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| Coursera: Learning How To Learn (image source) |
On January 8th Coursera’s “Learning To Learn” course had started.
On January 9th I had a phone interview with the recruiter who had initially found me via LinkedIn. The job sounds brilliant, the company sounds like a great place to work at and my excitement levels are high.
Almost two weeks later I was still waiting to hear the results of the telephone interview. I continued listening to the course lectures, while reading and getting familiar with a selection of topics I thought might be needed for the next stage of interviewing process, should it happen. I was also in the finishing stages of the preparations for making my Assignment #2 for the course.
Then finally - I got a phone call. I have been invited for another interview. The adrenalin has kicked in too.
I have been given some guidelines what to prepare for the interview, so I can start planning what to focus my efforts around.
However, I have found myself in a puzzling situation: the interview and the deadline for Assignment #2 practically collide. The job opportunity is such that I can’t afford to take it lightly for many reasons, least of all that this is fantastic opportunity to return to work after a career break due to family reasons. On the other hand, after all the effort that I’ve put in and everything I had learnt on the course -- which has been a life-changing experience -- not completing it would be heart-breaking.
So, I’ve made the decision to go for both!
This is the journal of how I applied and adapted the learnings, techniques and wisdom from the Coursera course “Learning How To Learn” for my specific needs - preparing for the upcoming job interview.
Planning
The very first thing I had to do was to plan my time. Using mind mapping I have made a plan for each day and what aspects of the interview I planned to cover on those days. My aim is to eat my frogs first each day. I had tried to space things out a bit, so the new information I accumulate has a bit of time to settle in my brain. I had also included slots for the "Learning How To Learn" course, as Week 4 lectures had not yet been released at a time when I made the plan and I also had to finalise my Assignment #2.
The idea is that I will finish the assignment (somewhat different and simplified to the initially planned one) and that I am as ready as possible for the interview. Additionally, I gave myself one condition - last day before the interview I want to take a day off. No more reading or preparing. This would be the first time ever that will have happened, as I have a history of cramming things to the last day and then feeling frazzled when I should ready for the top performance.
This is the mind map with my planned activities
