4th Month at TIIDELAB, Now a React developer
Hello my gorgeous friends on the internet, I am here once again with another episode of my experience as a TIIDELab Fellow, and guess what it’s the 4th month and I have some goodies story to share with you.
But before we dive into the story, allow me to wish you a wonderful new month and a happy Christmas in advance.
If you’ve missed my previous episodes on My Experience at TIIDELab, here are the links to them
- First Month
- Second Month
- Third Month
and of course this is an episode of my 4th month experience at TIIDELab.
You might have come across my achievements and how intentional TIIDELab has been towards the growth and goal of every of her fellows in my previous episodes.
But if you haven’t gotten the chance to read from month 1 till 3 let me give you a brief throwback of what the previous months has been, from becoming conversant with git version control, html5 and css3 in the 1st month to becoming a JavaScript developer in the 2nd and 3rd months and now finally a React developer in the current 4th month with a lot of problem solving skills at hand.
without further ado, let’s dive into how I became a React developer and applying my skills in my team project as a frontend developer in a very short time.
4th month at TIIDELab is a very special one for me personally and I believe it is for every other Fellows also, as I see myself reviewing my previous codes and also asking myself what on earth was I thinking when I wrote those functions and methods the way I did, I started criticizing my own code and refactoring every lines to become more readable and more efficient, clean and quality code is actually one of TIIDELab main goals.
We began our React JS class with Mr. Chokor Solomon, who explained the problem React JS is going to solve in our project and why it is the best option amongst other existing solutions.
We started learning Node JS and why it is important, Node provides JavaScript the environment to run outside the browser and how it allows us to install and create our own packages/modules.
Then proceeded into setting up a React Environment on individuals PC using the create-react-app method, and also get more explanation on the Single Page Application (SPA) nature of react. There are also several ways of setting up React Environment like using a sandbox or through a React Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Mr. Solomon explained React Components, state and props, honestly it felt overwhelming at first, coming from backend background, I began to ask myself if this frontend is really my thing, I’ve always loved the APIs and performing automation magic with Django.
The most annoying part of React was actually its slow load time, oh my God Brad has installed the package 10 minutes ago, mine is still on 1%, Found out React normally loads slowly sometimes, I got used to the load time after couple of times performing same actions.
I started writing components on my own and already thirsty to learn React-Router as I needed to show another thing (page) on the browser, remember I said React is a Single Page Application (SPA), React-Router made it possible to switch components(pages) on that single page.
2 weeks into React I already had my personal learning projects one for my own dev community which I called Amigo Junior Dev Community
and the second is an API fetch from Jsonplaceholder , even though we haven’t covered API yet, curious me.
Applying React to new learning projects and also collaborating with my team in converting our project UIs and functionality into a new technology we are currently learning is really not as hard as we had thought but it is honestly really tough.
I can’t wait to start performing magic with React leveraging it’s powerful abilities and packages.
Enough of coding talks, lemme gist you about my Soft skills experience also, obviously TIIDELab is also more concerned about Developer’s communication’s skills and how to present your great ideas to others.
Big brother of TIIDELab Mr. aderoju shamsudeen enlightened us on Appreciative Communication and the 4D Cycles of Appreciative Inquiry (AI),
He made us to realize that Appreciation Communication is only achieved when Mr. A understands what Mr. B is saying and Mr. B values Mr. A response.
Communication is all around passing information, and when an information is shared, idea is birthed and relationship is built, Communication Occur.
A closed mouth never get’s fed
As a software developer at TIIDELab, we are been equipped with the ability to confidently transform our solutions into an appreciable value through communication.
I also understand that ability to position, profile, and sell yourself during conversations are what will make you stand out among other developers and it will help boost your network, and confidence.
During the Soft Skills Friday Meetup, Mr. Lanre Yusuf (VP Tech Specialist Consulting Ltd) who was our guest speaker for the week, taught us about the need and how to prepare a Requirement Specification Document (RSD), Business Analysis Document (BAD) and how to send out a Questionnaire to a Client before even Opening your Code Editor, this will make you and your client be on the same page about the task his bringing to the table and what you will be delivering as a developer.
work hard and work smart, there is no smart work that doesn’t require Hard work. There’s no shortcut
Friday meetups are days I personally look forward to, as Mr. Shams, Big Brother as we fondly call him will do justice to his lectures and also makes us carry out real life tasks.
That is me, representing as the delegate of Estonia in the Model UN Conference organized by TIIDELab, discussing the impact of covid-19 on our economy and what we have done as a country to fight the deadly pandemic and protect our economy.
This exercise and the role I played has opened my eye to how other people bring out solutions from their inconvenience, how they gathered their solutions and how they use the efficient method to strengthen their weakness within a short period of time. I cannot thank Big Brother enough for this wonderful experience.
To know more about the Model UN and what I discussed. visit here
Someone took first in the demo technical & non-technical interview
Hurray!!! one of the biggest achievement for the month, after becoming the first fellow to attain office of the HOH twice, someone also aced the Demo Ksolution technical and non-technical Interview.
2 JavaScript Coderbyte Challenge, 1hr 45m for the first challenge and 2hr 45m for the second challenge, someone had to pull their shirt for the second assessment, then finally made it to the non-technical interview.
and the person is nobody else but Unclebay.
I won the Interview Exercise Second Edition
TIIDELab has really taught me a lot of things, both technical and non technical which has really changed my mindset towards things.
TIIDELab is intentional about my growth and I am also trying hard to be more deliberate about my improvement.
Practice Practice Practice is the key!!!
Thanks a lot for reading this far…
See you in the coming months episode
I can’t wait for the graduation episode
