Software developers: booking paid mentoring sessions

Offer mentoring as a small set of bookable sessions: a one-off session for a specific question, a code review session, and a recurring weekly or fortnightly slot for mentees who want regular guidance. Ask before each session for the goal, the code or repository and what they've already tried, keep sessions to a fixed length, and say how payment and video links work. Mentees book a clear time with you, and you can fit mentoring around client work without it spilling into every evening.

Junior developers stuck on a project, career changers preparing for interviews, self-taught developers wanting a code review, and small teams without a senior engineer all have different needs. Separate services let each find the right format. On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own capacity.

Durations and prices are examples: set your own.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that reaches you in the new booking email and appears in the mentee's calendar file. Ask in each description for:

Since the note appears in the calendar file, ask mentees not to put tokens, keys or private company code in it.

For a mentee who wants weekly or fortnightly sessions, agree a regular time at the end of the first session, then create the slots and book them in yourself. First and last name are required, email and phone optional; enter their email so they receive a confirmation with a calendar file for each date. Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date; for fortnightly sessions, add the dates individually. Book doesn't send reminders, so dates already in their calendar keep the rhythm.

Open mentoring slots on one or two evenings or a fixed afternoon, and keep your project days clear and your weekends free. When a slot is booked, it leaves your page until the next week. If client work gets busy, end the series earlier and say in the description when new sessions will open.

A mock technical interview needs preparation on both sides. Ask in its description for the role, the company type and the interview format they expect, such as live coding, a take-home review or system design. Keep a few minutes at the end for feedback, and send a short written summary afterwards with what went well and what to practise. If a mentee has several interviews coming up, book a short series of mock sessions in the weeks before, rather than one long session the night before.

Book doesn't create video links. Put a fixed meeting room link in the description, or send it by email after booking, and say which tool you use for screen sharing or pair programming so the mentee can install it first.

Say what mentoring includes and what it doesn't: advice, review and explanation, but not writing their assignment or doing paid client work for them. If a mentee asks for help between sessions, decide whether short questions by message are included or should wait for the next session, and say so in the description.

Book doesn't take payments, so say how sessions are paid, for example by invoice before the session or monthly for recurring mentees. Mentees can't move or cancel online: they contact you, and you move the session from your bookings list and confirm it yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Your bookings sync with Google, iPhone or Mac calendars. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.