One thing I’ve always loved doing as a teacher and mentor is, “Let’s try it, and see what it does.” I often learn things I wasn’t expecting, or get new ideas. There are many more reasons, but it’s time for all potential, practicing and professional programmers to stop thinking so much about how they will get their own tasks completed, and start thinking about the ultimate success of the company, teams and projects.
Even from a greedy perspective, helping others in the companies makes sense. Helping others makes you a reference, or a known expert. But, it also generates social connections, puts your name higher up on lists and introduces new opportunities.
But from a practical sense, it is even better. You learn new ways of either doing things or not doing them. You get good examples of both good and bad work, beyond what you have done on your own. You get to experience other coding dialects within the same languages. Everybody you work with will often have some valuable perspective that you can learn from.
So here are a couple rules of thumb to make sure your applying.
*Always listen to the other perspective. Try to imagine that the idea they are talking about is yours, and imagine ways that it could be made to work in different areas. When you come to blockers, you’ll have really effective means of challenging it. Not to mention you might learn something.
*Try something new. Technology and how it relates to the world are constantly changing. You should never believe there is any form of end-all-be-all solutions. You’ve probably worked with someone who knew they were right about something, and wouldn’t even bother to look at another perspective. So don’t be that person yourself. Everything in life changes, all the time, whether we want to perceive it or not.
*Be willing to help when ever reasonable. When we join a company, or a project, we are telling the rest of the team that we will do our part of the work. So what does it mean if you get all your stuff done, but let everyone else fail? Try to imagine that you are not yourself, but a part of a larger form, that is working towards one goal. This will help you take the “I” out of TEAM. Besides, if it’s a quick fix, you’ll be done really fast, and if it is not a quick fix, you’ll learn something from it.
*Let others know that they can use some of your time if they need to. Just being available to help isn’t enough when many feel that seeking help, is embarrassing, and that others will probably just mock them, even just subtly. Did you ever ask someone something, and they give you a look or expression that says in a mocking tone, “You don’t know how do to that?” It is tough. But if you make sure they really believe that you are open to assisting, that you see the project as a whole, they will be far more open to seek help faster.
Now, take a step back and imagine most of the difficult scenarios family and friends. Apply this same logic. Imagine how much it would have helped. This is my basis of being a mentor. It is my opinion. I welcome you to apply it, learn from it, improve it or challenge it.
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