Mentoring Junior Developers

Hiring junior level developers gives companies the chance to mentor these brilliant minds into the types of developers they need to help grow their business. Often companies do not have the proper structure in place to mentor junior level developers or have the time available to set aside to mentor. The following tips can help your company better mentor your junior developers and allow them to reach their full potential.

When it comes to working with people, respect should be at the top of your list. Making time for mentoring may at times seem like an impossible task but mentoring should be high on your priority list. Giving your mentee the respect from the start is a clear way to show them that you value them, and it also can help form a foundation of mutual respect between your mentee and the company.

Giving them complete ownership of a set of tasks will allow them to feel they are contributing to the project and not just working on bugs. Providing them with tasks that range from simple to challenging will give your mentee room to build confidence with the simple task but also provide them with an avenue to learn from the challenging task.

Creating a bond between your mentee and you around trust allows them to feel comfortable to come to you with any questions. You also have to be tolerant of mistakes that junior developers will make along the way. They may not be used to things like version control, unit testing and working with a group.  Working with them to help minimize their mistakes will be beneficial for everyone involved.

Code reviews are valuable to any level developer but are especially useful for junior developers. Routinely holding code reviews will allow mentees to see how senior developers organize and find solutions to complex problems. It also allows senior developers to minimize a junior’s mistakes before they take the developer far off course. It is important to critique code and not people. Building trust, respect, and fostering honest feedback are the key to success.

Specific learning goals should be at the top of your to-do list for junior developers. When you map out what you want to accomplish, it sets clear expectations. Not having expectations creates setbacks in development for everyone involved.

At Seamgen, we value helping all our developers grow into the best team member they can be for the company. Passing along our business values and behavior practices help us all become a stronger team. If you have any questions or comments, please Contact Seamgen!