Breaking into tech can feel overwhelming, but mentorship is one of the easiest ways to fast-track your growth. I like to think of mentorship as a career booster, an opportunity that can open doors and shape your journey. It’s a lot like interning, where you learn directly from someone more experienced. In many ways, whoever guides you, teaches you, and supports your learning process can be seen as a mentor.
That said, let’s be realistic: mentorship is great, but it’s not a must-have to land your first role in tech. Don’t get me wrong — I’ll explain why.
There are majorly two sets of newbies in tech. The first sets are those that started their tech journey amidst an existing community. In that community, you have people you learn with, you have people that know more than you, you have people that can be referred to as seniors even though they’re still learning. Lastly, you have mentors/tutors, those that are solely in charge of walking you through your journey. They’re invested in seeing you succeed starting from the little projects/assignments they give you. In this kind of setting, you could always reach out to your seniors for assistance. These people are already experienced so they know how things are in the real world. Mentors are to hold your hands and guide you through till you land either an internship or a job role. In most cases, they put you on the next available role they find. That way, the journey seems much easier.
The second set of newbies are those that learned the courses themselves. For these people, it may seem a bit difficult to land even an unpaid internship because all they depend on is what they have learned online. This is where the maximum use of social media comes in. They begin to search for communities to join online, they look out for resources and useful information that could help them land their first role. After so many efforts, consistency and perseverance, they eventually get what they want without exactly experiencing mentorship.
What I’m saying in essence is, not everyone would undergo mentorship. If it comes, great, go for it because that’s a golden opportunity right there. If it doesn’t, do not focus on looking out for it instead focus on researching on what could make you become better and who knows, while searching and networking, you could find someone befitting to mentor you. Lastly, focus on learning more and prioritize internships because internships like I said earlier bring about mentorship.
