A Reflection on Mentorship
A Note to the Reader
I am writing this as a shorter reflection of unordered miscellaneous learnings and lessons over the years on mentorship — technical and non-technical.
Being a Great Mentee
Being a great mentee is honestly harder in my opinion than being a mentor. Why? Because you hold yourself accountable for what you want out of the experience. Your mentor will not know what your challenges, accomplishments, and learning style will be unless you openly communicate with them. A good mentor will be able to assume personality fit and characteristics about you, but it is ultimately up to you what you get out of the experience. Being a mentee at the NIH and now a research lab has taught me the following:
- You can always learn from someone. If you can’t find someone, you either outgrew the environment you’re in or you’re not listening/trying to seek out mentors.
- There are no dumb questions but there are questions that show that you aren’t listening to your mentor. Ask questions when you think they are dumb but make sure to think them out, and make sure they are thoughtful. Topics shouldn’t be restricted if your mentor is a resource, but repeating what they just said to expected you to know verbatim is not helpful to anyone.
- Reach out to schedule 1x1 meetings with your mentor on a regular basis.
- Network with your fellow mentees and learn from them about your mentor and their own work to gain different perspectives.
- Give your best effort consistently. We all have our off days, but if someone is putting in effort to mentor you, you should expect to deliver the same.
Becoming a Great Mentor
This list is a bit shorter, as a lot of it is similar to above:
- There are no dumb questions only non-serious answers — If your mentee asks something that seems obvious to you, don’t ridicule them. Reflect on why they asked that and how they arrived to that train of thought, unless it something they said they’ve understood in the past or something they can easily follow online. Then refer them to a link with suggested keywords for next time.
- Take note of your mentees learning style — Is it online? Do they do better with visuals? Are they more introverted and prefer to look at your code? Tailor the experience to them.
- Don’t be afraid to weave in personal elements. Personally, I think giving my mentees relatable stories whether it be career transition to tech or how I learned in undergrad/high school or how I grew up, helps me feel more relatable and comfortable to the audience.
- Make sure to give some challenges and not just hand out answers.
- As your mentee grows, include challenges along the way that are solvable. This can be in the form of presentations or technical problems they need to solve.
- Learn from your mentee and don’t dismiss approaches you didn’t think of. Mentees should be thought of as your peers. Who knows? One day you may work alongside them. Always treat others the way you wish to be treated.