Kyle Gabriel: Mentoring Makes Me a Better Leader

Welcome to Formation’s Mentor Spotlight, a blog series designed to introduce you to our dedicated and experienced network of program Mentors. Today we’ll meet Kyle Gabriel, who is a Staff Software Engineer at Uber Technologies, Inc. During his 10+ years in tech including 6 years at Uber, Kyle has interviewed hundreds of job candidates, making him the perfect match to work with our Fellows in their mock interviews, setting them up for success in securing their dream jobs. Here’s his story.

What is your background prior to Formation?

I earned a degree in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology. After college, I joined TOPS Software in Atlanta, Georgia. I really wanted to work on Mac OS X and iOS software as I was looking to advance in the engineering gaps I had at the time. TOPS was a great place to learn and grow my skill set while on the job. I worked there for about 3 years, but I wanted to learn more about iPhone and iPad development. Since I was part of such a small team, I knew I had to move on to advance in my career and skill set. I ended up taking a position at Nextdoor and moving to San Francisco.

In my time at Nextdoor, I had copious opportunities to learn about iOS development with a larger team. Once I was in San Francisco with a variety of tech companies to explore, I landed a job at Uber, where I’ve been for over 6 years. I’m now a Senior Software Engineer II and have had many opportunities to learn, grow, and mentor over the years.

Formation was a natural continuation of my mentorship and a way I could continue to use my knowledge to help facilitate junior engineers’ career growth.

What motivated you to become a mentor at Formation?

I really enjoy mentoring, both in my role at Uber and beyond. Not only does mentoring help support new and evolving software engineers but I also find it pivotal to my own success. It allows me to be a better leader, a good citizen of my company and field, and continue to evolve as an engineer myself. Formation was a natural continuation of my mentorship and a way I could continue to use my knowledge to help facilitate junior engineers’ career growth.

With Formation, I’ve been supporting Fellows through mock interviews for over a year now. Since I have 7 years of experience mentoring through my alma mater’s ‘Mentor Jackets’ program as well as Uber, I can impact others by helping grow their skills and setting them up for success throughout the job search process.

Before and during the interview, engineers should educate themselves to ensure the team, company, and engineering culture will support their short- and long-term career goals.

What are some of the most common mistakes you see engineers make in interviews?

One of the biggest growth opportunities I observe in interviews is communication skills. I look for candidates who can clearly describe their thought process and defend their decisions, such as the reasoning behind using a specific algorithm. Oftentimes, engineers describe a specific approach they plan to take during an interview but they end up executing another one or they describe the implementation inaccurately. I encourage engineers to take a moment to gather their thoughts, think through potential edge cases, and describe their approach before beginning their implementation.

Another growth opportunity I see with junior engineers is that they aren’t prepared to ask thoughtful questions during the interview. They’re so focused on solving algorithms that they forget to ask about the company they could potentially be joining. Before and during the interview, engineers should educate themselves to ensure the team, company, and engineering culture will support their short- and long-term career goals.

Can you describe some traits that make someone a strong engineer?

Besides, of course, their software development skills, successful engineers have strong problem-solving skills. They can see problems at the big picture level, and even foresee future engineering or product requirements for the project when they’re only presented with the current, often ambiguous, requirements. That allows them to design extensible, scalable architectures and structure their implementation in a reliable and robust manner so they don’t need to refactor everything as new requirements are introduced.

Additionally, a strong engineer collaborates and communicates well with others, often driving a project or initiative from ideation to final analysis. They will ensure all the stakeholders are on the same page and keep everyone updated with the project status and dependencies, which makes the project, team, and/or organization that much more efficient. They also take on an active mentorship role to further the career growth and professional development of their junior engineers and regularly build and promote engineering culture across their organizations.

I recommend the program to anyone who is willing to put in the effort to reach a top-tier bar and achieve engineering excellence.

What kinds of engineers would you recommend to join Formation and why?

Since I started mentoring with Formation, I’ve worked with a wide variety of engineers—some self-taught and some with a more formal educational background. Regardless of where they come from, these engineers have an innate drive and desire to succeed. While the program guides you, there’s a lot of work that goes into improving your skills both in coding and interviewing. I recommend the program to anyone who wants to accelerate learning and is willing to put in the effort to up-level their software engineering skills and career.

Can you tell me about a success story with one of the Formation Fellows you've mentored and what you think contributed to their success?

I've been working closely with two Fellows in particular, focusing deeply on the interview process. They’ve both grown substantially, and it’s been wonderful and rewarding to watch the progression of their thought process. At first, their design choices were rudimentary, but we’ve worked together to understand the decisions they’re making. I was able to teach the Fellows more industry standards, best practices, and key concepts they had never heard of before coming from self-taught backgrounds. In turn, they’ve been able to apply those skills in future scenarios. Since we have an ongoing mentor relationship, we can continue to work together while they evolve as engineers.

I was able to teach the Fellows more industry standards, best practices, and key concepts they had never heard of before coming from self-taught backgrounds.

What’s one piece of advice you have for new Formation Fellows?

My advice to new Formation Fellows is to keep pushing. For example, one of the Fellows I worked with was struggling to pass various mock interviews and program assessments. They were second-guessing themself and weren’t sure if they could make it through the program. We spent time in a session not focusing on code but on their mindset and getting them back on track. A couple of weeks later they were reassessed and had improved in their mock interviews. If you're feeling discouraged or frustrated, I’d advise you to keep trying. Identify your areas of weakness, and double down on those to turn them into strengths. Your mentors and the program can help you with that, too, of course!

Mentors like Kyle are the reason behind so many successful Fellow placements at top companies. Ready to join our Fellowship program? Apply on our website to become a Fellow!