Maria St. Louis-Sanchez mariastlouis

This was a great session to push me to start doing what I know I need to do. Outreach and networking does not come naturally for me but it will be absolutely necessary for me to start a job.

For Mod 3, I'm going to

Find a mentor by reaching out to Turing mentors and try to connect. I'm also going to reach out to old friends or acquantances (who I perhaps haven't kept up as much as I would like) in the technology field to catch up and see what think of my path and where I should be headed.
Over the break I'm going to finish my personal website, make a business card and complete the first draft of my cover letter and resume so I can be prepared as soon as I see jobs that I feel are exactly what I would like to do.
I'm going to start identifying and researching my dream companies that do the kind of work or have the same kind of mission that I have. I'll try to find connections to those companies however I can and, if none exist, I'll work on building my own connections.

I'm a learner.

I started my career as a journalist, which was great because it was my professional duty to learn something new every day and share it with the world. In that job, I started to learn the power of data. I learned that numbers could be a better predictor of what was going on than what politicians and administrators were saying. For instance, I was once interviewing a principal of a school who only wanted to talk about how great his school was because they had a new mural in the gym. At the same time, he had the poorst-performing school in the district and no plan about how to improve it.

Because of this power of data, I transitioned my career to become a data journalist. I learned how to request data, analyze it and use SQL and spreadsheets to figure out what was going on with the numbers and use that information to drive my stories. That was great, but as I learned more I realized that it wasn't enough just to give people my analysis of the biggest trends, pacakage them into a 20-inch story

I really enjoyed learning more about agile practices as it directly relates to what we do here and what we will be doing in our future workplace. Talking about my strengths - and the strengths of my partner - helped us understand one another better as we were starting a new project. As it turned out, we had almost exactly the same strengths - but knowing that was good becasue we knew that we both had the same weaknesses (i.e. we like to think big picture and tend not to focus on details as much) so we worked hard to hold one another accountable and made sure we were staying on top of the weaknesses. It was also helpful because when we decided to make a big pivot we were both on board because we were both thinking of the big picture and how much better our project would turn out.

Before thise session, I had worked well with partners simply by talking with them often. After this session, I used Waffle.io to help keep track of issues and keep my partner and myself on track by always being able to see exactl

Date of feedback conversation: Oct. 16 with Katie Scruggs

For this conversation, I prepared by first writing out what I thought just so I would remind myself what I had to say. I didn't use the notes for the conversation but they helped me get my mind organized first.

The conversation went great. Katie was a great partner and we got along well for the whole project. Just as we were starting to pair we had gone over again the strengths assesssment and realized that we had the same strengths - ideation. That was great because we were on the same page but I was a little worried that if we were both looking at the bigger picture that we'd have a hard time on the details. Thankfully that wasn't entirely the case. At one point or another, we both had to rein in the other one to keep from trying to do something huge to make sure we had something first that worked. At another point we both wanted a big change and were both willing to work harder to make the big change of course.

The conversation went well - we b

Growth Mindset

I am so glad we started Turing with this Gear-up. Throughout the entire mod I kept on coming back to the lessons here and instead of telling myself I was terrible, I told myself I would learn, I would get there. I've had to become comfortable with being uncomfortable and knowing that there's a process to becoming a great programmer and it doesn't happen overnight.

Getting better at difficult things

What I took away most from this session was that the best way to learn something difficult is to learn from a master and immerse yourself in it. This was heartening to me, seeing that I feel this is what I am doing at Turing. It was good knowing that learning difficult things does take time and I don't necessarily need to be a master at it from the beginning. However if I surround myself and jump in the deep end, I might not drown.

	# Post-Grad Job Search Action Plan Template: Your first 30 Days
	You are so close! You've spent the last 7 months working towards this -- graduation and finding your new dream job! This plan is meant to help you streamline your goals and get on the path to employment as a software developer during the first 30 days after graduation. Please fill out the plan by copying this template into a gist to submit in the markdown that you submit for your [portfolio](https://gist.github.com/LouisaBarrett/03aa5567937943ca274437205bc35271).

	As you fill out this plan, consider how your first job search will set the tone for your career trajectory in the software industry. After all, your first developer job should align with those goals as well so that you're on track for a longterm successful career.

	Note: If you have already secured a job prior to graduation, skip to the second step to look at ways you can support the rest of your cohort. However, this step is optional.

	## 30-Day Job Search Action Plan
	### C

	*** Microagressions
	I appreciated the point of the session as it gave voice to some scenarios I feel happen to me on a daily basis and helped teach me how to handle it. Also, I realized I was unconsciously committing microagressions myself which was an important lesson.

	*** Attention economy
	As a mother, this session kind of freaked me out. I realized I was spending too much time being pulled away from the people I love and that I need to keep an eye on my kid to keep them on track as well. I really appreciated the tips and tools given to help me unplug. In the future I hope to be cognisant of this knowledge as I build sites that might try to pull people away as well.

	*** Jobs from Blogs (Mod 4 gearup)
	I'm a former journalist, and I appreciated learning the difference in writing technical blogs vs personal blogs. I was happy to brainstorm my own idea for a blog and I can't wait to get on it now.

	# DTR: Define the Relationship

	Use this template to when conducting DTR with your project partners. It's recommended that you copy/paste this template into your own gist each time you conduct a DTR to take notes on the conversation.

	### Guiding Questions to Define The Relationship:

	* What are your learning goals for this project? What drives us in this project?
	* What is your collaboration style? How do you feel about pair programming vs. divide-and-conquer approaches?
	* How do you communicate best? How do you appreciate receiving communication from others?
	* How would you describe your work style?

Maria St. Louis-Sanchez mariastlouis

Growth Mindset

Getting better at difficult things

Working with Introverts, Extroverts, and Ambiverts