Teaching In Tech

It is one of the things I love to do most. That is taking knowledge that I have gained and to transfer that knowledge to someone else. I am not sure where I learned to do this or when I started to really fall in love with teaching, but I have. The good news is that is something at my current company that we are looking for. We all do a great job of transferring knowledge, but when we have new people hired on or even interns hired for our dev team, we needed someone to help them get aquatinted with our systems and company procedures. And for the last year or so, that person has been me.

Well this past summer was no different. We decided as a dev group that we would bring on two interns to our dev team, and I would be the one that had the opportunity to train and teach them about the work they would be doing, and just coding principles in general. At first this seemed to like it was going to be a little daunting to keep up with two newer devs and also the work that I had as well. And to be honest, it was pretty difficult. But there were a few things that I learned along the way. So let’s walk through some of those things that I learned, so maybe you can use them for your next teaching moments.

The first thing I learned was that you can’t do everything all the time. This is something that I have had an issue with for most of my life. I am often the one that has a hard time saying no. So it is inevitable that I will take on more tasks or jobs than I have the time to finish. This has allowed me over the years to try many different things, but sometimes it leads me to never really finishing any projects or feeling fulfilled in the work that I have been given. Well this summer was no different. There were times when I would try having all my work done, training and teaching the interns, helping out others like I often did, and also helping our interns get their work done. So my plate was always full. The thing is that being the perfectionist that I am, often times I try to do too much because I don’t trust others to hold up their end of the bargain. So I will take on my roles, and their roles to make sure the job gets done. This is the thing that has kept me my whole career from being the great leader that I could be. I needed, and often still, need to gain trust for my teammates.

The second thing I learned is that each person definitely needs to be taught differently. Each one of our interns that I have helped out during my team here at my company has been unique in the ways that they learn. I have tried to make a similar training program or a solution that should work for most people, but it has not turned out that way. And I absolutely love it. I love that fact that we are each individual and not just cookie cutter people. I love the fact that we hire people from all walks of life, and that we are unique in the ways that we think, learn, and work. It helps us create more full solutions, and allows us to dissent occasionally to make real change. This summer I learned that first hand as I had one intern that was a freshman in college with very little experience in the dev world. Where as the other intern was going into their junior year, and had some experience through school, but none in the professional sense. So it was important for me to be able to tailor their learning to their skill level, and also their style. This was a great time for learning for me, and for our interns.

The last thing that I learned this summer is that at the end of the day it is so important to invest in our future. Sometimes I felt like I was not doing a good job because I was spending so much time helping our interns and not as much time getting my work done. Yet the thing about coaching and training is that by doing this knowledge transfer from one person to the next, we can eventually get twice as much work done. If I take the amount of time that I have in a day to get things done, it is very finite and never growing. But if I take some of that time and invest in others, then they too can take on projects and contribute at a higher level. We now have two people to get the job done. This is so important. That we too invest in our future. This is our children, our teammates, our students, peers, whomever you have to help move forward. We need to invest in those around us. It is always worth the time.

The moral of the story is that sometimes it is appropriate and often important to bring others along on the journey with us. Often times as we journey and adventure further and further our knowledge grows. This knowledge then can be passed down to the next generation so that they too can learn from our experiences. They too can adventure though our stories of adventure. These stories will help drive excitement and experience so others too can find joy in the adventures that they will go on. If you are to pass on this knowledge we do need to remember that we should be teaching and coaching for the fulfillment of others and not for our own personal gain. We should teach with empathy and love for the other person’s experiences. We should also be open to what we can learn from them. This will help you get your greatest reception from the stories you tell.

So go out there, share your adventures. Bring others along, and adventure as often as you can, while loving to the fullest.