The Art of Mentorship: 4 Benefits of Working with Young Talents

Originally from https://habr.com/ru/companies/tinkoff/articles/722104/

Diving into the intricate world of mentorship, this piece explores the mutual challenges and rewards experienced by both junior developers and their mentors, emphasizing the significance of nurturing budding talent.

The genesis of Junior-level specialists

In today’s tech-savvy world, children start their coding journeys in middle school. It’s from this young talent pool that many potential junior developers emerge. The tech industry, notorious for its perpetual hunger for seasoned developers, often finds itself in a conundrum. Should they vie for the experienced lot, often enticed with lucrative bonuses and perks, or invest in budding talent? Let’s start by listing the reasons why the latter is often a more compelling choice.

Top-3 reasons to consider hiring junior developers

High demand, low supply. The race for experienced developers is fierce. With their high demand, prying them away from their current roles can be a challenge.

An abundance of fresh talent. Every year, a fresh crop of enthusiastic, albeit inexperienced, developers graduate. The logic for many employers? It’s more economical to nurture a junior into an adept specialist than to onboard a pricier veteran.

Evolving education. With an influx of both free and paid development courses and a surge in IT students in universities, the pool of talent is ever-growing. For instance, in 2022 alone, government-funded placements in tech courses doubled to 160,000.

Main advantages of onboarding juniors

Cultivate loyalty. Juniors, once trained, are likely to remain loyal to the company that gave them their break.

Custom training. Shape their training based on the company’s specific needs.

Promote corporate values. Instill the desired corporate culture from the get-go.

Fostering mentorship. Today’s trainees often evolve into tomorrow’s mentors, eager to guide the next generation.

It might often seem like a win-win situation, with companies eager to cultivate talent and juniors hungry for growth. Yet, I have to be honest, the reality isn’t always this rosy.

Challenges and misconceptions about working with juniors

Today, some companies hesitate to hire juniors due to preconceived notions. Misgivings like “Today’s youth lack work ethic,” or “What if we train them, and they leave?” are prevalent.

This hesitancy from companies, paired with the inherent insecurities of fresh graduates, can complicate the hiring process. So, when recruiting junior developers, remember to stay empathetic and actively listen to the candidate’s motivation and ambitions, without labeling them beforehand.

How to attract the right person

Recruitment, at its core, may seem simple to people outside the industry: interview and hire the best candidates. But do you remember the jitters of your first job interview? That overwhelming feeling of being underqualified? This is where companies can (and should) step in to ease the process for junior specialists.

Step 1. Before the Interview

Increase your visibility among potential hires. Participate in job fairs, conferences, and hackathons. Leverage word-of-mouth, tap into networks, and advertise on niche platforms tailored for fresh graduates.

Step 2. During the Interview

The objective isn’t to interrogate but to inform. A junior interviewee will be anxious. Convert the interview into an educational experience. Give feedback, provide guidance, and remember — an intimidated candidate might never give their best.

Engage with potential junior specialists. Actively engaging with newcomers at conferences and job fairs is crucial. By discussing the opportunities your company offers, you can establish a rapport with motivated individuals and gain insight into their potential fit within your organization.

Identify the candidate’s true intentions. It’s essential to discern a candidate’s genuine interest in the chosen development direction. Some might be driven by a perceived lack of better options, while others are sincerely passionate. The “Why?” behind their choice can reveal much about their commitment and future trajectory.

When we were selecting interns for the iOS developer position, in addition to various technical questions, we asked one simple but important question: “Why did you choose iOS development?” Most answers were along the lines of “Because I bought a MacBook.” Only one person gave a well-motivated response.

Evaluate technical knowledge vs. motivation. While technical competence is essential, the candidate’s motivation and soft skills often play a more significant role in their success. Effective communication, in particular, is vital for knowledge transfer and team cohesion.

Ask the right questions. Here’s my go-to set of questions for an interview with junior-level specialist:

• How did you learn about our company?
• What prompted you to choose this field?
• What attracted you to your chosen programming language/framework/technology/platform, etc.?

I remember an off-putting interview during a university job fair. I was needlessly confronted about my comprehension of the industry. Such experiences can mar a company’s image for a potential employee. On the other hand, interviews that feel more like knowledge-sharing sessions can leave a lasting positive impression.

Onboarding process

Set up onboarding. It all starts with a well-planned adaptation. In our team, the onboarding process, including an introductory task that touches on the maximum number of technologies, people, and processes we encounter in real tasks, helps. The task is standardized, and everyone can review it. Gathering feedback at the end of the process, we refine it for new members.

Get the papers ready. Having basic documentation would be great to make it easier for the newbie to integrate into the project and to bother the mentor less frequently.

Assign interesting tasks. Ideally, provide real tasks right from the start and guide the junior through the entire work cycle, from communicating with clients or analysts to the production release. However, a mentor might be hesitant to give production-level tasks right away. They might fear having to redo everything themselves later. Just remember the importance of good decomposition and high-quality code reviews.

Promote company culture. The mentor should not only talk about technical matters, but also convey the culture and values of the company — this is important for newcomers. Explain them in details:

• How goals are set and achieved
• How communication within the team works
• Growth and development opportunities in the company
• Why not being afraid to ask questions is important

Give interesting tasks. You can talk about your own development path or other success stories in your company. Find out what motivates them, have conversations, ask questions, conduct 1-on-1 meetings, etc.

Think ahead. Think about the end of the internship before it begins. Understand why you’re taking on an intern, and what you hope to help them become. After the internship, gather the newcomer, the mentor, and the supervisor to discuss the results.

Build the path. We have a program called “Junior’s Path,” which involves reviews every six months with a salary review and a chance to get a more senior position. This path is individually planned, so I can give more details here.

When I stopped being a newcomer, I gradually started receiving offers from recruiters, and they kept increasing. This included those I had interacted with at the very beginning of my journey when I was looking for an internship. In addition to an interesting project and decent conditions, what motivated me to stay was the awareness of success criteria and the opportunity to continue growing.

The art of mentoring

After the hiring and onboarding processes, the actual work begins. And a good mentor can play a crucial role in a junior’s growth. To find one or become one, I’ll share what motivates me to share knowledge and my experience with young talents:

• Self-improvement. If you want to understand something — explain it! It’s an excellent opportunity to delve deeper into matters. Dive into what seemed obvious together.
• New challenges. Joining a new team or even starting your first job is stressful. It’s a new company, project, and team with its own laws and rules, and you might not be very confident in the technologies. The mentor’s task is to make this process engaging, not a torture.
• Community building. On one hand, mentorship brings moral satisfaction from doing something good and useful. On the other hand, it’s a practical investment in the future. Today, you help a newbie navigate a project, tomorrow they’ll bring value, and the day after, they might start mentoring newcomers themselves.
• Communicating with different people. Learning how to navigate professional relationships with different people can help you become more open-minded and understanding, which inevitably brings new ideas and inspirations.

The art to build the mentors

A good mentor is pivotal for a junior’s growth. The attributes that contribute to effective mentorship include self-improvement, embracing challenges, fostering community development, and excellent communication skills.

What makes a mentor remarkable

• Supportive nature. Providing both emotional and intellectual support during the learning journey.
• Emotional intelligence. Sensing comprehension levels and addressing hesitations.
• Open communication. Being prepared for a barrage of questions and nurturing a conducive learning environment.
• Constructive feedback. Aiding in the mentee’s development through insightful feedback.

Remember, that to be a good manager, you don’t necessarily need to become a mentor, you can be a supportive senior colleague, and that is enough too. But if you want to help an aspiring newcomer, improve your soft skills and feel that you have the energy to take on new tasks — go for it, it’s worth it!

Mini-guide for working with juniors

1. Foster a welcoming environment. Ensure the selection process is conducive to the candidate’s development.
2. Right direction. Help the newcomer make sure if they’ve chosen a path that genuinely interests them.
3. Mentor preparation. Brace yourself for the emotional and time investment required in mentoring. Set real goals and expectations.
4. Diverse tasks. Offer a variety of tasks to challenge and develop the junior’s skills from different angles.
5. Promote company culture. Alongside hard skills, emphasize the importance of soft skills and aligning with the company’s values.

Working with juniors is fantastic. I think that by nurturing a conducive learning environment and providing the necessary support, companies can foster a culture of continuous learning and development, beneficial for the community at large. And for me, it’s become another remedy for burnout, a way to contribute to the development of the community, and it’s also given me the opportunity to make new friends.