5 Ways of Adaptability

Hello everyone. I am Abriyan Yusuf from ML-65 Class at Bangkit Academy led by Google, Tokopedia, Gojek, and Traveloka. On Tuesday, April 4, 2023, I attended an Instructor Lead Training Soft Skill class featuring Ms. Risca Tresmianti S.I.Kom.,M.I.Kom , discussing the soft skill materials of Adaptability and Resilience. I gained a lot of new insight after attending the class. I would like to share one of them, which is 5 ways to adapt that I did during my participation in the Bangkit 2023 Program.

1. Ways of Interacting

The first is ways of interacting. During my participation in Bangkit, I was introduced to many great people from different backgrounds. The key to interaction is to understand each other. Our friends may be of the same age or even different from us, there may be language barriers between us, have different communication preferences, or have different personalities. Those things require us to determine how to interact with someone so that our message can be conveyed in a “good” way. "Good" here means not only that the message can be understood by others but also that the way the message is conveyed can be accepted by the person. For example, the way of interacting when online and offline is different and so on. Related to this ways of interacting, an interesting experience during learning at Bangkit is that I experienced a language barrier where we were required to use English to communicate both orally and in writing. It felt like a shock therapy to me. However, I had to adapt to this.

What is an effective way according to me? In short, it is "Observe-Imitate-Modify-Practice". That is the fastest way that works for me. When other friends communicate with each other using English, then I will pay attention to the vocabulary they use, whether others can understand it or become more confused? Who is the interlocutor? and other things. By doing this, it is as if I am looking for a "proven effective way". After getting that "way," I can imitate it directly or even modify it with the help of ChatGPT or DeepL Translator, for example. When I practice it, my nervousness and fear slowly disappear because the mindset that is formed is "This way is proven effective, so just relax."

2. Ways of Achieving

The second point is about ways of achieving. Ways of achieving are a guidepost that helps people face uncertainties and navigate them better to spark cohesion and achieve common goals. In other words, it is a standard of behavior and attitude that applies to all team members and should be adhered to in order to reach the goals - the group rule, mantra, or similar.

During my time in the Bangkit programme, I initially felt insecure because I was a non-IT student. I was worried about what if I couldn't finish the programme? When I graduate from Bangkit, will there be a company that will accept me? Will I be able to finish my thesis while undergoing the Bangkit programme? These worries are holding me back and not making me more productive. The way I approached that was by "doing my best and preparing for the worst-case scenario." This way, I could focus more on things that I could control and not be burdened by things outside of my control.

3. Ways of Learning

The third point is about ways of learning. Technological development is very rapid and requires us to keep learning. Learning is how we adapt to situations and conditions around us. There are many ways we can learn something new, such as finding a mentor, participating in a project, joining a professional community, and learning new skills.

During my participation in the Bangkit program, all of those facilities were provided. As a participant, I have received all of those facilities, including Bangkit providing a mentor for each class, giving us access to IT professionals through Instructor Led Training sessions, providing training for cohorts in both hard skills such as machine learning, which I am currently learning, and various soft skills such as time management, critical thinking, problem solving, and English. Not only the concepts, I also learnt to put the concepts into practice through the assignments given. Lastly, the capstone project - Bangkit provides an opportunity for each cohort to form a team consisting of various cohorts from different learning paths to create a product that can solve real-world problems.

4. Ways of Working

The fourth aspect is Ways of Working. This refers to how we adapt to the working environment. We need to know about the office layout maybe, working hours, company culture, and tools used for the job. During my time in the Bangkit Program, I learned about one of those aspects, which is working tools. I was given the opportunity to learn about Git and GitHub, a tool used in the professional world for collaborating and developing applications as a team.

5. Ways of Thinking

The fifth aspect is Ways of Thinking. This is related to mindset. Based on mindset, people can be divided into two categories, namely fixed mindset and growth mindset. Someone with a fixed mindset believes that their innate abilities cannot be improved, whereas someone with a growth mindset always thinks that innate abilities can be enhanced and developed over time with hard work and perseverance. It is with a growth mindset that we can adapt to the conditions around us.

During the Bangkit Program, the first soft skill class I attended was on Growth Mindset. I gained a lot of new insights on how to apply growth mindset in our lives. One important point when we successfully apply growth mindset is that we see failure as an opportunity to learn and develop instead of indicating a lack of ability. As a non-IT student, I faced many obstacles while learning machine learning programming in Bangkit, but it motivated me to keep pushing and striving to achieve my goals in the program.

Those are some of the ways that I have adapted while participating in the Bangkit program. Interesting, isn't it? It is not easy to adapt to new things, and writing this article was not easy either since it is my first time writing an article on LinkedIn.

Let's step up to adapt to the changes even if it's only 1% because the next step might be equal to 20% or even 99% and make you reach your goals faster! No one knows.

#LifeatBangkit #Bangkit2023