[daeken]

My problem is the following: I have quite a bit of knowledge and I like to help, but have no idea how to start actually being a mentor. I've "mentored" quite a few programmers in reverse-engineering, but it's never been a formal thing, just helping out from time to time. I guess these are the questions I have:

  What are the responsibilities of a mentor?
  Is this relationship more like a teacher-student relationship or like a senior team member bringing on someone new?
  How long does this typically last?  (Formally, at least -- I'd imagine that if the process works out well, the relationship will likely continue past the end)
  What sort of time is dedicated to this?

This is something I'm very interested in, just don't quite have all the information I need to jump into such a commitment.

[nurall]

It is totally up to the Mentor to decide on the level of engagement with a given Protege. The type of engagement is usually determined by the problem the Protege is trying to solve OR a plan/goal he is trying to validate. It could be one time or a periodic affair. The end justifies the means in a Mentor-Protege relationship. A long-lasting synergistic relationship is the ideal case scenario and we would love to enable that.