
The Secret Of Being A Great Mentor - askorkin
http://www.skorks.com/2009/09/the-secret-of-being-a-great-mentor/
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ananthrk
Whenever someone mentions mentoring, I am immediately reminded of this good
recollection by Prof.Kirk Martini about his mentor Prof. Randy Pausch

[http://people.virginia.edu/~km6e/Papers/pausch-mentor-
essay....](http://people.virginia.edu/~km6e/Papers/pausch-mentor-essay.pdf)
[Warning: PDF]

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shrikant
This is just perfect, speaking from the other (lower) side of the fence. In my
limited experience as a 'mentee' - I would say the best mentors have clearly
articulated what is expected of me, then left me to think my way through.

The worst - even more so than the micro-managing types - are those who make
lofty statements like "take initiative", and "be proactive", without much
substantiation beyond that. Thus far, these have been the quintessential PHBs.

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bensummers
Slightly related, but hopefully worth mentioning...

If anyone's in the UK and is looking for a mentor to help them with their IT-
related entrepreneurial activities, then here's a really good scheme:

    
    
      http://www.itcmentoring.com/
    

It's where my startup found our absolutely wonderful mentor.

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rw
How does this compare to advisor-student relationships in grad school?

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askorkin
It is not quite the same thing, but some of the elements would certainly
apply, such as confidentiality etc.

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DanielBMarkham
The idea of mentor/mentee and master/apprentice relationships is way overdue
in the software industry. It's good to see an author try to get out what's
involved in a good relationship.

I didn't find a lot of new material here and it seemed rambling, but since I'm
in the business I'm not much of an impartial judge!

In the future, I'd rather see the top 3 key traits of a mentor instead of the
dozen or more items we got. Also why these traits were chosen. It seems one of
the qualifications for being a mentor is being able to give lots of options
and bullet points. I think the harder part is filtering it out and making it
easy for noobs. Just my opinion, though. Thanks for the article!

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yters
Sounds like it's time for you to write an article!

