I've been lucky to find a mentor to work with at every job I've been at. I guess I was just really receptive to learning. I don't know if I can say I had a "gre

I've been lucky to find a mentor to work with at every job I've been at. I guess I was just really receptive to learning. I don't know if I can say I had a "greatest" mentor at any of my jobs, because I learned a great deal from each of them - through their good and bad qualities. 1) My first mentor taught me everything I knew about developing good code habits and staying humble. However, I think I learned the most about people management from him. He was extremely polarizing as a person. He would go to the ends of the earth for his people, but the moment that he felt he had been slighted, you'd be on his shit list. I learned how to foster loyalty and good rapport with your coworkers and employees from him - and also how dangerous it was to take everything at work personally. I thought he was a great manager in some ways, but he burned a lot of bridges. 2) My second mentor was one of the best engineers I ever worked with. It wasn't because he was the fastest or the best programmer. It was because he knew how to bridge the gap between engineering and product. He also knew the importance of documentation and moving at a steady pace. He cared a lot about developer sustainability and ensured that sprints were always scored and paced correctly. I really wish I had, had more time to work with him. 3) The third mentor I worked with was actually one of the most brilliant engineers I've ever met. He turned me onto a lot of new technologies and stretched me to my limits, because he moved at such a blindingly fast pace. However, I think I learned from him the most in his negative aspects. He thought planning was a waste of time, and would just dole out work as quickly as he could so he could get back to engineering. Working with him also meant toeing the line to burnout. From him, I learned how important it was to foster good relations with all departments in order to get things done, instead of just relying on one or two rockstars to pull things forward by sheer force of will.