The SEED Engineering mentoring “Mentor Wish Lists” are due
in about 11 hours. SEED participants give us 15 prioritized names and
reasons for preferring those potential mentors. Then, I work from
their lists to find them a match. 42 out of the 49 participants
have gotten in their lists already. Tanya Jankot and I have
been reviewing lists and giving feedback all week. Tomorrow,
we close down the list submission web page and start to
contact potential mentors. I hope to match at least half of
this term before the winter break.
Creating a potential mentor list is time consuming and challenging.
In creating their Mentor Wish List, each SEED participant
needs to make two hard decisions:
- What they want to learn
- Who has already accomplished the kind of things they want to do
(that is, who is already down the path that they see themselves walking)
The SEED Engineering mentoring program takes a long-term view and does not have a preference for one kind of learning over another. That is, the mentoring partnership learning does not have to have anything to do with the participant’s current job. Some people want to learn to be better technical managers, others want to know how to get their ideas to customers faster. Many want to improve their soft skills: public presentation or speaking, negotiating, conflict management, and coaching. Still others want to improve their work and family balance and still have a great career. It takes time and mature consideration to work through all of this. Creating the Mentor Wish List is probably the hardest part of the SEED program.
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