Why the Support Center for technical assistance? And some Expectation Management.

The Umuzi Tech Curriculums are mostly self-paced, which is awesome. It means you can zoom ahead as fast as you like when things are going well, and slow down when needed to ensure that you've really absorbed the core fundamentals of each section of the course. 

 

Sometimes in Dev World, we hit obstacles that even Google and Stack Overflow seem unable to help with. Luckily our Umuzi teachers are super smart, and very likely able to unblock you with whatever you're stuck on. At the moment, our team is constantly switching between small learner queries (to which they really want to respond rapidly) and bigger Code Review tasks. 

 

This context switching means that their brains are pulled back and forth between different problems, instead of focusing on 1 thing at a time. This is not ideal, as it takes our brains a while to switch between problems, and we lose a LOT of productivity. In contrast, we'd really like our Tech Teaching team to be able to do focused Deep Work, as this can truly transform how much they're able to get done. 

 

At the same time, we'd still like to be responsive to your calls for support... So...

What we're experimenting with now is a support line for learner queries, which will always (in our working hours) have at least 1 front-end and 1 back-end developer on shift, specifically focused on rapid responses to specific support requests. We're hoping that having people on shift, and dedicated specifically to this task, will help speed up response times for your support requests. 

 

This is not a place to ask for Code Reviews to be done. It's a place to ask specific questions about specific things that you're getting stuck on.  

For example: Here is my code for Task 7 of the Lvl1 Coding Challenges in Python: [Insert link to Github] ... I can't seem to get the formatting to 2 decimal places correct. I've tried .... and ..., but it's still not working. 

 

^ You should be trying Google & Stack overflow first, before reaching out to the support line!  (You probably won't have a dedicated support line once you're employed.) 

 

We will not be giving you the correct code to solve the problem. We will instead provide some hints and help clear up any misunderstandings you seem to have about how the code works. We might refer you to some external resources. 

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Hopefully the lack of constant distractions for our team will allow them to get through Code Reviews faster as well. 

 

 

Since our Umuzi recruits are all going through the same curriculum, they'll often hit the same blockers. 

The support center allows us to build a "Knowledge Base" of support articles, which speak to some of the most common issues our learners run into. 

There's a good chance that you're not the first person to get stuck on the obstacle you're facing. Use the search bar on our Support Center home page, to see if you can find an article which unblocks you immediately. This way, you don't have to wait for one of our teaching staff to get back to you. 

Also remember to revise the content on how to ask for help and follow the advice in order to better enable staff to assist without back and forth.

topic: How to ask for help with your code