Finding Mentorship When you Can’t Find a Mentor

By Julie Qiu

Elevator Pitch

“Do you have a mentor?” It’s one of the first questions that you will be asked when getting advice about career growth. So what do you do if you don’t? This talk will redefine the way in which you think about mentorship and walk you through how to find mentorship as you grow your career.

Description

We all know that mentors are critical to our growth. But how exactly are you supposed to find a mentor if there isn’t someone around who is immediately obvious?

This talk aims to redefine the way you think about mentorship and the ways in which you can encounter mentors throughout your career. We will discuss:

(1) Different types of mentorship and how to find these mentors

(2) How to receive effective mentorship

(3) How to create your own mentorship communities

By the end of this talk, you will know how to find mentorship when you don’t have that one official mentor. You will start to see that opportunities to give and receive mentorship are all around you!

Notes

Previous Experience

  • Speaker at DevOpsDays NYC (Jan 2018: http://bit.ly/julieqiu-devopsdaysnyc2018)
  • Speaker at Elastic{ON} 2018 (Feb 2018)
  • Speaker at PyCaribbean2018 (Feb 2018)
  • Speaker at Data Day Mexico (March 2018)
  • Speaker at PyCon 2018 (May 2018)
  • Speaker at DjancoCon Europe 2018 (May 2018)

  • Speaker at Lead Developer London (June 2018)

  • Featured in Built In NYC: http://bit.ly/julieqiu-builtinnyc
  • Gave a lighting talk at Write/Speak/Code Meetup 2017
  • Gave a lighting talk at Write/Speak/Code Conference 2017
  • Regularly present at engineering weekly meetings (~40 people)

Past Presentations

http://bit.ly/julieqiu-slides

Outline

[3 min] Intro

  • Who am I
  • What I do
  • Struggles I had in finding a mentor
  • Agenda

[4 min] Redefining mentorship & finding micro mentors

  • [2 min] Getting what you need from multiple people
    • Think about having micro mentors, as opposed to 1 official person
    • You can piece together a mentorship experience
  • [2 min] Different types of mentorship
    • Mentors: Give you advice
    • Allies: Support your cause
    • Accomplices: Open up opportunities

[4 min] How to find mentors

  1. Individuals: friends, coworkers, people in other departments - Tap into your network’s network by getting introductions (for example, coworkers’ past coworkers)
  2. Organized events: conferences, Meetups
  3. Online communities: Recurse center, Slack, Twitter

[5 min] How to receive effective mentorship

  1. Know what you want: - Technical skills, public speaking, management skills, etc.
  2. Get specific and actionable feedback: - Ask for targeted feedback with specific questions - Finding the right people / groups to give you that feedback
  3. Know what your mentor is good at - Not everyone can help you with everything you need to grow

[8 min] How to create your own mentorship communities

  1. Form support groups at work - People at work are in the best position to help set you up for career success
  2. Tap into Facebook and Slack communities - Particularly useful if you live in a city that is not a bubbling tech scene and everyone you meet knows how to code
  3. Bring together people in your network - Create communities with your network - Examples of how to do this with Slack and in person

[4 min] Conclusions - Why this Matters

  • Receiving effective mentorship and feedback is the silver bullet to growing your career
  • People who need mentorship the most are often also struggling to find it
  • Encourage those who are in positions of power to share their expertise

[2 min] Q&A