This course focuses on engineering careers, particularly on leadership: coaching, leading people and organizations. Students will also focus on solving coding challenges and preparing for technical interviews. Students who perform well in this class will have the option to become peer coaches for incoming students at the start of the new school year.
The material you learn here will continue to prepare you for crushing technical interviews, and how to start the path of becoming a leader in your environment.
By the end of the course, you will be able to ...
- Empower peers through building trust and utilizing effective coaching practices
- Lead teams through using a variety of product management and communication best practices
- Develop the skillsets and confidence of teammates using the science of learning
- Become more comfortable with online, live-coding interview tools and take home coding projects.
- Demonstrate using various strategies to answer behavioral interview questions to highlight your specific story, skill set, and talents.
NOTE: Due to the shorter summer sessions, for some class sessions you will see multiple topics covered. This schedule compression is to ensure that we cover the same material that we normally would in non-summer terms.
Course Dates: Monday, July 8 – Wednesday, August 14, 2019 (6 weeks)
Class Times: Monday and Wednesday at 9:30–11:20am (12 class sessions)
| Class | Date | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mon, July 8 | Building Trust |
| 2 | Wed, July 10 | Framing Behavioral Interviewing |
| 3 | Mon, July 15 | Leadership Models & Warm Demander |
| 4 | Wed, July 17 | Strategies for Behavioral Interviewing: Situational Awareness |
| 5 | Mon, July 22 | Science of Learning & Pair Programming |
| 6 | Wed, July 24 | Strategies for Behavioral Interviewing: Attunement |
| 7 | Mon, July 29 | Coaching Issues & Interventions |
| 8 | Wed, July 31 | Coderpad Interviews & Take Home Projects |
| 9 | Mon, August 5 | PMs & Communication |
| 10 | Wed, August 7 | Behavioral Interview Drilling in Groups of 4 |
| 11 | Mon, August 12 | Final Exam |
| 12 | Wed, August 14 | Final White Board Coding |
3 answers due: Wed, July 17
5 additional answers due: Wed, July 24
As you go through the interview process, you will encounter the same (or similar) behavioral interview questions in most interviews you take. It's good to have answers to common questions primed and ready to go so you can have examples and stories to share at hand that highlight your skillset and talents.
Answer questions from this list of behavioral interview questions and link to your answers in the course tracker
Quiz will take place on Mon, July 22
There will be a quiz on Leadership Models & Warm Demander. Expect there to be a mixture of multiple choice and free response questions.
Quiz link will be distributed on the day of.
Due: Wed, July 31st
Do a code review for two different peers (two total code reviews). Ask them for a codebase with substantial code - i.e. intensive project or projects at the harder end of difficulty for the developer.
Submission
- Read through the code review rubric for guidance on how to give feedback
- Open an issue on the GitHub Repo for the code you are reviewing: Click on the
Issuestab, and then click theNew Issuebutton - Provide your feedback in the issue. Include code snippets from their project to specifically highlight what you would change/improve
- At the top of the code review, list the code review rubric row topics you address in the code review (i.e. Readability & Formatting, Testing & Error Handling, etc.)
- Put the link to your opened issue in the progress tracker
Evaluation:
To pass the code review assignments, you as the reviewer must provide feedback on 4/6 row topics as listed in the code review rubric
Due: Fri, August 2nd
A common interview practice is to assign a take home project for the interviee to complete. You're typically given a prompt or spec to follow, and a deliverable date or timeline. Through this assignment, our goal is to give you practice with a take home project with the same conditions you'd find in a real interview scenario.
Here are the requirements for the take home interview project (July 31st).
Due: Wed, August 7th
Do two Pair Programing sessions with a peer on their project (you’ll be the navigator, then switch to the driver). Both sessions can be with the same peer, or a different peer per sessoin.
Context: Engineers at Facebook, Twitter, Square and countless other tech companies do pair programming. Your abilities as a future boss, PM, peer, and engineer teammate will be heightened through the skills you practice through this assignment. Your goal is to have your partner leave the session feeling empowered rather than discouraged. Use your knowledge from class (slides here and here; pair programming agenda) to help a peer level up.
Submission:
- Schedule time with a peer to do a pair programming session
- Follow this agenda during your session
- Have your partner fill out this form to evaluate your efforts: http://make.sc/pair-programming-form
Evaluation:
To pass the pair programming assignments, you must do the following:
- Ensure that your partner logs your two pair programming sessions via the evaluation form: http://make.sc/pair-programming-form
- You utilize at least 2/3 of the senior skills outlined in the pair programming agenda
Quiz will take place on Wed, August 14
There will be a quiz on PMs & Communication. Expect there to be a mixture of multiple choice and free response questions.
Quiz link will be distributed on the day of.
Due: Wed, August 14th
Write a letter to incoming juniors on how to succeed at Make School. Your letter should include at least ⅔ of following components to pass:
- Vulnerability (on your part, to create a sense of psychological safety and relatability)
- Growth Mindset (so they have a healthy perspective on failure and learning)
- Tips for success (so they utilize all the resources and best practices available to them)
Some SPD 1.02 students will have the option of sending their letter to incoming juniors before they join the class. Your letter will help empower the next generation of Make School students!
Submission:
Place link of the letter into the tracker, ideally a medium post.
- You can keep your post private (if you like) by leaving it in "draft form" - it will be accessible to people whom you share the link but not public!
Evaluation:
- Must score above a 2 on the writing rubric to pass
- Must include 2-3 of the components listed above to pass
To pass this course you must meet the following requirements:
- Complete all required assignments
- Pass all projects according to the associated project rubric
- Pass the final summative assessment according to the rubric as specified in this class
- This will be further explained in the study guide
- Actively participate in class and abide by the attendance policy
- Make up all classwork from all absences