Kunal Mahajan: Dev BootCamp

"The tale of my journey on becoming a Junior Web Developer..."

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DBC-Cultural Blog:

Date: 08.28.15
Entry #: 7

Commentary:

         This week I wanted to speak on something that everyone faces at one point, to some degree or another. Whether it be inter/intrapersonal, I feel it's something I want to address....conflict. Conflict is something that regardless of how much one tries to avoid, it is ever-present in one form or another. How one can address/resolve conflict can be the difference between tactfully presenting/resolving a situation vs. making the situation far worse than it began.          An example of a time in the recent past in which I had to face a conflicting situation was, (coincidentally) during Phase-0, Week-3 of Dev BootCamp; it occured during a pairing session with a partner, (who's name I'll leave out). We started the pairing session as expected by being cordial and greeting each other and asking how our day was going; we proceeded to delegate who'd drive and who'd navigate, and began our challenge.

         We were both were vocal and sharing our responsibilities until we got to a point in our challenge where it was my turn to 'drive'. While I was driving, there was a section later in code where I felt stuck and unable to move forward. It was during this point where my partner became nearly mute, (albeit me vocalizing my trouble, thought-process(es), and asking if everything was alright). Being stuck and recieving zero feedback from my navigator for nearly 30 minutes, I decided to take the bull by the horns and add-on the responsibility of a navigator for the sake of our completing our challenge. After an additional 45 minutes or so, I made the executive decision that rather than waste each others' time, to regroup later once either one of us had a better grasp on how to tackle the challenge. Unable to find a resolution even a day later, this person began to avoid me altogether when I tried to reach out AND had the audacity to leave me my one, (and only) 'anonymous' negative peer-pair feedback with outlandish comments that I was surprised to read.

         Instead of attacking this person and vocalizing my anger, (which would've been the easy thing to do), I wrote a tactful response to the feedback I had received explaining that I was mindful of our time and I felt that if we both cannot contribute evenly to the project at hand, and because we were stuck for that amount of time, that parting ways/regrouping would be the wisest decision to parttake in. Though this person chose the lesser route and avoid me, I feel like I have the upperhand as I was able to make my point in a tactful and mature way.

         Having gone through a conflict of this nature so early on in my web development career, prepped me for possibilities of this occuring at the workplace and how to appropriately handle it without it blowing out of context and still remain mature. In this case, I consider myself the victor for having learned something from the situation and how I was able to handle my reaction, but I am sure there will be times where I will have to fight every urge to stoop to a lower level -this is what I will have to learn how to adapt to and avoid. Wish me luck!