DEV Community

Rose Day
Rose Day

Posted on

What advice would you give someone who wants to mentor younger developers? What are good attributes to focus on as a mentor?

Top comments (4)

Collapse
 
samjarman profile image
Sam Jarman πŸ‘¨πŸΌβ€πŸ’»

Good question with a few answers.

The mechanical:

  • Volunteer - code clubs, internship programmes (I volunteer a lot for summeroftech.co.nz)
  • At work, ask your manager to mentor any new hires/grads etc. If your company doesn’t hire such folk and this is important to you - consider changing to a company that does. (I did, loved it)

On the more you side.

  • work on your self awareness, reflect on your journey and any key steps you took
  • listen listen listen. Mentoring isn’t making sure someone follows your path, it’s making sure they follow their best path.
  • lead by example
  • be available and expect nothing in return. Sometimes you mentor someone for an hour a week and nothing changes. It can be very demotivating, but it helps.
  • read Give and Take by Adam Grant
Collapse
 
rosejcday profile image
Rose Day

Thank you for the detailed response! I love your point on listening, I have found that very valuable in other aspects of work as well. I will look up that book; at a quick glance I see he has TED talks as well which may be worth a listen. Appreciated and be well!

Collapse
 
fotopixel2010 profile image
Matthias Hempel

There are also some good sides where you can join to get more information on how to do mentoring in a good way.

Collapse
 
rosejcday profile image
Rose Day

Thank you for sharing! I will look into it.