Ask HN: How do I find a coding mentor outside of work?

2 points by daspianist 2 years ago | 1 comment

For background, I have been in the iOS space for nearly 10 years, am self-taught, and have solo-built two App Store "App of the Day" apps.

However, despite these the App Store validations, I often find myself unable to convincingly answer system design questions, or coding questions designed for someone at my level in interviews.

I would really like to get better at my craft, and collab. with respected engineering leaders. However, it seems that these experiences are nearly exclusive to work settings.

Without being able to get my foot in, I can't gain the mentoring experience and can only do learn from non-interactive resources like YT videos or books and make incremental improvements. I have found this both limiting and frustrating.

Modern software engineering is very much a classic apprenticeship set up, and I would love to find mentors. How do I do this?

matt3210 2 years ago |

I was always the mentor from day one, since I started at 12. If you really want to self teach, the best way is to have a NEED/problem and solve it with software. Example: when I was 14 back before Python hit it big, I wrote an image web scraper with c++ and libcurl.

You might be a victim of “all the low hanging problems are solved” and “everything is so easy with modern languages”.

Next time you find yourself downloading a utility, try making it instead and you’ll learn a massive amount.

Also, the math you learn with a traditional degree is important for the real technical stuff like GFX, math programs, and optimization. Don’t forget to self teach that.

HackerRank and leetcode might help too