Life beyond code — the value of a mentorship
It’s the boat that everyone is told to get aboard — it’s the Mentor Ship.
Puns aside, “find a mentor” is a phrase that is frequently thrown around engineering circles. There have been countless studies and articles written about the topic of mentorship and the benefits it provides, especially to those in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) studies and careers. But how does one go about finding a mentor, and what do you even do once you have one of these elusive mentors?
At League, we’ve at least solved part of the problem through a mentor/mentee matching program that we’ve dubbed the Major League Mentorship (MLM) program — the only MLM I’ve ever wanted to join. The matches are based on mutual topics of interest and so far, of the hundreds of pairs we’ve connected, 75% of them are still meeting on a regular basis after 6 months.
For those that don’t have an internal mentorship program at their organization, here are some tips on finding a mentor and a list of online mentoring platforms.
Exploring a mentorship
As for what mentors and mentees discuss, I’ve connected directly with mentor Frances (back-end developer) and mentee Mikaela (front-end developer) who have been paired up since September 2021.
What are your meetings like?
Frances (F): There’s not a specific format or anything. Sometimes it’s stuff that Mikaela has had happen in the last week or two, stuff where she wants to see changes or stuff that has gone well. We’ve actually had full on conversations about where Mikaela grew up. Getting to know each other. But mainly is there something she needs advice on, and if not, just general chit-chat.
What topics most frequently come up? (e.g. technical vs. leadership)?
F: Mikaela is a front-end developer and I am a back-end developer, so the technical stuff doesn’t really jive. I’ve mentored somebody on our team in the past and then the conversations are different. Then it’s more like “this is the style we do things in” or the conventions we use. [With Mikaela] we don’t have commonality in terms of code. It’s more “am I doing the right kind of work to progress my career”; “am I engaged and interested in the work being assigned”; “if the work being assigned is not exactly what I want, how do I ask in a positive way for more cool and challenging stuff”.
Mikaela (M): I think [Frances is] really good with promotion and self-reflection and guiding me through how to submit that, or how to take note of what I am working on and using it in a way to progress my career. A lot of my questions, or where I think I feel like I need the most help, are around the League way of doing things, how to manage internal discussions with my team and further my own career growth.
I started at League during work from home (COVID-19) and one of the best things that came out of MLM for me was that Frances kind of became a “forced” friend. Questions that you feel like you might not want to ask your manager or don’t want to ask on Slack, it’s like, “okay where do I want to ask this?”. It’s been a really good way to have a conversation with someone at League and have it be very open.
How have your meetings changed from when you were first paired? How did you build up trust to where you can ask anything?
M: We started with our history and background. I usually work from home by myself, so sometimes our chats really derail away from work but it’s almost like, “I haven’t talked to anyone all day!” It happens really naturally. It started with discussions about where we both came from and what we’re doing at League and naturally evolved from there.
How has the mentor/mentee relationship helped you grow as an engineer?
F: For me, I think it’s taking note of stuff that I’ve had challenges with and knowing that if it comes up with somebody else it’s something I can talk about. Early in my career, something I struggled with was growth in terms of salary — being nervous to ask.
For example, I had a manager give me a bump one year and he was like “you should have asked for this already,” and I appreciated that so much. Nobody was going to do this for me, he was just like “this is what should be happening at this point. You need to do this stuff.”
So keeping note of those things — what might somebody be too scared to ask? It feels like you can’t ask but you still want to know. It’s okay to ask for more money and it’s okay to inquire about how to get to that next bump. You know practical life skills that you’re worried about. Being aware of things that would have been really nice [for past me] to know, I am definitely going to share with somebody else if it pops up.
It’s always nice to have these little back-pocket tricks — it’s going to be different for you, but this has been my experience with these kinds of things.
M: Being new, [getting to the next level] is not on my radar yet, but it will be. And I think talking to Frances has put it more on my radar. She’s always stressed “don’t just do the work, do the work and document it.” Take note of it because in a year (or whenever) you’re going to want to look back on it and have it. So focusing on life at League beyond code.
What advice would you give to others to get the most out of a mentor/mentee relationship?
F: Get together even if there is no agenda — even if it’s 10 minutes. Stuff always pops up. It doesn’t have to be “I have a chat with my manager coming up and I need to prepare”. It’s worthwhile to get together and chat. It’s nice to have someone outside your team to chat with. It’s never a waste.
M: Be comfortable to ask whatever you want to ask. Ask questions that you maybe wouldn’t ask someone else or you feel nervous or shy to ask because you are new — just asking them is the best way to get what you want from the relationship.
No matter the style of the chat, there is always a take-away, a good time and lessons learned.
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As they both have highlighted throughout the conversation — the value of this mentorship was not about levelling up Mikaela’s coding skills, but instead a focus on “life outside of code”. A place where she could be vulnerable and open to ask any and all questions; having a person at work to confide in and share experiences with. This isn’t to say that a mentorship about code or a particular topic is not a good mentorship. Merely that a good mentorship is about building a foundation of trust and placing it with another person.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter what you talk to a mentor about, as long as you are both working to build the relationship so that when the critical things do come up, the trust has been established and the space is available to talk about it.
Big thanks to Frances and Mikaela for letting me pick their brains and sharing their insights. Visit League’s careers page to view our open roles.
