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Comment by tytrdev | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been reflecting on this a bit lately. I’d really like to find a personal mentor in the world of Software Engineering and tech leadership.

I think we tend to let mentoring happen naturally in that space. Devs naturally learn from more experienced folks as they work. Sadly I’ve spent a huge chunk of my time working solo over the last 5 years. I’ve recently joined a FANG company and I’m excited about the prospect of finding a mentor there. The networking aspect alone is pretty killer. In general it’s nice to be somewhere that my peers push me on a daily basis. This reminds me that I need to be more proactive about finding a mentor.

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There's a difference between a mentor and a coach: coach gets paid.

Thanks to magic of internet, you can find programming coaches for relatively cheap:

https://codingcoach.io/

https://www.codementor.io/

https://mentorcruise.com/coach/coding/

Of course for most people "relatively cheap" is the same as "too much" which is why you're looking for a mentor and not a coach.

I’ve helped a lot of people with different types of issues related to software throughout my career without presuming to charge them for my time.

Coding is all about problem solving, which is typically the easy part of anything meaningful. Finding the right problems to solve is much harder.

I think the type of people that would be good mentors to me are beyond the point of needing any amount of money that would be reasonable to charge for their time. I think most people capable of meaningful mentorship, including myself, will likely be doing so for reasons other than financial gain.

That said I think getting coaching for various skills is totally valid, including coding. What I need, personally, is more about cultivating a healthy mindset about technology, strategy, and leadership. There are probably few people in the world that have something meaningful to say about those things.

From my experience mentoring at FAANG is hit and miss. You may get a mentor assigned, yes. The thing is that this person is probably just an engineer who also needs to do their daily job. While mentoring you is a part of their daily job, it competes with tasks that are well defined and affect their evaluation. Fixing bugs is measurable and visible. Mentoring isn't, beyond showing up and sharing some information.

So yes, being proactive about finding a mentor is a spot on advice.

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