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.
