Advice for finding a mentor

EstherWestphal·Jan 18, 2022

Hi! Does anyone have advice for finding a mentor? There seem to be a lot of mentoring programs out there- but I'd love to hear what people have had sucess with!

teresaman·Jan 19, 2022

hey Esther! what are of mentorship are you looking for?

maggiewolff·Jan 19, 2022

I have had some luck with formal mentoring programs at work, and also finding someone through a local industry-related meetup group that had a mentor/mentee board. I also mentor someone else who found me through a mutual friend, so ask your network if they know anyone who meets the criteria you're looking for. I haven't tried any of the paid mentorship programs. I'm a little suspicious that it's scammy. But I have considered hiring a career coach (I have a couple who have been recommended by trusted contacts).

EstherWestphal·Jan 19, 2022

@maggiewolff - I totally agree on the paid mentorship programs! Did you actually find your local industry related group on meetup? I've looked at "women in tech" sort of things on google but haven't actually tried meetup.com so that's a great idea! Thanks!

maggiewolff·Jan 20, 2022

yes, I'm not sure what it's like in other cities, but on meetup.com, I've searched for "tech" "analytics" "data" "python" "SQL" etc and have found quite a few groups. The one where I found my mentor was a local Python meetup group.

kayko·Jan 20, 2022

Hi @EstherWestphal! I work for WEST (which is a cross company mentoring program for women in tech), and we are hosting a free career development summit tomorrow which includes small group mentoring sessions at the end of the day between 2-2:30pm PT. One of the mentors for these sessions is Abigail Pereira, who is the Director of Product at Even Financial. She might be an interesting person to connect with re: your questions on career growth in product management. Today is the last day to sign up for our free summit, so if this sounds interesting to you, I'd register ASAP. :) Maybe we'll see you there! https://hopin.com/events/west-summit-2022

Mirna·Jan 20, 2022

I would suggest starting two criteria for the mentor: 1/ who is in the role/position where you would like to be in the future? (one step ahead of you, or ideally, 2 or 3 steps ahead :)) and also who is doing it in the way that you would actually like to be doing that role? 2/ who is a good personality match for what you need - would you prefer advice, or someone to open totally new and different perspectives, or support, or challenge etc? - I would first brainstorm names under #1 (and if you dont have anyone in immediate circle around you, I would suggest researching on Linkedin) and then also write down your goals/criteria/priorities of what you want from mentorship. Then I would choose a person from that list, would reach out to them (even if its "cold connection" via linkedin) and ask them to be your mentor (perhaps compliment them a bit on the way, as long is genouine, by sharing with them why you choice them). In that message, I would also share with them very clearly what would you like from the mentorship (1. those goals/criteria you mentioned before 2. what you would ask from them specifically in terms of time commitment - eg how many months would this mentorship last, how many h per month would you ask for and in what format (call, email etc).

EstherWestphal·Jan 20, 2022

Wow this is amazing advice. Thank you so much.

Mirna·Jan 21, 2022

very welcome, I hope it will help you with finding an awesome mentor that will inspire and support your next steps <3 :)

rachelkspurrier·Jan 20, 2022

I've had a lot of success with a mentorship platform called Merit--it's an easy way to get connected to a Mentor who has expertise in the area you're looking to grow in. One of their co-founders, Kirk, wrote a great article about finding mentors and making the most out of mentorship: https://medium.com/merit-publication/why-mentorship-2c29254684cf Hope this helps!