Getting better with the team
I have been socially awkward since my childhood, this was greatly improved by some struggles in my life and I turned into someone some people may find strange. Am I getting better? I would say yes, in a slow tone but indeed, am not the same anymore.
Recently I came to know about Andela, this is a software engineering firm that works very differently from all the formal companies I can think of. I applied to be a software developer and on my second time, I managed to reach the boot camp stage of the recruitment process. Things did not go well but that is not the topic of this post, I felt out of place for the times we were required to be at the offices. It’s not like they are not welcoming, but everything seemed very different to me and didn’t know how to tag along.
Now on my third time, although I still get nervous, I can say I have improved. I have started to interact with fellow boot campers, reach out when I have a blocker or any other issue. These are some of the team members that I have shared unforgettable moments with at Andela.
Katumba Arnold.
We have just met recently but I find this guy cool and very helpful. We are in the same group and he just doesn’t let blockers of his teammates hinder their progress. On the first day of the boot camp, my computer had failed to connect to the wi-fi yet we were required to write and submit a blog post by 4:00 pm. I reached out and he was there to my rescue, when he felt like he quite doesn’t get where the problem is, he called a girl, I didn’t get her name but he said they studied together. That girl made my day, she cracked my PC’s connectivity while I was watching and in no time, I was online.
Kigai Phiona Mary
This is the only lady in our group, I like the way she expresses herself. I remember we were having breakfast and she said that it was her worst breakfast ever, I asked what she preferred for breakfast because we were having bread, an egg, and bananas. For goodness sake, who doesn’t like bread, Phiona? As human beings, we eat bread because we have to, well, eat bread you know. She has been giving me kind feedback all the way from Level up even in everyday situations.
Isaac Ongedo
Am not sure yet if this guy is tough or just a quiet person like me. Before we were placed in teams, I sought review on my pull request on GitHub, he gave me the most honest reviews. I will definitely vote for him as the reviewer of the month although he forgot to close an issue he opened on my GitHub repository. The issue made my repository look ugly yet I had fixed it. When I saw him as we were introducing ourselves in the group, I had to tell him right away that he left something on my repo.
Angela Lehru
This is the learning facilitator for our team, she first told me about her name “Lehru” before she gave me feedback, how her schoolmates failed to pronounce it and ended up calling her something similar to my name “Lule”. She is an easy going person and she made me realize the missing gaps in my code because I thought I had done everything. She did this in a friendly way and told me ways of fixing them.
Those were my teammates for you, I hope to know them even better by the end of boot camp week one. Goodbye.
