Goormthon Univ Cherry Blossom Mentoring

How it started

It was a weekday not long after I got back from Goormthon…

A junior I had sprinted together with at Goormthon Jeju suggested I do mentoring.

But the more I thought about it, the more it felt like it wasn’t a seat for me.

"Me, of all people, as a mentor...?"

I didn’t feel like I was in a position to mentor anyone, but I still wanted to try the experience.

And at the time, I had just won Goormthon, so I think I had that post-win confidence boost too.

They say the seat makes the person… I thought it might be good to join a hackathon as a mentor, not a mentee, at least once.

During the hackathon

That’s right, as I arrived and it got close to start time, there were far more people in front of me than I expected.

There were 36 teams. That’s when I started getting really nervous.

I expected it, but frontend is usually busiest toward the end.

So I was pretty free early on. In real work and hackathons, isn’t frontend the one that’s relaxed at first and then on fire at the end?

Sure enough, as the night got deeper, things started to roll. Each mentee’s questions were different.

There were questions about simple deployments, infinite scroll, and form state management.

Thankfully, I could help with everything within what I knew. But there was one case I couldn’t help.

It was a team building a mobile app. The unfortunate part was that there was no mobile mentor, so they came to frontend instead.

It hurt, but what could I do… I don’t know mobile ㅠㅠ

In closing

Only after the hackathon wrapped up did the tension finally ease. Everything I experienced flashed by like a reel.

At first I was full of anxiety and tension, thinking "Can I really do this mentor role well?".

But after hearing the mentees’ thanks, I gradually gained confidence over time.

Listening to concerns I’d had before or heard for the first time became study and review for me too.

Also, seeing projects from different teams let me encounter new ideas and approaches.

Overall, this mentoring experience meant a lot to me. It wasn’t just about sharing what I know.

Seeing other people’s passion and effort in person also gave me a fresh dose of motivation.

If I get the chance, I want to do it again.

As a developer, my goal is to keep growing and learning.

I hope everyone I met there and all the people involved stay happy and keep growing together.