In a shop that is intended to be tight-knit and supportive, should it be part of the culture that senior developers are paired with junior developers as mentors? Or should this mentoring be something that is more organic and spontaneous, i.e. not required, but allowed to develop without artificial encouragement?
Should senior programmers be required to take on and mentor a junior developer?
culture;junior programmer;mentor;senior developer
I think it should be encouraged but not required; seniors shouldn't be assigned to juniors or anything like that, or else you'll end up in Dilbert-land. The mentor-mentee relationship requires some level of friendship at its core, as well as a healthy dose of MUTUAL respect. You don't get that by just telling to people to go off and ment.