Obviously, this means that different students will have widely different experiences. Mentoring isn't just for students, however: disciplinary interdependence has made mentoring a necessity at all levels. Mentoring works, at all levels, when the organization recognizes that it benefits as a whole from one mentored individual.

The company will usually assign an engineer from the staff to work with the intern, which is what is popularly referred to as "mentoring." But successful mentoring (and thus the successful student experience) involves a relationship between the engineer and the student that sometimes doesn't get the attention it needs. Engineers sometimes look at interns as a drain on a project's time and resources, because the student has by definition a learning curve. In some companies, the mentor's job is not very popular -- and engineers are chosen to do the job on some basis other than desire and enthusiasm for it.

Not all mentors' partners are interns or new hires, though. Intel matches experienced with less experienced employees on the basis of some desirable skill the company wants to pass on. (Some places refer to this as "reverse mentoring." It's often applied in areas like CAD software and Internet.) This program is different from "traditional" mentoring programs:

• it's decoupled from individual career advancement
• it's decoupled from relative rank of mentors & partners ("It's about passing knowledge, not pushing people.")
• it's based on skills alone

Here's what else they found at Intel:

• Relationships work best when set to six to nine months.
• Relationship limits are set by the mentor and partner.
• Group Mentoring enables more partners, but with more freedom and relevance than a classroom.

For simplicity's sake, here we'll focus on the relationship between an intern and a mentor, because their relative behaviors can teach the rest of us a great deal. :-)

Mentor Don'ts and a Few Dos

Here are behaviours of potential mentors and their managers that will absolutely ensure that the student's experience will be unsuccessful, and that the company's resources will be wasted:

• Don't remember when interns' assignments begin. Alternatively, don't remember where to meet them, or at least don't meet them on time.
• Don't have a work assignment ready for them. Give them at least a week or two to sit around and twiddle their thumbs.
• Don't have a decent place for them to work. Put them in the conference room, a corner of the lab, or better yet in a storage closet or copy room if possible.
• Don't review their backgrounds before they come. That will ensure that when you finally do come up with something for them to do, they won't understand it.
• Don't offer them any training. Just give them a stack of manuals to review. That will keep them out of your hair for a while.
• Don't show them around. Force them to find the toilet and soda machine on their own. This works especially well if you work in a lab facility at a large company.
• Don't introduce them to anyone. That way they won't bother your secretary, boss, or colleagues, and won't distract them from your needs.
• Don't spend any time on the relationship. Remember, that intern won't be there in two or three months, and you have a job to get done.
• Don't answer any questions. And don't volunteer any project information. Why should you spin your wheels by discussing what you're doing with someone who can't help you and will forget everything you say anyway?
• Do throw tasks over the wall. And make sure that any tasks you throw are not on the critical path, because you'll probably have to go back later and do them right.
• Don't give an intern anything challenging to do, because the simplest tasks are already beyond them. And don't give them anything fun to do, because work is not supposed to be fun. Examples of "good intern jobs" are:
  • running copies
  • taking everyone's lunch orders
  • collecting information to hand out at meetings (actually, getting them to attend the meeting in your place is even better)
  • finding missing textbooks
• Do take credit for the intern's work.
• Do try to make a carbon copy of yourself.
• Do tell the intern how to solve each problem. Make sure interns don't have any latitude.

Intern Do's and a Don't

Here are behaviours of interns that will absolutely ensure that their experiences will be unsuccessful, and that their schools will be embarrassed (and future applicants from their schools possibly not even hired):

• Do come to work with an attitude. It'll show in your dress, in your posture, in the time you show up for work and after lunch, and in your conversation. Engineers do SO love to have coworkers with attitudes.
• Don't expect anything positive to happen at work. You're there for the money, and for the internship credit at school. You can't learn anything at work that will help you with next terms classes, or with that significant other you're having trouble with.
• Do spend a lot of time with the Internet. Surf the Web to your heart's content; enter gratuitous Usenet flame wars; and by all means pass e-mail back and forth to your friends and see who's got the worst co-op job. The company has a T1 connection, after all: they'll never miss the resources.
• Do show off to your co-workers all the great things you've learned in school, especially computer skills. These people are dinosaurs who don't know how to use their own computers anyway. That's what they need you for.
• Do establish a place where you can BS with the other interns. The best ones are common areas like cafeterias, so everyone knows where you are.
• Do hide from your mentor as much as you can. Mentors are only there to give you more work to do anyway, so they must be avoided whenever possible. Inflate the amount of time it takes you to do each task. One rule of thumb is however long you know the job will take, multiply by two, add one, then raise to the next higher unit -- and that's how long you tell your mentor it'll take. Example: a two-week job to you takes five months as far as your mentor knows.
• Do search for your next job during work hours. Everybody understands, after all, that your internship is only 12 weeks long, and you have to find something to pay the rent next term.
• Do take as much time off as you can. Why should an internship keep you from having a vacation? And why should you miss a golden opportunity to tour Japan for six weeks just so you can work at a job you don't want as a career? Your mentor understands.
• Do load up on office supplies, so you won't have to deal with that problem when school starts.

You can probably guess that whether you are an intern or a mentor, your professional competence will be judged on this relationship. Be careful not to think that this single short- term work assignment won't have effects that reach into your future.

I had a great mentor early in my career. I was lucky. Here are the characteristics that made this mentor great:

• He taught me "the ropes," but did not teach me that his was the only right way.
• He was available for questions, but instead of giving me the answers he helped me find my own.
• He was non-judgmental. He accepted my weaknesses and recognized my strengths, helping my job assignments play into my strengths.
• He allowed for blind alleys, recognizing that we learn from those too.
• He did not expect me to take over his career or "follow in his footsteps," but instead allowed me to become self-sufficient instead of beholden.
• He was well-respected in his field, and allowed some of his earned respect to trickle down to me.

The organization has to take some responsibility for mentorship as well:

• Hospitality. The Bible tells us that people who show hospitality sometimes entertain angels without knowing it. Nobody has to be a Christian to readily see that
  • even new hires can see through false hospitality -- and they will duly resent it;
  • those who are comfortable with their work environment are most likely to "hit the ground running";
  • hospitality implies some level of personal attention, instead of merely herding new folks together -- though new hires can learn SOME things in common, other things must be unique.
• Positive attitude. If we air our organizational dirty laundry, we plant a seed of doubt in new hires that affects their productivity.

References

Schiff, D. "The Rewards of Mentoring." IEEE Spectrum, 05.2002.
Warner, F. "Inside Intel's Mentoring Movement." Fast Company, 04.2002.