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Hello everyone! I’m

Jo Franchetti

You can find me at

@thisisjofrank

and on medium at

https://medium.com/@jofranchetti

@thisisjofrank

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@thisisjofrank

Firstly I’d like you to cast your minds back to when you started your careers, for some of you this may not have been very long ago, for some of you maybe it was a little longer.

When you started out, when you were in your first junior role, did you feel comfortable?

Did you feel like you knew what you were doing every day? Did you feel like you had the support and attention that you needed?

Did you wish you had someone you could ask the ‘stupid questions’ to?

My own career as a web developer started when I decided that I hated the subject that I’d just got a degree in and that i needed to do something else

I taught myself HTML and CSS by copying other people’s code, essentially ripping off view source of whatever websites I liked the look of.

And when I got stuck, when a piece of layout wouldn’t go where I wanted it to, or a piece of functionality didn’t work then i stayed stuck. I had no idea where to look for answers, no one to ask and even if i had known where or who to ask i didn’t really know what question i was asking.

Anyone else experienced this? Asking a question is scary when you’re already feeling unsure, when you feel like everyone else already knows the answer.

I wished I had someone I could ask without feeling stupid. Someone who wouldn’t judge me, or talk down to me.

I really needed a mentor, someone who could set me back on the right path, point me in the right direction.

And that’s why I got into mentoring, I wanted to be the person that I wish I’d had. I didn’t want anyone else entering the industry to go through the loneliness and uncertainty that I went through.

And in getting into mentoring I discovered something wonderful,

Yes I was helping my fellow developers, and yes I was making a positive change for the industry, but I also made a positive change for myself. I learnt new things and developed myself as much as I was helping my mentees.

Mentoring has entirely changed my life, I wouldn’t have my current job and I certainly wouldn’t be up here talking to all of you if I’d not first been a mentor.

And as any good mentor does, I wanted to share with you all the things that I’ve learnt so that you can take them away and start making a difference too.

But before I do I want to tell you something

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@thisisjofrank

This is for everyone,

mentoring is for everyone.

It’s not just for the seniors, or even the middleweights

Everyone can mentor. And by mentoring we make being a developer more achievable for everyone else.

Junior developers, you can mentor too

You all can mentor.

And it's likely you already have mentored someone at some point.

Every time someone asked you to explain something to them or asked to teach them how to do something, you were a mentor at that point in time

And don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the fears of getting started.

I’ll admit that at first I was reluctant to join in when industry friends told me that they were teaching juniors.

Imposter syndrome kicked in and I was certain that I’d never be any use to other developers.

I’d be the first in line to tell you that I don’t know everything there is to know about web development,

but here’s the thing, no one expects you to know everything.

In fact the belief that it is even possible to know everything is what is causing so many of us to suffer from impostor syndrome.

Admitting that you don’t know something is one of the most powerful things you can do as a mentor.

Our industry needs more of us to talk about asking for help, and about not knowing things.

However, If there is one thing that developers do know, it is how to look stuff up.

Through practice, and sometimes desperation, we’re pretty good at finding the answer to a question, and teaching how to find an answer is just as important as teaching the answer

Teach what you do know and you and your student can explore together that which you do not.

And for those of you who are concerned about being too junior to mentor,

You’ve got experience that those who haven’t yet had their first job in tech don’t have

You’ve been through the process, you’ve done the interviews and the tech tests,

There’s a lot you can tell someone who is starting on the first rung of the ladder

Not only that but teaching someone else is an excellent way to make the things that you’re learning now, stick in your head.

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@thisisjofrank

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying before, that teaching a subject helps you to get a better grip on that subject yourself.

Teaching someone else is a great way to find and fill in the gaps in your own knowledge. You can't get away with being confused when you have a student. They’ll ask for clarification and you'll have to sort out your own confusion, then you can both learn together.

By the time you’ve explained a topic to a handful of different students – each with their own set of problems, plans and questions – your knowledge will be so encyclopedic that when you next have a problem the answer will be at your fingertips and not at the end of a stack overflow dive.

And even if you think that you’ve no gaps in your knowledge (you’re either a very rare genius or deluded), coming up with ways to make a concept accessible to a beginner is going to make you consider it from new angles and to explore nuances you may have otherwise ignored.

I heard a brilliant quote the other day from Clare Sudbery, a lead developer at Thoughtworks, who said that ‘deep held knowledge is worth nothing if it can’t be communicated.’

If you feel like you know your subject inside out, but you can’t explain it to your colleagues, a junior developer or someone that you’re managing, then that is a problem.

The evidence of true mastery of a concept is the ability to explain it in simple terms to someone less experienced than you are.

Making your knowledge accessible is an incredibly important part of becoming a better developer and a better colleague.

When we talk to team members about a problem or solution, or even when we’re writing code, we want others to be able to understand what we mean.

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@thisisjofrank

Practice communicating a complicated topic to a junior or a layperson will improve your skills of communication in general.

How many times have you had to explain to a client or a manager or a non-technical colleague why a certain piece of work will take longer than hoped?

Or maybe to a content manager why uploading a 3meg images to the CMS is sub optimal?

It is common for developers to suffer from something called ‘assumed knowledge syndrome’

we say things like ‘obviously…’ or ‘X technology is easy’, Or even worse the ‘because it’s best practice’ cop-out answer.

This can be incredibly alienating for junior developers, to those trying to learn or to anyone who isn’t quite at the same level of understanding as you are.

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve attended talks where the speaker uses words like ‘easy’ or ‘obviously’ when giving a technical talk.

‘It’s not that obvious to me, why don’t you spell it out?!’ I’ve wanted to scream from the audience, and yet I still have made the mistake of telling my students that ‘CSS is easy’.

Luckily, some of them have had the confidence to correct me, ‘It might be easy for you, but I’m still learning this stuff’.

I have always been taught that when dealing with students, or junior developers to ‘Assume zero knowledge and infinite intelligence’ that way I no longer leave gaps in my explanations, or call subjects easy, or shame people when they’ve not heard of something or used it before.

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@thisisjofrank

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@thisisjofrank

We want to be people who encourage learning and questions and excitement.

As developers, especially on the web, there are constantly new things to learn. New Frameworks, new tools, new libraries and it is so easy to feel jaded about new things,

even to feel anxiety around not keeping up with everything.

Working with junior developers can reignite your passion for learning. Their positivity and keenness to learn new things is contagious.

We should all be learning all the time. we should all be excited about learning.

We should encourage asking questions and of course encourage looking for answers.

Sharing knowledge is a huge part of being a developer, and shaming people for asking questions is one of the things that makes the tech industry so un-inclusive.

Not just that but understanding that people learn in different ways and work in different ways will make us more pleasant to work with.

Let people process information they way they need to,

Some people are visual learners, some need to write things down, some need to talk through problems.

Understanding how others, and you yourself learn is the first step to making learning more fun, and less stress.

Do they prefer you to talk them through a problem or to work quietly and ask questions when they need?

Find out if they prefer face to face, or remote meetings?

If your mentee gets stuck, try and imagine how they’re feeling in that moment, think about why they’re reacting in a certain way.

Having empathy and understanding is a very important part of teaching and being a good colleague.

Everyone has bad/traumatic experiences that make them act strangely at times

Are you making them feel stupid, or overwhelmed? Overloaded maybe?

Slow down if you need to, ask them how they’re doing.

Remember that there is no such thing as a stupid question, if your student or colleague doesn’t know something it is much better that they ask than spend hours struggling and worrying on their own.

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@thisisjofrank

Making someone feel comfortable enough to ask you a question is one step, feeling comfortable enough to show someone else that you don’t know something is another,

and something that our whole industry needs to do more.

The tech industry has a harmful idolisation of the ‘tech celebrity’

That person who knows everything, who works and is productive constantly

Who picks up new things instantly, hell they’ve written a new and popular library while you were still struggling to learn the previous one

But what we never hear about is their foibles, we don’t hear about their down days, or the times when they needed to ask for help.

We forget that these people are specialists, they don’t know everything, they just know one thing really well.

Perfectionism in tech comes from our fear of not being as good as these people, from our fear that we’ll make a mistake, or that our work will be criticised.

How many of you have left a project unfinished because you thought it might not be 100% perfect?

How about feeling paralysed about starting a project because you can’t decide which way would give you the best outcome?

We need to feel safe and secure to ask questions, to feel safe to have an off day, to not pick things up instantly.

When people stop worrying about not knowing things, they have a lot more mental energy available to start learning things and to feel confident in their own ability.

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@thisisjofrank

Not only can teaching improve your knowledge but speaking about a subject to someone else will improve your confidence.

A few years ago I’d never have even considered standing on a stage in front of other developers, now I do it for a job! And I love it

Not only will you have the confidence of your newly cemented knowledge but you will have the respect and gratitude of your mentees, and that can’t help but bolster your confidence.

Having students turn to you at the end of a session and tell you that you helped them to finally grasp a topic, or that you’re their inspiration for wanting to learn, more can’t help but boost your confidence

and hopefully that will push you to try new and more daunting things.

A big part of being a mentor, in my opinion, is becoming an advocate for your mentee.

I heard a lovely description from the wonderful people at @codenewbies on twitter, who say to ‘Celebrate your student to the point of exhaustion!‘

You become their one person cheer squad, celebrating their victories and encouraging them to reach higher. To try new things. Meet new people. Apply for that job. Apply for that promotion!

You also help them feel like they belong in this industry and that they can make it through with hard work!

Some people self doubt to the point where they start excluding themselves and feel like tech isn't for them. Celebrating their victories helps them to know that they’re welcome and belong.

Interestingly, these are things that we’re often good at advising other people to do, but not ourselves,

How many times have you told a friend to ask for a raise, or to negotiate a higher salary? To not let themselves be overworked or underappreciated?

And then maybe not done those things for yourself when in the same position?

One of the things that I’ve found in being an advocate for other people is that you start to learn to advocate for yourself too.

After all, you can only dish out so much excellent advice before you start taking it yourself.

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ANSWERING QUESTIONS

WILL INCREASE YOUR RESERVES OF

PATIENCE

(IT’S LIKE EXERCISING A MUSCLE)

@thisisjofrank

We live impatient lives these days, everything is available on demand.

We are told that impatience is a good thing in a programmer, that the need for instant gratification makes us more efficient and lets us strive to build faster products and tools.

It can also, often, make us unpleasant to be around.

How many of you have had a parental technical support call recently? And did you stay calm the entire time?

I know I’ve snapped at my family a few times, and I’m the kind of Londoner who tuts when someone takes too long getting through a barrier at a tube station.

Mentoring has introduced me to an internal well of patience that I didn’t know I had – I’ve learnt that I have infinite tolerance for someone who is trying to learn.

That patience is necessary in order to ensure that your student doesn’t feel pressured to grasp an idea too quickly or too scared to ask you questions.

What I couldn’t have predicted is that this newfound patience has had a humanising effect on the rest of my life.

I am much slower to anger, and better at dealing with frustration in a positive way.

Understanding that frustration is a means to an end has improved the way I approach my own learning, whether it is a new framework, tool or just fixing a bug.

Your blood pressure level will thank you.

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@thisisjofrank

By meeting and working with those who are trying to break into the tech industry, especially those from groups currently underrepresented in the tech industry,

you can't help but increase your own cognitive diversity -

Which is your ability to understand more viewpoints and to consider things from new angles.

We don't all think, process information or see the world in the same way, and understanding this is really important to creating an inclusive working environment, and creating accessible products and services.

�An example I'd like to share that really taught me. I was working with a student on a website she was making for an organisation called sista space. They ran meetups for women who maybe don't get to leave the house often, or don't get to hang out with other women often.��My student was adding some finishing touches to the website, including a giant purple rosette button that followed you down the page, the CTA being 'leave site'. It was a link to the youtube homepage.��I was confused, are you trying to make your users leave with such a giant and intrusive call to action? She patiently explained to me that it was for women who might have a controlling or abusive partner.�If they don't want that partner to know that they they've been using the site, they can quickly navigate away if the partner tries to look at their monitor.

I’d have never thought of this use case and now that I have I can’t stop thinking about how little we know about the people who use our websites.

As developers, it is sometimes easy to think that nothing is more important than building the next feature, or using the most up to date technology. User testing and contextual research can feel like a painful pause in productivity.

But finding out who wants your product and how they might use it is just as important as how you make it. By skipping out on getting to know your audience, you could end up building things that they don’t want, or can’t use. If you have access to your users for feedback, use it.

There are too many examples of tech built by undiverse teams being not only unusable, but sometimes even harmful, be it websites without a thought for accessibility, automatic hand dryers that only turn on for white hands or seat belts that cause spinal injuries to women in crashes.

By not only working on our own cognitive diversity, but also encouraging people from minority groups into the tech industry, we’re increasing our ability to problem solve and to provide better and more valuable products and services.

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@thisisjofrank

Mentoring doesn’t have to be all about the tech. You’ve got all kinds of experience that you can share with those who are coming after you.

Be it advice on getting a job

Or managing your workload

Writing a good CV

Interview practice

How to spot a toxic work environment

Or even being a buddy to attend conferences with and network with

I’ve also heard of some offices implementing backwards mentoring. Where a junior is mentoring a director or executive.

If you’ve ever worked with C level folks who’ve been on 6 figure salaries in 6 bedroom mansions for so long that they can’t remember what it was like surviving on a junior salary or working overtime for no extra pay just because you’re afraid to lose your job

Then maybe you’ll understand why backwards mentoring is so important

Mentoring doesn’t have to be only about improving your skills and learning new languages or frameworks,

Making your job application process more pleasant and less stressful counts

I've lost count of the number of junior developers I've worked with who've had a terrible experience with job applications. Everything from never hearing anything after sending in an application to getting through the interview process and never hearing from them again. We have no right to treat people, who are interested enough in our workplace to actually apply for a job, like this. I know you're busy, but sort it out.

Improve your onboarding of new colleagues and make sure they’re comfortable and happy. This is the first thing you can do to mentor new employees (at any level)

Support your colleagues to get that promotion

Support your colleagues to take time off when they need to, to work how and where they need to.

All of these things count.

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@thisisjofrank

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@blackGirlTech @codebar @CodeFirstGirls

@CodersOfColour @LadiesOfCode @CodeClub @DevelopHerUK @MotherCoders�@railsgirls @ClojureBridge @MumsinTech

@nodeGirls @RailsBridge @djangoGirls @CodeYourFuture_ @golangBridge @womenWhoGo @Technovation @GirlScript1

@AngularGirls @VueVixens

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@thisisjofrank

SET EXPECTATIONS

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2. SET GOALS

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3. SCHEDULE & REVIEW

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@thisisjofrank

4. LISTEN

When you're mentoring someone, you might feel pressured to give them advice straight away. But don’t be afraid to leave space for your mentees to talk. Silence can often feel uncomfortable, but it is sometimes essential to finding out what your mentee wants or needs.

You may possess all kinds of accumulated wisdom. But a mentee isn’t an empty vessel into which you pour your knowledge. It’s unfair to them if you drone on and on, taken with your own brilliance.

Listen to what your mentee has to say before giving your opinion. Find out their point of view. They bring insights and perspectives which you may not yet appreciate.

Also, set up a method for getting regular feedback from them on how they think they’re progressing, and how you’re doing as a mentor. And remember that feedback isn’t criticism.

If someone gives you feedback, don't take it as a negative or as a thing you've missed. Take it as their belief in you that you'll make a difference. That you can do something and make a positive change.

People have a need to know what they did well. They need concrete, constructive feedback and even critical feedback too sometimes.

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@thisisjofrank

5. ENABLE

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‘FIRGUN’

@thisisjofrank

The mentees that I’ve worked with are an absolute inspiration, many of them are learning while holding down jobs, or are still in education, or supporting families

They bring a positivity to their studies that is infectious, they’re eager to learn and try new things.

We could all do with a little more positivity and excitement, especially when encouraging junior developers!

My students have taught me that there is so much to gain from trying new things and very little to lose.

Their passion for constant improvement helps to drown out the voice of imposter syndrome.

Since I started teaching I’ve given talks, run events and written blog posts – none of which I would have tried before for fear of failing.

There is a hebrew word ‘Furgun’ which describes genuine delight or pride in the accomplishments of another person, and that is the best description that I have been able to find for the joy that mentoring can bring.

So I hope that today will not only give you new skills and excitement for great tech, but also a desire to share that new knowledge with others and make our industry the best it can be.

Thank you.

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Thank you!

GO BE THE HELP

YOU WISH YOU’D HAD!

You can find me at

@thisisjofrank

and on medium at

https://medium.com/@jofranchetti