Did you have a mentor when first starting your software career? I had a mentor, I remember almost everything he taught me. I think he played a important role in my career, gave me a great foundation that I was able to expand upon and grow. Now I am a mentor. I have taken under my wing 2 bright new developers and I have been trying to be a sturdy support beam for them. I am a little nervous as I want to be sure I am giving them the same opportunities as what was bestowed upon me. Do you think having a good mentor is important? Did your mentor have any kind of impact upon your career?
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Did you have a mentor? Is a mentor important when developing software?
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Top comments (2)
Great question.
I had one myself and it was very important not only for my professional skills but also to define my personality.
To think about whether you can give them the same opportunities or not is a good start and shows that you will give them the best you can.
I hope that you are not giving them the same opportunities you had because that would mean you either just followed advice blindly or did not develop your learned for yourself.
I'm implying you the latter :)
On a conference some time ago I had the chance to talk to Tim Bourguignon who had a very great session about mentoring and mentees!
So shorten our long conversation and give you the best parts:
Mentoring is a full time job. It includes work related stuff but also personal support. He gave the example of one mentee calling him at night because of issues with his relationship and asked him for advice. He got up, met with him and was there for him to talk to.
In the end I think you will provide them with the best opportunities you can provide them because you already made the effort to think about it and work on your own expectations. This will always change things to the better :)
BTW: the tag
#careerwould be a better fit :)You made some great points! I should of said "at least" the same opportunities I had, I definitely want them to have more because I didn't have many :) And I agree #career should be used so I made the edit, Thanks!!