Mentz - Where We Do What We Want!
Introduction
In the TV adaptation of David Peace’s “Red Riding" quartert of books, there’s a great scene where a group of corrupt West Yorkshire policemen are toasting their success in moving towards controlled vice : "Off the streets and out the shop windows, under our wing and in our pocket”. The final line of the toast is “To the North - where we do what we want!”.
An unusual introduction to a tech blog post, I’m sure you’ll agree, but there is a link, however tennis. Doing what we want is the ethos behind the Mentz community initiative (and I’ve always loved that scene).
Moar Developers
One reason I started Mentz is that we need more developers in the Salesforce ecosystem, and by developers I mean people that can write code to solve complex business problems, understanding the fine details of the Apex language and the pros and cons to specific approaches. There are plenty of initiatives around to get started learning Apex, but not too many where a more experienced developer casts an eye over your code and gives you feedback, about things both good and bad, and pointing you to resources where you can learn more.
Tapping into Top Talent
Another reason I started Mentz is that I felt we were missing out on accessing a lot of top talent by insisting on commitments to a set number of weeks, or a fixed set of hours (duration and/or fixed start/end times). People at the very top of our profession often can’t make those type of commitments - they don’t have that many hours to spare, they can’t commit to specific hours every week, or they are subject to the whims of a project or customer which means that plans have to change at the last minute. These people are often running companies so they can’t step away when the pressure is on. The upshot of all this is that they may not be participating as much as they want to, because they don’t want to let others down. This is a crying shame, as these are often extremely experienced and talented developer who have a lot to share.
Fear of Commitment
When you join Mentz, as a mentor or mentee, you commit to absolutely nothing. Nada. Zip. When you register an interest, you’ll receive a chatter login and if you never sign in, that’s fine. Mentors don’t get assigned mentees, and vice versa. Mentors and mentees aren’t assigned to each other, it’s much more relaxed than that. If a mentee feels like taking a challenge, they do so and upload their solution to the challenge chatter group. If a mentor feels like looking at someone’s work and giving feedback, they pick any unanswered solution (there’s a lightning web component that shows these, because we don’t want mentors wasting their valuable time scouring chatter groups). There are no programs, timelines, schedules, courses. Just people who take challenges and people who review the solutions, doing what they want when they want to. I’m not the boss of you, and nor is anyone else.
Dipping a Toe
If you’ve been put off signing up for Mentz because you think you might disappoint your assigned mentor or mentees, don’t be. If you want to try the challenges without signing up you can, just take a look at the Github organisation - you won’t be able to submit your solution until you sign up for Mentz, but it will give you an idea of what is involved. If you want to sign up for Mentz, head over to the home page and follow the appropriate signup link. It might take a while for your request to be approved, as I also do what I want with regard to Mentz, but it will happen eventually.
And Finally
Please join me in raising a glass to Mentz - where we do what we want!
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