Mentor: A developer protégé guidebook

Intro

This is a guidebook for those looking to become a developer protégé. It contains the skeleton of a self paced curriculum and guidelines for an ideal mentor/protégé relationship.

Format

I believe the best relationships are two-way, and mentoring is no exception. Therefore, in order to get the most out of a mentorship, you (the protégé) must have a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goal for what you wish to accomplish. Your goal could be to develop a new API, get a job in a particular field, etc.

In exchange for helping you reach your goal, I ask for your assistance by contributing to one of my pinned open source repos.

Office Hours

Once a month, I'll allocate 2 hours for a communal live-video session (skype/google hangeouts) to review code, answer questions, discuss goals, etc.

Stages

Self study

• pick your primary SMART goal and create an issue
• read/view the linked resources and submit any questions as issues
• select a pinned repo to contribute to, then create an issue indicating your selection
• read your selected repo's README and take note of any confusing wording or code examples
• use your selected repo in a project
• submit a PR to your selected repo

Live sessions

• review your goal(s)
• review your current progress
• answer questions about the linked resources
• answer questions about your selected repo

Expertise

It obviously won't make sense for me to mentor you in an area I'm not strong in. Below are what I consider my areas of expertise.

Fields

• backend development
• functional programming
• data science / data analysis
• web app development
• entrepreneurship

Technologies

• Python
  • Flask
  • SQLAlchemy
  • Pandas
  • BeautifulSoup/Scrapy
  • Twisted
  • tox/nose/pytest
• CoffeeScript
  • Node/Express
  • D3
  • Leaflet
  • Mithril
  • Chaplin/Backbone/JQuery
  • Lunr
• Misc
  • BASH
  • SQL
  • Stylus
  • Pug/Jade
• Cloud
  • Heroku
  • DigitalOcean
  • S3
  • TravisCI
• DB
  • MongoDB
  • PostgreSQL
  • SQLite
  • Memcache
  • Redis

Resources

• Python
  • Idiomatic Python
  • Python tutorial
  • Flask (dropbox)
• Misc
  • why-i-wont-use-your-open-source-project
  • Database (dropbox)
• APIs
  • ten-reasons-developers-hate-your-api (slides)
  • REST (dropbox)
• functional programming
  • Functional Thinking (video)
  • pure-functions
• data science
  • FAQ
  • Partially Derivative

Next Steps

This is a living document. Over time I will add worksheets, resources, and additional information. Please check this repo frequently to stay up-to-date.

Want to get started? Pick your primary SMART goal and select one of my pinned repos. Then create an issue with your selections. Finally, "watch" this repo to be notified of the upcoming office hours schedule.