MentorShip

Inspiration

Choosing a career path is hard when you don’t actually know what day-to-day work looks like in different fields. Students often rely on random opinions, vague advice, or LinkedIn stalking. We wanted something more direct: a simple way to talk to people already in the industry, ask concrete questions, and get clarity before making big decisions.

What it does

MentorShip connects students with professionals for quick guidance and structured 1:1 sessions. The goal isn’t to build a “social network”—it’s to remove friction from mentorship: find someone relevant, contact them, and meet.

Core experience

For students: -Create a profile with interests / goals -Search mentors by role, industry, company, and tags -View mentor profiles (background, expertise, availability) -Message mentors directly -Request a session and book a time slot without back-and-forth

For mentors: -Create a profile and select areas of expertise -Set availability in a weekly schedule -Receive requests and messages -Confirm sessions and keep track of upcoming meetings -Key features we implemented -Auth + roles: student vs mentor experience (different permissions and UI) -Mentor discovery: filtering/search to quickly find relevant people -Real-time chat: instant messaging for quick questions + follow-ups -Scheduling: availability slots + booking with conflict prevention -Notifications: basic updates for requests/messages (so it feels “live”)

How we built it (stack + architecture)

-Frontend: React + Tailwind (fast UI iteration, responsive layout) -Backend: Node.js + Express (REST API for users, availability, bookings) -Database: MongoDB + Mongoose (flexible schema for profiles and sessions) -Authentication: JWT + bcrypt (secure login, protected routes) -Real-time: Socket.io (chat + live notifications) -Backend structure stayed clean with a simple MVC-style split: -Models: User, Message, Availability, Booking -Controllers: auth, messaging, scheduling logic -Middleware: auth + role checks

Challenges

-Merging and team coordination: early on we stepped on each other’s toes → we fixed it with clearer branch ownership and quick daily syncs. -Real-time reliability: handling refresh/reconnect without breaking chat state → we centralized socket handling and made the client re-join properly. -Booking logic: preventing double booking and overlapping slots → validation on the server side, not just the UI.

What we’re proud of

We shipped a working full-stack product with real-time messaging and scheduling in a hackathon timeframe, and the flow is actually usable: search → message → book → meet.

Next steps

-Deploy -Email reminders + calendar integrations -Better matching (recommendations based on interests) -Optional video-call links attached to bookings

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