RC 3 – Finding a mentor

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One of the things that has helped me the most in learning to program well is having a good mentor. I didn’t necessarily choose mine, but I’ve had some excellent mentors. Here’s what made them great for me.

1. They had been where I was at.
2. They were at where I wanted to be.

What they did that was so powerful.

1. They explained topics and details when I needed to apply them.
2. They didn’t solve my problems for me.
3. They encouraged me to explore the areas I needed to learn about.
4. They provided structure for the environment I was learning in.
5. They provided an example of where I wanted to be.

Where do we find them?

• Users’ Groups
• Work
• Online Communities
• IRC
• Forums
• Blogs
• We find their code
• We contribute to their code
• We use their code
• Conferences

Tagged as: co-workers, conferences, mentor, mentoring, training, users group, work