Outsourcing Mentorship to Reddit r/ExperiencedDevs

The story began when I was trying to validate my ideas for a set of problems that I'm uncertain of. Hence, I was looking for a mentor, somebody I can look up to, who can help me find answers to my questions.

Unfortunately, in my organization, I did not have a dedicated mentor, specifically in leadership. So the journey began.

I have been a long-time lurker in r/ExperiencedDevs. Reading software career stories and experiences. Gaining a lot of insights, and low-key, it was fun reading these posts too. But I was never somebody who wrote answers, let alone wrote a post.

I figured asking questions to validate my ideas on r/ExperiencedDevs might be a good solution. So I asked. Unexpectedly, I got a lot of quality responses. Responses that point out my mistake, gave me insights that I can reflect on, and practical actions.

Reflecting upon it, it was such a great experience to be able to bounce my ideas to the whole world and get responses on them. Improving the quality of my ideas even further.

Since then, I concluded that outsourcing mentors to Reddit is actually a viable plan.