I remember starting out at my first job as a full time programmer. I was incredibly anxious and dealt with a fair amount of imposter syndrome. I knew what I had gathered from college and my own learnings, but I didn't have the experience needed to understand how real world applications were built. I was excited to learn and loved solving problems, but I lacked context.

The people who had been in the trenches above me were willing to take time and effort to show me how things were done, and were willing to demonstrate how to build things the right way. If not for their willingness to teach me, and my willingness to learn, I never would have become the engineer I am today.

It's my belief that the "mentor mentee" relationship is symbiotic. It benefits the mentee by giving them valuable knowledge and tools, but it also benefits the mentor. I know personally, nothing has forced me to reflect on my own abilities like teaching others has. You have to understand a concept fully to be able to teach it to someone under you. By relaying that knowledge, your own understanding is reinforced.

There are also biases and assumptions that we tend to make over time as engineers. A mentee that is learning a way of accomplishing a task for the first time may ask, "Why do it that way? Wouldn't this way be more maintainable?", and with an open mind, a mentor may find that they've stuck to a solution that's outdated. Our standards are always higher when we have people observing and questioning our methods.

Mentoring benefits engineering cultures as well. By fostering growth in others, individuals on our teams embrace growth mindsets for others. Working with enthusiastic and curious new engineers reignites the passion for our craft we strive for.

I'm not arguing that you should hire junior developers because it's a moral thing to do - although it is the right thing to do and we should absolutely invest in the next generation of engineers. I'm arguing that it will make your existing development team and culture as a whole stronger.