My first intentional experience around mentorship in software development began in June 2014 - I know because I made a note about it which I still have. The note said that “formal mentorship” was new to us (the us being the small consultancy I worked for), that as a company we were not exactly sure how mentorship worked but were open to experimentation. It went on to say that as a first experiment everyone in the company would pick someone else as their mentor and set up a regular meeting with them to be mentored. It ended with the commitment that after a few months we would get back together as a group and give feedback on what we had learned.
I can’t remember if we ever did get back together to review how the first experiment with mentorship went. What I do remember is the experience I had with my mentor—the activity was deeply fulfilling. We met weekly and discussed all things software related. Those conversations have helped shape many of the views I have today on how to make software. Since that initial mentorship experience I’ve had several opportunities to set up software mentoring relationships.
In the next few months I would like to document some of the learning’s I’ve had around software mentorship. I want to do this to provide a “thinking pad” to bounce ideas off others and to gain insights into where my thinking can be enhanced.
