Why having a Mentor matters in Tech

What is a mentor?

n: A trusted counselor or guide

Tutor, coach

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Mentor vs. Teacher

What is the difference between a mentor versus a teacher then?

While both mentors and teachers can be experts in specific subject areas, mentors may have a broader range of experiences and expertise than teachers as they are not necessarily experts with academic backgrounds, but with niche knowledge and skills as well.

With Mentors, there’s an emphasis on “guidance” rather than direct teaching. While teachers have specific disciplines that they teach, mentors’ goals can be more flexible as they don’t focus on academia and can be more closely related to a mentee’s personal goals.

Why look for a mentor?

Why should you personally seek out a mentor? Here are some benefits that you should consider:

• Seek Advice and Guidance for Career Development (e.g. How do I get into tech?; I’m overwhelmed with resources, where should I start?)
• Knowledge Sharing
• Industry Insights (e.g. When’s the best time to apply for a job?)
• How to Write Better Resumes
• How to craft better portfolios
• Learn Best Practices
• Practice for job interviews
• Problem-solving (e.g. I'm having a hard time brainstorming for better solutions to this problem, can you please help me have a look at it?)

Why Be a Mentor?

Do mentors even get anything out of being a mentor? A lot of people have asked me if there are even any benefits to becoming a mentor and that it's not just a waste of time. Here are some lessons that I've gotten from personal experience as well as from other mentors:

• Give back to the community - I don’t think anyone would be where they are now without help from someone or a community. Why not give back?
• Develop New Skills - as you go higher up the ladder, more transferrable skills are needed. Some skills that you will be learning as a mentor:
• Leadership
• Coaching
• Empathy
• Build Confidence - being a mentor can help build confidence in yourself. This doesn’t mean you can completely get rid of imposter syndrome, that's a completely different story altogether.
• Gain a fresh perspective - it might have been a while since you last applied for a job, so it would be good to also learn from your mentee what industry or hiring practices they have noticed recently. Mentorship is a two-way street, you’re both learning from each other
• Keep updated with industry knowledge. As tech is ever-evolving, it's hard to keep up with what technologies other industries or companies use in their day-to-day operations. Sharing industry knowledge is not something mentors can do, but mentees can as well.

Mutual Benefits

Moreover, there's an additional benefit to both sides, including:

• Fosters a culture of collaboration and continued learning
• Gain connections - Networking is an important skill and establishing connections in the industry could go a long way.
• *Accountability *- Having a mentor-mentee relationship creates a sense of accountability for both as well as for each of their personal goals.
• *Endorsement/Referral *- As the mentor has had the chance to work with you the mentee, each of them can endorse each other on LinkedIn to bump up their reputations. Just a word of caution (as I've seen someone do this) : it might be crossing the line to be asking your mentor for a visa referral as they are not your employer.

Types of Mentorship:

• Short-term - up until you reach a certain goal; usually lasts one session but can be up to a few months
• Long-term - repeated sessions that can extend for a longer time, usually 6 months or more

Dos

• Take the initiative to look for a mentor. The first step is always to recognize that you need help. The next step is to take the time to seek help.
• Clarify your goals. What’s your ask? Why are you seeking mentorship? clarify this with your mentor so they can help craft a growth planner for you.
• Commit to the Task. A mentorship is a commitment that you need to adhere to to achieve your short-term or long-term goals. Put in the effort to be able to achieve your results.
• Respect each other's time. Both mentees and mentors need to consider time as a valuable resource. If you're not going to be able to make a session, give them a heads-up as soon as you can.
• Follow-up after a session. You can learn more by following up after the session, e.g. some questions you forgot to ask or some clarifications that you might want to know. But be respectful of each other's time as your mentor/mentee has a life outside of your sessions.
• Get to know each other. As a mentor, it's important to know your mentee to be able to give advice that will resonate better with them. As a mentee, it's important to know your mentor to be able to understand where they're coming from with the advice they're giving.
• Maintain the relationship - Keep your mentor updated with career successes and failures and ask for sessions when you think you need them.
• Constant Feedback. As with software, it's important to keep a constant feedback loop to better understand what went wrong and what went right with the sessions. Sometimes some advice doesn't work while some do. Mentors are not infallible, and mentees' problems don't have the same solutions.

Where to find Mentors?

• Your workplace. If your team or organization is not implementing a mentorship program, it's still a good place to start by asking a senior co-worker if it's possible to have them mentor you.
• For people who are working in Japan or are looking to work in Japan, Tokyo Dev's Discord Community has a growing list of mentors
• Online Mentorship Platforms
• ADPList is a free mentorship platform where you can schedule 1-on-1 short-term or long-term mentorship sessions with an expert in the field that you wish to learn from. I am a mentor for QA here as well!
• Thriving Elements connects ambitious high school students with STEM professionals to develop long-term relationships through a set curriculum and empower women in STEM.
• Menternshift (formerly: 40-commit challenge). This is a non-profit project that I'm a part of, whose aim is to have mentees work on a software project with the help of a mentor. Currently, the first phase for this is ongoing so we are not accepting any applications for new mentees yet.
• DEV has a Mentor Matching Monthly that just started this year. Look at their January post if you're looking for any mentors or would like to volunteer as a mentor.
• Social Networks. LinkedIn is probably the de facto social networking site for professionals at the moment. As such, it's easier to look someone up on LinkedIn, cold-email them about a possible mentorship, and cross your fingers.
• Networking Events. Having one-on-one talks with speakers at tech or networking events would probably open your mind to what kind of goals you want to achieve with the mentor. Some good tech events that I've been to here in Japan:

1. Women Who Code has a community in Japan open to English-speaking developers. I've had the chance to connect and have online discussions with WWCode Seoul and WWCode Taipei professionals as well through collaborative efforts from the WWCode team. They have both online and offline events for all of their communities and have cross-community activities as well.
2. Women in Tech Japan is an international community in Japan that aims to close the gender gap in tech and promote diversity and inclusion in Japan.
3. Creative Tokyo is not only for non-tech creatives but also for people working in tech in and out of Japan. They have online and offline activities, as well as an active Slack channel.