Mentoring for the First Time: Amazing and Superb opportunity!!
“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes — then learn how to do it later!” — Richard Branson
Mentoring is something that our brain is to pick, our ear is to listen, and a push required in the right direction. This is what I able to make out after coming across my first mentorship opportunity in Cod{on}fest 2020, which was organised by the SkillShip Foundation along with PyLadies Delhi and techeroes, with CodeChef as its platform and scholarship partner
All About Cod{on}fest 2020
It’s a month-long program for people who want to get their hands in competitive coding so they could know how to start it and from where! As mastering competitive programming requires lots of dedication and patience
You should “Think twice, code once.” means
First, solve the problem. Then, write the code. — John Johnson
I feel very lucky and enthusiastic after getting selected. All the mentors are provided with the mentees and so they made a team of mentees with a mentor, who helps them to get started with DSA, different problems, platform, concepts and many more… also, track their weekly performance. Mentors to set problems for the weekly topics that are on different coding platforms include CodeChef, Leetcode, and many more…which includes beginner to hard level questions for all. Many Resources were shared on the slack group!
The mentor helped the mentees to clear their doubts on any topic on Slack itself and helped them to find an easier approach to the problem. The team also conducted an interactive technical session conducted by an experienced person. Not only this Contest on Codechef was also created for the student to help them with their gained skills. Too conducted live doubt session and made a GitHub repository
and for more info, you can go to
WHAT I GAINED FROM THE PROGRAM!
This program helped me to enhance my skills in various fields of development. I learned a lot from my mentees as well as from the co-mentors and able to explore areas in which I need improvement. I was able to make new connections through the journey, know about their experiences and That is so much inspiring for me! Too when I was able to solve the problems raised by mentees makes me strong! There were some topics which I have to read articles and some resources for getting the problem solved that made my experiences. I learned about various other things like how to create a contest, bonding between your team, establishing a flow !!
The Three A’s of Mentorship
Advisor: This is the most obvious role for a mentor to play. Mentors are often experienced in areas that mentees are not, and insight from a mentor can save a mentee both time and resources in figuring out a problem. This frees up the mentee to focus on issues that are unique to their objective
Admonition: Listen. Guide. But don’t give away all of the answers. Although it can be easy for a mentor to simply point out mistakes, there are often valuable lessons for mentees in making those mistakes along the way. In these instances, a mentor must play the role of counsellor and provide guidance but not answers, enabling their mentee to figure out the right course of action individually.
It can be tempting for a mentor to revert from counsellor to Advisor. At what point does a mentor have a responsibility to step in? it does depend on the mentee’s learning style. Some mentees need hands-on experience to fully understand concepts, while others prefer theoretical explanation !!
Admirer: Means cheering UP, feedback and advice that a mentor can give, they should also provide support and enthusiasm. Mentors should help celebrate a mentee’s successes — no matter how big or small is it!
And at the end of it!
mentees, as well as mentors, were judged!
Top 3 lucky winners(mentees) of the fest at the end who would be eligible for gifts and scholarship from one of the prestigious coding platform
It’s based on their coding skills, their contribution towards society, problem-solving ability and their interest in coding, activeness and enthusiasm towards it.
To helping others, maintain Regularity, solving minimum criteria question given to them. Apart from this, the top 3 mentors who were amazing in their work and helped out so many people were awarded and I’m glad that I’m One of Them.
Thank you so much SkillShip Foundation, PyLadies Delhi and techeroes Germany for the marvellous opportunity given to me of becoming a mentor for the first time for sharing my knowledge and learning from others. A million thanks to all the lead organisers and the co-mentors that make me learned a lot of things. I really appreciate the whole Cod{on}fest team for making it a Great Success. As
Together Everyone Achieves More =TEAM
Also, I would like to thank all the participants for making this program a success. I would love to join the second version of this program again!
Thanks and all the best to TEAM for the future!
