<story><title>Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?</title><text>Do you do any mentoring outside of work? If so, how did you get started?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>shubb</author><text>I wouldn&amp;#x27;t feel confident to mentor anyone on anything. I&amp;#x27;d feel like a total fraud.&lt;p&gt;This can&amp;#x27;t be uncommon.&lt;p&gt;When I was a developer, I either felt like what I was doing could be done by a smart highschooler (probably better than I was doing it) because it was straight forward, or like I was figuring things out as I went along (because it was hard).&lt;p&gt;Now I do less development and more business analysis &amp;#x2F; architecture, I feel like I&amp;#x27;m talking to a lot of far smarter people, and probably look smarter than I am because I&amp;#x27;m echoing better informed peoples opinions back and forth.&lt;p&gt;All I could advise someone starting out in tech is to remember that no one really knows what they are doing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>numbsafari</author><text>The job of a mentor is often simply to listen, and to help the mentee hold themselves accountable.&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#x27;ve been successful in your career, in spite of what you  perceive as personal limitations, I bet you have the humility to be a good listener and an empathetic motivator.&lt;p&gt;Honestly, if you look at most professional mentors and coaches, especially in sports, they aren&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;the best&amp;quot; in their field. They are people who know enough to understand the problems and life experiences people in that field face and are networked in the field and able to help connect folks with each other.&lt;p&gt;Take a look at the GROW model for a good approach to working with mentees in fields you don&amp;#x27;t consider yourself to be an expert in.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Do you do any mentoring outside of work?</title><text>Do you do any mentoring outside of work? If so, how did you get started?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>shubb</author><text>I wouldn&amp;#x27;t feel confident to mentor anyone on anything. I&amp;#x27;d feel like a total fraud.&lt;p&gt;This can&amp;#x27;t be uncommon.&lt;p&gt;When I was a developer, I either felt like what I was doing could be done by a smart highschooler (probably better than I was doing it) because it was straight forward, or like I was figuring things out as I went along (because it was hard).&lt;p&gt;Now I do less development and more business analysis &amp;#x2F; architecture, I feel like I&amp;#x27;m talking to a lot of far smarter people, and probably look smarter than I am because I&amp;#x27;m echoing better informed peoples opinions back and forth.&lt;p&gt;All I could advise someone starting out in tech is to remember that no one really knows what they are doing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>woodrowbarlow</author><text>of course it isn&amp;#x27;t uncommon. in fact, it&amp;#x27;s so common it has a name: imposter syndrome. mentoring is probably a good way to kick that self-doubt, because it will make you realize how much you have to offer.&lt;p&gt;if you&amp;#x27;re happy in your new role, good for you! but to any developers experiencing imposter syndrome: there will always be people who seem smarter than you, and there will (hopefully!) always be jobs that are a struggle. it doesn&amp;#x27;t mean you&amp;#x27;re a fraud. use them both as resources to become one of those people who seem smarter than you. then find new people who seem smarter than you and repeat.</text></comment>