1. What are the duties/responsiblities of a mentor?
2. I see that the mentor will need to do 1:1s, but no indication of time/frequency. How often are these and how much time is expected of them?
To answer your questions: 1. What mentors do Mentors help guide our troops through the learning and career process. That includes reviewing code, offering feedback, sharing your experience, and helping them get unstuck when they hit a wall. It’s not about having all the answers — it’s about being consistent, showing up, and being real with folks trying to break in. 2. Time commitment + 1:1s We aim for one 1:1 per month per troop, but we’re flexible. Most mentors give about 1–2 hours a week, including async stuff like reviewing PRs or replying in Slack. If you only have 30 minutes, we’ll work with that. We respect your time and want this to be something sustainable.
If you’re down to talk more or need anything else cleared up, hit me up directly. Would love to have you on board.
Rightly or wrongly, people judge based on first impressions, and your landing page can cause frustration. First, your floating nav bar is huge on mobile, but nothing a zoom out can't fix. Second, the animated "Learn" hero isn't a constant size, causing the entire page to jump around while trying to read it. Again, can be fixed with zoom... but only with a lot of zoom, so that everything else is almost unreadable.
If you're programming, awesome.
If you're having a heart attack, I hope you get rapid response.
Understand the drive to find Vets who want to engage with the demand side, but the supply side re: Become a Mentor is missing a lot of information: what are the expectations, time commitment, how to register events, is there support for events, etc.
For example, I'd be happy to host events and provide a regular touchpoint to connect and mentor folks locally, but I've got another kid coming in a few months, so I'm having to be extra picky with my time at the moment.
I don't disagree with how horrible a lot of DOD software is, but that's more an artifact of the broken military procurement process combined with the often-childish attitudes people in tech have about working with the military.
Yes exactly. I don't have much to add but that was such a great point I wanted to emphasize it.
Also important to consider that as wasteful and expensive as it is to have contractors build stuff, there's at least important market functions in there doing some things and the contractor can be held accountable.
There is no reason that one of those jobs can't be "software engineer." There is nothing intrinsic about the military that would make them "amateur coders."
My point is that, having spent a full career in, the "buy vs. build" calculus for military software tends to fall on the side of "buy" for any number of reasons. Those people who aren't "out in the field sending rounds downrange" are still doing plenty of other things in their assigned fields other than writing software. If you think there needs to be a software development career track in uniform, you need to be able to justify it outside the obvious places like CYBERCOM or the NSA.
Dotgov is a lot harder. Salaries are artificially capped very low, and even one of these horrific contracting body shops will pay you 30% more than you'd make in the government, and you don't need to deal with all the bullshit that comes with working for the government.
I've contracted onsite for both state and federal governments. Government employees have a reputation for... let's just say not hardest working. That didn't come out of nowhere.
And here's their GitHub org: https://github.com/Vets-Who-Code
Jerome also was kind enough to write a post for my Letters To a New Developer blog a few years ago: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2020/09/21/youre-gonna-be...
Even if you use the electronic sort of NN, at best those are only good at serving as thought-provocation or inspiration for the one the good Lord gave you.
If you ever need assistance on anything, I'd love a way to reach out and help any way I can.
@torstenvl: You’re absolutely right. We’re already working on refining the mobile UX and adjusting the animations on the hero section so they don’t cause layout shifts. Thanks for flagging that. Accessibility and clarity are priorities, so this feedback is super helpful.
@ash_091 and others confused by the term “vet”: Totally understand the cultural difference — in the US, “vet” is commonly used as shorthand for “military veteran,” but that isn’t universal. We’ll look at how we can make the messaging clearer, especially for international visitors, without losing identity.
@psunavy03 and @pc86: The conversation around military coding careers is valid and nuanced. At Vets Who Code, we’re focused on helping veterans after they separate, transition, or retire — giving them tech skills and a community so they can thrive in the civilian workforce. We’re not advocating for in-uniform development to replace contractors or acquisitions but rather preparing folks to enter a very different kind of battlefield: the job market.
@redeux: I hear you. You’re absolutely right — we don’t promote copy-paste AI coding. One of our core lessons is about critical thinking with AI: evaluating, refining, and using it as a tool, not a crutch. And yes — some placeholder copy slipped through the cracks during early drafts. Thanks for holding us accountable. We’ll clean that up.
Re: Mentorship Questions 1. Mentor Duties & Responsibilities Mentors guide one or more troops (our learners) through their learning journey. This includes reviewing projects, offering career advice, sharing lessons from your experience, and helping troubleshoot when someone hits a wall. You don’t need to know everything — just be willing to show up, support, and share honestly. 2. 1:1s and Time Commitment We generally aim for one 1:1 per month per troop. Most mentors spend about 1–2 hours a week, depending on availability and the needs of their mentee(s). We respect your time — consistency matters more than quantity. If you can only give 30 minutes a week, we’ll match that with the right person.
Who We Are
Vets Who Code is a nonprofit that’s helped our troops land over $20 million in salaries in tech. We’ve been doing this work for over a decade. No fluff, no tuition, no BS. Just real training and support.
We’ve been honored by: • The White House (yes, that one — under President Obama) • Featured in WIRED, HuffPost, Stack Overflow, GitHub, and more • Invited to speak at Google I/O, Facebook F8, and DreamForce • Recognized as a GitHub Star, Google Developer Expert, and Twilio Champion
If you’re curious, open to mentoring, or just want to help us improve the mission, hit me up directly or through the contact page. We’re serious about doing right by our community.
— Jerome Hardaway Founder, Vets Who Code
@torstenvl: You’re absolutely right. We’re already working on refining the mobile UX and adjusting the animations on the hero section so they don’t cause layout shifts. Thanks for flagging that. Accessibility and clarity are priorities, so this feedback is super helpful.
@ash_091 and others confused by the term “vet”: Totally understand the cultural difference — in the US, “vet” is commonly used as shorthand for “military veteran,” but that isn’t universal. We’ll look at how we can make the messaging clearer, especially for international visitors, without losing identity.
@psunavy03 and @pc86: The conversation around military coding careers is valid and nuanced. At Vets Who Code, we’re focused on helping veterans after they separate, transition, or retire — giving them tech skills and a community so they can thrive in the civilian workforce. We’re not advocating for in-uniform development to replace contractors or acquisitions but rather preparing folks to enter a very different kind of battlefield: the job market.
@redeux: I hear you. You’re absolutely right — we don’t promote copy-paste AI coding. One of our core lessons is about critical thinking with AI: evaluating, refining, and using it as a tool, not a crutch. And yes — some placeholder copy slipped through the cracks during early drafts. Thanks for holding us accountable. We’ll clean that up.
Re: Mentorship Questions 1. Mentor Duties & Responsibilities Mentors guide one or more troops (our learners) through their learning journey. This includes reviewing projects, offering career advice, sharing lessons from your experience, and helping troubleshoot when someone hits a wall. You don’t need to know everything — just be willing to show up, support, and share honestly. 2. 1:1s and Time Commitment We generally aim for one 1:1 per month per troop. Most mentors spend about 1–2 hours a week, depending on availability and the needs of their mentee(s). We respect your time — consistency matters more than quantity. If you can only give 30 minutes a week, we’ll match that with the right person.
Who We Are
Vets Who Code is a nonprofit that’s helped our troops land over $20 million in salaries in tech. We’ve been doing this work for over a decade. No fluff, no tuition, no BS. Just real training and support.
We’ve been honored by: • The White House (yes, that one — under President Obama) • Featured in WIRED, HuffPost, Stack Overflow, GitHub, and more • Invited to speak at Google I/O, Facebook F8, and DreamForce • Recognized as a GitHub Star, Google Developer Expert, and Twilio Champion
This isn’t a side project — this is our mission.
If you’re curious, open to mentoring, or just want to help us improve the mission, hit me up directly or through the contact page. We’re serious about doing right by our community.
— Jerome Hardaway Founder, Vets Who Code