The question is this: should you seek guidance through mentorship or embark on a self-taught journey? The answer, fortunately, isn’t a binary “either-or.” Both approaches offer distinct benefits, choosing one over the other can seem like a binary dilemma, but the reality is far more nuanced.

Who Is A Self-Taught Person?

A self taught individual is anyone who engages in learning without external monitoring or guidance. What is learnt could be anything, be it acquiring a new skill or developing oneself in already acquired skills.

We have had various examples of programmers, developers, testers and other fields choosing to go through the route of self administered learning either learning how to code from reading a book, choosing to download a pack of tutorial videos in batches to learn from, take the projects and assignments or enrolling for an online bootcamp – all these are without a mentor or any form of guidance.

We have also hugely witnessed a whole lot of successful self taught programmers and developers in various tech roles. Successful in the sense that, they have become dependable pillars of most companies by becoming entrepreneurs who go on to build successful startups and products, reducing the unemployment gap or rate by employing thousands and driving technological and economic growth.

The Bright Side of Being Self-Taught

Becoming a self taught or autodidact can help you to explore some of your innate abilities and help you to thrive individually. Some of the positive benefits of following the self taught path are:

• It affords you the opportunity to adapt and learn quickly – Self learning is all about pushing yourself to search for resources and opportunities to gather skills and knowledge on your own, this indicates that they are proactive and enthusiastic about making quick decisions and taking on responsibilities, making quick adjustments to difficulties and challenges without monitoring.  One key strength they possess is being adaptable and transitional when necessary, they can foresee a change course and adjust their strategy to fit in to succeed.
• They are extremely resourceful in learning – Self-taught individuals are commonly very resourceful and can search and exploit the tools they find, such as books, workshops, online learning platforms, and networking opportunities. They are also adept at coming up with creative solutions to aid learning and advancement of their skills. They are not held down by conventional thought processes, so they are much more naturally adaptable and flexible in their approach to learning and development of creative solutions to problems.
• They are passionate and highly driven – When you take a swipe at various self taught masters over the decade such as Elon Musk, Steve jobs, Richard Brandson and Bill Gates, you discover that the two essential qualities commonly linked to them are undivided passion and drive. These people possess strong motivation and are passionate about everything they do.

• They are innovative and creative champions – Going beyond the norms of creativity is a strong suit worn by most self taught people. They tend to provoke the natural or conventional ways of doing things, for instance the American businessman,  Inventor and investor, Steve jobs is a big prominent of self learning having succeeded as a founder and businessman in his own time with Apple.inc this in a way underscores the importance of learning on your own will.

The Dark Side of Being Self-Taught

In as much as it is visible that self taught individuals develop more flexibility, versatility, higher IQ, critical thinking skills and adaptability to challenges, there are some waterfalls to becoming a self taught learner.

In a survey conducted by Codegym, a self paced learning platform, it was discovered that the following doubts were common among self taught students: 

• What if I can’t dedicate enough time to studying?
• What if it becomes too difficult for me?
• What if I don’t understand something and can’t find an adequate answer?
• What if I lack the motivation to finish?
• What if I give up as soon as it gets tough?
• Can I learn without anyone monitoring me and without external deadlines?

It would be simple to say that those doubts are baseless. After all, we all learn differently, so we could easily let go of those doubts when they pounce. 

There are numerous skills and areas of career development that you stand to lose without a mentor’s guidance and correction.

1. Self taught developers or programmers are not able to develop skills in leadership and teamwork.
2. They lack confidence in their abilities to speak and communicate effectively with others as most of their learning has been done without them engaging in a conversation with the tutor.
3. They lack presentation skills, they are ineffective when it comes to presenting the solution they built for everyone to understand, they takes only technical people to understand their solutions.

Where Mentorship Comes In

The process of providing competent views, giving more feedback, guidance and control to some people simply helps them to set a distinctive pace in learning and application of skills – in other words, you need a mentor.

The gained benefits from traditional “mentor-mentee” relationships have persisted for centuries for a reason. Mentorship is a two way street as the mentor also stands to gain a lot from a fruitful mentorship program or activity. Most people become mentors out of the feeling to “give back” to the community or society.

Below are a range of personal gains you can derive from the experience of becoming a mentor. They include:

• Helps to polish your leadership skills 
• Increased empathy and self awareness.
• Helps to improve your communication skills
• Mastering the art of delivering feedback and asking relevant questions.
• You grow as an active listener
• Exposure to learning about different individual attributes, knowledge and perspectives.
• Increasing the size of your personal network.
• Unlock other career related opportunities. 
• Reduced levels of mental stress such as anxiety etc.

Key Roles Of A Mentee In A Mentorship Program or Fellowship

The Creator and Link Builder – In such programs, the Mentee is the key proponent and link Builder of the relationship, he/she has to drive the relationship by identifying the knowledge, the skills and/or goals that he/she intends to accomplish and convey in detail to his/her mentor.

Growth Planner – A mentee intentionally works with his or her mentor to seek resources for learning and development carrying out research to identify useful information and industry experts that might aid his or her growth.

Giver – A mentee creates opportunities to give back to his or her mentor.

Life-long student – A mentee takes full advantage of all available opportunities to learn. 

Your ability to succeed as a self taught relies on your desire to learn unconventionally without any form of feedback or progress report but when you submit yourself to be mentored, it becomes a totally different ball game.

You have to become responsible in every area, here are some tips you will need:

• Share your list of career goals and objectives with your mentor.
• Communicate what you expect as an outcome from the relationship  with your mentor.
• Put in extra effort to ensure you meet with your mentor regularly. Plan how, where and when those meetings will take place.
• Clearly state how you would like to receive feedback to your mentor.
• Check your progress and re-assess needs on a timely basis.
• Boldly request for feedback.
• Ensure to set up boundaries in the relationship 
• Be open to a wide array of perspectives
• Keep all communications with your mentor confidential.
• Be open to criticism, read and listen to your mentor’s comments

Attributes Of A Successful Mentee

In the process of building that relationship with your mentor, you need to exhibit some, if not all of the characteristics stated below:

• Always carry an attitude and outlook that is positive.
• Be curious to learn and adapt proactively
• Be respectful, responsive and aware of your mentor’s role and time
• Become comfortable with receiving constructive and objective feedback
• You must be a “team player”
• Be eager to leave your comfort zone, to have uncomfortable conversations and situations that are crucial to your success 
•  Put on the guard of commitment and seriousness.
• Pay attention to and carefully consider all advice you receive. 
• Always ask for advice or feedback early on.
• Take your mentor as a role model by observing how your mentors thought processes, problem solving patterns and approach to tasks.
• Be creative, find opportunities to give back something to your mentor
• Always acknowledge your mentors advice, commitment, suggestion or comments
• Become your mentor’s ambassador to others.

I know you are so enthusiastic right now having discovered how helpful it is for you to have a mentor in your journey to guide you and help you to reach your goals strategically and faster.

However, there are some things you should not expect or do as a Mentee such as, trying to bring career unrelated issues like family issues to your mentor. It is always best to always present before your mentor issues that are focused on your career, not otherwise.

Below are some other thing you must not do as a Mentee:

• Rely on your mentor to pick out your goals for you.
• Take your mentor’s time and presence for granted. Don’t beat around the bush with your comments, explanations and experiences. 
• Become combative. Sincere criticism allows you to reach your full potential by improving yourself.
• Maintain a narrow mindset. It could be interpreted as impolite to argue with or disagree with the mentor’s counsel.
• Lose contact with your mentor, once the official connection has ended.

As Malcolm Knowles’ stated in his book, explaining how adults learn best: “Having a life experience is the best way of learning for adults; learning from experience of others accelerates, facilitates and enhances this process. “

TECHRITY provides a mentoring program to help mentees and mentors, kickstart a fruitful career based relationship and reach their goals. To register to as a mentee, click here.