Mark van der Velden

Hi!

I've been doing tech for a while, in varying degrees. From building websites to designing large distributed architectures. Advising development teams, and executive level alike. I ran with two successful startups and I've been involved with product development for over a decade.

I enjoy mentoring, because I can see people grow and that creates positive energy. I love the feeling of experiencing the moment when someone "gets it", that sparkle in their eyes and the unstoppable smile when they nailed it, is worth more than gold to me.

Another reason I enjoy mentoring is because it helps me grow as well. No person is the same and being successful in helping someone requires different approaches.

I've set a goal in life that I'd like to inspire 100 people in a significant way. Joining MentorCruise is just one of the ways of achieving my goal.

To elaborate a bit more on the tags here on MentorCruise, I'd like to tell a bit more on the type of help you can expect from me:

Professionally:
* Career; What technology to adopt, what to look out for in order to grow, what targets you should set for yourself realistically, what kind of role you want to have in an organisation, Switching to Software Development from a completely different sector.
* Processes; How to introduce a new tech/process in your team/company, what version control or release process to use for your team/company. How to tackle technical-debt when the pressure for features is high.
* Questions about programming; OO versus functional. Responsibilities, distributed systems, microservices or monolith, security, how to start with unit testing, etc.
* CTO questions; How to migrate a large legacy project, how to convince your CEO or other stakeholders, how to prepare for a board meeting, how to talk with (not-tech-savvy) investors, how to change the company culture from (borderline) toxic to inclusive and diverse.

Other topics:
* Food; The best paella recipe (I'd love to learn it!), Whisk(e)ys from smooth to peaty.
* Parenthood; Having kids and/or combining kids and your own company.

Often I'm asked about helping out on other topics that I do not prefer taking on, such as:
* Helping you to get a better paying job -- If programming is your dream and it happens to pay more, great. But if financial incentives is the sole reason then I'm not the best mentor for you.
* Give you tips on how to boast your CV -- Other mentors or recruiters might be more suitable for you
* Give tips about moving to a different country for a job

I don't exclude anyone, but I prefer a strong communication basis. So Ideally you are professionally proficient in English and/or Dutch.

There are no such things as stupid questions. I hope you at least try to fail, even though that can be really hard to admit to yourself or to others. Mistakes are necessary to grow!

Finally a quote from Henry Ford which might resonate: “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”