Owning Your Own Learning: The Software Engineer’s Journey

You own your own learning at Andela.It is not uncommon to hear those seven words (or YOYO) during your onboarding session when you start at Andela. It’s not just a mantra that people casually throw around; it is a persistent reminder to all - that making it into the company isn’t the end of the journey, but the beginning. Applicants go through weeks of rigorous assessments before selection, and it can be tempting to take a break after everything. YOYO is how everyone stays grounded and maintains the need to level-up.Software engineering is a profession for life-long learners. The same is true of most professions, but it is especially apparent in technology, because of the pace of innovation and updates of tools and systems. Programming languages are always in a state of flux; some get left behind as others gain more adoption. For aspiring software engineers at Andela, we always advise that you use our home study curriculum to guide you as you continue to learn and get better. The curriculum introduces you to the core stacks and technologies we use at Andela, even as you prepare and practice on other platforms like Codecademy, Udemy, Edx, Udacity, etc. Cultivating a habit of owning your own learning helps you build the necessary muscles that will come in handy when your career as a software engineer takes off.[caption id="attachment_66177" align="alignnone" width="1024"]

The Andela Home Study Curriculum Home Page[/caption]Every year, Stack Overflow releases an annual survey report of Software development which shows useful insights on the software industry, covering areas like languages & frameworks, technology, methodology, developer profiles and how they work. It is one source of truth that captures the state of the industry for the last calendar year. Every year’s report delivers new insights on what’s hot right now and what will be trendy soon. As you grow and continue to get better at your craft, survey reports like these will become useful for keeping track on what is going on in the industry.Dedicating time out to learn on your journey to joining Andela as a Software Engineer isn’t only important in the achievement of your quest, but instead, in cultivating a life-long habit, and ultimately getting better at your craft. The best engineering teams in the world are always looking to hire and work with top talent. Wouldn’t you love to stand a real chance?