One of my apprentices from this past summer just accepted a job… at another company. I’m totally pumped for him, but most of the people I brag to about it say the same thing with the same reaction:
<sigh_of_defeat>Shoot, we didn’t get him.</sigh_of_defeat>
As if we failed miserably.
For me, the apprenticeship/intern process has the following 4 goals (in order of importance, most to least).
- Teach and develop the apprentice as much as they can possibly absorb. This includes technical skills, sof-tech skills (like how to learn, what it means to be an engineer, passion, etc.), and soft skills (e.g. how to deal with your lead/PM/that annoying guy next door, etc.).
- Learn from the apprentice as much as I possibly can. These guys are at school at an amazing time with amazing things happening. Leech this new knowledge… it’s relatively free. (I’m unapologetically selfish in this regard… I love to learn 😉
- Develop an environment where the apprentice feels comfortable with his mentor, and can start to learn and teach with his mentor back and forth… a true partnership.
- Oh yeah, the last/least benefit… recruiting.
If at the end of this he happens to also be productive, great, win-win… but that isn’t the point (again, that’s my opinion).
After that list, does this look like defeat? Not to me. This looks like a dead-on success. We NAILED it. Let’s celebrate! Congrats Man. Next time we meet, I’m sure I’ll have something to learn.
(I’m at least going to pretend I played some small part in this outcome. Whether I really did or not, is debatable.)
