[Monochron]

Before mentoring my current team I was a member of my high school team for 4 years. The experience I got on that team was mostly some very basic leadership duties, understanding of how the old FRC control system was wired, and pretty good quality drive-team and pit-crew experience.

However, barely any of that translated to helping me mentor this new team. My first year there was a lot of "boy I hope the mechanical guys can get that done" when there wasn't really strong mechanical leadership on the team. I also came in with the assumption that this new team would have a similar level of dedication, funding, and experienced mentors as my high school team, even though they were just entering their second year.
I found out that running a team consisted of much more than what I had done on my high school team. Right now I fill the roles of main mechanical mentor, funding/sponsorship dude, and occasional organizer of outreaches and meetings. None of which I had the slightest experience with 2 years ago. A willingness to figure out what needs to be done, figure out how to get it done (like learning CAD and studying others' designs), and then execute with a team is a much more beneficial skill than previous technical experience.