An excerpt from RenderATL's Culture & Code podcast Episode #1: Empowering Junior Developers with Rizèl Scarlett (@blackgirlbytes):
Rizèl:
I have noticed that like in moving from being in person to remote, like people are more quiet. They're scared to ask questions. We can't tell when they're struggling. So it's something I've struggled with as well.
But similarly to some of the other points I made, we have office hours opened. So if they feel like embarrassed or scared to ask those questions in the moment they can hop into office hours, I think just stressing to them like you're here, you're available ask me anything. And I don't think junior engineers are that scared to ask questions as people make it seem. I think it's more like sometimes the reaction from other people, I think sometimes I've asked questions and then felt discouraged because they all say like, oh just Google it or something that feels very dismissive.
And instead of saying just Google it, I think a better thing to say is like try to get them into a pattern of answering all the questions that you need first because of course they already Googled it. So saying like, what's your goal? What have you already tried? And then what was the result? And then after a while, they'll get into that pattern of answering it that way before you even ask them. So I think it's more about showing that you are available to answer questions than doing anything else because I think people are ready to ask questions and also showing that the rest of your team also ask questions. If you see a senior engineer asking for help, you're like, oh, okay, this is the culture. It's okay to ask questions here.
This was an excerpt from Culture & Code, a podcast brought to you by RenderATL that is focused on leveling up your tech career and exploring new technologies.
You can listen to the full episode and read the complete transcript on our website here.
Top comments (0)