Michael Winslow

A senior engineer doesn’t have to be a mentor per se, only set the level of expectation that is required for people to become senior engineers. Being good at your job is the best mentorship that you can provide. Showing is always more valuable than telling.

Love the participation, but not sure I 100% agree. Being in "inspirational leader" is not just a cliche term. Maybe the senior dev knows patterns, but not syntax. He can still save the junior dev from making tragic mistakes!

In practice, only very ethical companies will care about this so if we make it a "rule" it only serves to gatekeeper more developers. Though I like the idea. But I think enforcing it would do more harm than good

Let's not say "enforce". Let's just say, if you are interviewing with me, it's a step in the right direction...

Not all companies are open to mentoring, or have environments conducive to it. I would never make something like this a hard requirement. It's a huge plus and a great differentiator though. This opens the can of worms about title inflation generally, and how senior != senior.

Having it as a hard requirement is not the only (nor the best) reason for being a mentor. Most of the people that would call me a mentor were never "assigned" to me.

I dont think formalising a usually informal relationship helps. It happens naturally or by accident, rarely by design.

I believe in both. I certainly participate in our company's formal mentoring programs. But to your point, my informal/organic mentoring relationships feel stronger.

not everyone has the privilege of mentoring new members of the industry

Just because you don't work with people who are new doesn't mean you don't help build your teammates skills. In fact, most of the senior developers I know spend much more time mentoring people on the cusp of senior titles themselves.