Code Gladiators

I have been working in a team for as long as I can remember. It has its ups and down, sometimes you agree to disagree but at the end of the day, you have to depend on each other if you want to succeed. From my experience, the best way to work as a team is to know who you are working with. I am not talking about knowing their name or where they live, I am talking about knowing them on a personal level. Knowing what their hobbies, talents, chill out spots, favorite food, likes, dislikes, weird fetishes, music playlist, the list is endless. With all that in mind, my mission when I was assigned to a team was to get to know these guys.

We are in a team of five yet everyone is good and talented differently. Bootcamp day 1 I was privileged to meet only 2 of them Joshua (OJ), Cosmas and our LFA, David, respectively. Before I tell you something about these guys I think it fair to tell you a little about myself. My full names are Victor alias Jambo, reason why my alias is Jambo is a long story without subtitles. After few beers, I can share that info with you. Anyway, I like to binge movies and I love a cold beer. It is really hard to talk about yourself, it feels like i am being self centered. I really appreciate this guy taking his precious time to help us get started. It was so helpful to have someone who has been through the whole process before to guide us on the dos and donts. His experience makes everything go so much smoother.

Enough about me, you guys need to meet my learning facilitator (LFA) to appreciate the type of person he is. He is an easy going guy and extremely approachable. I mean he is the type of person you can ask silly questions but he will still answer you, pretty impressive right? Apart from that, he is very supportive, willing to provide assistance and above all he does not hold back in giving feedback. Day 1 of Bootcamp it was not clear to me what we were supposed to do but I kept nagging him until I got the answer I was looking for. Any other guy would have walked away. His slogan is “Eat Code Sleep Repeat” and he lives by it.

Cosmas my team member, I met Cosmas on the pilot day of the boot camp and had chatted a thing or two before we even knew we were on the same team. I can recall asking his name thrice, in my defense I met a lot of people that day. He is the engineer of the team and funny enough he is actually an engineer. He is a great guy with an envious laptop. He told me he is good at Photoshop and although I have not seen any of his work I believe he is really good. He is also very aggressive when asking questions and giving feedback. You know what they say, a good team player never holds back when asking questions. He has a positive attitude and he sure is an active team member willing to offer help when needed.

Then we have OJ. OJ is like our point of reference, this guy knows a lot of stuff. On our slack channel, you will always find OJ leveraging resources for learning and few heads up on stuff we should look out for. OJ is someone who is open and authentic regarding opinions and thoughts and he is a guy who listens and communicates from the other parties point of view. He encourages suggestions, new ideas and the overall development of the team. I honestly do not know what the team would be like without this guy. I really appreciate this guy taking his precious time to help us get started. It was so helpful to have someone who has been through the whole process before to guide us on the dos and donts. His experience makes everything go so much smoother.

Finally, there is Boniface who I met via hangouts. Boniface has gone an extra mile to collaborate on different projects for free. Yes for free. He has this spirit of wanting to learn something new on daily basis. He is the guy would call at any given time to help you debug your code. Rumor has it that he wrote code to go to the moon. I cannot say much about this guy, I only met him via social platforms. Sometimes you do not have to physically meet someone so that you can collaborate, as long as you understand the pillars of team work, then you good to go.

I am privileged to be in a team with this earthlings and the have helped me greatly. Day 1 of Bootcamp, they were the only point of reference i had. Actually they are obligated to help me out no matter what, its their duty. My team members have shared their time and effort unconditionally without external pressure to do this. It is being passionate and committed to achievement of the team. I cannot appreciate enough on the advice, feedback and assistance these guys have given me. You should see our slack channel, it is full of resources that you cannot consume all of it in a life time.

What are these pillar of team work? For a team to be successful, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each team member is key. These two opens doors for brilliant ideas, it is easier to brainstorm if you know who you are working with. Working as a team improves efficiency and productivity. It is know to work over the year and its because it allows the workload to be shared, reducing the pressure on individuals, and ensure tasks are completed within the specified time. It also allows goals to be more attainable much easier.

Being in a team opens doors for great learning opportunities. From my personal experience, my team members have always been providing feedback and ready to point out any errors i have made. Trust me this is a great way to learn from your mistakes. In the long run you are able to avoid future errors, look at things in a different perspective and learn new tricks.

If you have read my blogs before you realize that I like to reference movies. This blog title is referencing Gladiators by Russell Crowe, the year 2000. Somehow this movie relates to our team. There is a quote from the movie, “Together we stand divided we fall”. Basically what it means is, a team has to stick together to achieve their goals.