Programming Mentor
Learning programming in my own time. As of now it consists of GitHub crawling, YouTube videos, and playing in Terminal on macOS as a sandbox for Python, Node, etc. There are things I run into where I wish I could ask a mentor or friend when I am just not getting it from the usual places like Stack Overflow. Did any of you have a mentor? If yes, did you find them through a formal class or program? Any insight would be appreciated.
Everyone has mentors, although they might not be explicitly defined, and they might not always have the answers but they’ll still help you find the language to ask. It helps a lot when your questions to them don’t look like you want them to do your homework for you, but I think we all love sharing our craft with people who want to succeed with us.
That is the mentor / protégée dynamic I am looking for. I like creating things and I tend to get stuck on my own ego as far as negative feedback loops. I’d love to have someone that could agree with me on something that is not working and have an alternate solution or a discussion that leads to the discover. But also someone to give me even the slightest reassurance that the direction I am going in is working. I don’t want a human answer key, I want symbiosis.
Since it sounds like you're working on personal projects, I'd recommend looking up code groups/ meetups. Udemy and codecademy are also good for practicing fundamentals
For work, just try to automate your ops. Then reach out to devs as you hit blockers.
Also, find a service that you enjoy as a hobby or something (Netflix, Facebook, Twitch, etc) and interact with their APIs or development interfaces. Create a small project to try to make a platform do something.
Udemy, Udacity, Coursera.