This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Giedrius Kristinaitis
Mentoring junior developers is not an easy task, which does more harm than good if done wrong
If you’re somewhat experienced in software development and you’re working in a team, chances are that at some point you’ll have to be a mentor for a less experienced developer.
Mentoring is not being in charge and ordering people to do something. Mentoring is supposed to be focused on growth. A good mentor should be focused on making themselves not needed.
In this article, I’d like to present some of my tips for mentoring based on my personal experience and what I’ve seen in other people who were being mentors.
1. Set Realistic Expectations
Setting expectations is a very important step, and, sadly, not the easiest one. You must know what it is that you’re expecting from a junior developer, otherwise you’re likely to waste a lot of time going in the wrong direction.
Expectations cannot be too low or too high. You should clearly state what you expect a junior to be able to do in the end or what role they should be able to fill, and by “end” I mean the point where they don’t need to rely on you as much anymore and can learn effectively on their own.
Try to avoid things like “I want the junior to become a good developer”. Such statements do not define a clear direction, they’re too generic. Instead, you should ask yourself what characteristics define a good developer, that way you’ll have something more specific to work towards.
It is important for the end goal to be decided together with the junior, and there should be a good balance between what they want and what the team needs.
2. Don’t Compare Juniors To Yourself
You’re their mentor because you’re more experienced, so it’s natural that they’ll be slower than you. They won’t make decisions that are on par with your own.
Don’t say “I can do this, therefore, so should you”, because no, they won’t be able to do the things you do right off the bat, because if they can do the things you do why are you even mentoring them?
Don’t compare their learning rate to your own. All that matters is that they’re learning at a rate that’s acceptable to the team.
By comparing them to yourself you risk destroying their self-confidence, because they might feel like the expectations are too high.
3. Give Your Mentees Freedom
Freedom is crucial. Without freedom, junior developers will lose all confidence in themselves, and nobody wants that.
You should let them make decisions on their own. They will make mistakes, it’s inevitable, however, making mistakes is a very valuable experience. Everybody makes mistakes, and it would be inhuman to demand a junior developer to make no mistakes.
To allow them to make mistakes they need to work on something where a mistake every now and then is acceptable, so try to avoid giving a junior work on a critical part of the system.
Empower your mentees to make decisions. I don’t mean that you should be toxically positive and tell them that they can do anything right now, because, the truth is, they can’t, that’s why they need mentoring.
Most importantly, don’t do all the work for them, it doesn’t do any good to anyone.
4. Don’t Brag About Yourself
The purpose of mentoring is not for you to brag about your skills and achievements, so, unless you’re asked, it’s better not to talk about them too much.
Juniors are likely to compare themselves to you, to look up to you. If you constantly tell them what you can do they might get overwhelmed and start doubting themselves.
You shouldn’t come off as “the guy that knows everything and everyone looks up to”.
5. Notice the Good Work They’re Doing
Positive feedback should be given if you don’t want them to lose motivation.
When you see a junior make progress or do something good, tell them.
When someone is learning and trying their best to improve they expect their efforts to be noticed and appreciated.
Imagine yourself in their shoes, imagine that you’re putting a lot of effort into learning just for your mentor to be like “ok” and walk away. Doesn’t feel pleasant, does it? So don’t just walk away without any feedback.
6. Be Real With Your Mentees
Negative feedback is also important. You don’t want to sugarcoat them. Honesty is the best policy.
If they’re not living up to the team’s expectations you should be transparent about it. The more you lie, the more uncomfortable the moment of finding out the truth becomes for your mentees. Nobody likes being lied about doing a good job.
Try not to come off sounding mean or passive-aggressive about it.
7. Be Patient
Being patient doesn’t mean that you’re willing to give a junior developer as much time as they want, after all, you didn’t hire them just to be a student.
It’s ok as long as their rate of progress aligns with your team’s expectations, and if it doesn’t, then it’s time to part ways.
There might be times when you’re just in a bad mood or something happens that upsets you, and it could be hard to stay patient at such times. If you’re not available to them for some reason you should tell them, don’t lash out at them for no reason.
8. Check Up On Them
Nobody likes to be left alone, especially junior developers. Juniors might not understand what they need to do. It’s important to direct them in the right direction, preferably without doing too much work for them while leaving no room for freedom.
Junior developers might feel insecure about their skills and hesitant to ask questions because of fear of coming off as a burden to the team. Check up on them from time to time, and ask them if everything’s ok or if they need any help. Remind them that it’s fine to ask for help.
Don’t abandon them, as that would be a very bad example of your culture. You don’t want them to get the impression that teamwork doesn’t matter in your workplace and everyone’s on their own.
If you don’t notice them and never check up on them they will eventually lose their trust in you.
You also don’t want to check up on them too much, because that could give them the impression that they can’t do anything on their own and constantly need your help, which also kills motivation and self-confidence.
9. Relate To Them
If you want a junior to feel at home in your team you should relate to their experiences. People want to be understood, and if they’re not they’ll start feeling alienated.
At some point, you were in their position and know what they’re experiencing right now. People like to share their experiences, so when a junior tells you about their experience you should reflect it, when they say something like “wow, this part was really tough to handle” don’t be like “well, it was easy for me to do, it’s nothing”, because if you say things like that they might start feeling bad about their performance and avoid sharing things with you in the future because you don’t care about their experiences. Instead, you could say something like “yeah, it is tough, I get you”, because that way you validate their experiences, and they feel understood.
Relating to others helps to build a better relationship with them, which is very important in a team.
10. Do Not Create a Vertical Relationship
What is a vertical relationship? It’s a relationship where someone is put above others and matters more than others.
You don’t want to give the impression that your decisions matter more, and that you have the final say in the matter. You should respect the opinions a junior developer has. Take their words seriously, and if they don’t make sense, explain why, without saying “it has to be this way because I have more experience”.
In a functional team, the members feel equally important and can express themselves freely.
Show your mentee that you care and respect what they have to say.
11. Give Constructive Advice With Clear Explanations
Explanations matter. Your task as a mentor is not to just blindly tell your mentees what to do.
Your task is to explain your advice. Why should they do as you say? You should be able to clearly explain why you’re doing what you’re doing. Try to avoid opinion-based advice that you can’t back up with practical examples.
If you don’t explain your decisions, juniors will not understand what they should be doing, and without that understanding, they’ll start trying to memorize what they need to do when they should be learning what, how, and why.
A lack of understanding leads to self-doubt which can hold juniors back.
Being a mentor is not an easy task, and if it’s not done right it creates bad working relationships between people, and you end up wasting a lot of time and money.
It’s important to give mentees enough freedom to act on their own, to empower them to make decisions, and to appreciate the work they’re doing without sugarcoating them.
Finding the right balance is what makes a good mentor and a good leader. Without a good mentor, junior developers can take a long time to improve and that could be costly.
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How To Be A Good Mentor To Junior Developers was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Giedrius Kristinaitis
Giedrius Kristinaitis | Sciencx (2022-11-10T03:21:42+00:00) How To Be A Good Mentor To Junior Developers. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2022/11/10/how-to-be-a-good-mentor-to-junior-developers/
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