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My Mentors
Throughout my career I’ve been incredibly fortunate to find guidance through people that I would call mentors. They’ve helped me define my goals, navigate the forks and ultimately challenge me to fulfill them.
These mentors go as far back as my first soccer coach or the boss of my first after school job. They saw something in me and were willing to extend a hand. While none of them had the official “mentor” title, I viewed them as such because their impact was atypical to other relationships.
The mentor title, in my opinion, is a bit overloaded and unnecessary. It’s not a job title, it’s not something you need to apply for. Simply put, you need 2 things:
- Have relevant experience to teach through
- Care about another’s success
Fill those two criteria and we are all mentors. We all have experiences, whether it’s life, professional, personal, etc. Use those experiences to guide someone that is starting down a familiar path and you too can be a mentor.
Obviously this sounds a lot like coaching. In my opinion there are two distinct differences.
For one, mentoring is quality over quantity. It requires a deeper level of engagement and will not scale out. You can definitely grow it and reach more people, but at that point you are probably more so their teacher.
Secondly, you need relevant experience and it needs to be X years ahead of your mentee. Guiding them as you are navigating yourself is the blind leading the blind. Which is the majority of coaches out there. Don’t do that.
Now Accepting Mentees
I’ve been reflecting a lot lately (quarantine thoughts) and have been thinking of ways that I can help guide others that may be starting out like I did.
When I graduated college, I remember how lost I was. With a degree in Marine Biology and a minor in Business, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. That path is a story for another time, but after trying job after job, I finally realized writing software was a legitimate career path. I immediately started teaching myself how to code on nights and weekends. Fast forward 10+ years and my resume looks like one of someone who had planned to be a software engineer his whole life.
Hands down, no question, teaching myself to code was the best investment I’ve ever made. I know there are lots of people out there that want to make that same investment but are struggling. It’s hard and it’s going to be a grind, but if I can do, so can you. And I want to help some navigate that via a mentorship.
Mentor Cruise
Which brings me to Mentor Cruise. This a really cool concept and well executed platform that helps connect mentors with mentees. I created a profile last week and will be taking on 2-3 mentees at a time.
If you are:
- Looking for career advice/guidance
- Wanting to build a software product
- Have been working in software, but not sure where to go next
- Looking for advice on Software Design / Architecture
- Non Technical but looking to become more technical
- Thinking about a bootcamp and want to discuss
I would be a great fit and happy to help. I’ve already got one spot filled, so hurry if you are interested. Sign Up Here
I am really excited about the opportunity to try and help others achieve their goals. I’ll be posting here on how it goes.
