My First Mentoring Experience at ngGirls 👩💻
What is ngGirls?
ngGirls aims to introduce women to the world of technology and increase diversity through teaching them Angular. They plan various events and activities in which the participants build and deploy a web application with Angular. They offer help to find a job in the front end development domain too.
ngGirls @ ng-conf
ngGirls is hosted by ng-conf every year (ng-conf is the world’s premier Angular event) giving an opportunity to learn how to program and become a programmer. During the workshop participants will build and deploy their very first Angular Web Application!
All the workshops, including ngGirls, were delivered online.
My Experience 👩💻
I got to know about this event when I was scrolling through LinkedIn.
I always wanted to mentor women who were just starting out with technology and give them a roadmap, a path that they can follow; something that I was not fortunate enough to have. Following my mission to spread the knowledge I gained, help others and make females more aware of technology, I decided to take part in ngGirls- ngConf workshop and contribute my part as a mentor.
I did not have any prior experience in Angular ( I made it clear on the application form too!) hence I was apprehensive if I would be selected. But the Angular Girls were welcoming enough to let me volunteer! They clearly mentioned:
You don’t need to be an Angular expert — just a web developer.
Responsibilities as a Mentor:
All mentors were called for a 30 min meeting (for me that was at 12:30 am IST!). I was so happy to see faces from all around the world.. Germany, US, Peru, Australia…etc from all ages! It was great to be a part of an event that brought people from all around the world together and celebrate Angular. I made so many new connections, new friends and constant partners in just one day.
I got to know about the duties that a mentor has, and how important a role we play to generate interest in technology during the initial phase. So what does a mentor do? Constant Support that is it! We have their backs when they are stuck or can’t process anything. We don’t straight away present them with an answer but we help them weave the steps to the solution. All the participants and mentors were given a well documented Angular tutorial, that the participants had to go through in order to make their first Angular Web Application.
Check out the amazing tutorial:
Completing the code lab I realized that Angular was so familiar with Vue.js (that I am familiar with) and I was really quick to pick up Angular. Hence even learning a single framework helps to comprehend other frameworks, a skill that every developer inculcates.
My group:
I was assigned to an advanced group of five women along with a fellow mentor from Peru (who has an amazing knowledge about Angular) from all around the globe... Bolivia, US, Australia, India, Vienna. These girls had prior experiences with Angular hence it was challenging enough to solve their doubts. All the meetings were held on Microsoft Teams and we were all on a video call for almost all the workshop. I was happy enough to solve the queries they asked. To be honest, I was not sure if I would be able to solve any of their doubts (imposter syndrome kicks in), but the boost to my self-esteem when I was able to do that is just inexplicable. This experience helped me become more confident.
Conclusion:
It was an amazing experience, even worth staying awake till 2:30 a.m.! This workshop will always be special to me as it was my first mentoring experience and I loved it. I want to mentor more people in the future for sure. I think I found my passion!
PS: This was also the first time I got featured on a website!
Thank you all for taking out the time to read this! I’ll be back with another experience soon!
Follow ngGirls:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/angulargirls/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AngularGirls
