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How to Be a Great Software Development Mentor Even If You Are Not Senior Yet

Our friends from Napice, allowed us to share this great article written by co-founder Victor O.

Napice is building a Tech Marketplace for Cohort-Based Programs, supporting each part of the ecosystem and kicking off our flywheel.
As the tech community scales, value scales exponentially as experience, talent, and collaborative opportunities find each other.

In this article, Victor talks about how to be a software development mentor even if you are still climbing your career rungs yourself.

The best way to grow faster in your software development career is to provide mentorship to less experienced software developers. One of the benefits of mentoring is the opportunity to rekindle old relationships and develop new ones that could lead to unique opportunities and insights.

 

 

Here are some activities that great mentors practice:

 

1 – Communicate and listen

Your mentee should ultimately oversee their own career path. You help them achieve whatever it is they want to achieve.
Ask them about their aspirations as well as their expectations of you.
Are they looking for support, guidance, or insight?
Make sure to target your approach. Perhaps you want to help someone who’s experiencing a similar situation as you did, or maybe you want to give someone opportunities they don’t have access to.

 

2 – Offer constructive criticism

While you don’t want to judge or offend your mentee, you shouldn’t filter your feedback to avoid hurting them, either.
There is a way to deliver criticism without breaking their confidence.
Sharing your experience is a great way to send a message without criticizing them directly.

 

3 – Practice empathy

Become curious about people you don’t know. Empathetic people are people who are curious about those around them.
Put yourself in someone’s shoes.
Focus on similarities rather than differences

 

4 – Let your mentee make decisions

Your role as a mentor is to help them develop those skills.

Think of yourself as a driving instructor: You’re sitting on the passenger’s side, allowing your mentee full control of the journey. However, you’re still there to offer advice and directions or to pull the emergency brake if needed.

[Note]: This article was originally written and published by Napice co-founder Victor O. Check it here.

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