Intern mentor sucks....

Jul 14, 2021 17 Comments

An intern joined my team, he is energetic and eager to learn. However, I observed his mentor is not guiding the intern properly. I told the intern to be more assertive in case he feels he isn't being supported properly, but I think he's just nervous, which is anyhow normal for interns. The main problem here is, without the proper guidance, the intern stands no chance of completing his project, to no fault of his own.

I thought about bringing it up to our manager, but complaining would get me into a political mess, since the mentor and the manager are long-time work buddies and I'm just a lowly SDE-1.
What should I do in this case?

It's kind of like watching a ship sinking in slow motion. And I feel really badly about it, even though it's technically none of my business.

Tc 160k

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TOP 17 Comments
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    • Amazon
      adghn

      Go to company page Amazon

      adghn
      Iโ€™d expect the intern to be able to do basic research on internal sites and stack overflow for at least an hour before reaching out though.
      Jul 14, 2021
    • Niantic
      asdfqwer55

      Go to company page Niantic

      asdfqwer55
      Itโ€™s a skill to know what is easier to be found online and what is easier to ask, especially domain knowledge. Interns probably wouldnโ€™t know what theyโ€™re expected to know so they need guidance
      Jul 14, 2021
  • Offer to informally mentor the intern and help them out! Thanks for wanting to help others ๐Ÿ˜€
    Jul 14, 2021 1
  • Amazon
    adghn

    Go to company page Amazon

    adghn
    Thereโ€™s very little incentive to being an intern mentor while meeting our own aggressive deadlines. Iโ€™d expect the intern to show more ownership of his/her project, do some research of their own and reach out when blocked rather than expecting to be baby-sitted, having been both an intern and mentor.
    Jul 14, 2021 3
    • Amazon
      0nij

      Go to company page Amazon

      0nij
      I believe this is part of the problem at Amazon. Engineers can be good ICs, but they shouldnโ€™t be โ€˜forcedโ€™ to mentor an intern (or a new-grad) if they donโ€™t actually want to/have the time to.

      All but one engineer who did poorly on our team/leaves were great! The issue is having Amazon as a first experience at full-scale software development, working in the cloud, using internal tools etc without support..

      The truly great ICs do manage through; however, far too many perfectly good engineers drop Amazon/do poorly because itโ€™s overwhelming and they donโ€™t have a good base/support network to rely on.
      Jul 14, 2021
    • Amazon
      adghn

      Go to company page Amazon

      adghn
      What youโ€™ve described is by design, Amazon intentionally keeps a low hiring bar and pips out employees that cannot adapt to the culture and deliver impact independently fast.
      Jul 14, 2021
  • NVIDIA
    I-like-nv

    Go to company page NVIDIA

    I-like-nv
    Feel free to offer help to the intern, but donโ€™t talk bad about the mentor to anyone. Itโ€™s not your job to judge.
    Jul 14, 2021 0
  • Microsoft internship conversion bar is low. As long as the intern can show some stuff during the presentation, he will be hired
    Jul 14, 2021 0