From Individual Growth to Company Prosperity: The Power of Mentorship at Viz

Mentorship programs provide opportunities for experienced individuals to support the professional development of ambitious colleagues, improve skills, foster a positive working environment, and promote knowledge sharing within the organization.

In 2022, we developed and launched a brand new mentorship program within the engineering team. 

At Viz, we strive for engineering excellence and have demanding challenges regarding software architecture, scalability, and developer experience. We have ambitious goals for the future of our engineering team which aligns with our company goal of increasing access to life saving treatments.

The mentorship program consists of one-hour weekly meetings with the following goals:

• (Mentee) Explains the studied topics during the week
• Discussion about the presented tech topics
• Discuss the next steps
• Set the goals for next week

One of the best ways to learn is through hands-on experience. That's why, the mentee thinks, designs, and develops a real product, applying the discussed topics throughout the program. The mentorship plan always aligns with the mentee's career goals in mind. Mentees in the program work proactively to pursue knowledge from the mentor - and the mentor plays a guiding role throughout the entire process. In the engineering mentorship program, we typically focus on:

• Coding best practices and Software design principles
• Software architecture (mainly microservices and micro-frontends)
• Containerization (with Docker) and container orchestration (with Kubernetes)
• CI/CD (with GitHub Actions)

The benefits of such a program are immense:

1. Knowledge sharing: Experienced engineers can share their expertise and best practices with teammates, helping to accelerate the learning curve and ensure everyone has the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.
2. Collaboration: Mentorship programs can foster a sense of community and collaboration within an engineering organization, as team members work more frequently together and learn from one another.
3. Personalized feedback: Mentorship programs provide an opportunity for ongoing, one-on-one feedback and guidance.
4. Improved retention: By providing opportunities for learning and career advancement, mentorship programs can help to retain top talent within an organization.
5. Enhanced project outcomes: By investing in the development of their team members, engineering organizations can ultimately lead to better results and more successful projects.