Mentoring #8: Former Apprentice

Intro

A few years back, I was assigned to mentor one of the Software Developer Apprentices and wrote about him in a series, the last one being Mentoring #7. There, I mentioned that our manager, Colin, was supposed to be setting him challenges (with the aim of sacking him) or finding him some kind of alternative role, possibly as a Software Tester.

The Apprentice turned that idea down, but I thought it would be a good career move if he went for it, because he didn’t seem to have the problem-solving skills required to be a developer. I was increasingly thinking he was one of those people that is “all talk and no action”.

So I’ll go through a few events that’s happened since then.

Colin’s Kanban

I always thought Colin was a bit disorganised, or he’d often come up with ideas then quickly abandon them. When we hired some new developers, Colin created a Kanban board with Tasks that they need to complete for their induction. He said The Apprentice needed to do it as well to ensure we had trained him adequately. The theory was that if the new starters start writing code after completing our training, and The Apprentice doesn’t; then it’s evidence that HR will require to sack him.

After a month, I checked the Kanban board and there was no progress.

Me  15:36
Remember the new starter training programme?

The Apprentice  16:15
What do you mean remember? 
This is my programme, although I'm not exactly working on it like that

Me  16:28
nothing has moved on the board for weeks

The Apprentice  16:30
I don't get your point as we haven't been asked to move anything on the board etc. Maybe it's just for managers to plan etc

Me  16:38
It's a kanban board. It's supposed to be what you are currently doing and what you have left.
I haven't heard a peep out of those new starters

The Apprentice  16:40
I haven't received any such instructions and am doing the tasks I have been asked to do. But I will speak to Colin now that you mention it cos I probably am supposed to be doing that.

So Colin had basically abandoned it, but then there’s no determination to impress from The Apprentice. He is just chilling away without a care. He could have easily provided evidence he had completed everything and impressed Colin.

LibreOffice Config

My Apprentice picked up a bug where he needed to switch the configuration from MS Word to LibreOffice. I told him to configure LibreOffice in Configuration Manager. He asks if it is a feature in the main program. I tell him it isn’t; Configuration Manager is a separate configuration tool.I want him to try and work independently so I need to give him generic advice for the future. To try and work out how to enable features in our software, I tell him that in general you can check:

1. the independent Configuration Manager tool (newer features are most likely here), 

2. Organisation Configuration in the main software,

3. then the modules themselves.

For point 3, one example I gave is that the Users module has its own Configuration screen. 30 mins later he says

“I checked User Config and I can’t see an option for LibreOffice“. 

Apprentice

Before I gave him the generic advice, I told him it was in Configuration Manager. Then when I gave him the generic advice, I listed Configuration Manager first. Why didn’t he check them in the order I said? He either doesn’t pay attention or just comes across as trolling by slowly doing the wrong thing.

Oblivious

We had some mandatory Security Training presented remotely from a third-party, which started at 9:00 and lasted half the day. It was 12:45

“Is this Security training something everyone should attend?

Apprentice

The Set Up

When he first joined, I showed him how to check out our code repository, how to build it, where to get the databases from, and we rewrote the New Starter documentation together. He had replaced his laptop recently, so he had to set it up again. He asked me a question about how to access a database backup server, so I asked him why? He mentioned he wanted a particular database from the server. So I asked him “why?” – if he is following the instructions we wrote; it doesn’t say to do that. He claimed he was following the instructions.

“I’m honestly on the instructions, I can’t see what you are referring to.”

Apprentice

The funny thing was, I didn’t have the instructions open but I remember what it said. So I open them, click the Database section in the Table of Contents, then copy the instructions into the chat that say something along the lines of “Run the following SQL script to create the database:”.

What was he looking at? Or why was he pretending the instructions said to access the database backup server? I could have all the databases configured in 20 mins at most, and he dragged it out for hours.

Performance Review

When it was time to do objectives, he obviously didn’t have much to write about because he hadn’t done any work. Apparently, he had a “spreadsheet of evidence” though, so maybe I am wrong. We had a form that we needed to submit and he spent the entire day transferring the spreadsheet to the form. The next day, I had some free time, so I told him I’d help him look into his assigned software bug. He said that he wants an extra 30 minutes to finish the form…which then became a few hours. See what I mean about being “all talk and no action”? He just makes excuses to not do his work.

False Confidence

I ran out of ideas on a bug fix I was working on. I told my colleagues in the group chat on Slack. The Apprentice says

“Fancy a call to talk your thoughts? I’m kind of getting good. And I can share my ideas”

Apprentice

I was completely baffled where this confidence was coming from. He hasn’t fixed anything himself and struggles to come up with ideas. I am not opposed to a Junior correcting/inspiring me, but there’s no evidence to suggest that he could do it.

Support

Last month, he told me he has a new job, but is actually staying within the company. He has switched to 2nd Line Support. I don’t really get how that interview went. Being a software developer is about diagnosing then fixing issues, whereas support is just about diagnosis. (If there is a known fix that they can do without assistance from development, then they can fix the problem too). So I think it makes sense that people move from Support into Development if they have learned how to code, but I have never seen the switch the other way. I am intrigued how that is going to go. He has already started making claims like “this is much more suited to my skills”, “I’m really happy with this role”, but it’s early days.