5 Keys to Remote Mentorship: for mentees

Rebecca Hyland
Nov 7 · 3 min read

As a Turing student, I had a remote mentor who supported me in learning to code, manage projects, and interview in a new field. Here’s my advice on how to maximize a mentorship across state lines, or across town.


  1. Take advantage of flexible scheduling
A traffic jam, black and white photo
A traffic jam, black and white photo
Ain’t nobody got time for traffic jams. (Photo by Roshni Sidapara)

A person’s meeting availability is more open when they don’t have to physically commute to and from a location. In person, someone might not be available at 7pm every Tuesday, but over a Slack call, it might be perfect.

2. Set a regular time, then confirm

A flip-number clock with spinning numbers, black and white
A flip-number clock with spinning numbers, black and white
Time flies at Turing, make scheduling easy on yourself. (Photo by Djim Loic)

A weekly penciled-in appointment reduces the cognitive load of having to prioritize and coordinate meeting times between two busy people. Since “life happens,” message your mentor the day, or morning, before to confirm you can both make it, or to reschedule.

Skis on a stand in front of a snowy ski slope and pines trees.
Skis on a stand in front of a snowy ski slope and pines trees.
Remote is dope! (Photo by Madison Olling)

3. Try on the remote lifestyle

After Turing, do you imagine coding from the beach, or attending your team’s daily standup online — while you’re in the mountains?

Whether it’s a fully remote position, or an office role with some work-from-home days, remote work is a strategy for work-life balance that motivates many career changers.

You can’t say you weren’t warned: after virtual meetings with your mentor, you might find yourself loving remote life.

4. When in doubt, Slack it out

Did you know Slack calls are optimized for collaboration? Check out the screen-share! By “writing” on the screen, you can draw attention to lines of code or sections of a lesson you’re reviewing. And switching between your and your mentor’s views to share resources takes just a couple clicks.

Actual photo of me explaining a bug in my project during Mod 1. (Photo by Matthew Brodeur)

5. Talk techy to me

For new programmers, it can be hard to verbalize that bug in the code. There’s an instinct to sit next to someone, point to your screen, and say, “Then it failed here, so I looked there, but I only saw this, and now it’s doing THAT!”

Since my mentor and I couldn’t always rely on non-verbal cues, I got lots of practice explaining my technical thought process, step-by-step.

Later, at interviews (#whiteboarding) and at my first job, I had to be proficient in this style of professional communication. Practicing technical conversations with an experienced developer is invaluable, and your remote mentor is all ears.


Which of these 5 tips gives you the most confidence to start working with your remote mentor? Don’t forget to share your own tips for virtual collaboration with fellow remotely-mentored classmates and the Turing community.

Now get Slacking! (Photo by Sergey Zolkin)
Rebecca Hyland

Written by

Alumna, Turing School of Software & Design, Back End Engineering cohort 1806. Developer in Denver, CO. Likes baking cookies and muffins and eating them.

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