Mentoring helps you grow, helps you grow others, and helps you level up. It’s a win-win-win. But, many people don’t know where or how to get started. This article will cover everything you need to know about finding someone to mentor and setting them up for success from start to finish.
This post is great. Thanks for sharing. When I was mentoring someone for a brief amount of time, I noticed that it improved my own confidence. Helping out others just feels good!
A good way to find potential mentees is to stay helpful to people.
I formalized a mentor-mentee relationship with one engineer, but I try to remain helpful with other engineers at or below my level.
I have set some ad-hoc 1:1s to discuss some topics they had about their career growth or provide feedback on their initiatives.
I'm pretty sure if I had the capacity and wanted to formalize a mentoring relationship, it'd be much easier with these engineers I already built trust than with someone else.
Thanks for the article, Jordan.
I love having a structured approach and I'm saving the questions and growth plan template.
If you have handy the link about where Omar shared the template I'd be interested in reading further!
Thanks for sharing, Jordan. Tip 1) caught me off guard – it's possible that I was the worst mentor in everyone's life 😅
Jokes aside, I tend to avoid personal questions. Where are you from is usually the most I can do so that I don't feel I'm asking too much and the other party doesn't feel they have to reveal too much. What's your experience with these personal questions?
For years, I was sleeping on getting good mentors. Now that I have both mentors and mentees, I regret not setting up earlier. Thanks for this post highlighting the importance.
Mentoring is also a great way to 'taste out the waters' before thinking about a management job. I recommend all my developers to try it out at least with one mentee for a couple of months, just to get the feel of it. Even if they don't enjoy it, it can teach very valueable lessons.
Mentoring can boost the learning and growth not only of the mentee but of the mentor as well. The mentor is challenged in many non-technical ways like communication, listening, empathy, etc. Also, if you can't explain something very simply, you have to dig deeper to understand better what you're explaining.
Ultimately, it's a win-win-win situation for the mentor, mentee, and the company.
Totally agreed - "It helps you grow, helps others grow, and helps you level up in your career:"! I wrote a couple of articles on the importance of mentoring for engineering leaders, but yes mentoring applies for ICs as well.
This post is great. Thanks for sharing. When I was mentoring someone for a brief amount of time, I noticed that it improved my own confidence. Helping out others just feels good!
Great one! I think having a plan and a template for tracking this plan is an awesome advice.
Without a plan the mentorship benefits and values to both parties will almost be untraceable. That's not so good because:
- The mentee need to know their growth projection.
- The mentor needs to know when to change course.
- Continuous feedback loop will help both the mentee and mentor to grow.
Thanks for sharing very useful tips on mentorship, Jordan!
A good way to find potential mentees is to stay helpful to people.
I formalized a mentor-mentee relationship with one engineer, but I try to remain helpful with other engineers at or below my level.
I have set some ad-hoc 1:1s to discuss some topics they had about their career growth or provide feedback on their initiatives.
I'm pretty sure if I had the capacity and wanted to formalize a mentoring relationship, it'd be much easier with these engineers I already built trust than with someone else.
Thanks for the article, Jordan.
I love having a structured approach and I'm saving the questions and growth plan template.
If you have handy the link about where Omar shared the template I'd be interested in reading further!
Thanks for this article. I am actually looking for a mentor. How's the best way to find it?
Thanks for sharing, Jordan. Tip 1) caught me off guard – it's possible that I was the worst mentor in everyone's life 😅
Jokes aside, I tend to avoid personal questions. Where are you from is usually the most I can do so that I don't feel I'm asking too much and the other party doesn't feel they have to reveal too much. What's your experience with these personal questions?
For years, I was sleeping on getting good mentors. Now that I have both mentors and mentees, I regret not setting up earlier. Thanks for this post highlighting the importance.
Mentoring is also a great way to 'taste out the waters' before thinking about a management job. I recommend all my developers to try it out at least with one mentee for a couple of months, just to get the feel of it. Even if they don't enjoy it, it can teach very valueable lessons.
Mentoring can boost the learning and growth not only of the mentee but of the mentor as well. The mentor is challenged in many non-technical ways like communication, listening, empathy, etc. Also, if you can't explain something very simply, you have to dig deeper to understand better what you're explaining.
Ultimately, it's a win-win-win situation for the mentor, mentee, and the company.
Great post, Jordan!
Totally agreed - "It helps you grow, helps others grow, and helps you level up in your career:"! I wrote a couple of articles on the importance of mentoring for engineering leaders, but yes mentoring applies for ICs as well.
Good tips on how to be a good mentor. A must read for someone starting to mentor or struggling to do it well.
Thanks for this article. I am actually looking for a mentor. How's the best way to find it?