What makes a Good Mentor?

Mentoring a contributor can be a very rewarding experience. However, being a good mentor is not just a matter of winding up the contributor and watching them go. Quality mentoring requires a substantial time commitment and the willingness and ability to take a leadership role.

There are specific skills that you can work on in order to be more effective; even experienced mentors can improve. This chapter highlights some of the capabilities of top mentors, by suggesting some self-assessment questions that can help you to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses in this role.

• Do you have a real interest in potential GovTech projects? As a mentor you will be taking ownership of a project idea and seeing it through the summer. If you are not excited about the project, mentoring will be more difficult. You are an integral part of the process from project proposal to delivery.

• Are you willing to dedicate significant time? While the time requirements for mentoring vary, you should seriously consider your prior mentoring experiences and your available time before committing to this role. If you really don’t want to mentor, or really won’t have a reasonable amount of time each week, then don’t offer.

• Are you keenly interested in mentoring C4GT contributors? A main goal of C4GT is mentoring contributors. Mentoring is important to the future of open source software, our immediate projects and the overall culture. Mentoring a contributor requires a combination of passion, responsibility and patience. A good mentor is willing to engage with contributors throughout their learning process.