

Ask HN: How to use a mentor - Nemant

I&#x27;m a recent graduate (&lt; 2 years) and have a mentor at the company I work for. He&#x27;s a senior dev.<p>I&#x27;m not quite sure how to make best use of him and learn&#x2F;grow as a developer.<p>Anyone have any experience being a mentor&#x2F;mentee?<p>He suggested that we could do a number of things like, go through code reviews, design problems (lets architect Instagram type of problem), or even interview type of questions.<p>Any suggestions for exercises&#x2F;discussions that I should be having?
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relaunched
What are your goals? How can you utilize your mentors talents / abilities /
experience to help achieve them? What can you provide back to your mentor,
which provides value to them?

A good mentor should be looked at as somewhat avuncular; they aren't always
available, but they make time for you and they can steer you towards the next
step (even if they could actually do it for you).

As a mentor, my goal is to help develop the tools and provide the context for
my mentee's success. Every once and a while, I'll even take on a small action
item.

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brudgers
Do what your mentor suggests. Block out some time for a code review. Ask what
first steps you should take on the architecture exercise.

Etc.

A mentor is not something a mentee uses. A mentor is someone the mentee knows
and trusts from beyond their peer group. If you don't trust your mentors
advice, they're not really your mentor. If you don't more or less except your
mentor's guidance, you're not really a mentee.

Good luck.

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taarlik-baaak
Ask 3 points by nemant

