A passion for programming. Chapter 13. Find a Mentor

About transfer

This is the translation of Chapter 13 of the book The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development . Its author, Chad Fowler, is a talented Ruby developer, a well-known speaker at a conference on Ruby and IT in general. Former saxophonist, and now - CTO 6Wunderkinder.

The book talks about different aspects of a programmer’s career, gives interesting advice for both novice developers, as well as well-established professionals. The book consists of 53 chapters (besides, after some chapters there are interesting stories, one of which has already been translated twice into Habré). The chapters are fairly independent and you can get to know them in any order. The book will appeal to many programmers who are interested in the view of a distinguished professional on a modern IT career. And of course, I recommend to buy this book in electronic or printed form as a sign of gratitude to the author.


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Chapter 13. Find a Mentor

What is good about jazz is the practice of mentoring. In the world of jazz, a young musician will simply find a more experienced mentor who will take him under the wing and convey the traditions and culture of jazz. And not only this. Experienced musicians can often advise on a career, give advice or give an impartial look from the outside ^[1] . In return, young musicians are very dedicated and gather fan groups for their mentors.

Thanks to such relationships, musicians are invited to work every day and they get useful contacts. The culture of jazz music is self-organizing and consists of customs related to the relationship between a mentor and a ward. This system works so well that it can be suspected that it is controlled by some governing body.

To depend on someone is good. Just make sure that this is the man.

In the world of professionals (especially in IT), we are not too fond of asking someone for help. Dependence on others is often considered a sign of weakness. We are afraid to admit that we are not perfect. Life is a competition, the strongest survive and all that ^[2] . Unfortunately, this leads to terribly underdeveloped mentoring systems. If I ask a few musicians: “Who is your mentor?”, Many will have the answer. But if I ask the same question to the programmers, they will only answer “What?”.

But it was not always so. Western history knows a flourishing system of professional coaching, which dates back to the Middle Ages. The artisans' approach to vocational training was even stronger and more formal than the system that originated in music. Young people began their professional careers as apprentices to famous artisans. For the work they received not only salary, but also the opportunity to learn from the master. The duty of the master was to teach them to do the job as well as he did.

The first and most important function of a mentor is to be an object of imitation. It is difficult to understand what you are capable of, as long as there is no one to expand the boundaries of what you know ³ . The role model defines what “good” means. If you, for example, play chess only with members of your family and win, you can consider yourself a good chess player. But if you enter the tournament, you will understand that chess is a much deeper game than you would think. Then, if you play with professionals, you will make another discovery. While you are winning over your family members, you may feel that you are a good chess player . Without a role model, there is no incentive to get better.

A mentor can also add structure to your learning process. As you saw in the previous chapter , you have a staggering amount of technology options and areas in which to invest strength. Sometimes too much variety can put you in a stupor. It is better to move in one direction than to sit still (within reason). A mentor can help choose where to direct your energy.

When I started my career as a systems support specialist, I went along with one of the network administrators of the university named Ken. He pulled me out of a big problem with the university network, preventing students from using computer labs. After that, he could no longer surprise me (and he did not try) ^[4] . When I asked him to give me advice on how to learn more and become more independent, he gave me a simple recipe: deal with directory services, learn their UNIX version and learn the scripting language.

He chose these three skills for me among all possible. Looking at the confidence with which this person, whom I considered to be a master, advised them, I decided to master these three skills. Since then, my career has been built on the basis of this knowledge, which is still relevant in everything I do. Not that Ken pointed me in the right direction - there are none. The important thing is that he narrowed down a long list of skills that I could learn to a short list of skills that I learned .

In addition, the mentor serves as a trustee. He can observe and judge your decisions or progress. If you are a programmer, you can show him your code and get directions. If you are going to make a presentation at the office or at a rally, you can first present it to your mentor and get his opinion. A mentor is a person you can trust enough to ask: “What is the difference between me and a professional?” He will not only criticize you, but also help to become better.

And finally, as in jazz, not only do you become attached and become responsible to the mentor, but vice versa. If I help someone, I invest in the success of that person. I am pushing him along the career ladder along the path I believe in myself. And if this path leads to success, it is also my success.

This creates an incentive from the mentor for his players to succeed. As a rule, when such a person becomes more experienced and successful, he already enjoys the respect of a large group of people. The mentor becomes the link between you and this group. The importance of such dating is hard to overestimate. In the end, it’s not for nothing that they say: “Connections decide everything” ^[5] .

The degree of formality in the relationship between the mentor and the ward is not so important. Of course, no one would directly ask someone to become his mentor (although it would be nice). In fact, a person may not even know that you consider him to be your mentor. What matters is that you have someone to trust, someone to admire, someone who can advise on a career or help hone your skills.

Act!

1. Myself a mentor . It would be perfect if each of us had a mentor. But the reality is that it is not always possible to find someone who could become one. Here is a way to become your own mentor.
   Think about which of your surroundings you most admire. Many of us at some stage in our career have already formed a short list of such people. This could be someone we work with, or whose work we like. Make a list of the ten main parameters of your role model. Choose those that make this person your ideal. These parameters can be both specific areas of knowledge, and deep knowledge in a particular field. It can also be personal skills, such as the ability to ensure the comfort of team members, or oratorical skills.
   Now put these qualities in order of importance, so that in the first place were the least important, and in the tenth - the most important. You have compiled and cleared a list of abilities that you consider amazing and important. If you seek to imitate your idol, you must cultivate these qualities in yourself. But how to choose what to focus on first?
   Add another column to the list. Imagine how would you rate your role model and put a rating from 1 to 10 in front of each parameter (10 - the highest score). Try to really appreciate yourself in terms of your ideal.
   When you have the parameters arranged in the correct order, and your own estimate, in the third column subtract your rating (second column) from the importance of each item (first column). If you put something on the 10th place (the most important thing on the list), and your score on this item is 3, then the final priority is 7. Fully filling in the last column, sort it in descending order and get a prioritized list of ten skills which you should improve.
   Start with the first two or three things and combine them into a specific list of tasks that you can already begin to perform in order to become better.

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[1] - These older musicians often serve as career counselors, life advisors, and sounding boards.
[2] - Everything is competition. Only the strong survive, and all that.
[3] - it’s hard to know what you want.
[4] - I’m not trying to shake me, but I’m not happy. ).
[5] - “It's not what you know. It's who you know. ”

Messages about typos or errors are received in the LAN.

Crowdsourcing translation of the book is conducted on github , join.