welcome to holberton school! - a survival guide

Welcome toHolberton School!

A survival guide

What it’s going to be like• hard and frustrating

• failure creates memories; fast early-experience-builder

• “Ask you peers!”

• hands-on and increasingly feeling like real-life projects

• but keep focused on the learning!

• learn how to learn, and pick up on things quickly

• full-stack = not just back-end + front-end

• two “breeds” of engineers in the industry

• tools restrictions

The natural path of peer-learning

• intranet concepts to get you started

• search, try (learn how to learn)

• peers, forum, Slack (learn by teaching, learn from a peer)

• Mentors (learn through community)

• Meetups, LinkedIn (extended community)

Chronological organization

• 9-month high-intensity training —> fast-learning generalists…

• 6-month internship —> … with a professional experience in tech…

• 9-month specialization —> … specialized in X, and with a plan.

Thematic organization

• Lower-level programming

• Higher-level programming

• System administration

• Soft skills

“Your own product” block• In ~ two months, but start thinking about it

• Promise of infinite features. Rule of thumb: try to name 10/15 (smart or dumb) features for it on top of MVP

• User management

• There will be teams, so not all ideas will make it —> learning > product!

• Technology? —> Discovery workshops

Lifecycle of a project• Find it on the intranet (you get notified)

• Work on it, ask for help, help others out

• Start date + end date

• QA review

• automatic: at end date

• manual: after end date

• Sometimes, live demo / solution by student or founder

• Sometimes, a “Reefinery” on the week-end

Manual QA review• Sometimes after project’s deadline, sometimes

when you’re done

• By: a founder, a mentor, or a peer who was already reviewed

• In presence of the reviewer and the reviewee

• Remote: shared screen like in a remote interview

• Two QA review TODO lists in the intranet

Grading rules

Mandatory tasks (100%)

Optional tasks (100%)

(Some automatic, some manual)

Grading rules

Mandatory tasks (100%)

Optional tasks (100%)

100% 25%

125%

Grading rules

Mandatory tasks (100%)

Optional tasks (100%)

75% 25%

75%

Grading rules

Mandatory tasks (100%)

Optional tasks (100%)

80% 25%

105%

Captain’s log• Write down about your week, to reflect on it.

• For now, everyone sends to a Google Form, between Friday morning and Saturday morning.

• Answers four questions:

• Global feeling about this week: :), :|, or :( ?

• What new things did I learn?

• What did I most struggle with?

• What was my biggest breakthrough / aha moment?

• Each question: 2 to 5 lines max. (You are very welcome to write more for your own reflection, but don’t share it.)

Stand-up meeting• Every weekday at 11.30am sharp, at meetup area

• Announcements of the day + feedback of the day

• “Keep in touch”

• someone introduces a meaningful current press article of yesterday/today

• 5 minutes maximum (timed) —> break room

Mindset• Resilience to frustration

• Growth mindset rather than fixed mindset

• Resilience to confusion

• Feeling stupid = opportunity

• Flee your comfort zone - learn how to learn

• Humility and open mind as a developer’s enlightenment and credibility

• Help with open proposals, not negativity

• Never ever mind haters

Building a career, not a job

• polish your professional social presence TODAY (are you already a software engineer on LinkedIn?)

• beware the job offer from the banker/lawyer who has a genius idea and is about to raise funding

• come talk with us for ANY job offer you might get (career-building first job, or one-shot job?)

• what kinds of job in the end? —> anything in the industry

Disclaimers• Report to us immediately if:

• you’ve witnessed non-inclusive behavior —> solving through communication

• you’re feeling burn-out creeping up, or are feeling depressed

• Golden rule: the inclusion rule

• no secret about your project, people may learn from it

• English-only in the school

• …

Slack• Always make sure to post on the right channel

before posting.

• One channel per specialty, for questions to the community.

• Create your own channels as needed.

• Mentors are watching you.

• Don’t post on #general, except never! (or almost)

Volunteers for the remote students?

The intranet