

Ask HN: I've been a developer for eight months, how do I find a mentor? - rwr

I&#x27;ve been building software professionally for about eight months now. In that time, I&#x27;ve worked at two different startups here in the Valley and I&#x27;m sad to report that I haven&#x27;t learned much.<p>At both of the startups I have worked at, there is little regard towards code architecture, requirements, quality, testing, documentation, etc. I believe that all of these things are important if your goal is to build reliable software that withstands the tests of time — maybe I’m just naive.<p>I place a lot of pride in doing things right the first time. Why put off until tomorrow what can be done right now? Nobody agrees with me. “Just build it for now and we can write tests later”, they say. It won’t happen. It never does — maybe I’m just ignorant.<p>Are all software companies like this or have I just made poor choices? I care a lot about the software I build and it seems like my colleagues don’t have the same level of pride in their work — and that’s fine, but I don’t want to work with them.<p>I’m not growing as an engineer. Lately, I’ve been trying to find OS projects to contribute to because these projects value the same things that I do — well-thought-out decisions, robust architecture, good style, etc. I hear it is best to join a project you already use, and that’s still something I’m looking into. HTML5, web tooling, and web performance all fascinate me, so I’m focusing on these areas when looking for a project to work on.<p>There is so much for me to learn and that really excites me, but with technologies and projects changing so quickly, what I would really like to find is a mentor that I can learn from and who is willing to share their trade secrets with me. In exchange, I can pay it forward by giving back to the community through OS work. Where can I find someone like this?
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NicoJuicy
What's your programming language?

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rwr
JavaScript is what I use day-to-day and what I plan to stay with in the long
term, but I also use Python on personal projects. Go seems like a compact
language with a lot of features that I would like to try when I have the time.

