Should I be more helpful?

fretted · 10 May 2015 at 14:55

Im a database developer/data analyst.

I've been assigned a graduate, who is very eager to help and learn from me. The problem is he has very little basic IT skills eg. He would just about know how to use some basic excel functions (but not know how these actually work!). I have very short deadlines, where I'm often working lots of overtime to complete and don't really have time to teach anyone. I do feel guilty that he is just sitting there doing nothing while I'm busy but I'd do assign stuff to him, not only will he struggle to understand what needs to be done he will just bug me until I've shown him how to do it all (thereby I might as well have done it myself and saved myself time).

I've spoken to my manager about this and he understands that I don't have time to teach him but there is no one else who has the skills to - I'm the only data person they have in our office of about 50 consultants (big four).

hargi · 10 May 2015 at 19:13

I feel your pain.
I had a college kid assigned to me for a short period of time. He was keen but had no knowledge or trouble shooting skills. Basically it was quicker for me to do the job then either tell him how to do it, or leave him to figure it out himself.
I managed to get rid of him.
But is your guy employed by your company or is he just there as work experience?

Can you not give him some tutorials to work through?

The__Malteser · 10 May 2015 at 19:16

Do you a section of the project that will be tackled winin 1/2 weeks? Try to get him up to scratch with the requirements in this 1/2 weeks, so when you actually get down to the project, he would know quite a bit.

Give him some information/tutorials, and tell him to work his way up and find extra info. Communication is key though.

roccles · 10 May 2015 at 20:04

Is it something you need to teach him? could you set him a simple dummy project requiring the basics skills and point him in the direct of some good documentation. This would at least get him familar with the concepts. Then you could spend 20 mins of so a day going though what he has learnt and make sure he is understanding the concepts and heading in the right direction.

AHarvey · 10 May 2015 at 20:25

You need to do 2 things.

First make a list of things he needs to learn, know and understand to really start learning what you require of him. I'm talking basics but a good foundation so he can understand what you do.

The next, you give him a book list to learn from and help with any questions, or you get him doing some online course (codecademy, Udemy etc)

Frankiemac · 10 May 2015 at 23:16

AHarvey said:
You need to do 2 things.

First make a list of things he needs to learn, know and understand to really start learning what you require of him. I'm talking basics but a good foundation so he can understand what you do.

The next, you give him a book list to learn from and help with any questions, or you get him doing some online course (codecademy, Udemy etc)

This is spot on. It's not realy fair on the kid, although its not your fault you are understaffed to cope with it.

Pho · 10 May 2015 at 23:22

What's he there to learn, database development? Assuming he graduated in something related to databases etc it seems a bit odd to have little IT skills! I suppose you have to think though that if the shoe was on the other foot you'd be utterly annoyed if you were just forced to sit there twiddling your thumbs all day rather than being taught things.

I have absolutely no experience in this so this is probably a stupid idea but if you don't have time to teach him things and find it quicker to do things yourself, how about showing him problems, showing him what you did to solve it, and asking him to disect what you did, why you did it and why it solved the problem? Maybe he can even suggest better ways of doing it

.

That way you get to carry on fixing things and he gets to learn without needing much of your time as the disection part will probably take up a fair amount of time.

The__Malteser · 11 May 2015 at 06:55

As a student, I know what he is feeling.

ANY help he can get is good. The argument of 'I can do it faster' is stupid. You may do it faster the first or second time, but in the long run he will help you do stuff faster. How long is he there for? Invest some time in him, in the long run, it will be worth it. If he is a fast learner, you will see the benefits quite quickly.

mid_gen · 11 May 2015 at 08:26

There is not exactly a shortage of free online material to help someone get started in database/spreadsheet manipulation. Give him a simple task that should take a few days and tell him to get on with it.

Catch up with him and see how he got on.

Being fresh out of uni is no excuse for a lack of initiative.

fretted · 11 May 2015 at 13:41

I have tried giving him books and tutorials to go through and some dummy projects but he claims to have read the text books in an afternoon but just constantly pesters me when I passed him work to do relating to the subject matter. Even after I have shown him or given him big hints n how to approach the problem.

To me he wants hands holding all the way but I don't have time nor do I want to do that. I believe in the power of Google for basic research and that he needs to be at a certain level before he is allowed to take on any real work but I fear he has different ideas and thinks data analytics is easy to pick up.

In my workplace, there is an emphasis to grow our own but lots of our graduates become accountants and not data analytics (these are usually hired from outside) so am surprised that he ended up with me.

He is not fresh out of university, he has been at my workplace for at least two years on a graduate scheme

mid_gen · 11 May 2015 at 13:48

Sounds like he needs a kick up the arse. Give him a problem to solve with a clear measurable deliverable that you know the seeds of a solution are in the materials he has available.

Tell him if he can't manage to come up with something useful on his own that he's going to be surplus to requirements.

The__Malteser · 11 May 2015 at 16:25

mid_gen said:
Sounds like he needs a kick up the arse. Give him a problem to solve with a clear measurable deliverable that you know the seeds of a solution are in the materials he has available.

Tell him if he can't manage to come up with something useful on his own that he's going to be surplus to requirements.

Well, after reading your previous post, I have to agree with this.

AHarvey · 11 May 2015 at 17:51

Sounds like he's coasting.

You need to spend 30 mins creating a little course for him, throw in which books you recommend and set him some tasks from what he has learnt from those chapters.

Then email to him and your manager asking for him to respond via email.

This will either make him get off his backside and do it, or he'll fall flat on his face and your manager can move him on.

It annoys me that someone gets a great opportunity to learn and expand and does nothing with it. I spent months trying to get into a position where I could do that and had to take one outside of programming just to get by.