Will You Always Have a Mentor?
The short answer: no.
If you’re lucky enough to have an official—or even unofficial—mentor, appreciate them. Be gentle. Ask questions. Listen. Learn.
You’ll know when you’ve found one. It’s a feeling as much as a fact: someone who takes the time to help you grow, explain the “why,” and guide you around pitfalls.
But here’s the truth: you cannot expect to have a mentor all the time.
Why You Might Not Have a Mentor
1. Sometimes, they simply don’t exist in your team
I remember my first developer team. Great people. But the most experienced person had only a few years’ head start on me.
I still learned a lot—different things from different people. One was good with architecture, another was great in C++, and someone else knew Python. But in the end, we were all inexperienced folks just trying to find our way.
No matter your expectations—or even management’s wishes—sometimes there’s just no one around with significantly more experience than you.
2. Some have the knowledge but not the skill or interest
Mentoring is a skill.
While it’s often said that senior engineers have a moral responsibility to mentor juniors, that doesn’t mean they’ll be good at it. Think of university professors: all of them are extremely knowledgeable, but not all are great teachers. Some are researchers at heart, more comfortable in the lab than in the classroom.
In tech, it’s the same. A brilliant senior developer may prefer to focus on solving problems, not explaining them. We’re all different, with different skills and desires.
3. The willing ones may not have the time
Even if someone has the knowledge and the skill and the will, they may be drowning in their own workload.
It’s not easy to mentor when management expects every hour to be billable, every ticket to be closed, and every deliverable to be met. Without organizational support, mentoring often gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list.
So… What If You Need a Mentor But Don’t Have One?
If you’re without a mentor right now, it’s not the end of the world. There are other ways to get guidance, feedback, and inspiration. None of them are perfect replacements, but each can help you keep growing.
1. “Talk” to an LLM
AI can be surprisingly useful as a “pseudo-mentor.” It’s available 24/7, never gets tired of your questions, and doesn’t judge you for not knowing something. You can throw ideas at it, ask for explanations, or get quick code reviews without worrying about interrupting someone’s day.
But it’s not a human. It can’t know your company’s internal politics, the personalities on your team, or the exact constraints of your project. And it will never look over your shoulder at your pull request and say, “This might work, but here’s how we’d usually do it here.” Think of it as a powerful reference book that talks back—not a seasoned colleague.
And don’t forget to double-check the validity and relevance of the answers you get. LLMs still tend to hallucinate and act as if they’ve found an answer—even when they haven’t. Always cross-check important details, just as you would with any online source.
2. Hire a Mentor
Yes, you can literally pay for one. There are platforms where experienced developers offer mentoring sessions, career coaching, or problem-solving calls. The benefit here is dedicated time: they’re there specifically for you, with no competing priorities. They can hold you accountable, give you a learning plan, and help you level up faster than trial-and-error learning ever could.
The downsides? First, it costs money, sometimes a lot. And second, you have to choose carefully. A mentor-for-hire might have impressive credentials, but that doesn’t mean they’re the right fit for your goals, your personality, or your learning style. Finding the right one is a bit like dating—you might need to try a few before you find someone who clicks.
3. Build Your Network Outside Your Employer
If there’s no one at your workplace who can mentor you, you can still find guidance elsewhere. Join local meetups, participate in online communities, contribute to open-source projects, or just reach out to people you admire on LinkedIn. Over time, you’ll meet people with different perspectives, skill sets, and experiences—and some of them may naturally take on a mentoring role for you.
The challenge is that this takes time and effort. Relationships don’t form overnight, and you need to give as much as you take. You’ll also get advice from people who don’t know the full story of your company’s processes or constraints, which means you’ll have to adapt their suggestions to fit your reality.
Final Thought
A mentor can accelerate your growth, but they’re not the only path forward. If you can’t find one where you are, don’t wait—create your own learning environment. Seek knowledge from tools, hire guidance if you can, and build connections that inspire you.
Sometimes, the absence of a mentor forces you to develop skills you wouldn’t have otherwise—initiative, self-reliance, and the ability to find answers in unexpected places. Those are qualities that will serve you well when, one day, you are the mentor someone else has been waiting for.