Mentorship · Three Tracks · $20 an Hour, $5 for Students
Engineering mentorship for people who are stuck, not stupid
I'm Kunal Vohra. I've been the technical co-founder six times, hired and reviewed a lot of engineers, and sat on the other side of the table for more interview loops than I can count. This is one-to-one mentorship built on that, for three groups of people whose problems look nothing alike.
Students deciding what to do first. Working engineers who are good at the job and have stopped moving. And people coming back after time away, being asked to explain a gap before anyone asks what they can build.
It's $20 an hour, and $5 an hour if you're a student. That isn't a discount and it isn't what my time is worth commercially. It's a filter. Free mentorship fills up with people who never do the work between sessions, and charging my consulting rate would shut out exactly the people this is for. Enough that booking costs you something, little enough that nobody serious is priced out.
Students pay less again, at roughly the price of a coffee, because that's the group least able to pay and the most likely to get a whole career out of one good decision made early. I get something out of those calls too, which is most of why the number is what it is.
The first call is free and it is not a sales call. If mentorship isn't what gets you unstuck, I'll say so on it.
M.Tech · Cybersecurity
NIT Kurukshetra
3
Mentorship Tracks
Most of what I know about careers came from the questions people ask after the talk, not from the talk.
$20
Per hour, standard rate
$5
Per hour, for students
6+
Ventures built 0→1
10+
Years shipping products
Who this is for
Three different problems that all feel like being stuck.
Almost nobody who comes to me for mentorship has a knowledge problem. They can write the code. What they don't have is someone who will look at their actual situation and tell them the true thing rather than the encouraging thing.
A student is drowning in contradictory advice from people whose careers started in a different market. A six-year engineer is being passed over and has been told it's about learning another framework, which it almost never is. Someone returning from two years away has intact fundamentals and a confidence gap far larger than the technical one. Same feeling, three unrelated causes, which is why they are priced and structured separately.
What I'm not is a placement service. I don't sell introductions and I take no cut of any offer you sign. At these rates there's no version of this where I'm getting rich off you, which is rather the point: it keeps the incentive on telling you the true thing instead of the thing that keeps you booking.
The three tracks
Pick the closest one. I'll move you if it's wrong.
$20 an hour, or $5 if you're studying full-time. Beyond the rate, what changes between the tracks is the rhythm and what we actually work on. The boundaries aren't strict either: a student already working full-time often fits the professional track better, and six months into a search after a layoff is a career break whatever you call it.
Final-year students and recent graduates
Students
$5/ hour
Book sessions as you need them
“You are getting advice from people whose careers started in a different market than the one you are about to enter, and none of it agrees.”
For students who can already write code and now have to make decisions about it. What to learn next, what to build, and which of the ten things everyone tells you to do actually matters. Priced at roughly a coffee an hour so that money is never the reason you did not ask.
- One-to-one, by the hour, on whatever is actually blocking you
- A read on your projects: what is worth showing and what is noise
- Resume and GitHub review, with the parts that get skipped marked
- Interview preparation for engineering roles, including the system design rounds
- An honest answer on higher studies versus a first job versus building something
- Async follow-up questions over email between sessions
Best for: Students in their final year, recent graduates, and anyone deciding between a first job, higher studies, and starting something.
Engineers three to ten years in
Working Professionals
$20/ hour
Usually about four hours a month
“You have shipped real things for years, your reviews are fine, and the promotion or the offer you want keeps going to someone else.”
For engineers who are good at the job and have stopped moving. Usually the problem is not the code. It is that nobody has told you what the next level actually requires.
- Usually about four hours a month, and I do not count the overflow
- Async access over email between sessions, replies within 24 hours
- A straight read on why you are stalled: scope, visibility, or output
- Architecture and system design coaching against real work, not puzzles
- Senior and staff interview preparation, including the design and behavioural rounds
- Compensation and offer negotiation, with the numbers said out loud
- The engineering manager versus staff engineer question, answered for your situation
Best for: Engineers three to ten years in who are stalled at a level, switching tracks, or preparing for senior and staff interviews.
Engineers returning after time away
Professionals on a Career Break
$20/ hour
Usually about three hours a month
“You have been away long enough that the stack moved, and every application asks you to explain the gap before it asks you what you can build.”
For engineers coming back after a break, whatever the reason for it. The technical gap is almost always smaller than you think, and smaller than the confidence gap.
- Usually about three hours a month, and I do not count the overflow
- Async access over email between sessions, replies within 24 hours
- An honest audit of what actually went stale and what did not
- A rebuild plan for the specific gaps, not a generic curriculum
- One portfolio project scoped to be finishable while you are job hunting
- How to talk about the break in interviews without apologising for it
- Interview preparation, paced for someone who has not done one in a while
Best for: Engineers returning after caregiving, health, relocation, a failed startup, a layoff, or a sabbatical.
Invoiced in USD. You book hours as you need them, on every track, so there's no package, no minimum, and nothing recurring to cancel. If you're studying full-time you pay the $5 student rate whichever track we end up working in. Both rates sit far below my consulting rates on purpose, and they only apply to individuals working on their own careers. If you're a founder who needs technical decisions owned or checked for a company, that's a Technical Advisor retainer, not this.
What you're actually buying
The free call, the work, and the exit
Session zero
The honest read, before you pay for a month
A free 30-minute call where you tell me where you are and what you want, and I tell you whether mentorship is the thing that gets you there. Sometimes the answer is that you do not need a mentor, you need to apply to more places, or finish the project sitting half-done. I would rather say that on a free call than book hours to arrive at it slowly.
The work
Sessions against real problems, not a curriculum
There is no fixed syllabus, because the thing blocking you is specific to you. We work on your code, your design docs, your interview loop, your actual offer. Between sessions you have me over email, and you are expected to have done the thing we agreed on. The people who get the most out of this are the ones who show up with work, not with questions they could have searched.
The exit
You stop needing this, and I say so
Mentorship that never ends is a subscription, not mentorship. When you have got the offer, cleared the level, or built the judgment to make these calls yourself, I will tell you it is time to stop rather than let it run. You book hours as you need them, so stopping is just not booking the next one. Most people need three to six months.
What it looks like in practice
Three people, anonymised
Names and identifying details are withheld. The situations, and what actually turned out to be the problem, are real.
Working professional · Six years in
Strong engineer, three promotion cycles passed over, convinced the problem was that they needed to learn another framework. It was not. Every project they had shipped was scoped by someone else, so there was nothing to point at that showed judgment rather than execution. We spent four months getting them to own one ambiguous problem end to end. They cleared the senior bar on the next cycle, and the framework was never the issue.
Career break · Two years away
Two years out for caregiving, and every application was dying at the gap question. The technical audit took one session: the fundamentals were entirely intact, the tooling had moved, and about six weeks of focused work closed the real gap. The rest of the time went on rehearsing the break itself as a plain fact rather than an apology. Offer in month four, at a level above where they had left.
Student · Final year
Fourteen half-finished projects on the GitHub and a resume that read like a list of tutorials. Nothing was wrong with the code, but nothing showed a decision. We picked one project, finished it properly, and cut the other thirteen from the resume. The finished one, with a real user count and an honest write-up of what broke, got more interview conversations than the fourteen ever had.
If you're not sure yet
Mentorship isn't always the thing you need
You're a founder, not an engineer job hunting
If you need technical decisions owned or checked for a company, that's a retainer, and it's a different price.
See Fractional CTO →You want to read first, and pay nothing
A lot of what I'd say in a first session is already written down. Start there, and book a call if it doesn't cover you.
Read the blog →Questions people actually ask
Before you book the call
How much does mentorship cost?
$20 an hour for working professionals and for people returning from a career break, and $5 an hour if you are a student. You book the hours you need and pay for those; there is no monthly package, no minimum, and no commitment. Most working professionals end up around four hours a month and most people on a career break around three, but those are observations, not plans you have to sign up to.
Why is this $20 an hour when your consulting is $100 and up?
Because the rate is not there to make money. It is there to make sure the people who book are the ones who will actually use the time. Free mentorship fills up with people who never do the work between sessions, and a real consulting rate prices out precisely the students and career returners this is meant for. $20 is high enough that booking costs you something and low enough that nobody serious is shut out. If you want to buy my professional judgment for a company, that is consulting and it is priced accordingly.
Why do students pay only $5 an hour?
Because students are the group least able to pay and the most likely to get decades of compounding out of one good decision made early, and because I get something out of these calls too. $5 is about the price of a coffee: enough that you think before booking, little enough that money is never the reason you did not ask. It is not a trial, a worse version, or a route to an upsell. If you are a student and even that is genuinely out of reach, email me and say so.
Is the work worse because it is so cheap?
No, and if it were, the low rate would not fix anything. It is the same preparation and the same bluntness I bring to paid consulting; the only difference is who it is for and what it is meant to do. What you should expect is that I hold you to it. The cheap rate is what makes it reasonable for me to say that a session you showed up to unprepared was a waste of both our time.
What actually happens in a session?
You bring a real problem and we work on it. That might be reviewing a design doc you have to present, a mock interview with the feedback said plainly, going through why your last loop went badly, walking through an offer and what is negotiable in it, or reading your code and telling you what a staff engineer would say in review. There is no curriculum and no slides. If you show up without something concrete, the session is worth much less, and I will tell you that too.
Is this a job referral or placement service?
No. I will help you get ready for interviews, prepare for specific loops, and negotiate offers once you have them, and that is genuinely most of the work. I am not selling introductions, and I do not take a cut of any offer you sign. If I happen to know someone hiring for something you would clearly be good at, I will say so, but paying me does not buy that and you should not choose this expecting it.
How is this different from your Technical Advisor retainer?
The Technical Advisor retainer is for founders and companies who need technical decisions checked, and it is priced at $1,500 a month. Mentorship is for individual engineers working on their own careers, at $20 an hour, or $5 for students. Different problem, different buyer, different price. If you are a founder trying to make technical calls for your company, you want the advisor retainer, and booking mentorship hours instead is not a clever way around the rate.
Do I have to commit to a minimum number of hours?
No. You book hours as you need them, across every track, and there is nothing to cancel because there is nothing recurring. Most people need three to six months of a regular rhythm to get where they were going, and I will tell you when I think you are done rather than keep taking bookings.
What if I am not sure which track I fit into?
Book the free 30-minute call and we will work it out there. The boundaries are not strict: a student already working full-time may fit the professional track better, and someone six months into a job search after a layoff usually fits the career break track regardless of how they describe themselves. Pick the closest one and I will move you if it is wrong. If you are studying full-time, you pay the $5 student rate whichever track we end up working in.
Thirty minutes, and it's free
Tell me where you're stuck. I'll tell you what I think is actually causing it, which track fits, and, often enough, that you don't need to pay me anything to get past it.
Book a free 30-min callSend me a messagePrefer email? me@kunalvohra.com