Apprenticeship/Mentorship Success!
One of my apprentices from this past summer just accepted a job… at another company. I’m totally pumped for him, but most of the people I brag to about it say the same thing with the same reaction:
<sigh_of_defeat>Shoot, we didn’t get him.</sigh_of_defeat>
As if we failed miserably.
For me, the apprenticeship/intern process has the following 4 goals (in order of importance, most to least).
- Teach and develop the apprentice as much as they can possibly absorb. This includes technical skills, sof-tech skills (like how to learn, what it means to be an engineer, passion, etc.), and soft skills (e.g. how to deal with your lead/PM/that annoying guy next door, etc.).
- Learn from the apprentice as much as I possibly can. These guys are at school at an amazing time with amazing things happening. Leech this new knowledge… it’s relatively free. (I’m unapologetically selfish in this regard… I love to learn
- Develop an environment where the apprentice feels comfortable with his mentor, and can start to learn and teach with his mentor back and forth… a true partnership.
- Oh yeah, the last/least benefit… recruiting. (Sorry Raman)
If at the end of this he happens to also be productive, great, win-win… but that isn’t the point (again, that’s my opinion).
After that list, does this look like defeat? Not to me. This looks like a dead-on success. We NAILED it. Let’s celebrate! Congrats Man. Next time we meet, I’m sure I’ll have something to learn.
[I’m at least going to pretend I played some small part in this outcome. Whether I really did or not, is debatable.]
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View Jon Fuller's profile
January 25th, 2010 - 15:41
I got him first
Of course it’s always easiest when the apprentice has a natural talent. The trick is not letting him know that so he doesn’t get too big of a head.
April 6th, 2010 - 18:54
Can’t remember if I issued a sigh of defeat. I do remember that we considered that a ‘good’ loss because he knew what he wanted to do and we weren’t a fit. The goal in our recruiting process is a decisive decision, not to convince everyone to come here.
More on point, if you do those first three goals, the fourth will naturally work out just fine. I totally agree on the productivity point as well … my hope is that we break even (what we pay and invest vs. what we get back).