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"who either function well with very little guidance" That's the definition of a senior developer and senior employees. For junior developers I've worked in pr

by ipaddr 6y ago

"who either function well with very little guidance" That's the definition of a senior developer and senior employees. For junior developers I've worked in pre-covid with juniors in wfh environments and success rates are lower. For everyone 1 developer who finds there way you have another who can't setup there environment. If someone held your hand in school or if you relied on working together I could see things falling apart quickly online. I feel like the new grads will have wfh school experience from this year will adapt well.

Robotbeat 6y ago
Yeah, I definitely think it’s a senior vs junior thing. Experienced folk already know the ropes and keep their head down without interruptions from underlings or junior developers. Junior developers have a harder time with acquiring tacit knowledge and need more handholding, which they don’t get because the experienced folk have their head down. I’ve had a couple interns lately, and the WFH experience with them has been much less successful than past in-person internships have been. They’re able to basically moonlight on a remote project, and there has been actually MORE handholding required as it’s much harder to judge when they’re struggling or if they have things under control. There are a lot more non-work distractions for them and they have developed less camaraderie between each other as lunch times, social activities, and fortuitous interactions have been rarer. The lack of established trust also has significant overhead. So I agree that this is in many ways a senior vs junior and a maturity divide, however these are digital-native students and they’re still struggling, so I’m not sure I agree it’s going to get much better. I think some of the WFH productivity gains are coasting on pre-pandemic trust and implicit knowledge transfer that aren’t happening as much any more. You can see how hard it is for young people in particular by seeing the drops in performance due to school-at-home. (However, WFH is indeed forcing some familiarity with remote work for many institutions that resisted technology and teleworking arrangements, so there definitely has been some improvement in some areas. It has been a godsend for some people, and that will be a lasting benefit of 2020’s forced WFH experiment.)
- porb121 6y ago
  I interned remotely last summer and it was a disaster. I had very little direction, couldn't stay focused on work, didn't meet anyone, and really learned very little. Not looking forward to doing it again this summer.
  - Robotbeat 6y ago
    Yeah, I used "handholding," but that's really an unnecessarily pejorative term for providing direction and knowledge transfer to less-senior employees. I.e. senior employees and managers actually doing their frakking jobs. What advice would you give to an intern's mentor to improve the remote internship experience?
    - slt2021 6y ago
      let interns meet or communicate and share onboarding experience with each ither. so kne senior dev can "hold hand" of a single intern, so to speak, and that intern will hold hands of other interns
    - DC1350 6y ago
      I was a 2x WFH intern. Micromanage the intern a bit more. Ask to see code that’s being worked on and don’t let them go too long without interaction. It’s way too easy to get distracted when the only interaction we have is a 15 minute stand up in the morning, a few slack messages, and 8 hours of time to manage ourselves. There were a lot of days where I could get done more work in the hour before a 1:1 meeting than the rest of the day. When I’m not learning much and the feedback is still positive even when I slack off then it’s really hard to stay motivated. Also remember that interns don’t have a home office and most are in their bedroom at the same desk they relax and play games at. It doesn’t feel like I’m actually at work unless there’s frequent interaction
      - HomeDeLaPot 6y ago
        One nice way to "micromanage" and also just learn how senior devs work is to pair program. I feel like it's been a boon for me, as a junior dev myself.

by ipaddr 6y ago

Robotbeat 6y ago

Yeah, I definitely think it’s a senior vs junior thing. Experienced folk already know the ropes and keep their head down without interruptions from underlings or junior developers. Junior developers have a harder time with acquiring tacit knowledge and need more handholding, which they don’t get because the experienced folk have their head down. I’ve had a couple interns lately, and the WFH experience with them has been much less successful than past in-person internships have been. They’re able to basically moonlight on a remote project, and there has been actually MORE handholding required as it’s much harder to judge when they’re struggling or if they have things under control. There are a lot more non-work distractions for them and they have developed less camaraderie between each other as lunch times, social activities, and fortuitous interactions have been rarer. The lack of established trust also has significant overhead. So I agree that this is in many ways a senior vs junior and a maturity divide, however these are digital-native students and they’re still struggling, so I’m not sure I agree it’s going to get much better. I think some of the WFH productivity gains are coasting on pre-pandemic trust and implicit knowledge transfer that aren’t happening as much any more. You can see how hard it is for young people in particular by seeing the drops in performance due to school-at-home. (However, WFH is indeed forcing some familiarity with remote work for many institutions that resisted technology and teleworking arrangements, so there definitely has been some improvement in some areas. It has been a godsend for some people, and that will be a lasting benefit of 2020’s forced WFH experiment.)

porb121 6y ago
I interned remotely last summer and it was a disaster. I had very little direction, couldn't stay focused on work, didn't meet anyone, and really learned very little. Not looking forward to doing it again this summer.
- Robotbeat 6y ago
  Yeah, I used "handholding," but that's really an unnecessarily pejorative term for providing direction and knowledge transfer to less-senior employees. I.e. senior employees and managers actually doing their frakking jobs. What advice would you give to an intern's mentor to improve the remote internship experience?
  - slt2021 6y ago
    let interns meet or communicate and share onboarding experience with each ither. so kne senior dev can "hold hand" of a single intern, so to speak, and that intern will hold hands of other interns
  - DC1350 6y ago
    I was a 2x WFH intern. Micromanage the intern a bit more. Ask to see code that’s being worked on and don’t let them go too long without interaction. It’s way too easy to get distracted when the only interaction we have is a 15 minute stand up in the morning, a few slack messages, and 8 hours of time to manage ourselves. There were a lot of days where I could get done more work in the hour before a 1:1 meeting than the rest of the day. When I’m not learning much and the feedback is still positive even when I slack off then it’s really hard to stay motivated. Also remember that interns don’t have a home office and most are in their bedroom at the same desk they relax and play games at. It doesn’t feel like I’m actually at work unless there’s frequent interaction
    - HomeDeLaPot 6y ago
      One nice way to "micromanage" and also just learn how senior devs work is to pair program. I feel like it's been a boon for me, as a junior dev myself.