Self grow

Agenda
 Reasoning
 How to find an improvements areas
 Documenting
 How to get to your goal
 Best practice
 Q&A

Motivation
Self
actualization
Esteem
Love and Belongings
Safety
Physiological
Creativity,
problem
solving
Self-esteem,
achievements,
respect
Being part of a group
Security of employment
NA

Reasoning by Maslow
 Growing a good developer from a junior to senior, growing
your self, sorting your knowledge
– Self-esteem and achievements
 Each person is a challenge, you can use some parts of previous
work but each time you will need to adjust and find solutions
for special cases
– Problem solving, creativity
 Each grow should be aligned with very high standard and
showing very high level comparing to the market
– Group standards.
 Market is very hot, it is very hard to get a middle / senior
personnel on a “average” project
– Safety of employment.

Reasoning by cost
 Why could he get better salary or position without
corresponding knowledge
– Number of team members affected * salary difference
 Why could he do less than me?
– Price of contract or client
 Not satisfied clients and not finished tasks
– Price of contract or client
 Adherence to company (attrition rate)

How to find an appropriate goal
 Project needs. Ask a customer for the feedback.
 Project needs. Historical data and data analysis.
 Code review – gold bullet 
 Personal gaps in a fundamental knowledge.
 Career path. Each #positionname has some specific
knowledge.
 Personal wishes.
 Company roadmap.

A bit of bureaucracy.
Should you document your goals?

Gap
 Where are we right now (X)
 Where should we be reaching a goal (Y)
 Gap is (Y)-(X)

A bit of bureaucracy.
Should you document your gaps?

SMART/SMARTER principles
 Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
 Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of
progress.
 Assignable – specify who will do it.
 Achievable - I like it more.
 Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved,
given available resources.
 Time-bound – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
 SMARTER - Evaluated and Reviewed

Specific
 Five 'W' questions
– What: What do I want to accomplish?
– Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the
goal.
– Who: Who is involved?
– Where: Identify a location.
– Which: Identify requirements and constraints.

 How will I know when it is accomplished?
 Indicators should be quantifiable
 How: How can the goal be accomplished?
 When?
Measurable + Assignable + Time-bound

 Does this seem worthwhile?
 Is this the right time?
 Does this match our other efforts/needs?
 Are you the right person?
 Is it applicable?
Realistic

SMART/SMARTER principles
 Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
 Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of
progress.
 Assignable – specify who will do it. Achievable - I like more.
 Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved,
given available resources.
 Time-bound – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
 SMARTER - Evaluated and Reviewed

Self improvement as a goal
 What is a goal? (dictionary descriptions)
 The terminal point of a race
 The end toward which effort is directed

The terminal point of a race
 Build a list with all goals you have collected
 Find priorities, no equal priorities allowed
 Estimate each one
 Estimate available time for grow
 Build plan
 Follow

The end toward which effort is
directed
 Build a list with all goals you have collected
 Find priorities, no equal priorities allowed
 One by one find a small activity you should do each day to get
to your goal
 Stop on a reasonable amount of items
 Do each day

Gap description
 Gap – Want to get knowledge of algorithms and data structures
 Comment - Getting experience in a Algorithms (search (binary and
graph), sorting (merge, quick), basic analysis). Data structures (list,
queue, stack, trees, graphs)
 Actions:
Employee:
 Go through the (https://www.coursera.org/course/algo)
 Go through the (https://www.coursera.org/course/algo2)
 Go through the (Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition, by Thomas H.
Cormen)
Mentor:
 Check all lab exercises done for both courser courses to have correct,
clean, readable code. For all labs usage of data strictures should be
correct and optimal.
Evaluation criteria:
 All lab tasks for both courses done and appropriate certificate
acquired. Verbal test with mentor passed.

 Experts opinion
 Stanford
 MIT (http://ocw.mit.edu/)
 PMI
 Courser specializations
 Certification paths and prerequisites
Best practice – finding a gap/goal/plan

Best practice – part 1
 Exit criteria is “must have”
 Reading as a base
 Practice as “must have” condition
 Review as “must have”, feedback as an alternative
 Ask for a help from a SME
 Specific in every point. Skill - level and description. Action -
roles and evaluation criteria for every action. Do not allow
yourself to go with etc and some not specific items.
 Do not mess with goals

 Do not overkill - do not try to put everything (for example
for a junior to senior). It's better to have 3-4 well defined
goals than 20 not defined.
 Do it once for a half an year.
 Share.
 Try to find background projects or bench projects or
personal projects to play with.
 Create reading lists.
Best practice – part 2

 Know your and team goals.
 Share your ideas with a team and management team.
 Maintain personal development plans.
 Help to maintain company skill development plan.
Best practice – implementation

 Manager is a support role - find you way to your teams.
 Communicate – this is the first and most important.
 Always know where to find technical guru.
 Do not try to resolve everything by yourself.
 Know your constraints.
 Be ready, no other trainings are so hard as related to self
development.
 Be the lead in a grow, show by your example.
Best practice – motivation

Eugene Yakovlev
PM, Head of Odessa Office
Sigma Software

Self grow

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