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Category: Intern Series

August 6, 2024

Two Sides of the Desk: An Intern-Mentor Journey ft. Prajwal and Minal at Mercari India

Welcome to Two Sides of the Desk, a blog series where we share the unique experiences, challenges, and triumphs of interns and their mentors. This blog explores the dynamic relationship between mentor and mentee, offering insights from both sides of the desk. Whether you’re a seasoned mentor, a budding intern, or simply curious about the mentorship journey, our stories and reflections aim to inspire, educate, and foster a deeper understanding of this transformative partnership. Mercari India: How do you approach balancing guidance and autonomy for your interns to ensure they’re both learning and contributing meaningfully to projects? Prajwal: Balancing guidance and autonomy involves setting a solid foundation with clear expectations, equipping interns with the right set of tools and resources, providing structured support, and gradually increasing autonomy as interns grow more confident and capable. Regular communication and feedback are key to ensuring they are both learning and contributing meaningfully to projects. Mercari India: Can you provide an example of a particularly challenging situation you’ve encountered while mentoring an intern, and how you navigated it to ensure their growth and success? Prajwal: Introducing the codebase was challenging given its size, structure, and complexity. To avoid overwhelming the intern with technical jargon, I decided to present an eagle’s eye view of the codebase instead of navigating file by file. I sliced the codebase into blocks of predefined functionalities. To reinforce her understanding, I recommended she explore a recently built feature that was a fresh implementation and less entangled with the rest of the codebase. This approach set her perspective on the outline of the end-to-end logical structure of a given screen. This atomic exploration enabled her to understand the composition of the rest of the app by inference and led her to successfully complete her first business KR with minimal supervision. Mercari… <a class="more-link" href="https://about.in.mercari.com/news/intern-series/two-sides-of-the-desk-an-intern-mentor-journey-ft-prajwal-and-minal-at-mercari-india/">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Two Sides of the Desk: An Intern-Mentor Journey ft. Prajwal and Minal at Mercari India</span></a>

June 12, 2024

Two Sides of the Desk: An Intern-Mentor Journey ft. Paras and Nikita at Mercari India

Welcome to Two Sides of the Desk, a blog series where we share the unique experiences, challenges, and triumphs of interns and their mentors. This blog explores the dynamic relationship between mentor and mentee, offering insights from both sides of the desk. Whether you’re a seasoned mentor, a budding intern, or simply curious about the mentorship journey, our stories and reflections aim to inspire, educate, and foster a deeper understanding of this transformative partnership. Mercari India:  How do you approach balancing guidance and autonomy for your interns to ensure they’re both learning and contributing meaningfully to projects? Paras: As a mentor, I prioritize a balanced blend of guidance and autonomy to effectively nurture interns’ growth. Thorough onboarding is crucial, introducing them to our systems and pairing them with experienced team members for initial tasks, ensuring seamless integration into our workflow. Early establishment of clear and achievable goals aligns their learning objectives with meaningful contributions to our projects. Beginning with structured assignments, I gradually foster their autonomy as their skills develop.Regular check-ins and constructive feedback sessions are crucial in assisting interns to tackle challenges independently while refining their problem-solving abilities. Collaborative projects play a vital role in providing insights into system interactions and leveraging the collective knowledge of the team. An open-door policy is maintained to encourage questions, facilitate idea sharing, and cultivate a supportive environment where interns can thrive and effectively prepare for future responsibilities. Mercari India:  Can you provide an example of a particularly challenging situation you’ve encountered while mentoring an intern, and how you navigated it to ensure their growth and success? Paras: In mentoring Nikita through her journey into backend development, we embarked on a project exploring server-side logic and API development. Initially, Nikita felt a mix of excitement and uncertainty, but I reassured her that growth… <a class="more-link" href="https://about.in.mercari.com/news/two-sides-of-the-desk-an-intern-mentor-journey-ft-paras-and-nikita-at-mercari-india/">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Two Sides of the Desk: An Intern-Mentor Journey ft. Paras and Nikita at Mercari India</span></a>