How to train up juniors in team? | Hacker News Reader

How to train up juniors in team?

3 pointsrr8084 comments

We have a team of ~20 people globally including a bunch of grads that I think really dont know the basics like bash scripts, databases, Networking, OOP etc. Our employer has access lots of resources available but its a bit overwhelming.

Has anyone found a way to train up a bunch of people at the same time? I myself am quite motivated to learn myself but its just not happening for my team members.

I was thinking of running monthly bootcamps on specific topics. Alternatively maybe encouraging people to do specific courses?

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As a senior developer I trained juniors all the time during different projects successfully. I don’t think bootcamps and workshops help much as the provided knowledge is not immediately used in real-world work. Instead I delegated parts of my work directly to the juniors. Small bits at first. Then giving them detailed reviews. Harder tasks are done in pair programming, let the junior be the driver. Never suggest direct solutions! Let them find solutions themselves so they gain trust in their own abilities. Show them how to go deep into existing code and library code - teach them how to learn so to say.

It’s crucial to let them work on real stuff. Work with them together and become a team - even better - a team you can form yourself. Also motivation is a factor. So you have to get to know them personally well. Not everyone is made to be a programmer. Some are more interested in business and management - but still can become valuable and competent developers.

Thanks. We do get people on simple tasks, I think programming in general is under control. Its the formal side that I think needs some formal training. Ie how to design a database isn't something you get much exposure to when you're incrementing a bit of new functionality.

We document TILs (today I learned) in a GitHub repo and give mini tech-talks internally encouraging people to contribute. Next one on the list is “how indexing works in Postgres” with details on Btrees. The tech talks are one of the most appreciated things so far.

Giving some degree of freedom to innovate and assume ownership is also crucial. Feel free to reach out to me per email if you want, I am also looking for new ideas on how to improve this.

Getting people to give talks is a good idea as its extra pressure to learn so you know what you're talking about. Thanks.

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