Mike McQuaid argues that mentorship is important, but maintaining contact with peers doubly so, and therefore you should have a mentorship diamond1:
Methorship v. Coaching v. Sponsorship
A mentorship relationship should be driven by the mentee. Coaching relationships are driven by the coach2. This is a useful distinction when the advisor is a manager of the mentee/subordinate. A manager will assess the subordinate’s uptake of the consul, therefore they are likely coaches and not mentors.
Sponsorship is very different. A sponsor uses their authority and influence to create opportunities and recognition to advance someone’s career.
Starting as a mentor
Asking around is a good place to start, you can also try local meetup groups if you have an established presence. Google Summer of Code is a structure program1.
- Act as a friendly question-answering resource3.
- Challenge the mentee in the appropriate way, find tasks that are the appropriate level of challenge, just beyond their skill-set3.
- Share business and engineering context3
Starting as a mentee
Ask those you like, ask your manager for suggestions.