Tips from Top Codementors 🚀

Becoming a Codementor is "both exciting and very daunting at the same time". Here are tips from top mentors to help you get started and have meaningful experiences on Codementor.

Be willing to chat with people for a few minutes

"Chat with people for a few minutes to get a sense of their issue, and only start a paid session if you think you can help. If the issue is very simple, just give the person the answer for free. They are more likely to give you a good review and to come back to you later, and they might even tip you!

When you offer to help, give some of your advice or insight into the problem -- this lets people know you understand and have something to offer. If that is enough for them to solve the issue themselves, great! Again, they are more likely to come back to you in future and to write a good review, plus they might even tip!

Stay logged into the site, and watch incoming requests. Often, the quickest person to say "I can help" gets the session."

Jessamyn
Experienced web full-stack developer | Coder/mentor | Talkback bot creator | Working for equality in tech | more tips here

Your profile matters

"Having a nice picture helps. So does writing about your background and expertise. People do read that."

Miroslav
Senior iOS developer with 800+ sessions

Be organized, and make use of Codementor features

"Keep notes about chat discussions with new mentoring opportunities on a daily basis, so you can follow up with users as well as review your success and conversion rates. Create folders for your regular mentees to store all relevant files and links in one place.

Use the Codementor editor window during the session to share code snippets or to make the list of issues that you are trying to solve during the session so you don't miss anything. By the end of the session, ask your mentee if they need anything else. Try and be available for follow up sessions, in case your mentee needs your help later on as well.

Use the option of scheduling a session if you don't have enough time or sleep, and prepare for the sessions in advance to ensure it will provide a pleasant experience. Keep an eye on new Codementor features, and make sure you use them to your advantage (e.g. "request for offline help", and possibility to search contacts)."

Humayun
Visual Basic Expert, C# and JavaScript developer, top Codementor with 400+ sessions

Value first

"Until you collect some good reviews, there's a real person at the other end of the screen who is just as lost and confused as you are. This mentee doesn't know you, this "mentor" to whom she will soon pay some of her hard earned $$$ to. By providing value first, you show that you care more about her and her problem than the money, and you let her get a sense of your skills, communication, and general style. So before asking to start a paid session, take a minute to send some suggestions, maybe some Stack Overflow links and ideas."

Adam
Relax, it's just life ...

📚 Learn. 💖 Help others. 💤 Rest. 🙏 Meditate. 😇 Be yourself. 🔄 Repeat.

"The more you know, the more you will be able to help the others. As new technologies appear, it's a good thing to be familiar with these. (L)EARN — First learn, and then earn.
Be yourself. Before saying you can solve a specific issue, make sure you understand the task. It almost never hurts to ask.

Take time to rest and meditate daily and weekly. To me, having a relationship with the Creator is a source of inspiration and knowledge.

Since being a Codementor doesn't require you to be in a specific place on the planet, you can be anywhere: in the mountains with a small solar panel and good Wifi via a smartphone hotspot, sitting on a tree, in a plane (if you don't have internet, you may have some offline tasks to solve)..."

Ionică
Full Stack, *nix user, Pianist, College Dropout, Vegetarian, Jesus follower

Be honest

"This will both help you and other people seeking help by not wasting time. There's no point in accepting requests about subjects you don't know or saying you know a subject you don't know because you can probably lose a customer that way. I helped people that told me that other mentors didn't really know what they were doing. People will usually thank you for your honesty and even come back to you later when they have a question you can help with."

Ricardo
Senior software engineer with a passion for R&D in new technologies (AR/VR, Machine learning, IoT)

Always leave the mentee satisfied

"This is what I’ve been trying to do ever since I joined Codementor. It's the reason why I received 100% positive reviews for the 220+ sessions that I've had. I’ve gone above and beyond to help people, and they've always ended up appreciating it. People are good to you when you’re good to them.

I remember once being late for a scheduled session and receiving a 4-star rating at the end. I was pretty upset and kindly asked the mentee why he gave me this rating (he was a long-term client). After he explained me why, I apologized and offered him 30min for free in our next session. He gladly accepted and spontaneously fixed my rating to 5 star. Bottom line here is: we’re all people and we sometimes make mistakes. The important thing is to be brave enough to admit when we’re wrong. Be polite and knowledgeable, and good reviews will come. After they do, you’ll be highly sought after as a mentor. Getting started may be challenging, but things become easier with time. Setting a lower rate at the beginning can help to get the ball rolling.

Treat your mentees as friends whom you’re teaching something to. Make your sessions fun and engaging. Involve your mentees by making them guess what will happen if you do this or that. Always try to make the best out of a situation. When you run into an issue you aren’t familiar with - and trust me, this will happen - take the opportunity to show your mentees how important debugging is. By saying, “Let me Google this quickly, I have not encountered this before”, you can actually teach them how to solve an unexpected problem."

"TL;DR - Be relaxed - not stiff. Treat your mentees as friends, and have fun while mentoring. Make extra efforts by giving them homework, and be a good person overall."

Milan
Android | Web Developer | Top Codementor with 200+ sessions

Do you have tips you want to share with the mentor community? Feel free to share them in the comment section. 👇