Finding a mentor

Nobody hands out mentors. They come out of relationships that start with something small and concrete. In a community like this one, that is actually easier than in a big city where everyone is busy.

What mentoring really looks like here

It is rarely a formal program with a schedule. It is a person you can email one specific question, who will read your pull request, or who will tell you honestly whether an idea is worth a month of your time. Those relationships are built one interaction at a time.

How to ask well

• Be specific. “How would you structure this function?” beats “Will you mentor me?”
• Do the work first. Show the attempt, the error message and what you already tried.
• Respect their time. Ask for fifteen minutes, not their career.
• Close the loop. Tell them what happened after their advice. That is what makes them want to help again.

Where to find one

The meetup is the front door. So is contributing to open source and asking good questions in public. FreeCodeCamp and Exercism both have human mentoring if you want practice at being mentored before you ask someone local.

Do this next in Central Alberta

• Red Deer Tech & Code meetup — the front door
• Red Deer Start Here — founders who have carried the risk already

Go deeper

• Exercism — free coding exercises with human mentoring
• freeCodeCamp — large, welcoming community

Take the next step

Reading is cheap; showing up once and talking to someone is what actually moves it ahead. Come to a meetup and bring whatever you are working on or stuck on. No pitch, no sign-up, no sales — peers over beers.