{"database": "pelican", "table": "content", "rows": [["ryan", "musings", "Having just finished up my second round of Djangonaut.Space (which I wrote\nabout [here](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/08/29/reflections-on-djangonaut-\nspace-session-2/)) I wanted to write a bit about mentors ... how to find one,\nhow to work with one, and how to be one.\n\n## Finding a Mentor\n\nOne of the best ways to find a mentor is through a program like [Djangonaut\nSpace](https://djangonaut.space/). You're put into a cohort of other Django /\nPython programmers with a Captain and a Navigator. A program like this offers\nup ready made mentors in the form of the Captains and Navigators. Even your\nfellow participants can act as mentors.\n\nThe thing about a mentor, and finding one, is that what you're looking for\nisn't ONE mentor ... you're looking for a mentor in a specific aspect of life,\nwhether personal or professional. In Djangonaut.Space you'll get a couple of\nmentors in Python / Django, but you may also find that you get a mentor who\nhelps with thinking about / dealing with / finding developer jobs.\n\n## Working with a Mentor\n\nWorking with a mentor isn't just showing up and hoping that all of their\nknowledge in the specific aspect of life you're looking to be mentored on will\nsuddenly flow from them to you like a fountain. You need to do a bit of\nhomework too!\n\nMentors can provide lots of guidance, but like any guide, you kind of need to\nknow where you're going ... even if it's just a vague direction. Having a goal\nof\n\n> I want to be a programmer\n\nis a bit vague and difficult to help on. A mentor can provide some guidance\nfor that, like\n\n> Try Python\n\nbut a goal like,\n\n> I want to learn programming to help automate some of these things\n\nwill definitely lead to more focused advice. Now the mentor can say,\n\n> That's great! Check out this book, these blogs, and follow this YouTuber ...\n> also, here are 10 people you might find interesting on Mastodon (or your\n> preferred Social Media platform of choice)\n\nWhen working with a mentor they might provide open ended advice or guidance\nand expect that you'll have done something with it. Going back to the previous\nexample, if a mentor offers the advice of Books, Blogs, YouTubers, etc at your\nnext interaction they might ask, \"So did you have a chance to check out any of\nthose things\".\n\nIf your answer is no, that's not the end of the world, but it might signal to\nthe mentor that you're not ready for the mentor/mentee relationship. If your\nanswer is a bit more defined, like \"No, work and family have really been\ncrazy, but I've set aside 2 hours this weekend to really check them out\" will\nhelp the mentor know that you're going to actively try and work on the\nsuggestions made.\n\nSomething to keep in mind is that this is a relationship with the mentor. They\nwill try and provide helpful tips and guidance to you, and in return they\nexpect that you'll be acting on those tips or guidance. If you're not willing\nor able to do that ... that's OK, but maybe this isn't the best time for your\nmentor relationship to start\n\n## How to be a mentor\n\nGoing back to my comment above, being a mentor isn't about being the ONLY\nmentor for a person, but a mentor for that person for a specific thing (or set\nof things) to help them grow. And that's really the point of mentoring. You\nwant to help someone with their growth so that they can get better at a thing.\nThis will have the strange effect of making you better at that thing as well.\n\nIt's easy enough to wave your hands when you're thinking about why something\nworks the way it does, but if you're mentoring someone and they ask you a\nquestion you don't know, you are going to do yourself a great service by\nhelping to explain and get them to understand the concept as well.\n\nFor example, something that really breaks my brain is mocking. It's just never\nreally stuck with me and every time I need to mock something I'm basically\nlearning it over again. If I had a mentee and they asked about mocking I'd\nprobably get a deer-in-the-headlights sort of look and then say,\n\n> You know, it's something I struggle with, but let me write down some\n> thoughts and my understanding on it and talk about it next time.\n\nAnd, here's the key, next time you meet with them talk through what you\nlearned (again) and show them how you learned it. What docs did you reference?\nWhat applications of mocking did you try? How did you try and figure it out?\n\nI think so much of problem solving is learning how to learn. Honestly, if you\ncan be presented with a problem and are able to come up with a solution\nwithout much thought then you may not understand the problem as well as you\nthink. You might just be applying a previous solution to the current problem\n.. essentially trying to make a square peg try to fit in a round hole.\n\nBut with mentoring you can help people learn how you learned and to guide them\non their journey to discovering things.\n\nSomething **super** important to remember is that it's **their** journey, not\nyours.\n\nOne thing I do, probably too much, is tell stories to try and get people to\nunderstand and remember how things work. I find that stories really work for\nmy brain and help me to retain details that are important, or help to remind\nme of the ways in which problems were solved.\n\nHonestly, every time someone comes to me with a new problem that I've never\nseen before my imposter syndrome kicks in like nobody's business! I beat\nmyself up for how **stupid** I am that I can't solve this problem that I've\nnever seen before.\n\nBut slowly, as I work through the problem, I start to see connections to other\nproblems that I've solved. Not the same problem, but similar problems. This\nhelps to get me to a solution ... but short walks help too ... and a good\nnight's sleep.\n\nAnd this is a prime opportunity for you to take what you've learned, how\nyou've learned it and help a mentee with finding an approach that helps them\nin similar situations.\n\nAs a mentor, you don't need to be a WORLD EXPERT, you just need to be an\nexpert on that one thing in comparison to the mentee. I once heard that an\nexpert is just the person in the room who knows more about a topic than anyone\nelse in that room. You don't need to be a Django Expert at DjangoCon to be a\nDjango Expert at work when trying to introduce Django to developers that\nhaven't seen it before.\n\n## Wrap up\n\nFinding opportunities to be mentored can be hard, but a potential good place\nto start are programs like Djangonaut.Space and similar programs. Other places\ncan be contributing to OSS projects1\n\nBeing a mentor doesn't mean you need to be a world expert, you just need to\nhelp one person find resources to help move them along in their journey. If\nyou can do that, then I'd call you a pretty successful mentor!\n\n  1. There are some caveats here, like an open and welcoming community \u21a9\ufe0e\n\n", "2024-09-16", "mentors", "Having just finished up my second round of Djangonaut.Space (which I wrote\nabout [here](https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/08/29/reflections-on-djangonaut-\nspace-session-2/)) I wanted to write a bit about mentors ... how to find one,\nhow to work with one, and how to be one.\n\n## Finding a Mentor\n\nOne of the best ways to find a mentor is \u2026\n\n", "Mentors", "https://www.ryancheley.com/2024/09/16/mentors/"]], "columns": ["author", "category", "content", "published_date", "slug", "summary", "title", "url"], "primary_keys": ["slug"], "primary_key_values": ["mentors"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7822252810001373}