Just hate the topmate

What are your views in products like topmate, mentorly etc. See a number of people putting links for 1:1 consultation through topmate where mentor gets paid for thier 'knowledge'. Has anyone signed up as a mentor or taken anything through so these mentors.

Hi folks, I'm doing a product teardown on Topmate.io and wanted to understand some things from someone who is either a creator there or has taken a session there. 1) What advantage do you think it offers over its competitors? (Ex - ADPlist) 2) What can be improved for getting more paid sessions for creators? 3) Should it start co-partnering with creators to get sponsorships for the content they are expert at and offering it for free? (For the multiple learner type of sessions) 4) Does the absence of a search bar add to or reduce the efforts of learners while finding the right creator on the platform? 5) What made you use Topmate.io in the first place? (For both learners and creators) 6) Have you faced an issue due to difference of available time zones between the creator and the learner? If yes, what do you think is the best way to solve it?

Which one matters: Skills or Experience? Experience, and further the insights comes with multiple 'years of experience' only. On the other hand, 'skills' can be learnt. Who would you give preference to? I've been naive enough to think that what people with 10-20+ yoe is something that I can easily do. But nope, decision making is a completely different ball game. I got this thought when I came across youngsters charging money for 'mentorship' (PS: one off sessions, especially paid, is not how mentor-mentee relationship works). If folks without proper experience is mentoring, what exactly are they sharing? How to get to where they are? What would it take for anyone to get somewhere further ahead (where they themselves haven't been)? Just some 'skills' that mentees should get upskilled on? Skills are required, but so is experience as well. As they say, it's not the tool but you use it that makes the difference! So yes, what exactly are these young 'top mentors' talking about (or preching)? Nuances: yes, one can talk about everything that they have gone through up until then. But in this case, everything would be short term and not really helpful. One off sessions may work if it's just a Q&A or an AMA session. But that's not mentorship. Yes, time is money, and it's fine to charge for it. But is it really that they're valuing their time more, or the money? I have no hate against platforms like Topmate. As a platform, they're good. It's just how we make use of it that is not great. [I do mentor people. I just mentor 3-4 people, and has been doing that since 3-4 years). I have a few mentors as well. That has been going on since last 6+ years. None of those are paid. It's mutual respect and truly supporting others in their journey. I occasionally do the 'AMA or Q&A sessions + resume review as well'. Again free, but not under the disguise of 'mentorship'

I see so many LinkedIn Tech influencers selling mentorships on topmate. While this is certainly not wrong. But some are charging 6k for 30 min or so, which is insane. Usually people under 2 years of exp are falling for this. Funny thing is it's people under 2 years of exp, who just cracked a Faang are providing mentorships on topmate

So, just to be clear, I have no grudges against the people, but basically I don't like the core idea of doing a paid "guidance or mentorship" session. Examples being career guidance or famous resume reviews on Topmate See, The very basic idea of asking for guidance is that you are in a vulnerable state and someone 'helps' you out by sharing their experience & giving back to the community in that way. This entire concept is thrown away when you Charge Money for it, it's no longer a help relationship - I can understand people are busy and have less time for mentorship, but that doesn't justify charging for it There is another tangible problem in my opinion. When you Charge for a guidance session, it gives a transactional outlook for you - As in you never want to go really deep into conversations because it's a paid one time thing and as soon as your 30 minutes is gone, you have earned your prize. I know it's difficult to describe in words but when you do something for 1-time money, it's very difficult to not have a purely transactional perspective to it . This is something I have personally observed when I used to be in a competitive activity & did paid mentorship Sessions. There is also a 3rd issue of inexperienced people giving out paid gyaan on issues which they don't have an idea of (I saw someone looking for their first full time job and yet running paid "career guidance" session on Topmate) but lets keep that for another day ps : This is not against People whose job is advisory, that's a much more formal relationship by nature & there are enough checks and balances.

Recently i was talking to my senior just for fun and wanted to see what exactly is this whole thing So he paid xxx Rupees to the person for a Call 1:1 and he asked if I'm having 2.5yrs exp I need to switch to faang This guy '22 Passout says I will give you a roadmap for 6 months you need to pay 23,xxx Rupees I will give you a referral in my faang (He is in one of them) I have the roadmap I will make sure you learn LLD My senior has 2.5 exp in a startup that was listening to him and eventually said I'll think about it and ended the call Someone who has just entered is giving advice like they have worked for 5-6 years I've seen students in college start topmate and they are in top1% stuff Do these things are really required And Ego of those is such high They are not realising achieving faang is part of life not the whole life

Lately I’ve started seeing so many topmate posts. Every other guy is giving mentorship by posting topmate links. Recently i saw topmate post of one of my ex colleagues who used to write shitty code in production. I wonder what kind of mentorship you get there. If it’s even worth it or not. Did anyone tried it yet?

Where you can connect with quality , relevant, legit mentors and ask career related queries. First call will be free and further calls will be paid. Do you think this kind of platform can work ? Will guidance seekers pay for career advice? I have my doubts .