Programming Analytics
For the past three years, I’ve been managing an internship program for software developers. We’ve had a chance to work with people from all kinds of backgrounds, and pretty much everyone who completed the internship has gone on to be a successful programmer. And the biggest trait the successful interns have shared is the ability to ask good questions.
This isn’t rocket science. I’m not expecting interns to challenge me with dissertation-worthy problems. But neither do I want them to ask me every question that pops into their mind. Asking questions at the proper level is the best way to strike a balance between solving your own problems, and leveraging the wisdom of senior coworkers to develop your skills. I tell every intern that they should plan to ask two good questions per day if they want to succeed.
Why are questions so valuable? Well, part of the problem is that human beings can’t plan for everything. The requirements document your project manager gave you isn’t complete, and it shouldn’t be. No idea is so good it can’t be improved upon; the freedom to do so will help your employees stay focused and excited to accomplish their projects. If your design doc eliminates all creativity, your company will find it hard to attract talent.
Questions also affect productivity. If you have a dozen workers on a dozen projects, which is the bigger threat: perpetually interrupting with questions, or tasks that get stuck on a roadblock? Your answer may differ, but I find that both problems are roughly equal for my team. I tell my interns that they should stick with each particular problem for about an hour after it becomes a roadblock.
A roadblock can be a learning lesson: research it, Google it, read the forums, check StackOverflow, and so on. Once a problem has become clearly challenging, they should find a senior staff member and have a conversation. This way, they avoid asking incomplete questions, and a good question can spark a solid beneficial dialogue for both mentor and questioner.
Mind you, I’ve also had interns who asked questions every five minutes, and interns who got stuck on the same roadblock for days at a time without ever speaking up – they didn’t last long.
