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This seems like a really uncharitable view of mentorship. I have never felt condescended to when I was being mentored by someone with more skills or experience
by mplanchard 7y ago
This seems like a really uncharitable view of mentorship.
I have never felt condescended to when I was being mentored by someone with more skills or experience in any of my jobs, and I certainly hope that the people I help through one on ones, code review, and pairing now don’t feel as though there’s any condescension in it. I think mostly, we all just want to become as good as we can be at our jobs.
- itronitron 7y agoIf everyone wants to become as good as they can at their jobs then why call out mentoring as a special activity? People should already be helping their colleagues perform better at their jobs without incentivizing it as a checkbox for career advancement.
- sweeneyrod 7y ago> If everyone wants to become as good as they can at their jobs then why call out mentoring as a special activity? Because plenty of people won't do it naturally; teaching people things isn't always fun (or alternatively is less fun than coding).
- joshuamorton 7y agoThis sounds like an argument against rubrics or ladder requirements in general, not a particular problem with mentorship as a requirement. If you want employees to mentor others, call it out as a thing to encourage. If you don't do that, people will be less inclined to do it, instead focusing on raw technical impact or whatever. Why call out writing good code as a requirement for advancement if everyone should do it anyway? Well, not everyone values the same things. Making values explicit isn't bad.