I believe mentoring sits somewhere between traditional teaching and coaching. Some see mentoring as being closer to teaching. Not me. I believe mentoring is coaching with an expert in the field. This is especially true when you mentor a newbie. And when I say newbie, I mean a person without any technical background whatsoever. When you are trying to help a person who doesn’t have a clue about the tech world, it’s becoming even closer to coaching than teaching ;).

I try to follow the below points when mentoring a newbie:

• Agile approach: Chances are, your mentee has no idea what is agile and what to expect from a day-to-day tech role. It’s critical to show the process, or part of it, during mentoring sessions.
• Common tools: For example, Jira appears to be a most common tool for tasks management and goal setting/tracking. Why not organize the whole mentoring process as a project in Jira?
• Listen first: Your mentee should understand what he/she wants to achieve. Plan it and move forward. Setting direction for the mentee can lead to your goals instead of mentee’s goals.
• Guide: Don’t dictate what to do and how. Give your opinion and a gentle push toward self-discovery and self-learning.

These points should allow your mentee to understand how the tech world works. What is expected from a tech person. And most crucially, check if the tech career path is for him/her to start with.

Sun Jan 26, 2025 / 239 words / Motivation Mentoring