We started the mentor matching cycle on 11 December and as of today,
39 out of 49 participants are matched:
- 24 Nov 2006 – Application period ended
- 28 Nov – 49 SEED Participants Selected
- 11 December – first 49 invitations to mentors out in email
- 14 December – 15 matched (31%)
- 18 December – 26 matched (53%)
- 25 December – 37 matched (76%)
- 1 January 2007 – 37 matched (76%)
Nothing much happened during Sun’s winter break week but two potential
mentors whom I contacted before Christmas agreed to accept a match today.
Quite a few of the other potential mentors are still out on vacation but
I hope to hear from more this week.
So far, we have 10 Vice Presidents or Fellows and 18 Directors or Distinguished
Engineers matched this term. Most of the mentors are in California (from
San Diego to San Francisco) but there are some based in other states (4 in Colorado,
1 in Massachusetts, 1 in Illinois, and 1 in New Mexico) and countries
(1 in the UK, 1 in Germany, 1 in France, and 3 in China). They represent
a wide diversity professional areas: Software, Systems,
Service, Marketing, Finance, Labs, Business Planning, Sales, etc.
The SEED Engineering mentoring program has 3 priorities:
- Increase the value, satisfaction, and retention of program Participants and their Mentors.
- Build Sun’s Engineering community by making and strengthening connections between its members and with the rest of Sun.
- Work to balance the diversity of Participants in terms of demographics, professional area, and geographic location.
This term is looking very strong so far in building connections between
professional areas and in having a good diverse balance. In about three months,
we will send out our first quarterly survey to this group and see what they
say about their satisfaction. Next summer, after Sun’s annual focal
reviews are complete, we will see how everyone is doing in the more objective
measures of performance, promotion, and retention. Until then, Tanya Jankot
and I will do our best to support this term’s participants and mentors
and to help them make this a great learning experience.
KatysBlog 