💬 The senior who handed my questions back

My first job was at a small software company, and in week 2 I broke the login page for 3 hours. I sat there sweating, waiting to be shouted at. Instead a senior called Imran pulled a chair next to me. He didn't fix it. He asked, what did you change right before it broke? And then he just waited. It took me 15 minutes to find my own mistake. A missing bracket. I wanted to disappear. He never gave me a straight answer that week, only questions. I was a bit angry with him. But after 2 months I noticed I'd started asking myself his questions before opening my mouth. He also read my code properly. Not a quick yes. He'd leave comments like, why this name? I hated those comments. I also still name my variables better than most people I've worked with. Nobody assigned him to me. There was no mentor program. I just kept sitting near him at lunch. Asking was the hard part. For the first month I only asked when I was really stuck. Then I figured out that he liked being asked. People like being asked. It makes the day less boring. I started bringing him a question every Thursday. He called it my homework. It became our small thing. He left the company 2 years later. I still message him when I'm confused about something. Last month he replied with just one line, and the line was another question. Typical Imran. I've tried doing the same for newer people near me. I'm not as patient. Half the time I give the answer. Imran, if you ever read this, I still owe you a tea for the login page.

Nobody assigned me a mentor either. I just found a guy who answered messages at 11 PM.

A senior who only asked questions would have driven me mad in week 2. I'd have cried. My first manager did the opposite. She fixed everything herself and I learned nothing for a year. Then a colleague two desks away started handing the problem back to me, like your Imran did. I resented it for a month. Now I do the same to my own team and they resent me.