What is the mentorship process on mkdev?
What is a mentor?
Imagine if you had your own trusted personal adviser who knew your professional goal, how to achieve it, and what mistakes to avoid on the way. This is a Mentor.
Our mentors have already gone far in programming and now they want to guide you. With their help you will be on the right track, learning useful development skills, and not wasting your time chasing wrong ideas.
Before you begin
Your learning at mkdev is made-to-measure and unlimited. Mentorship is tailored to fit your needs. Before starting your studies, think a little and decide what your main goal is.
What kind of goals do we help with? Well, here are a few:
Get the gist of a new technology
Find a job abroad
Make an app and launch it
Prepare for a job interview
Get a promotion
If you don’t have a specific goal yet, drop us a line and we’ll help you define one. This will jump-start your guided learning.
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Talking to you will allow us to find you the most suitable mentor, who will help you reach your goal in the best way possible. We will also answer all questions about the mentors and mentorship in general.
You can talk to us at any time
We answer every question in full detail
In the beginning
1. You and your mentor agree upon a schedule
After you’ve paid, you and your mentor decide the time, frequency, and manner of your communication. We don’t have any strict rules for this process, instead your mentor will provide you with the tools for effective professional communication and show how to use them.
After that the mentor starts your subscription and your learning begins.
2. You and your mentor set the main goal of your studies
This stage is crucial. Understanding your goal allows you to plan your learning process properly. When you and your mentor both can see it clearly, everything is easier for you. At this stage you elaborate on what you want to achieve, and the mentor sums it up and defines your main goal.
3. Your mentor draws up a personalized learning plan
Your personalized learning plan is a practical plan for achieving your set goal. It may include learning a specific programming language, a technology (or even a technology stack), writing an app, building your portfolio, preparing for your first job interviews as a programmer, finding a job, career growth ... whatever you need to succeed. Your learning plan depends entirely on your goal.
You keep your plan, even after your subscription is over, so you will always know your next steps.
Your plan is always available on your profile page
Process
Since the mentorship is completely individual, the whole process is non-linear and unique for each student. While we don't know exactly what you’re going to learn, there are some key similarities in every learning process.
Practical training
Depending on what your study plan includes, you will receive different practical tasks from your mentor. They will mostly be about writing code for one or more apps, which you can then put in your portfolio.
If you already have your own project or app, the learning process will revolve around it so that you can study while developing your project.
You will be able to get the assignments right on the website
You’re going to work in a real environment from the very first day
Answers for your questions
You’re going to ask a lot of stuff, and your mentor will answer, but first you will learn how to find the answers on your own. You will also find out how to read documentation, how to google properly, and how to ask the right questions to get the right answers. These are the skills you’ll need to continue working on your own.
All communication with your mentor will take place in a private chatroom integrated with mkdev and GitHub. It has a lot of useful features that make a programmer's life easier, such as code sharing.
All messaging history with your mentor is logged and is available to you even after your subscription has expired.
Incentives
The mentors don’t only check if your task is done properly. They are as interested in your success as your are, so they’re going to motivate you with the carrot and the stick. They will work with you as if you were working together on a shared project. If you lack self-motivation, the mentor will find a stick big enough for you :)
Life hacks
Knowing how to write and understand code is just a fraction of a programmer’s job. That’s why your mentor will teach you what it takes to have a successful career: how to look for a job, communicate with a client, plan your time, and organize your workplace.
Result
The mentors’ top priority is to teach you how to do everything without them. When you’re able to plan your own growth, find desired answers, read documentation, and solve problems quickly without outside help, your studies are done.
Do you have any other questions about mentors and mentorship? If not, then let’s get started!
Choose a mentorA little FAQ
How many hours or lessons are included in the training week?
As many as you need!
You receive as much of your mentor's attention as you need on the days you've paid for. Each student has their own pace. After signing up, you will discuss an individual contact schedule with your mentor and you will always be to reach your mentor when you need help. Some students find it more convenient to study only in the evenings, others are ready to work from morning 'till night. Mentors answer questions and make code reviews all day so that you will always know what to study and what to do.
Can I work on my own project with a mentor?
Of course!
The tasks you're assigned come together to form a complete project. By default, the task is to make an app specified by your mentor. If you have your own ideas, we’re cool with that! After you’ve signed up, you can discuss your goals with your mentor and mention that you have a project idea. In that case, your study plan will be based on implementing your idea.
Don't worry if you started working on your project before you signed up for mkdev. Your mentor will help you to finish it properly. Perhaps it’ll have to be rewritten from scratch; perhaps you’ll need to change the technology stack. The mentor will show you what’s best. Try not to argue a lot and just trust an expert. That’s what you pay for, right :)
Can I bring the assignments I’ve given at work to my mentor?
Your mentor is not a magical multi-purpose guide who solves all the problems you might face on your work. Paying for mentorship you don’t pay for the mentor’s time and energy he or she will have to spend on trying to grasp some outside commercial project. In addition to it, any real work project has a real-time deadline, which might be influenced by many factors, for example, a client. The idea of mentorship is to teach you work properly on your own, without any artificial constraints.
However, if you need to master some technology for the future use at work or you have some long-term task you have difficulties with, you might discuss it with the mentor and these aims will be included in your study plan. But you should understand that it’s still mentorship and your mentor will never program instead of you by no means. Speaking of which, you can also offer your boss to pay for your studies at mkdev.
By the way, mentors can sign an NDA too, if necessary.