[OFF-TOPIC] How do I find a mentor when no one I work with knows what they are doing?

[Jason Swails]

On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 3:07 AM, James Brewer <james at brwr.org> wrote:

> I'm sure there will be a substantial amount of arrogance perceived from
> this question, but frankly I don't think that I have anything to learn from
> my co-workers, which saddens me because I really like to learn and I know
> that I have a lot of learning to do.
>
> I've been employed as a software engineer for about eight months now and I
> feel like I haven't learned nearly as much as I should. Sure, I've picked
> up little tidbits of information here and there, but I'm no more confident
> in my ability to build anything more complex than a basic crud app than I
> was the day I started.
>
> Things I'm interested include contributing to both Python and Django,
> database design and data modeling, API design, code quality, algorithms and
> data structures, and software architecture, among other things.
>
> Basically, I want to be a better engineer. Where can I find someone
> willing to point me in the right direction and what can I offer in return?
>

Find something that interests you (you've done that already).  Clone the
repository of whatever interests you (Django, Python, etc.).  Then start
reading their source code.  Maybe pick up a bug report that you think you
can understand and work on coming up with a solution -- that will lead to
more targeted reading than simply perusing it at random.  Chances are
someone will fix it before you get a chance, but just seeing how _others_
have designed their software and implemented it will help you learn a lot.
 The more you do that, the more you will understand the overall framework
of the project.

Best of all would be to choose a project that you use regularly.  Once you
become more experienced and knowledgeable about the project you've chosen,
you can start contributing back to it.  Everybody wins.

At least I've learned a lot doing that.

Good luck,
Jason
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