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Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?

#91

Post by andreasgonewild »

hycaria wrote: post #51
kcorbitt wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with most colleagues and acquaintances doing the bare minimum to get by. The best way to level your skills up fast as a junior developer is to work somewhere where most of your coworkers are skilled and passionate. It sounds like you're not in one of those places (which is normal -- unfortunately most developers aren't). If changing workplaces isn't an option, then your second-best alternative is to get involved wi…

It's maybe a bit early for me (experience Open-source projects seem like a great idea, especially for someone like myself who doesn't have many creative ideas, although I finally found one a few weeks ago (fullfilling my own needs as no website seem to do what I'm thinking of atm). It's rather niche though, and I could probably do it on my own but I don't know what I could learn that would be useful. I would probably…

Do what you love and the right teachers will knock on your door when you need them; you might not recognize them as such but everything you need is already provided, should you choose the narrow road. Outside of following your own passion and intuition, there is no general purpose recipe.

Re: Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?

#93

Post by yamalight »

I've created a video series on advanced javascript (i.e. how to go from basics to product), people wanted more help, so I'd set up a Discord server where I help viewers with their js questions. It's a pretty cool experience since I quite frequently get question that make me go: "hmm, I have no idea how / why / where", so I have to learn more myself.

Re: Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?

#94

Post by defined »

moron4hire wrote: post #50

Do you mean mentor, or tutor? I've had a number of teaching-type jobs over the years. First, as a martial arts instructor in early college. Then as a math, physics, and programming tutor. I kept up math tutoring after college for a few years, mostly for friends and family still going through university. Also, I've been the technical lead on a number of my work projects, which requires a level of mentorship when junio…

> That's teaching and it's a difficult, full-time job that should be paid.

As someone who taught quite a few C and other programming courses at an adult education college, I absolutely agree with this statement. If anything, it's a slight understatement.

Re: Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?

#95

Post by linker3000 »

numbsafari wrote: post #46
shubb wrote: post #27

I wouldn't feel confident to mentor anyone on anything. I'd feel like a total fraud. This can't be uncommon. When I was a developer, I either felt like what I was doing could be done by a smart highschooler (probably better than I was doing it) because it was straight forward, or like I was figuring things out as I went along (because it was hard). Now I do less development and more business analysis / architecture,…

The job of a mentor is often simply to listen, and to help the mentee hold themselves accountable. If you've been successful in your career, in spite of what you perceive as personal limitations, I bet you have the humility to be a good listener and an empathetic motivator. Honestly, if you look at most professional mentors and coaches, especially in sports, they aren't "the best" in their field. They are people who…

Gah: 'Mentee'.

A Mentor doesn't practise the art of 'menting'! The name comes from the character of Mentor in Homer's Odyssey.

A mentor has protégées.

(Yeah, I know Wikipedia mentions 'mentee' - it's still a horrible word in my book.)

/pet peeve!

Re: Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?

#97

Post by cwbrandsma »

Yes.

Here is my list:

* I run a developer user group in town that meets once a month to talk about various topics.

* I help run a code camp here in town (not affiliated with Microsoft) that meets once a year and attracts 800 people, about 200 are school age.

* I attend panel discussions at some of the code schools.

* I help high school kids in science competitions with coding projects.

* Code reviews in exchange for beer.

Re: Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?

#98

Post by kcorbitt »

hycaria wrote: post #51
kcorbitt wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with most colleagues and acquaintances doing the bare minimum to get by. The best way to level your skills up fast as a junior developer is to work somewhere where most of your coworkers are skilled and passionate. It sounds like you're not in one of those places (which is normal -- unfortunately most developers aren't). If changing workplaces isn't an option, then your second-best alternative is to get involved wi…

It's maybe a bit early for me (experience Open-source projects seem like a great idea, especially for someone like myself who doesn't have many creative ideas, although I finally found one a few weeks ago (fullfilling my own needs as no website seem to do what I'm thinking of atm). It's rather niche though, and I could probably do it on my own but I don't know what I could learn that would be useful. I would probably…

At your stage, just find anything that motivates you to continue working, and the knowledge will naturally come. A personal project that scratches an itch for you like you mentioned is a great option. Don't worry too much about doing things the "right" way for now. Sometimes doing things the "wrong" way when you're starting out can actually work to your advantage, because when you see a pattern in the future that solves a problem more elegantly you'll have a better understanding of what makes it a good idea!

Re: Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?

#99

Post by linker3000 »

I do ad-hoc mentoring (electronics and computing) to primary and secondary school children in the UK as a STEM Ambassador (www.stem.org.uk) - I help with code clubs, attend STEM days and career days. This is a voluntary role and my company allows 3 days of paid leave for 'community day' work.

The engagements with people are not long-standing, but it is rewarding to see someone expand their knowledge, work out a technical challenge or find and fix a bug in their code.

Re: Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?

#100

Post by quuquuquu »

mjburgess wrote: post #26
quuquuquu wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this answer is a bit short on detail, it does answer the question presented by OP. Are people therefore downvoting for the poster's lack of explanation, or because the poster doesn't mentor someone?

They're downvoting because a very large number of people don't do it, and it should be obvious that OP is interested in those primarily those who do -- or at least, those with reasons either way. Just saying "No" presumes we care that this specific guy doesnt do some specific thing. It's quite arrogant.

Hmm yes, I mostly agree, in this case the answer is very short AND we can assume that OP only wants responses from the small percentage of people who do do this

I originally was imagining this thread to be a poll, and then the crowd was upvoting affirmative answers and downvoting answers that were the opposite

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