My Lessons from Mentorship

I've been mentoring 5–6 people for the last 2 months. It's part of my personal OKRs to grow as a person and a leader in tech. I successfully helped one person get a job and am currently helping others with interview prep. My personal belief has been that if I can genuinely help even one person, I'll call that task successful.

Key Learnings

Mentorship extends beyond advice. The role combines therapeutic support, genuine friendship, and directional guidance. Mentees often hesitate to reach out, fearing they're burdening their mentor. To counter this, I proactively check in bi-weekly, creating space for discussions about work challenges and job search struggles while sharing my own experiences.

Belief catalyzes achievement. Everyone has the ability to achieve their dreams if someone deeply believes in them and shows them the path. My mentees possess the necessary credentials and skills — what they need is confidence in themselves. That's where most of the actual work happens.

Flexibility matters more than rigid schedules. I learned to abandon the notion that mentees who couldn't fit rigid time slots lacked seriousness. People often work between commitments. I adapted by using my own free time to accommodate calls, shifting focus from my schedule to their needs.