Yenly Ma

Learning to Mentor

A non-profit, The Collab Lab, invited me to mentor early-career developers. Ever since my bootcamp days at Hackbright Academy, I've always wanted to mentor but yet I've been afraid to. How to coach others is a much needed skill in tech but yet it's not taught in bootcamps or on the job. Impostor syndrome feels heavy and has been my roadblock.

Ways I'm overcoming my imposter syndrome:

  • Revisiting the Myth of Mentorship chapter in Lead from the Outside by Stacey Abrams
  • Commits to volunteering with The Collab Lab for Spring cohort.
  • Building the sample application, Smart Shopping List App, as an exercise in walking in mentees' shoes to understand and empathize. I'm hoping by diving in the code myself, I would be better equip to answer questions.
  • Observing current cohorts' weekly syncs and pull request conversations.
  • Showing up, engage in the community, and doing my prep work.