How should I handle an incompetent coworker?

Question

I've read through How to deal with an incompetent colleague?, but my situation is slightly different.

I am an intern¹ (although close to graduation) working in Software Engineering. I work in a small team with only a few other people on a small project. The project is not that important to the main workload and thus we are not under any kind of time pressure. Despite this, I am still trying my best to make a good impression with both my colleagues (who are all full time employees) and the company as a whole which includes finishing features (fully tested and implemented) in a timely fashion.

My problem arises in that one of my coworkers is not a good programmer at all. Although they are highly intelligent, programming doesn't seem to click for them and they struggle writing the most basic of code.

As an example, when I pair program with this person to try and help them with a feature, I may prompt them and say something along the lines of "now we need to do something with every item in that array" and they can't understand we need to create a simple loop or form basic syntax or even generate pseudo-code from english like

foreach element in array
    print element

This person did not originally have a programming background, has been with the company for around a year, and does not seem to have made any progress towards mastering concepts a first semester computer science student would be expected to know, despite taking classes online.

Although not in my job description, I feel obligated to help them and try to teach them when they need it (which is most of the time) both out of desire for our project to move forward and simply because they are really nice and I like helping out. At the end of each day that I have worked with them, I feel mentally drained from attempting to teach them as well as get my own work done. We move very slowly through their feature (which they have been working on for about 2 weeks now, although I could have done it myself in a few hours) because I am trying to make sure they understand everything in the code and how to actually program when we work together and they accomplish nothing when I am not helping.

I have considered several options; however, my lack of experience means I really have no idea how to handle this. Should I talk with our team lead²? I feel that they must understand my coworker is not doing well, and they are kind of dragging me down. Should I refuse to help them, in order to get my own work done? or is there some other course of action that would be best for me to take?

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1) I have about 6-7 weeks left in the internship. My end date is flexible. I would consider working there in the future (maybe not right after graduating but would like to leave the door open).
2) As a clarification, our team lead is another Software Engineer and not management. We all share a single manager higher up the food chain.

Answer 1

"Although not in my job description, I feel obligated to help them". That is in your job description. It's just never written down, but it's one of those things that are always assumed when you are working in a team. Another thing that is assumed is that you inform your manager if your work is taking longer than expected and let them make the decision regarding priorities.

You mention that there is no deadline, so I would suggest:

1. Inform your manager that the feature will take longer than you anticipated since you are using your time to help and teach your co-workers; are they okay with that or do they suggest a different priority?
2. Continue to teach your colleague and see this as an opportunity to leave an amazing impression of you as an intern, and get a great reference for future work.

Answer 2

I recommend that whatever you do to help that person, you make absolutely 100% sure that you are the more productive one and actually achieve things. If you spent 2 weeks helping them and achieving very little, you need to have another 2 weeks where you achieved a lot yourself and have visible evidence of that.

Doing your work must always have priority to helping them out.

Answer 3

I would suggest to bear it for now. Try to help your co-workers as much as possible. However, as @Jane. S mentioned, if you choose to work for the same team for full-time, then you may think of handling the issue at that time. For now, continue the good work you have been doing. It would be good to be professional and as well as nice/kind with everyone in the team (even in the future). Good Luck.

Answer 4

Would like to add on here - despite the question being answered ... years ago.

Teaching is never a one way street.

All of the smartest people in the world who give of their time agree that they learn from their students. The skills and lessons learned are different, but it's a valuable exchange - if someone is able to recognize what is being offered.

The team wasn't just randomly tossed together. That particular 'skill~less` programmer brought something to the team other people didn't - the fact they had no consistency in your eyes should be a flag that they have a value the managers see & you don't ... it's likely subject-matter expertise or business valuation that actually is the purpose of your program & the reason for the company to exist.

I liked the advice from others - just surprised no one else brought up the value of a programmer isn't their ability to code - its their ability to apply critical thinking to a business problem in a profitable manner or be part of a team which can do so ...

EDIT: Just to be clear here - programming skills != real world business knowledge and without that knowledge & both are 'critical' skills as well as 'critical' to the success of a business.

Hope your internship was otherwise good & your are doing well!