I very much struggled with training a junior developer that cane out of a boot camp. I couldn't teach him how to logically find an issue just by tracing the data flow.
While I stagnated for years and became an "expert beginner" (https://www.daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-o...) at one company, I've never been a "junior developer". By the time I got my first job at a small company, I already had 10 years of experience as a hobbyist and knew how to program.
It's easy to mentor someone who knows the fundamentals of how to logically break an issue down and throw out some ugly code to get them to a "clean code" stage or even teach them a language.
But if they already know the fundamentals of development as a junior developer, it's pretty easy to get to the next step with time, lunch and learns and reading a lot.
It's rather easy to teach these basic skills. Breaking a problem up is as easy as that: your description of it teaches it.
The trick with newer programmers is to take an abstract concept, such as that, and then bridge it to a concrete pattern that can be visibly seen and explored. You have to demonstrate, often out loud, your thought process while you're working through a problem, much like a job interview. Also, you'll want to go slow enough they're comfortable asking questions, taking notes, and doing google searches and what not, or only having very small talks at a time like 5 min at a time small slices.
Usually you'll want them at the keyboard to learn debugging with you over their shoulder, but if their skill level is absolutely basic, then you might want to be at the keyboard, and just run over problem solving of a easy 5 minute problem. By watching you run through a debugger and watching you google search for help (bonus) will give them enough idea to start doing it themselves, then in a couple of days you can switch and have them at the keyboard.
While I stagnated for years and became an "expert beginner" (https://www.daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-o...) at one company, I've never been a "junior developer". By the time I got my first job at a small company, I already had 10 years of experience as a hobbyist and knew how to program.
It's easy to mentor someone who knows the fundamentals of how to logically break an issue down and throw out some ugly code to get them to a "clean code" stage or even teach them a language.
But if they already know the fundamentals of development as a junior developer, it's pretty easy to get to the next step with time, lunch and learns and reading a lot.