3 ms·

Most of the young grads I've mentored have been a pain the bum, seemed to not want any help and generally had a bad attitude.

bell-cot 5y ago
This +10 (if I could). Whether you really enjoy a bit of mentoring, are just trying to be a nice old man, or it's officially part of your job, you have to be picky about who you mentor, and what the mentoring relationship looks like. First cut: The kid must have decent emotional maturity, appreciate your advice, and really benefit from it. Definitely don't let yourself be tagged "mentor" until those are clearly established. You ain't signing up to be the long-suffering parent of some teenage rebel. (That said, my experience with younger folk has not been nearly so bad as Dave3of5's.)
ifokiedoke 5y ago
+1000. Almost everyone who's "singled" me out to be a mentor has been some greedy CS + Business grad who asks me mostly emotional or money-related questions that I essentially can't answer other than with "It depends on you and what you personally want." This one guy specifically, who keeps reaching out to me, once kept me on a call for almost an hour basically asking me whether or not he should re-neg on an offer he signed ONE WEEK BEFORE THE JOB STARTED because he'd kept applying and got an offer somewhere else that paid more. I basically said "I mean if that's what you really want, you should do it, but be aware that the tech world is small and it's not going to look good" and he just kept trying to rationalize it because he'd clearly already made up his mind. Another time, he sent me an email that started with "I just wanted to thank you for your help last time" but then immediately would delve into some other totally asinine quandary he'd gotten into because he had no integrity and/or trust in other people. These people are impossible to help...

3 ms·

Most of the young grads I've mentored have been a pain the bum, seemed to not want any help and generally had a bad attitude.

by Dave3of5 5y ago

bell-cot 5y ago
This +10 (if I could). Whether you really enjoy a bit of mentoring, are just trying to be a nice old man, or it's officially part of your job, you have to be picky about who you mentor, and what the mentoring relationship looks like. First cut: The kid must have decent emotional maturity, appreciate your advice, and really benefit from it. Definitely don't let yourself be tagged "mentor" until those are clearly established. You ain't signing up to be the long-suffering parent of some teenage rebel. (That said, my experience with younger folk has not been nearly so bad as Dave3of5's.)
ifokiedoke 5y ago
+1000. Almost everyone who's "singled" me out to be a mentor has been some greedy CS + Business grad who asks me mostly emotional or money-related questions that I essentially can't answer other than with "It depends on you and what you personally want." This one guy specifically, who keeps reaching out to me, once kept me on a call for almost an hour basically asking me whether or not he should re-neg on an offer he signed ONE WEEK BEFORE THE JOB STARTED because he'd kept applying and got an offer somewhere else that paid more. I basically said "I mean if that's what you really want, you should do it, but be aware that the tech world is small and it's not going to look good" and he just kept trying to rationalize it because he'd clearly already made up his mind. Another time, he sent me an email that started with "I just wanted to thank you for your help last time" but then immediately would delve into some other totally asinine quandary he'd gotten into because he had no integrity and/or trust in other people. These people are impossible to help...