Anthropic engineering lead explains how to get the most from your mentor

"Throughout her years managing employees at Microsoft, Meta, and now Anthropic, Fiona Fung has learned how to make a mentorship actually work. Fung, now an engineering lead supporting Anthropic's Claude Code, said that mentees need to take some ownership of the relationship on an episode of "The Peterman Pod" that aired on Sunday, January 4. Good mentors should initiate an early conversation about what the mentee is looking for, Fung said. Ultimately, though, she thinks that mentees should take the reins on goal setting."

"Fung also said that it's best to save "status reporting" - think project updates - for asynchronous formats, like chat messages or a shared document. That frees up time to use one-on-one meetings for more substantive conversations, whether that's about a new opportunity or ways to dig deeper into existing work. Whenever she's hosting a one-on-one meeting with a new employee, Fung said she asks what they're looking for in a manager and what motivates them."

Mentees should set specific, explicit goals for what they want to receive from a mentoring relationship and take ownership of those objectives. Mentors should initiate an early conversation to learn what the mentee is looking for, but allow mentees to drive goal setting. Save status reporting and project updates for asynchronous channels like chat or shared documents. Use one-on-one meetings for substantive topics such as new opportunities or deeper exploration of existing work. When meeting new reports, ask what they want from a manager and what motivates them. Learn to receive feedback by remaining read-only initially and metabolizing information before responding.

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