Programming

Broadly speaking, yes, having a mentor is a good idea. However, finding a mentor, a good one, is pretty challenging.

I feel like the pragmatic solution is just to try and find a good team. A good team will provide a learning environment for all of the best practices and technical skills.

There are a few mentor sites, but honestly, I've had pretty hit or miss results with them. You'd likely have to do some trial and error before finding the right fit.

I started my first web development job a bit later in life than most but attended university rather than being self-taught. When I began working, I had to self teach because the languages I was working with were not much of what I'd learned in school. A few years later we revamped the product and I had to go learn a different stack so again, self-learning on the fly in order to maintain what we had going. I stayed at that place for about 9 years and felt like I was stagnating, plus I was siloed off into my own realm and had no help to rely on aside from what I could find in books or online. I deeply felt I needed mentorship, not from a coding perspective but to catch up with the industry & create a clear career path for the future.

I did eventually receive mentorship through a consultant to work through the next phase. We determined the causes of what I was feeling, coached on some new skills, and I found myself running my own business a few years later to realize a dream which hadn't been fulfilled. Now, several years have passed since that point - during the last year I was forced to dissolve that business because I had to step back to focus on my health instead of continue grinding and growing for my and my family's sake. During that time, I turned to a few trusted contacts for advice and mentorship. The perspective from the outside helped me get through that process and pick up and carry on to the next thing when I felt like a failure.

I share these anecdotes to show examples that there is tremendous value to you to find networking, gather contacts, and turn to people for mentorship and advice wherever you can get it. One thing I learned is that it doesn't matter as much what the hot new framework is or what hosting infrastructure solution the companies are moving to - those things are always going to be caught up in a constant churn cycle. The news sites and communities are going get caught up in hype but it matters more what can be created from the hype than the hype itself. Businesses care most about what keeps their sites cost-efficient, highly available, performing well, and secure day in and day out so they can keep their doors open and the lights on. You will find tools to help you accomplish this and pick up this knowledge through learning from others as you go. Don't just seek out web-related mentorship either. Talk with people in other fields no matter what they may do, you will find knowledge which you can bring back and apply to our field.