Reflection Questions and Answers

Question 1:

Discuss one challenge you overcame during your academic development. What was the challenge, was it technical, nontechnical, or both, and how did you overcome it?

Answer:

There were many challenges I faced throughout my academic career, but the one I found most difficult was nontechnical. The challenge was learning how to organize myself to be efficient in my workflow while maintaining relationships outside of school. I often found myself declining invitations from friends or family members to finish my school work, even at times of low workload. I quickly learned that dedicating all of my time to academic work made me less efficient, as the stress of completing assignments without breaks slowed me down. Realizing this, I worked on developing scheduling skills, and in the process, the work I was doing went from stressful to a fun experience. In addition, my relationships outside of school dramatically improved as I scheduled time specifically dedicated to my friends or family. Finding this balance between academic work and outside life was difficult, but this balance allowed me to get as far as I have now.

Question 2:

Discuss a situation where you worked with a team. How would you describe yourself as a teammate? Where can you improve your team skills? Be specific.

Answer:

The most notable situation where I worked with a team was my final year in Trident for my senior tech project. I was assigned to be a part of a team of five people, all working on developing a client’s website from scratch. However, this was more complicated than it sounds because the client required admin tools, a database, and an aesthetic front-facing site developed by only our team. My role in the team was to develop many of the admin tools that were needed in PHP, creating the admin database, and customer database design. However, unofficially for the team, I helped ensure deadlines for work were made, and I also planned out-of-school meetings so we could bounce ideas off each other for design purposes. As a teammate I worked as a bridge between the other developers, often driving critical communication between everyone. However, I often failed in communicating my own problems and the roadblocks that I ran into before nearing the deadlines. I needed to rely more on my teammates instead of relying solely on myself for handling complications.

Question 3:

What type of career in CS do you believe you are most suited for? Why this field and not another? Be specific.

Answer:

I believe I’m most suited to be a traditional computer programmer that works on big projects in a team. Fitting in with the field, one of my memorable experiences was my programming senior tech project at Trident. Even though it was a small group of people, we completed a well-thought-out project that required efficient teamwork. Through cooperation, we overcame many difficult struggles and challenges to reach our end goal for our client. The level of problem-solving skills required and team cooperation is something you don’t often see in other jobs. This team aspect is the biggest pull for me, and why I prefer this field over other ones. In addition, the sense of overcoming what seemed like an insurmountable challenge with your team is honestly one of the most satisfying feelings I’ve ever felt in a job.

Question 4:

What professional organizations would you like to join? What professional development would you like to be a part of in the next five years? Be specific.

Answer:

Several organizations are appealing to me, but the main ones are local here in South Carolina. My goal is a job at a place called BoomTown, they work on real state software. However, the biggest draw to BoomTown is the community they’ve built and the more relaxed work environment that promotes productivity. In addition to BoomTown, Textron looked like a promising job opportunity, as they handle military software contracts here in South Carolina. Also, the new local Google data center would be a great start to my career, but it would just be to get my foot in the door since it deals with data entry. Considering the next five years, I want to be developing a portion of a large software to be pushed out to clients in South Carolina. I want the program to help better the local community by encouraging local investments through improved company efficiency. This efficiency could realistically be achieved at both BoomTown and Textron, hence why they are my top picks in the field.

Question 5:

What are the ways you can use the skills you have learned in CS to serve your community? Be specific.

Answer:

The primary way to help improve the community is through local businesses utilizing application programming or web-based programming. If we look at solely web development, just making websites for local businesses improves the community. By increasing the outreach of businesses they can reach a broader client base. Utilizing the additional profits they can expand and thus create new jobs in the process. If we look at it through just application development, the same businesses can increase their overall efficiency and cut back on unnecessary waste/expenses by using management software. To help the community as a whole, we have to focus on local business owners who don’t necessarily have the business know-how to function in the digital era. Additionally, helping non-profits goes without saying as well. They need all the outreach they can get, and I’d be willing to help create websites specifically for them for free. I’ve worked at a few local non-profits in the area, and often they don’t have the money to spare to pay a programmer that they often desperately need.

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