I have a junior!
So You may have seen my "I made it" post in 2016 when I joined the ranks of programmers, something I had been trying to do for a while. Well, it is time to turn around and give back to the communities I have formed around me and give them the opportunity that I had to seize for myself.
I have met a couple of people that wanted to become programmers and basically I vowed to help them, because I remember how difficult it was for me. First I worked with a chap for a couple of months, but sadly because of his disabilities, he felt that he just didn't have the energy to work at it. I decided to let him go and not push him, because I really needed someone who wanted it so much, that they could work independent of me more. I recently found that in Gareth.
Gareth has been learning programming by himself and with my encouragement he has really put the effort in, completed online courses and continues to learn with me.
I am finding with Gareth that I use a lot of jargon that leaves him feeling baffled and sometimes with a full week in between sessions he forgets what he has already learned, so we have written a bullet point list of the stuff we have covered already and before each session we will quickly run through and speak briefly about the stuff in the list to remind him of what he already knows, to cement the jargon and to start each session reminding him of just how much stuff he really has learned in a very short space of time.
We also have plans for him to complete a small test project for my employer and a specific application for Dragged Around London my company. I am excited to see where this goes!
Graeme