Requesting a mentor, avoid requesting trouble

Requesting a mentor, avoid requesting trouble

By spyware | 9960 Reads |

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Hey, you. Yeah I mean you, come over here. I saw you in the forum today, requesting a mentor. I (tried to) read your post, I replied with a sarcastic comment to make sure you never, EVER post crap like that again. But now I realize you just need to be informed about the troubles that come with requesting a mentor. So here it is, an article devoted to requesting a mentor, please read this carefully.

You want to learn more about this virtual world. Mystery awaits you, but the coward in you is scared. You look around, giving people quizzical looks, “Excuse me sir, but I wonder if you could help me out here”. You want to learn, in order to learn you need help. A friend, a strong stone statue in front of you that carries brain, sword and a Michelin roadmap. Sorry I have to be the one who tells you this, but: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A MENTOR.

Nope, there’s not. There is no mentor that can explain you everything. There is no mentor which can help you be the best of the best. The only way to reach that level of awesomeness is to do it by yourself. You can get some help though, help from a skilled person. Requesting help (in other words: a mentor) requires you to follow a certain protocol, a set of rules. You want to play the game, sure, go ahead but be sure to understand the rules.

First of all: do not request a mentor if you have absolutely no skills. It might be a good idea to learn HTML, basic PHP and something about web-hacking first. Click some links, read some papers, talk to people, read some fora, be someone. Once you obtained some basic skills (not too basic), you are ready for the next step: requesting a mentor.

“New thread”, you click this button in the “request a mentor” category in the forum. You want something like this as title: “Searching mentor, need help with [subject(s) here]”. Always, ALWAYS say what you need help on. You don’t want a web-hacking mentor if you are interested in rooting, or a programming mentor if you search a Photoshop guru. For the actual post, follow these rules:

1. Post your skills
2. Don’t exaggerate your skills
3. Tell something about yourself (age, country and time you’ve been “hacking” are good pillars to construct a small biography on)
4. Post any related things (maybe a website, previous mentors, whatever)
5. Post why you want a mentor (what do you want to learn, and why)
6. Don’t say “I want to be an ethical hacker” even if you want to be one.
7. Be honest

Example: * “Hey, I am J0hnK3y and I want to request a mentor. I have been messing around with computers for two years now, I have learned HTML, basic PHP and Javascript. I know some things about web-hacking (XSS, RFI) and I would like to learn more about this. I want to learn things about SQL injections and poison null byte attacks. I have been visiting HBH, ZI and HTS but I am “stuck”. I do not understand some articles I read and I need someone to “translate” them for me. I also would like to learn how to read and code Perl in the future too.

I am 15 years old, I live in the UK. I am mostly interested in programming and hacking on computers. In my free time I design websites for friends. I hope to learn more about hacking because I want to work in the ICT industry, perhaps as security developer.

If you want to help me, please send a PM. I will then give you my contact details (Aim, MSN and Gmail).

Thanks in advance!“*

A mentor is a teacher, and probably a friend. He/she will be there for you, answering certain questions (most probably the ungoogable ones), giving you a fair chance to become skilled. Treat your mentor with a certain amount of respect. Mentors deserve respect because they are willing to sacrifice their free time to you.

Keep these things in mind when you request a mentor, this will not only help you, but also your future mentor.

Thanks for reading! -Spy