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Making Growth a Shared Responsibility Through Mentorship at Beamery

Ed Halliwell

28 July 2022


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Explore real stories of how pairing up our bootcampers with established engineers at Beamery has proven to be mutually beneficial.

Beamery is passionate about mentorship

Simon: Pairing people together to share knowledge and grow is a key part of Beamery’s value to ‘act with kindness’. We were keen to demonstrate to our bootcampers that we live our Beamery values and act on our virtues to ‘make growth a shared responsibility’ and ‘bring out the best in others’.

Simon: What did you think when you found out you would be paired up with a Beamery mentor?

Ed: I thought it was really positive for Beamery to pair us up with experienced engineers as our mentors. I knew that the faculty from Academy (who ran the bootcamp) would provide support during the course but this was generally in group or class settings where it’s not always easy to ask for help. Having a mentor meant that there would be someone who I could ask ‘silly’ questions, or someone I could ask about a technical topic and discuss it in depth.

Simon: What made you want to volunteer to be a mentor?

Tom: Having mentored before, and been a mentee myself in the past, I knew how important and beneficial this interaction can be. As a mentee, it helped me find my feet in a new company with new processes, and it gave me an opportunity to grow and challenge my own development. As a mentor, it offers similar challenges and growth potential. Crucially, I love mentoring as it can provide different perspectives on the day-to-day that can be lost as you progress in your career.

Simon: How often did you meet during the program and now it’s over? What did you talk about?

Ed: Tom and I met up weekly during the Academy course between October and January. Mostly, we would catch up on the things we were working on in the bootcamp at the time and Tom would help me with some code examples and explanations to help round out the material. It was great to get a second (much more experienced!) pair of eyes on the code I was writing.

Simon: What would you say is the best thing about having a mentor?

Grace: Having a mentor has helped me feel really well supported throughout my journey. Having a fellow ex-bootcamper as a mentor especially helped me feel I can always reach out when I needed support.

Simon: What would you say has been your biggest learning from being a mentor?

Lyndsey: I think realising that everyone will experience a situation differently and to always make sure that they feel seen and heard. Also, striking the balance between “I want to tell you the answer” and “I know you have the ability to find the answer yourself”.

Simon: What’s next? Will you volunteer to be a mentor in future?

Grace: Absolutely! Starting on a journey to become a software engineer can be very daunting. I would love to pass on everything I have learned on my journey so far to any future mentees. Software engineers come from all backgrounds so I’d also be excited to gain new perspectives and solve new challenges with my future mentees.

Simon: What advice would you have for people looking to become a mentor?

Tom: Everyone has something of value to pass on: we can learn something from any experience that we’ve all had in this industry. And the fact that everyone has a different journey is something alone that can be reassuring for mentees to hear.

Simon: What advice would you have for future mentees?

Grace: Always reach out when you’re feeling overwhelmed — your needs don’t have to be technical. A lot of our meetings didn’t involve clear problems or solutions; sometimes it felt more like peer-coaching and it was just helpful to be each other’s sounding boards.

Beamery’s 2021 Bootcampers

Looking ahead…

The Beamery bootcamp is back in 2023 with a new intake of budding engineers — find out more and sign up for this year’s program.