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!
Agreed, Fran. Even without the formalization of it, that still is mentoring, it's just under the "informal" category, which sometimes can be even more valuable, especially if you're working closely with them.
Growth plan is definitely solid! Have been using it with my mentees now since I learned it from Omar. He shares about it in his 90 day career blueprint: https://www.omarhalabieh.com/90-day-career-blueprint. He could be amenable to doing a free copy for fellow creators like yourself--feel free to namedrop me too :D
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?
To be fair, I don't always ask every single one of those questions. They are just a mix of questions I have asked across mentees.
I usually vibe it out. If they seem reserved to personal-type questions, then I can skip that and stick to more work-talk. If they give a lot of conversation threads to go off, then I can dig in more from the high level questions
Yeah, now as I think about it, I believe I asked some of those personal questions when I felt some connection (vibe) with the mentee, but not always. Thanks Jordan!
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!
Thank you, Dhiren! Yes, exactly!
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!
Love the breakdown you gave of who needs to know what and how it provides a continuous feedback loop.
Thank you, Basma and agreed 💯
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!
Agreed, Fran. Even without the formalization of it, that still is mentoring, it's just under the "informal" category, which sometimes can be even more valuable, especially if you're working closely with them.
Growth plan is definitely solid! Have been using it with my mentees now since I learned it from Omar. He shares about it in his 90 day career blueprint: https://www.omarhalabieh.com/90-day-career-blueprint. He could be amenable to doing a free copy for fellow creators like yourself--feel free to namedrop me too :D
Thanks for this article. I am actually looking for a mentor. How's the best way to find it?
No problem, Marlys! Thanks for reading.
Usually the same tips for finding a mentee!
Ask your manager or ask the person directly
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?
Haha, all good, Akos.
That's a good question.
To be fair, I don't always ask every single one of those questions. They are just a mix of questions I have asked across mentees.
I usually vibe it out. If they seem reserved to personal-type questions, then I can skip that and stick to more work-talk. If they give a lot of conversation threads to go off, then I can dig in more from the high level questions
Yeah, now as I think about it, I believe I asked some of those personal questions when I felt some connection (vibe) with the mentee, but not always. Thanks Jordan!
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.
Thanks for sharing, Avneesh. The value of both sides is huge
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.
Agreed, Anton. It's a nice preview into more leadership-type roles.
Thanks for sharing this
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 agree, Petar. That's why it's a great learning experience.
Appreciate you sharing and reading, Petar
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.
Thank you, Sebastiano!
Would love to see those articles. Feel free to link and share them here :)
Sure! https://sebarmeli.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-mentoring-in-engineering-leadership-part-1-063736154a5f and https://sebarmeli.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-mentoring-in-engineering
Good tips on how to be a good mentor. A must read for someone starting to mentor or struggling to do it well.
Thank you, Raviraj!
Thanks for this article. I am actually looking for a mentor. How's the best way to find it?