Who are you and which rights do you have?

Assignment: Who are you and which rights do you have?

This chapter of the course has two assignments. The first relates to your professional identity and the second one to your rights.

1. Identity has a big impact on tenacity, motivation and the ability to withstand adversity

If we think, “I’m a software developer when I can do this job perfectly”, every problem and every failing project pushes us to think “I’ll NEVER become a developer, I’m too incompetent.”

If we think, “I’m a developer at the beginning of my learning curve, it’s my job to learn to code better”, every problem and every failing project is an opportunity to learn more and develop further. If you identify as a developer, software development itself is more important to you than achieving perfection in everything.

You’re allowed to take on a professional identity already at the beginning of your journey or even if you don’t yet know everything about everything. You’re a developer once you’ve written a few lines of code. You’re a project leader when you’ve signed on to lead your first project. You’re a scrum master when you and your team have planned your first sprint.

You don’t need to be perfect to be what you want to be in your job. That’s why your first assignment is to own your professional identity. Think about who you are, what your professional identity is and finish the sentence, “I am…”

2. Internalizing your rights changes your perspective on things

The video listed some of the rights everyone has, and you can find the complete list in the workbook. Review the rights if you need to, either from the video or the workbook, and think about them from your own point of view. Which one of them is hard for you to absorb? Which one do you have trouble to accept for yourself? Choose one and think about what it would mean for you if it were true after all.

Finish the sentence, “When I have the right to [insert the right here], that means that I no longer need to / I have permission to / in the future I can / I will no longer…”