Ask HN: How important is it to have a mentor?

[2bor-2n]

I never had a mentor during my years in the industry. So I am wondering is it really necessary to have a mentor for yourself as a developer/engineer?

How much is it going to affect one's career in the absence of a mentor?

[ramblerman]

There comes a time when we realize our parents don't have all the answers. They haven't got it all figured out, and are mostly winging it day by day.

The higher up I go in corporate life, the more that analogy holds.

The short answer, yes a mentor can be incredibly useful and if you find someone you admire by all means soak up their knowledge. But just looking for a mentor for the sake of it seems like an insecurity. I.e. There isn't someone out there with all the answers for you.

[tharne]

It's not necessary, but it is extremely helpful. One of the biggest mistakes I've made in the past was taking a job based on the description of the job rather than the manager. If I could do it over again, I would make working for the right manager my priority when job searching, which is what I do today.

The good news is that you can and should have mentors any every point in your career. Most importantly, your mentor does not have to be your direct manager, and you can have more than one mentor, e.g. a mentor for technical work, a mentor for presentation skills, etc.

[AnimalMuppet]

> One of the biggest mistakes I've made in the past was taking a job based on the description of the job rather than the manager.

As someone contemplating a job change in the not too distant future, that was a very helpful point.

[dontcare007]

Having a mentor is a shortcut: it can save you a lot of trial and error learning. It also shortens the learning feedback loop.

As my dad used tosay: the stupid don't learn from their mistakes, the smart learn from their mistakes,and the wise learn from other people's mistakes.

[rramadass]

Having a Mentor will help if you approach it the right way i.e. they are a guide on your path but cannot do your work nor have all the answers.

Their importance lies in the fact that they can guide you to and through a smaller set of right paths towards your goal bypassing the much much larger set of all wrong paths. They help short-circuit the learning ramp.

However if you develop a Auto-didactic mentality, you can do without a "full-time" Mentor; just receiving occasional advice is enough.

[guilhas]

I think having a mentor is essential. But a senior/lead/manager engineers ends up being sort of a mentor

I would say it is like visiting a new city, you can spend hours researching the best landmarks, attractions, events, night life, read online reviews, etc... But will probably not be better than just going with a local guide or friend. Guides offer immediate insight, right answers to the wrong questions, might share local stories/curiosities on subject. Take you to the best places, actually local and interesting, instead of the same old touristy attraction traps. Curate the visit for the time, and interests, you have. Adapt the journey to unexpected events... You might make friends, most time better than being the lone warrior on the road to nowhere

They'll help you better guide your career. Avoid workplace traps.

Young/new people tend to focus to much on showing off. Wasting endless time fixing every small or tangent problem because they can. But with the insight of the bigger picture it is easier to focus and produce relevant work that moves the company, career, and knowledge forward

[mardiyah]

IMHO, considering we're in info age, no needful as can be compensated by info mining

and esp. it's dwarfed by more needed a motivator instead of mentor need

[bduffany]

I think there is a lot of value in the fact that a mentor is human, which will not be matchable by any information system any time soon.

A good mentor can learn from the types of questions you are asking and proactively identify flaws in your mental model. With Google searching, if you ask a question that has a flawed premise, you may get an answer that does not point out the flaws in your thinking.

[AnimalMuppet]

With all the info out there, a mentor can give you a map to it.

[joshxyz]

In this day and age of internet you can just look up lots of people excelling in your industry and and study the things they are working on and the ways they approach it. Call it contactless mentorship lol.

[Jensson]

Code reviews by more senior peers is mentorship if they do them properly. You don't need more mentorship than that unless you want to go for management.

[wreath]

There is a lot to mentor a junior on other than technical aspects of the job, like communication, behavior and how to be strategic with learning new technology to avoid a burnout while still having marketable skills/relevant.

[cable2600]

A mentor can guide you to avoid making mistakes.

[yeswecatan]

How does one find a mentor?