I have been working professionally as a software engineer for over 7 years now and I have loved every minute of it. Despite being happy and content...
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DEV is naturally a space for mentorship in a variety of ways,
We have a space for explicitly seeking mentorship and offering mentorship...
dev.to/listings
Currently we haven't done a great job of promoting it so this listings feature is underutilized, but please feel free to consider a mentorship listing (seeking or offering).
Listings has been a huge success in the areas it's been most adopted and we still feel like mentorship is a great use case, we just need to promote it better and build up the ecosystem over there.
I know I've considered looking for a mentor, at least for the parts of JavaScript that confuse me (or perhaps I'm just not wired in a way that lets JS feel 'natural', like CSS does). I'm just worried about two main things-
Cost - I've not had the privilege of working in any sort of coding environment, nor have I been around traditional coding college classes or coding camps. I'd have a long way to walk (multiple days) across an empty desert with no source of water other than a canteen to be even remotely close to other people who write code. I really have no idea how much mentorship normally costs and no way to really pay for it anyway.
Time - My schedule isn't so much a schedule as it is a constant barrage of surprise crises to deal with. My paid job requires I have a flexible schedule (I am informed if and when I will be working no more than 7 days out with no set shift, it could change at any minute and I need to be at work instantly if that's called for, and no holidays) and my main unpaid, but legally mandated job is a 24/7 live-in thing. I have absolutely no control over my own time and have no way of guaranteeing I can even show up remotely on any pre-arranged time schedule.
I'm hoping that changes someday, because I'd really like to know what it's like to have some sort of guidance from a live mentor and not just random tutorials, blogs, articles, and questionable answers on Stack Overflow. Don't get me wrong - they can all be quite helpful, but I imagine it's not quite the same as having an actual human mentor, one on one.
Great Article, Molly! Thanks for sharing your story! Now that you mentioned mentorship, it got me thinking about its relationship with developer advocacy one way or another.
I just transitioned to the role(I have a software engineering background originally) and I am still taking baby steps. What's the one piece of advice you can share that will eventually help people in my shoes move faster please? Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed the article!
Not sure I understand the question, what do you want to move faster at?
My bad. I was referring to developer advocacy.
I am far from an expert since I have only been exploring this world for a little less than a year but one thing I am learning is that you should be your true self when you are interacting with people online, it will make the interactions much more worthwhile. Don't try to fit someone elses mold, create your own.
Also, know that you can say NO to things. I have said yes a couple of times to too many things and ended up pretty overwhelmed. Don't try to move too fast, take opportunities as they come but never feel like you have to take all of them.
Exactly what I need right now. Thank you! Speaking of saying yes, how do you manage work expectations without being too hard on yourself?
Keep it in perspective. Do things that you enjoy, life is too short to be miserable for any extended about of time.
❤️ Mentoring!
I'd like to add that as a mentor, you also gain team-building skills, leadership skills and greatly improve your communication skills, which would in turn give you a leg up in your career. 😊
Thanks Molly for writing this! 100% agree. BTW: You have a fantastic casual but on point writing style. Impressed.
Funny enough just yesterday I launched my blockchain mentoring program to teach developers how to program their first blockchain application: web3.coach
Let's mentor each other!
I've been watching some of your "Cache is King" videos and I absolutely love them. I have no experience with Ruby or Rails but I loved listening to you explain the types of problems you faced and the solutions.
You just have an internal set of qualities/tools, possibly polished by your experience at work that most teachers in this type of career, just don't have.
I have been doing CodeMentor.io for a couple of weeks and nothing feels better than to help a fellow peer out with an issue they happen to be experiencing.
The years of debugging and coding get put to challenge and I happen to teach and build confidence in other developers during the journey.
Awesome post, it was kind of scary for me as well when I was thrust into mentoring junior developers this year.
Having been on the receiving side of mentoring. I instantly felt I'm not good enough to do it.
Thanks, Molly, for sharing how you learned from your experience and turned that learning into wisdom about mentoring. I'd like to be able to share this article fully with the subscribers to our non-profit's members through The Peer Bulletin Magazine. Can we have permission to reprint? We'd include proper attribution and reference the source. We can send you a copy of the issue of the online magazine when it is published.
Definitely, I would love for it to be shared to reach more people. Thank you for asking!
Great Article! Thanks for sharing, especially the resources. I can highly recommend Coding Coach. I've been a mentor on there for a few months now and have had a lot of great experiences so far. Also met some awesome people from all around the world.
About a year ago, I too wrote about what being a Mentor meant to me. linkedin.com/pulse/what-mentor-mea...
I try. 😆
Wonderful article thanks Molly 😄 I'm going to send it to my new mentor! He he
Awesome article Molly!
What is your advice for people who want to be more active on Twitter? :)
Determine how you want to be active, what kinds of things you want to Tweet about and then look for people that value the same things you do and follow them. It will take some trial and error, I followed a bunch of people at the beginning and then ended up unfollowing a few that really weren't putting out the kinds of messages I thought were beneficial.
Also, Twitter is great for really expanding your mind and exposing yourself to other viewpoints so try following some people you might not normally meet in real life, that will help you gain a more well-rounded perspective on things.