Advice for mentoring mid-level engineers
Posted by sweetlou357@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 19 comments
Just got assigned two people to mentor and have setup bi-weekly 30 minute calls.
They’ve been in the company for a couple years but aren’t senior yet.
They’re able to deliver on tasks relatively independently.
Soo I’m trying to figure out the best approach.
Also I’ve already asked them about what they want to work on or improve and they didn’t give much feedback.
Thanks!
GoTheFuckToBed@reddit
just listen and in the last 10 minutes always ask “do you have any questions for me”
book recommend: radical candor
BElf1990@reddit
If they haven't given you much to work with, a good place to start is to think about what you wanted when you were at their level.
Something I also try when I am leading/mentoring other devs is to see what type of work they are doing and try to get them work that's different. The goal is to expand their skill set. For example, there was a guy who was really keen on UI stuff but didn't do a lot of "architectural" stuff, so I slowly started including him in those conversations and giving him tasks around that. I had another person who was rarely getting any bug fix work due to a combination of things, so I started asking him to pick up some of the weird bugs. The goal there was to not have just 1-2 devs that would do the difficult bugs because there were times when they would be unavailable, and those issues would just get blocked until they got around to them.
On another occasion, I had a dev who didn't really review PRs because someone else would handle it. I asked him to start doing more of that by framing it in a way that wasn't confrontational but more of a "they could benefit from your expertise."
If they're not very helpful with the feedback, it just means you have to pay more attention to their work. It's likely you will have a different perspective than them, and when you try to bring it together, actionable measures will come out of them. If there are no clear responsibilities/metrics for their advancement, just use yourself as the measuring stick. What are your tasks and responsibilities? Would they be able to do it if they were in your position? If not, what can they work on to get them there?
teerre@reddit
What's the goal of this mentorship? If you can't figure that out, your probably wasting your time and theirs too.
dablya@reddit
Seriously... The only times I've had good experiences mentoring is when the person was eager to learn and their excitement was infectious. How can you mentor somebody who has no interest in being mentored?
teerre@reddit
That's a bit too far, IMO. It's fine if the mentee isn't "eager to learn", maybe they just want to talk about career or maybe it's just a HR thing that they need to check the box. The important part is to have aligned expectations
kepenach@reddit
Sounds like leadership wants to see them move up or out. Usually the reason is in communication skills, maybe the disappear and don’t ask many questions. Evaluate their team player-ness. Usually soft skills are what hold people back, not technical.
LeadingPokemon@reddit
Treat it like a one-on-one with your manager, but you’re their manager. Listen, and give welcome advice.
Puzzleheaded_Stick97@reddit
My first meeting would be based on what their goals and what they want to achieve. If they don;t have that clarity or interest, then this may not be a fruitful exercise for both of you. For mid-level engineers, if there is interest - they need to start thinking about adjacent functionalities like DS or product or ops to understand that painpoint and weigh in on those decisions. So it is worth looking into how that might look like in your company or org
PothosEchoNiner@reddit
If they don't have goals, give them some ideas about what's possible for their careers. If they still don't have goals to work toward after that, then that's not your problem.
Quantumboredom@reddit
Firstly I would clarify whether the calls are twice a week or every other week. Secondly, check out the other answers they seem legit.
behusbwj@reddit
Mentoring is usually driven by the mentee. If there’s nothing they’re looking to improve on, why were you “assigned” to them? If they’re new, it could just be about showing them the ropes of company processes and dev practices. Otherwise this is weird
SnakeSeer@reddit
Yeah. I would ask whoever assigned you to mentor them if there are any expectations.
Lately my company has been using "mentorship" as a way for lazy managers to off-load managing duties onto underlings without actually giving them the authority to be a manager, nor the monetary rewards of being one.
kdn86@reddit
Help them along their path, whatever that might be. If this is truly mentorship, and not one-on-ones with teammates, I'd look to see what they want to get out of the mentor relationship. If it's thrust upon them, rather than being self-driven, it's unlikely to yield much in the way of results.
yolk_sac_placenta@reddit
Figuring out what you want a meta-task that you sometimes need to take on. In other words, if they're stuck figuring out what's next--how do they figure it out? Or articulate it in an actionable way? If they don't tell you what they want next then they probably aren't telling their boss who is the person with the power to put their work on it.
I think 30 minutes every other week is a pretty trivial and useless amount of "mentoring" but I guess if you both find it useful, that's good.
termd@reddit
I have 8ish mentees, with 1:1s ranging from every week to once a month. Every person is different in what they want from me and what I try to give them.
For my same level mentee, I'm mostly a therapist, talking through the struggles and frustrations of the job and how they are good enough for the job.
For my new hires, I'm mostly a cheerleader, giving them reassurance and pointers on navigating the office politics and giving them light career guidance towards working to the next level.
For the midlevels where honestly we don't have a good promo path, I'm realistic with them about it and have them working with their managers on their promo docs, discussing if tasks are next level worthy, sometimes talking about how every task can't be next level because there are other things we need done, and just generally trying to be supportive in a not great situation. For one of them, the obvious best path is to leave the company and we mostly talk about that.
hooahest@reddit
Are there any problems that requires senior that they could tackle?
If they can tackle them - great, why are they considered mid?
If they can't tackle them - okay, what are they lacking? how can you help them overcome that?
Beautiful-Salary-191@reddit
They don't give any clue? So you are mentoring them for what? A couple of years ago, I accepted the least paying offer just because I'd have access to a mentor... My goal was to have a complete skillset that let's me solve any company problem from a technical perspective! And my mentor helped me with that.
How can they solve bigger problems for the company: - technical (things that require technical skills like architecture...) - technical-adjacent (like hiring good developers, onboarding, training...).
Antique-Stand-4920@reddit
Few ideas to consider:
- How well do they do with planning projects that span multiple sprints? Can they work with project managers to break things down into smaller pieces?
- If the more senior members of the team were unavailable (e.g. vacation, sickness, quitting, etc), what skills are they lacking to pick up the slack?
- How do they do on projects that require some investigative work?
- How well do they do with troubleshooting problems on their own?
HolyPommeDeTerre@reddit
If they don't have a clue about what they want, you can use the job ladder at your place. Try to get the criteria for the next level, the current level, assess both (in a discussion with them) on each criteria. That should give you some starters.