E is for Eskwelabs Issue 060 - How to effectively and meaningfully reflect on your journey ⛰️✨
In our sixtieth issue, we close the September theme “Journey” by taking time to look back in order to move forward. We’ll share quotes, a video diary entry, and actionable reflection questions.
We created this newsletter to keep our alums, partners, and anyone interested in learning skills for the future of work updated and connected to our ever-growing family. If you want to read our previous issues, you can check them out here.
As Lea Salonga would say,
“What a journey it has been…”
And José Rizal would probably reply with one of his most popular lines,
“He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.”
Hi everyone, it’s Francine here! 👋 Writing this issue felt like being wrapped in a warm blanket. I got sentimental looking back at the memories of writing this newsletter. I grew soft when I was reading our mentors’ testimonials. And I got teary-eyed when I thought of how far the Eskwelabs team has journeyed. “Journey” is such a beautiful word.
In the journey of the word “journey,” the Vulgar Latin phase of its life radiates so much depth and beauty. “...from Vulgar Latin *diurnum "day," noun use of neuter of Latin diurnus "of one day" (from dies "day," from PIE root *dyeu- "to shine").”
As we close the month of September, we hope that taking time to reflect on your journey will allow you to SHINE in all your future endeavors. Happy reading, Eskweloves!
What’s in this newsletter:
👏 Celebrating the success of our alumni
❤️ Sharing mentor testimonials from our bank of stories
🚀 Discussing the ingredients that help startups and the people who work there
📜 Remembering our favorite newsletter issues
📓 Notes about how to reflect on one's journey
READING TIME: 17 minutes
🚌 THE JOURNEY OF OUR LEARNERS 🚌
👏 Data Diaries: Clinton’s Career Shift to the Top
Alumnus and business analyst Clinton Mirandilla does a deep dive into the different reasons why Eskwelabs is the best place to upskill if you want:
💯 Tangible results (Salary raise - Go Clinton!)
💖 Intangible victories (Recognition from your company president - A real life story after Clinton's application of his learnings from the program's first 2 weeks)
🤗 Priceless access to resources (Mentors, industry connections, and a lifelong learning community).
This video is straight from our Data Diaries series! These stories are meant to be both a testament to the Eskwelabs style of education and a source of inspiration for aspiring data enthusiasts to take a leap of faith into the world of data.
Write Chapter 1 of your data journey with Eskwelabs today!
🖥️ Data Science Fellowship
Cohort 11 starts next year 2023
Assessment exam coverage: View here
📊 Data Analytics Bootcamp
Cohort 9 starts next year 2023
Assessment exam coverage: View here
❤️ How do our mentors help learners in their learning journey?
There are two kinds of Eskwelabs mentors. There are those who discover Eskwelabs externally, resonate with our mission, and apply to be a mentor. And then there are alumni who connect with the role of mentor so much that they want to pay it forward to future batches. We cherish both!
We hope that the testimonies you’ll read below speak for themselves. So now, we’ll leave it to the Eskwelabs mentors to share about why mentorship is important, how it elevates our students’ experience, and enriches theirs as well!
✨ Experiencing joy and magic
Sunny Sandy Amida Jr.
Fraud Data analyst at Foodpanda PH
“I love being an Eskwelabs mentor because I get to meet amazing people and learn new stuff every single session; be it from the students, my co-mentors, and our awesome instructors. Graduating from Eskwelabs into becoming a mentor of it, I was inspired by my previous mentors to share my learning journey and the fun experience of being an Eskwelabs student.
Being a mentor means that you have to be the following; responsible, flexible, [an] active listener, and most importantly: FUN! You extend help not just for class-related issues, but also with their current life situations. Mentoring with the students brought out the best in me to which I haven't even thought I had.
I can see myself being part of the Eskwelabs family forever. I am very thankful for the experience, and I hope everyone can experience the magic with us.”
💼 Developing as a professional
Edyll Joshua Binaday
Data analyst at AyalaLand Malls Inc.
“Mentoring in Eskwelabs has been a fulfilling experience for me. I get to expand my network and view things from a different perspective as the students come from different industries and generations. It also improved my communication and leadership skills as I guide them to achieve and meet the requirements of each sprint without spoiling the pace of their learning. Above all, this is my way of paying it forward to my previous mentors who positively impacted my life and career.”
🇵🇭 Growing the Philippine data community
Ben Manangu
Senior Transportation Development Officer, Philippine Department of Transportation | Currently on study leave taking a Master's in Urban Administration and Planning at the University of Seoul
“My favorite thing about mentoring at Eskwelabs is the feeling of seeing those you teach succeed. There’s nothing quite like this feeling to me. The satisfaction on their faces (or in their voices when cameras are off on Zoom) when they finally understand that difficult code or concept. The challenge of improving your own knowledge of the lessons so that you can teach them correctly and meaningfully. The heartwarming gratitude of mentees who say that they’ve learned a lot through your help. Being a mentor has not only helped me improve my technical and interpersonal skills but has also given me much fulfillment and joy, not to mention even more friends in our ever-growing Philippine data community. Mentoring for Eskwelabs has been some of the most fun I’ve ever had while making a profound impact on the lives of others.”
🏫 Sharing the passion for lifelong learning
Franz Taborlupa
Data scientist at Swarm
“I've always loved learning. Being a mentor for Eskwelabs gave me the opportunity to continue that love by sharing it with other passionate learners while also advancing my career. I was able to continue improving my skills and experience different perspectives towards fruitful discussions and impactful projects by my mentees. I'll always be proud of them, seeing their well-thought solutions with value and outcomes in mind through relevant data techniques, and I'm happy to have been a small part of their data journey.”
🌱 Watching mentees grow
Lucky Mores
MIS Analyst | Assistant Manager at Security Bank
“For me, being a mentor means understanding the reasons of our mentees for joining certain programs of Eskwelabs, and guiding them towards achieving their goals. As a mentor, I make sure that I am able to add value to my mentees – whether it’s through teaching technical skills, honing their soft skills and/or providing relevant career advice.
My favorite part is seeing and guiding the mentees transition from being unsure and worried about their own skill sets and potential, to being assured and confident of their own worth and capabilities – from executing the needs of our programs' partner companies, to being bold and strategic in applying for work opportunities.
As an introvert, I find it challenging to talk to new and different people all the time – such is the nature of mentoring in Eskwelabs. But seeing the direct positive impact on my mentees and receiving great feedback from them make it all worth it.”
❤️ Applying to be an Eskwelabs Mentor
We will never get tired of saying it, “Mentorship matters in Eskwelabs.” If you find yourself wanting to make a difference in the lives of people, then perhaps becoming a mentor is what your heart is telling you.
There is much discernment before one applies—it takes a conversation, a handshake, a mutual “YES, LET’S DO THIS!” between one’s head and heart.
You can learn more about the responsibilities of being an Eskwelabs Mentor by clicking the careers page button below.
🚌 THE JOURNEY OF OUR TEAM 🚌
🚀 3 startup ingredients
We once did a blog post called, “3 Essential Ingredients for a Startup to Thrive in the Future of Work.” In that post we talked about how in the New Normal, we have three core recommendations for startups who are prioritizing becoming remote-first or at least remote-friendly. We highlighted: team, tools, tech.
There are actionable reflection questions in that blog post which you can tackle with your co-founders and teammates. Or if you are totally starting out, maybe it’s time for a solo silent retreat!
As a quick overall catalyst for your thinking time, we wanted to ask you, of these 3, which one would you prioritize if you were to go remote-first or remote-friendly? (By remote, we mean utilizing the digital space for work and convening to happen.)
🚀 3 recipes to help you get started on your startup journey
This section is dedicated to my Eskwelabs teammates! The wisdom I have gathered from them fills these “recipes” below and we hope that by reading through them, any fresh grads or professionals who want to enter a startup will feel empowered with the tools and mindsets needed.
🍝 Recipe 1: Sincere Spaghetti
This recipe helps individuals develop a sense of team awareness that is crucial in a startup setting.
“Team awareness” is more commonly known in the scuba diving world. A solid diving team exhibits team awareness when they act with a collective brain, moving and communicating seamlessly together.
Ingredients include:
Time set aside for you to have 1 on 1 chats with your teammates
A quick emotions check before you start the day, so you know where you are at when you are facing any of your teammates
Fun facts about yourself that you may want to prepare in a notebook because there will be socials or game nights where you might be introduced or asked to share about yourself (For more shy teammates, this tip may be a life saver hehe!)
🍲 Recipe 2: Humble Hot soup
This recipe helps individuals ground themselves in reality and humility, in order to integrate harmoniously into their team.
Ingredients include:
An understanding that there are people you will be learning a lot from, and they may come from backgrounds and life stages totally different from yours
A bank of questions you can collect when you take notes or observe in meetings, which you can then ask your manager or your teammates about
🍜 Recipe 3: Nourishing Noodles
This recipe helps individuals fortify their sense of self before entering a startup (or while already in one!) to avoid work burnout.
Ingredients include:
Knowledge of one’s limits and communicating them as boundaries
Ample amount of thinking and absorption time
A list of non-work related hobbies or activities that can help you wind down before and after your shift
An awareness of your professional triggers and red flags
🚌 THE JOURNEY OF THIS NEWSLETTER 🚌
We released the FIRST ISSUE of E is for Eskwelabs on May 3, 2020.
That was exactly 877 days ago from today (September 26, 2022).
Or 2 years, 4 months, and 24 days.
Woah, it’s been a journey for sure! 3 newsletter banner redesigns, and 4 format trials (before getting to the one you are reading right now). Thank you so much to all the loyal subscribers of this newsletter!
📜 Favorite issues of E is for Eskwelabs (Readers’ choice)
Promoting a data-driven mindset here even in this newsletter, we wanted to bring up the top 3 performing issues since we began this newsletter! Based on readers’ choice, we saw from our data that these were the best performing ones so far:
Top 1 - Issue 058 - Dreaming and creating a better future with data ✨🎨
Top 2 - Issue 059 - Soft skills you need to succeed in project-based learning 🌱💼
Top 3 - Issue 019 - The 5 (Lifelong Learning) Love Languages 🧠💖
📜 Favorite issues of E is for Eskwelabs (Editor’s choice)
I also wanted to share my list of favorites. These were the issues near and dear to my writing heart!
Top 1 - Issue 055 - Mindset of a beginner 🌱, Heart of a lifelong learner 💖
Top 2 - Issue 020 - 3 sets of questions to ask yourself to grow in your career in 2021 📝🌱
Top 3 - Issue 056 - There ain't no classroom like an Eskwelabs classroom 📚🎉
As Editor, it is a joy and privilege to write to you every other week. We are so grateful you welcome us in your email inbox!
🚌 YOUR JOURNEY 🚌
📓 Notes about how to reflect on one's journey
You can apply the steps below to the work aspect of your life, the health aspect, the recreational side, or the social portion of your life wheel.
Actionable journaling tips:
Set a timeframe for your reflection: “I am basing my reflection from this period in my life (INSERT DATE) to this period in my life (INSERT DATE).”
Write down the area of life that you specifically want to reflect on. You can also make it plural and write down several areas at once, it is up to you.
Write down the ideal state you have for that area of your life right now. This is where the expectations vs. reality portion of the reflection time begins.
Rate that area of your life as it currently exists today. It’s up to you if you want to do it on a linear scale like 5 being amazing or 1 being awful. You can also make your rating more qualitative by writing statements.
Measure the gap between your expectations vs. reality. Note how this makes you feel.
Acknowledge these feelings and know that they are valid. Take comfort in knowing that somewhere through the internet, you have an entire Eskwelabs team sending virtual hugs (if you need it) and clapping and cheering through the screen (if you need people to celebrate with).
Looking at all you have written and reflected on so far, write down your answers to:
What do I commit to START doing?
What do I commit to STOP doing?
What do I commit to CONTINUE doing?
Close your reflection time by writing a kind note or letter to your past, present, and future self. Then give yourself a warm embrace. It may look cheesy, but ideally it will make you feel warm and light!
You can repeat this journaling process weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or at a frequency customized just for you. Enjoy!
📖 ESKWELABS LIBRARY 📖
Eskwelabs Book Recommendation
📖 Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life by Susan David 📖
Book summary from Goodreads (shortened):
“The path to fulfillment, whether at work or at home, is almost never a straight line. Ask anyone who has achieved their biggest goals or who thrives in their relationships, and you’ll hear stories of many unexpected detours along the way. What separates those who rise to these challenges and those who get derailed? The answer is agility—emotional agility.”
Book club questions for all of us:
What are the life challenges you have faced or are facing right now?
How have you dealt with or how are you dealing with them?
Are you satisfied with your way of handling these life challenges?
What do you want to be kept the same and what do you want to do differently?
Book club quiz:
The author, Susan David, provides all of us with a free emotional agility quiz! Click the button below. We hope you come back to this issue to share with us your thoughts and results in the comments section.
That’s it for our sixtieth issue of the newsletter! We hope you enjoyed it. 🤗
What did you think of this format? Let us know here. We appreciate you so much for reading!
💌 Cheering you on always,
Francine
Learning Community Manager at Eskwelabs