive attitude reveals a potential that everyone should have the pleasure of finding in themselves.

I am proud to say that I am one of three recipients of the first ever Black Diamond awards at Stackfolio and, to my surprise, I was also given a brand new macbook pro to use as I pursue my master’s in computer science at North Carolina A&T State University. Leaving the office for my last day was the hardest thing I had to do at the company. Saying goodbye to the people who you have supported day in and day out, and vice versa, and spent long hours working to produce an industry disrupting product is no easy task. But the lessons I’ve learned are ones that I know will forever be with me when I have to overcome the next obstacle in my tech journey.
