Why I'm participating in a mentorship program
· 3 MIN READ
In the slump
The past few months have felt really sluggish. I haven’t felt extremely productive or motivated. I haven’t really worked on new side projects. My full-time job has slowed down a bit. Even some of my habits around working out and reading books have waned. But, I got up this morning and it occurred to me. I’ve been preaching discipline over motivation for years. I’m an ambassador for the idea that we shouldn’t rely on that “jolt” to get us up and going. And instead, we should invest in crafting discipline.
So… I’m going to practice what I preach. I want to get myself out of this plateau.
70-20-10 rule of learning
The 70-20-10 rule of learning reveals that 70% of our knowledge is built on our day-to-day work, while 20% are from developmental relationships such as managers or tech leads, and the last 10% should come from self-driven learning such as coursework, books, or videos.
Let’s apply it.
70% (daily work): Continue to deliver work and improve technically. I’ll continue to set personal deadlines, to-do lists, and daily/weekly goals. Execute, evaluate, fine-tune, and repeat.
20% (development relationships): If you read the title of this article, you’ll know that I’m participating in a mentorship program! I’m going to be a mentee. Below, I talk more on the mentorship program and what I initially want to get out of it.
10% (self-driven): I’ve yet to fully define what my self-driven learning looks like, but I plan to come up with a set of weaknesses or topics I’d like to learn more about. In conjunction with the mentorship program, I’m hoping to
Improvement
Staying engaged
Engagement is important. It affects how much and how fast you learn. Academically, I often performed better when I’d participate in discussions and ask questions.
Sometimes, I feel scared to ask questions unless I know it’s a good question. But often times, I get so caught up in my own head that I end up never asking the question, even if they’re “good”.
Even in my personal life among friends and family, I feel like I don’t actually ask others enough questions. Instead, I do a lot of the answering. It’s a bad habit.
Mentorship
Recently, I enrolled into a mentorship program as a mentee. My greatest periods of advancements as an engineer were when I worked under the mentorship of amazing engineers. Getting to work with a new mentor is both scary and exciting.
I’m not exactly sure what I want to get out of it, but in the coming week or two, I plan to meet with him, lay out some of our goals (not just mine), and ultimately start to build a relationship.
Some questions off the top of my head?
- What do you feel helped accelerate your software career?
- Are there notable mental models or frameworks that helped you?
- If you can go back to your early SWE days, what would you have done differently?
- In what ways can I help you in your goals?
- Any notable books/blogs you recommend?
This post is definitely more of a letter to myself. When I review this article in a few months, I’d like to be able to answer these questions:
- Are you out of the slump?
- Did you improve? In what areas? Are you more technical? Did you build more soft skills? Maybe even managerial skills?
- Are you asking more questions? Are you fully understanding something before letting it pass you by?
- Have you built a good relationship with your mentor? Would you ask your mentor to write you a reference or recommendation?
- What do you think could’ve made it go better?
Hoping for the best. See you in a few.