| i have worked with a junior multiple times. a junior-senior combination works well with pair programming. i suspect your problem is that you can't yet judge what your junior is capable of, so you assign him tasks and then find out he is struggling with a task, or doing it wrong, and then you have to spend time correcting or teaching. in pair programming these activities go hand in hand. you tackle a problem together. at first you take the lead, but ask the junior how he would solve it.
initially you drive (type the code) and he observes. once he has seen you code for a while, you can let him drive. as you work together you slowly learn about his abilities, and when tasks come up that you feel confident he can do by himself, then let him, while you bugger off to deal with your email. depending on the nature of your work, you may need to spend some time doing managerial stuff that your junior can't help you with, or you have to attend meetings. (although for meetings about the code you write i'd take the junior along) with only one person in your team i do hope though you get at least 50% of your time to code yourself, which you can use for pair programming. the other time your junior will spend on tasks on his own or learning something that you'll need next. |
Ultimately as a manager you're also evaluating their work and are in a position to decide things like if their employment continues, if they get promotions/raises, etc; that is what makes it distinct. Feedback in a junior-senior pairing is much more purely about helping them grow.
Dang though. 50% of your time to code... I'm an IC (as much as I want to be an EM) and that sounds really nice. I regularly have whole days where I don't get to code (in part because, as a potential future EM, I'm expected to mentor; I have 7 regular 1-1s, for instance).