Yes. My manager asked me to mentor a junior editor who was transitioning from the writing side. The opportunity caused me to codify a lot of the things I did by habit or instinct and organize my process into lessons with topics and exercises. It was only the second time I’d done something like that, and it was a great analytic exercise for me.
I think one of the best moments was when my student really got one of the workplace principles I’d mastered the hard way: Being a pro doesn’t mean showing off everything you can do in every job. Being a pro means doing what’s needed when it’s needed. And sometimes that means doing less than you know how to do. It means knowing how far to go and when to stop.
He looked dismayed, because he was so proud of the skills he’d gained and wanted to show them off, but I could see by his work that he got it.
I don’t know if that’s true for all professions—for instance, I want my dentist to do everything that’s necessary for the success of the procedure, even if it takes more time—but in my field we often have to settle for less than a full display of our skills on every job because that is not the way to serve the customer best. In many cases the customer (author, writer, client, colleague) can’t even handle or comprehend deep changes or delicate refinements. As one wise editor said, “Sometimes all you can do is hold your nose and fix the commas.”