I'm wondering about the dynamics (plusses and minuses) of having a personal mentor. Taro is fantastic in that it gives me access to the best software engineers to answer all the tech-related questions I can think of.
Still, I'm wondering if there are advantages to having a specific mentor, someone a few years senior to me who's in the position I want to be in. The idea would be that they could show me what to focus on to develop my career in a way that is more individualized. I write this as I've just been matched with Orbiit which I'm super excited about, but not sure if that's mentorship so much as peer-to-peer.
I got the mentorship idea from a company called SharpestMinds, which focuses on project-focused mentorship for career switchers for Data and SWE roles.
This question isn't about them, but the idea of personal mentorship more generally.
So to summarize, I have 3 questions:
Why should I get a designated mentor?
It's just really nice having a dedicated person who really cares about you and your growth. The hard part is finding one and maintaining the relationship as this dynamic is inherently very one-sided.
How do I get a personal mentor?
I recommend these 2 resources:
As mentioned before, the default state for a mentor <-> mentee is one-sided with the mentor providing a lot of value for the mentee with the mentee providing little in return. Your overall goal with your mentor is to correct that and bring balance to the value exchange.
What should I do as a mentee in a mentor-mentee relationship?
On top of the aforementioned return of value, I recommend this Q&A: "How do you get the most out of mentorship?"
Agree with Alex, if you can find someone who is able to dedicate their time to be your mentor, that's awesome.
That being said, I wouldn't underestimate relationships with peers or leads who are not officially your mentor (see this Taro post for more context).