It helps to have a sharply defined goal. At a previous job, I mentored someone in a support role who wanted to move into a dev position. (They were also highly

It helps to have a sharply defined goal. At a previous job, I mentored someone in a support role who wanted to move into a dev position. (They were also highly motivated, which was helpful.) Our meetings largely focused on preparing for the dev interview -- filling in knowledge gaps, working through standard whiteboard questions, understanding and being able to articulate software design principles, etc... We actually covered pretty broad ground here. They got the job and I found the experience quite rewarding. After that, without the clear goal, I think we drifted a bit. Mentoring still had positive value, but I in general I think the value curve is logarithmic and after a while one reaches a point of diminishing returns.