Making the most out of magic, helping the newbie in my group Options

[Sparrowhawk]

Our long-time gaming group just started an SR4 game. The GM and I are both long-time fans of the setting, while two of the players are very new and one is familiar with the setting in passing (and has a strong background in Cyberpunk, so that helps). So far we've only done a single introductory run. It was more or less a milk run to get the new guys accustomed to the setting and test out their character builds.

The problem we ran into is one of the newbies. Having no previous knowledge of the setting, we had to give him a crash course in the world and walk him through character creation. He ended up settling on a hermetic mage. I don't know what his spell and skill load-out are exactly, but I think it's fairly standard stuff- manabolt, fireball, heal, silence, maybe one or two more. During the run, my character (a pretty standard wired Sam) and the group's hacker carried most of the load. The mage really had no idea what to do and he ended up feeling like dead weight.

I'd really like to be able to help this guy get the most out of his character and really enjoy all of the cooky, crazy things he can do with magic. I've got two hurdles to that though. One, I'm an old SR2 vet, so I'm still learning the ins and outs of SR4, especially the nuances of magic. Two, I've never played a mage anyway, so I'm not sure what advice to give the guy. If he wanted to chrome it up, I could easily help him there, but when it comes to magic I'm only loosely acquainted with the stuff.


So I put it to the community- What suggestions would you all have for this guy? He's new to the setting and the rules. I know he's not even scratched the surface of what he can do with his sorcery, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't even realize the whole mountain of stuff he can do with conjuring. We're starting with a blank slate.

What would you suggest for him to get the most out of his character, both in usefulness to the group (my sam, the hacker, and a stealthy adept) and in having the most fun?