Engineering Mentorship: Lessons Learned from Experience

What I thought was a teachable moment for two software engineering interns turned into a wake-up call for me. I was explaining a complex optimization problem and wrapped up with, “And I’d fix it if I had more time.” One intern asked, “How? What does the solution look like?” I spent 30 minutes walking them through the solution, how I came up with it, and how I’d implement it. Two days later, the interns scheduled a code review with me. They’d put in a couple of 16-hour days and implemented the optimization. That version wasn’t pretty, but after a week and 3 iterations, they had a working implementation. I could have spent the same amount of time teaching them to implement the optimization or implementing it myself. 2 years later, the optimization was deprecated, but the interns had become exceptional software engineers. Make time to develop people on the team because that investment has a higher ROI than most other work you’ll do. Be patient with people who don’t work as fast or do everything right the first, second, and third time. It’s hard to stand back and watch, but that’s how people learn. Pair junior engineers, developers, and data scientists up to do the work with a senior++ mentor doing periodic reviews. Mentor people on real-world problems, even when the complexity exceeds their current capabilities. Teach them, but expect them to struggle with the problem independently before coming to you for help. At the senior++ and manager levels, we transition from software developers to people developers. Mentoring and teaching are capabilities that must be taught and developed, too. Invest in upskilling people making the transition, not just junior-level people.

It took me 3 promotions to learn these 4 secrets of becoming a 10x SWE mentor. And another 2 years of testing them on mentees to know they get results – consistently. 1️⃣ 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀. Ravenously consume knowledge from engineers ahead of you, and understand that everyone is an expert in 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. The only thing between you and their idle wisdom is the right question (this applies to LLMs too). 2️⃣ 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼. Clear writing = clear thinking. Cement key learnings by building a historical record of the challenges you face each week. 3️⃣ 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀. Reflect on your wins and losses – what patterns emerge? Which processes could you pass down to other engineers? Distill complex topics into approachable stepping stones for your former self. Apply them to your own career and ensure they get results, then continuously improve them along the way. 4️⃣ 𝗦𝗮𝘆 “𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽” 𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻. Give away all your battle-tested frameworks, and know that you don’t need to be an “expert” to share your wisdom. You just need to be a couple steps ahead of the person behind you. –––––––––––––––––––– P.S. Mentorship is the path to your own career growth too. You’re going to learn just as much through teaching as they will being your student. 😉 #softwareengineering #mentorship #leadership

At senior level, you are a good mentor. At leadership level, you coach engineers to be great mentors. As a TechLead(TL), I have coached many senior+/staff engineers to be effective mentors. This kind of coaching is hard because you are not always directly involved. Your(TL) job is to guide the mentor and watch out for things going sideways. In my experience, watching out for the following helps: 𝟭. 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 Some mentors adopt a hands-off approach so, the mentee may feel stuck. I ask probing questions like "Why is the mentee struggling?" or "Is the problem too ambiguous?" or "what do you think is the right direction?" to surface if the mentor has done their due diligence. 𝟮. 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 This has been the most common thing I have helped mentors with. They don't say things directly and sugarcoat the feedback. Naturally, the mentee does not fix things. I help them phrase the feedback better. 𝟯. 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 Some mentors don't teach but give out the solution. Eg: if a (senior) mentee is struggling to build consensus, the mentor may step in and resolve it for them. In such cases, I understand how much the mentee struggled before the mentor stepped in. I help identify where the mentor should have been hands-off vs hands-on. Growing mentors is one of the favorite parts of my job. I care deeply about the type of onboarding and growth support that mentees get. I shared an article on this topic in my newsletter today - https://lnkd.in/gYgmGbMN