Programming

Since others already suggested mostly on-topic suggests, here's an alternative suggestion:

Instead of looking specifically for a mentor - look for an open source project that you can help with. Ideally one with a discord or something to it's easy to be in contact the the lead dev. A lot people don't mind mentoring juniors, but in my experience it doesn't happens that explicitly - "be my mentor" - and it might sound like you're asking them a lot.

If you invert it into "Hey I wanna help you with your open-source project, but I don't really know what to do, what your expectations are, how to implement a specific feature" - then you're offering to do work them, instead of asking for something. And implicitly you'll get mentorship in return.

And "real" projects probably also look better on your github / portfolio than only some dummy projects for learning purposes

If you have some questions why not post here? I'm unfamiliar with "services" (places that charge their own fees on top of what the mentor gets) and think it's probably better to engage someone directly. The thing is, doing it as a business proposition sounds expensive if you're paying with personal funds. Consulting rates for someone good will be pretty steep.

What are you good at now? What do you want to get better at? What kind of work do you want to do?

specific, clear idea of what skills I might need to have, refine, etc,

Make stuff. Keep making stuff. Publish your source code, even the shitty stuff. Maybe especially the shitty stuff, since that tends to be more interesting. Be ready to talk about it (humbly) during job interviews.

as well as some looser guidance and direction after losing my confidence.

Hang in there. The industry is in a fuck around phase right now where we bet that AI will be an acceptable substitute for good old fashioned recruitment.

Another "find out" phase is on the horizon - where we fall over ourselves to recruit anyone who can code to undo our stupidity before we go out of business. (Or to quickly capitalize on market gaps left by our competitors who went out of business.)

Do any of you have experience with services like this?

I've gotten my mentorship a few places:

• Community college classes and workshops.
• The #python IRC (Internet Rely Chat) channel on FreeNode.org (it's free)
• Channels (mostly YouTube) full of free recordings of programming conference recordings.
• Networking through volunteering to teach what I know at Libraries and Makerspaces
• Occasionally taking lower paying jobs to spend time working with someone known to me to be an excellent mentor.
• Professional Programming Conferences (once I could get employers to pay my way)

I'm a bit confused. If you're a Junior dev, don't you have mentors in your team, in your company? They will know the projects and environments of what is needed in that environment.

"give me a specific, clear idea of what skills I might need to have" depends very much on context and goals.

I've had a very tough time finding my first position as a junior dev

The hiring landscape for software engineers/developers is a mess for the past year or so. You shouldn't internalize the experience, most likely you are just unlucky.

A few things to consider for finding a job:

1. Utilize your connections, a lot of hiring still happens through connections. If you have attended a university/college/bootcamp reach out to your professors and check if they can refer you to any positions.
2. Make sure your CV can be parsed by tools. Try uploading your CV on open resume, if it's not parsed correctly you might want to update it.
3. Create a portfolii website, it's a great way to illustrate your skills. Also, others here can check it out and offer advice.
4. Update your LinkedIn profile, make sure to check that open for recruiters thingy.

If you want to learn more about react I am happy to have a chat with you (no fee), feel free to DM me.

I'd recommend setting up a GitHub profile and developing some personal projects on there, and try to get some experience contributing to other projects (even if they're just simple first PRs). Make sure you include this on your resume, it's a great talking point for juniors to show you're passionate and have concrete examples of your code in the wild.

Also set up a LinkedIn profile (fleshed out as best you can) and start adding people at companies you're interested in. DM them asking for advice, most people are lovely and want to help. While LinkedIn is horrible and needs to die, it's still used heavily by the tech industry and you'll find every tech company and recruiters on there.

The Linux Foundation has a mentorship programme which is really great, might be worth a look, although I am not sure how easy it is to get accepted: https://docs.linuxfoundation.org/lfx/mentorship/mentees

Part of being a developer is solving your problems and reduce complexity in a very complex field. So I guess when you want to be a good dev, most of that is part of your learning experience.

To your skills. I may suggest do what you like to do. Wanna tinker with Linux and systems? C/C++ or Rust may be a good start. Webdev? Have a look at typescript. Or just do some stuff in python (it's really fun)

If you do not know what you like. No problem, just play around with stuff and find out what you like.

If you get stuck on something, THEN is moment to reach out for help. You hardly will have to pay for advice, there is always a helpful hand if you can describe what your problem is.

I like mentoring, but my skill set is deep and narrow. DM me and we'll see if they overlap and if I can match the time commitment that you are looking for, if you are interested. No fee.