Guiding Junior Developers is pretty Similar to Managing Relationship
By: Tek Loon
Tags: Mentorship, Programming, Web Development, Leadership, Software Development

Photo by CoWomen on Unsplash

I am waiting for my wife at the subway station. It was 5 pm evening and the weather is hot and humid.

In addition, I am sweating, getting a bit impatient and the clock seems ticks slower than usual. I could feel inside myself my emotion could escalate to frustration soon (Ya. I can’t stand heat).

Scenario A: Waiting for my wife at Subway Station

Some facts that I knew in this situation.

I knew that my wife is reaching soon, she was just a few stations away from me.

I knew that if I expressed my frustration when we meet up, it will spoil our evening and worsen our relationship.

Isn’t these facts are having some resemblance to the scenario of mentoring your junior developers?

Scenario B: Mentoring Your Junior Developers

We knew that the junior dev is learning and growing, he/she just needed a bit more time to settle down. Then, they will be ready to contribute.

We knew that if we expressed our frustration during the mentoring phase, he/she might stress out. He or she might lose some self-confidence and the worst-case scenario, they might quit the job and you lose some talented candidate.

Actionable Advice

This is what you can do to prevent you from making wrong actions or decisions in this scenario.

Feed Your Patience . Shift your focus from the waiting frustration.

. Shift your focus from the waiting frustration. Say or Do something positive before the conversation started.

Feed Your Patience

Instead of focusing on the waiting, do something you to feed your patience.

Scenario A: Waiting for my wife at Subway Station

Feed your patience by reading your favorite novel, browse your Instagram stories and etc. Move your focus away from the waiting frustration and uncomfortable environment.

Scenario B: Mentoring Your Junior Developers

Prepare them a small win daily. This small win could be some defined progress in the task.

For e.g, if you are able to get a response from this API by the end of the day, you are already doing a good job.

This small win does not only boost the confidence for your junior dev, but it also feeds your patience when they’re achieving things and completing the task.

Say or Do Something Positive Before the Conversation Started

This advice was a bit personal.

Scenario A: Waiting for my wife at Subway Station

Whenever I see my wife walking from far away, I wave my hand and whisper “Hi!” from far away.

When you did this, your frustration somehow gets suppressed or goes away and it ends up in a pretty positive outcome. You don’t say something hurtful to your loved ones.

Scenario B: Mentoring Your Junior Developers

I have a phrase that I said every time I meet with someone that I am familiar with. I would say “Hey man!!” in a positive tone.

It was pretty hard to say something bad when you started the conversation in a positive manner. It works pretty well so far.

Conclusion

This article inspired by some random thought of the day. Lastly, I wish this actionable advice does help you.

As always, feedback and opinion are always welcome.

Thanks for reading and see you next time. ✋😁