Re: Teaching a CompSci student

[dws]

I've just acquired a nice shiny new CompSci student, with about a years experience. ... I need advice on how to teach this guy.

Meta-advice:

My experience (YMMV) is that some fresh grads can have strong mental armor around their egos. Teaching (well, Learning) can't happen until the armor weakens enough for them to admit that they still have a lot to learn. I've had to take a couple of fresh grads and let them fail miserably on small, but tough, projects.

If you've got a guy who is eager to learn, you might not have to do this.

I, uh, speak from personal experience on this. I had to have my head pounded into a wall a couple of times early in my career, and at least once later.

[tomhukins]

In Node difficulty level, hagus mentions Unskilled and Unaware of it which would be useful reading if you have to deal with someone who is unaware of their own weaknesses.