How having a mentor can boost your career
Learning new concepts, topic or related areas like SEO or how to increase your value and visibility for the programmer has never been easier. A developer can scan through many online courses that are free or very affordable and then go on to learn. This has promoted lots of self-taught developers which is really very good as it shows a high level of self motivation.
Being self taught is an awesome trait and should be encouraged for software developers. But there are some phases in the life of a software developer where it will be worthwhile to have a mentor; someone who can help pull you through. While the developer could still motivate himself through this phase, it will be better to consult a senior developer in the same industry who has been through the same phase. Much learning is involved in software industry and knowledge gained lasts as long as there is no latest version. It is therefore necessary to come up to speed with ideas, concepts and technologies to make learning worthwhile. If not handled accordingly, it could at some point become overwhelming and then the fear of tackling something new sets in.
Where do I start?
Some days ago I talked with someone who wanted to become a developer. He said had been involved in the design of a mobile app UI. He was now ready to get started as a developer. I talked about software development in a broad perspective; front-end, back-end, database development, with the hope that he could pick one from all I talked about. Fast forward to minutes later and I could notice he was becoming overwhelmed. I paused and asked what the challenge was. So softly, he asked, “where do I start?”
I have met several programmers who have been writing code for a while – apparently not from an OOP background, who want to master OOP and understand how to integrate design patterns in their projects. Others want to move from intermediate to expert thereby increasing their value in the “software developer market” and do not know how. Some go as far as taking online courses on the topics of interest when what is needed most of the time is a solution tailored to their peculiar questions. In the following sections, I will discuss few reasons why having a mentor can boost your programming career.
Learning new concepts is easier and faster
A mentor is someone who is very familiar with the given concept you intend to learn. Having someone with such experience, gives you the opportunity to rely on their wealth of knowledge and time. Consider learning a new language all by yourself for the first time. Then compare that to learning under someone who is already an expert in the given language. You will agree the latter will be faster. The mentor having been through that phase, teaches in a way that is easy for you to understand.
Focus is improved
Given the myriad of information that exists in the software industry, it is possible to lose focus from a goal. Having a mentor can help you stay focused as you only work on things relevant to your goal. This is a two-sided fact; the first being that your mentor expects you to work on nothing else than what has been assigned to you. The second point is that you are expected to follow through until the goal is achieved. Having a mentor in this regard furnishes you with exactly what you need to learn to achieve you goal.
Ideas are brought to light
When studying a topic for the first time, there is the tendency to ignore some concepts, especially one that does not readily appeal to your understanding. When this happens, there is the likelihood of omitting an important concept; one that could be vital later in your career. Given the fact that a mentor will have gone through the same topic, he calls your attention and makes you realize the importance of the concept. This also applies for important ideas that are not readily seen. Having a mentor can help you scale over such mistakes and bring light to areas you initially felt were not important.
This is by no means an exhaustive discussion of this topic. I would love to hear about different reasons why having a mentor can boost your career.
