Hiring v.s. Mentoring

So you need a developer and are trying to figure out what it’s really going to cost you? Well obviously there’s money, but there’s time as well.

Here are some short-list items that will likely come into play:

• An attractive salary
• Networking expenses
• Weeks (or months) of searching AngelList, LinkedIn, etc.

...these are just some of the costs involved in finding a great developer! You might get lucky and have someone just fall in your lap…but the chances are likely you’ll have to incur some version of that list.

Now let’s fast-forward and assume you found someone that actually meets your needs and is a fit for your salary expectations. Hooray! They start working and it’s going pretty well. But then the project specs change ever so slightly and now there are some requirements that are just different-enough from what that developer specializes in. Hmm…

This is a VERY common occurrence. Client needs change, new technologies are released, legacy systems become vulnerable, etc. But what now? At this point many project managers go the route of starting that initial search again (and buying a new computer since you’ve probably punched through yours by now) feeling bound to spend another multi-month period searching for the new “perfect” developer. Well today I’d like to declare a simple revelation. THAT PERSON DOES NOT EXIST!

There is no perfect developer. No one will have all the skills you need at the exact right time. And restarting that search every time you’re in this situation not only eats your time but actually means you’re wasting money on the developer you already found, who in all likelihood is a smart and talented person who would be open to learning what’s required to handle the updated needs.

So if that’s the case why don’t more project-managers teach the developers they already have the new required skills? Well for one, usually PM’s don’t know how to do that stuff either (sorry PM’s). Not to mention, we’re all so used to getting what we want when we want it that we’re quicker to restart that awful search than to foster mentorship and improve the skill of the developers we’ve already found. This is wrong and it’s time for a shift. As PM’s, we need to start being open to investing in quick level-up education of the developers we’ve spent time and money acquiring.

At Codementor, we’ve seen scores of startups and dev shops send developers that are considered “rockstars”, “ninjas” (or whatever hiring-buzzword is in that week) to us to learn that one new thing that one of their clients needs. And you know what? Not only does it work, but THEY LOVE IT! A developer who gets to feel that their employer cares enough and has the long-term dedication to them to actually invest modestly in their continued learning gets them fired-up to learn what they need and get back to work! It’s like the opposite of traditional higher education where students are tempted to get comfortable. The developers we work with as students are excited to learn what they need but then they’re pumped to go use it in the real world. Often we’ll use their work as the jumping off point for a lesson too. Why be theoretical when we have real-world scenarios right in front of us?

So next time that client calls you saying they need to change their specs AFTER you’ve already hired a new team of specialists, please consider mentorship before rehiring them all. Whether you use Codementor or another platform, we’re all here because we want people to get better, not just perpetually replaced.

This post is written by Weiting Liu, Founder & CEO of Codementor, a live help mentorship marketplace for developers.  Weiting is a serial entrepreneur and an alumnus of both Y Combinator and Techstars.