Two cents on a slightly different, but related subject. I interviewed 3 different people this year and as part of that laid out my basic "mentoring" philosophy and each seemed a bit surprised by it at first (but they quickly get why), but to me it is a reflection of the Apache Way.
More or less, here's what I tell them: 1. I won't answer any development questions privately. I am not your "development" mentor. All of those types of questions must be on list. In most cases, the student probably knows more about the algorithm they are implementing than I do. 2. The stuff I will answer privately has to do with you and only you and is more mentoring in terms of: status checking, vacation, life issues, recommendations for jobs, etc. At any rate, just thought I would share and also see how other people approach this and if they've had similar responses/thoughts. Cheers, Grant
