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For me, personally, of course I expected different treatment and different tasks when I was a junior. However, if I were given a task just for the sake of havin

For me, personally, of course I expected different treatment and different tasks when I was a junior. However, if I were given a task just for the sake of having a task (i.e. "create X, then feel free to delete it"), that would be hugehly demoralising (as in, "you don't trust me to do even a basic useful thing? We have to start at a basic useless thing?") I don't know what OP meant, but I assume that's what he was driving at.

pdpi 8y ago
Again, lead vs mentor. The mentor/mentee relationship isn't usually a formal one enforced by your workplace — it's one built over time, when a less experience member of the team trusts somebody more knowledgeable, and seeks them out for advice. Any such suggestions are usually meant to be taken as as side projects, not as work tasks. A lead giving you a task like that is probably inappropriate, because they should be focused on producing results. They should, instead, try to find low-hanging fruit that's within your reach. For a mentor, however, it's entirely appropriate to tell you to do something "useless" because the real goal isn't the end product, but the learning experience.