What softskills to teach to DevOp-interns?

At Education Warehouse we're creating a bootcamp for new interns. We have a lot of material covering the stack. But think we need to introduce some softskills as well.

What (soft)skills would you have loved to have learned in your first year at work?
If you work with new recruits or interns, what do you teach them outside the techstack?
Please share what you think is missing in developer education
Or whatever lessons learnt you would like to share with new folks to our field.

We've come up with a few topics (creative problem solving, how tech exploration works, how to write good tests) and i'm sure you as a reader of hashnode have a thought or two about this.

Thank you, also on behalf of our new interns!

Responses(1)

Tapas Adhikary

Educator @tapaScript | Founder CreoWis & ReactPlay - Writer - YouTuber - Open Source

Jun 8, 2019

I would try teaching/coaching them on,

How to Sharp their Skills: From my experience I have seen, learning first time for a specific skill is easier. However staying sharp and relevant on it is, challenging and an art at the same time. I would have some mentorship to keep this going with the interns.
Patience: Many of the Interns I deal with lack it initially. Nothing to blame. It's excitement, ignorance, tendency of jumping the gun, enthusiasm all can cause it. We need to teach them to have Patience for the outcome they are looking for.
Not to have Fear of Falure: Need coaching to make them realize, Falure is inevitable and how to gain the mindset to come out of the Fear of it!
Learn to Say NO: This one is subjective. But I would encourage interns to say No when relevant and gradually learn, when to say NO.

All the best to you and the Interns! 👍

I have worked with interns myself, and have mentored several PhD students.

What I think is most important is:

Make sure they have a great start and feel appreciated. This includes but is not limited to having the desk and all equipment set-up, and most importantly connecting them with team members.
Depending on the project and scope, I think it is important to help them understand that good things take time, but on the other hand, that internships fly by and the scope of the project must be set right so they can really accomplish their goal within that time.
Learning about your companies values regarding inclusion and respectful work environments. Very important!
Pairing interns with a dedicated mentor that can be asked when they are stuck is very important. Just saying that they can ask anybody isn't working well. Better to know exactly who is the first point of contact.
Especially if interns are coming from different places in the world and are expats for that time it's important to support them in making friends and having social contacts (best with the other interns). This is so important to make sure they aren't lonely and can cope well with the new challenges they might face during the internship.

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