Comment by Kathryn Brown on "7 Lessons From My First Year As a Developer"

Comment7 Lessons From My First Year As a Developer

Kathryn Brown

Leadership Coach and Product Manager. Tech nerd, plant lover, lifelong learner. I help people and teams achieve greatness!

Oct 1, 2020

Thanks for the insights! The ones that hit hardest for me are notetaking and mentoring others. Teaching others really is the best way to learn. My question to you is: did you have a mentor when you started out? If so, how did you select and approach them, or did they select you?

James Tucker

Software Engineer at soona

Oct 1, 2020

I didn't have one when I first started - I was (and still am) at a startup as the lone dev besides the CTO. It was pretty brutal, to be honest. About a year in, we hired some more experienced/senior devs, and one of them has sorta taken me under his wings. Didn't even ask him to. I'm starting to realize that if you make it obvious and public that you're:

keen on learning
you're humble
you'll run away with any feedback you're given

someone will often notice and want to mentor you. But if this doesn't happen, another thing you can do is find someone at a meetup and ask if they'd like to get together and talk about their experience.

James Tucker Glad you found someone who's interested in helping! I tend most often to find myself in the mentor position rather than mentee, but will take your advice to heart and try to be more vocal about wanting to learn from others. Thank you!

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