I avoided to write a post for the last day of my apprenticeship, because to be honest I didn’t want this apprenticeship to end. Actually, this post is not even about that last day. On purpose, I treated Friday as a typical day in HC although officially it was my graduation as a Software Crafter. At the end of the day, SkillSpace became a project that can be improved when the time allows it and the masterpiece phase was now over.

Today, it is my first day in my new team and the first day of my very own eternal apprenticeship. I got the chills thinking of our new apprentice starting today in Bottighofen; while we were moving to our new places, he was getting welcomed in the company, and instantly all my memories from my first day here came back minute by minute. Then I realised that what is gonna happen starting today, is even more special than Apprenticeship[Day1].

The program might be over, but now it is my responsibility to collect all learnings from the 3 phases and carry them in the team. I am excited to be here now and I am looking forward to sharing and learning more on the craft from each other.
In all honesty, when I started the program I really believed that I will become the master crafter within 6 months, but being here today I laugh at myself. The master crafter in my eyes, was the developer who writes awesome, bug-free code and knows everything necessary to do with eyes closed; and this is why I started stressed reading books trying to cover every single topic suggested to me and being always willing to switch even daily between them.

But…

Multitasking is not a thing, at least not mine. I need to be present and not to worry about the future progress, because this will eventually happen by practicing in the now.
Also, ‘master crafter’ is not a thing; because not only software evolves rapidly, but also when the crafter thinks the summit has been concurred, it is when growth and self-improvement stop.

PRACTICE !!!

If I could scream to me in the past, I would tell me that

giving more time to yourself to explore and deepdive into one specific topic, is a bigger win than covering the basics of 3.

But this kind of learnings come when it is time to question what you are doing; if you are too scared to do it, there is hopefully a mentor for you that will do it. I am more than glad for having 2 different mentors during my apprenticeship. Both of them believed in me, gave me unlimited support and honest feedback. Having my mentorship style changed halfway through the program, challenged me and actually made me reflect better on what I had been doing until then, by giving me a different point of view.

And to summarize this semester, what made the apprenticeship so special was not that I was among experienced colleagues and tons of resources; not even Codefreeze; it was my fellow apprentices. With them I was able to share my struggles, feel normal for failing and get motivated to continue. We were all here with the same purpose, but following different paths to reach the goal. All thinking that everyone is perfect than us…

Now we are all in charge of taking the spirit of the apprenticeship into our teams, so that we all keep growing together and creating awesome software for the Urlauber! Now we are ready :)

Song of the day