Category Archives: Mentoring & Other Business

SEED’s 2008-2009 Engineering mentoring program application web pages are now
disabled. Today, Tanya and I reviewed and cleaned things up before
passing a summary to Human Resources for information verification. HR will check
dates of hire, titles, annual performance ratings, etc. I also declined
many email requests from applicants and managers wanting to submit just one more
document after the deadline. Cleaning up the application records takes time
and can be complex: sometimes valid documents are misfiled (for example, by managers
or executives who mis-type the identification number of the applicant they want
to recommend), and sometimes parts of the forms (often the job title) are left
blank, so we have to look up the information.

SEED received 169 applications by yesterday’s deadline, of which 127
were known to be complete this morning. 4 more were completed today as a
result of our cleanup. (I expect to see more completions as we continue to
sort out document confusions.) This morning’s preliminary total includes:

• Recent Hires: 45 applications, 29 complete
• Established Staff: 124 applications, 98 complete

Applicants were based in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, P.R. China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and
the USA. SEED’s selection committees meet on 18 June and announcements will be made
immediately after.

More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at
http://research.sun.com/SEED/

Today at midnight (in just over an hour) is the deadline for all 2008-2009 SEED
application materials. I am still getting a steady flow of emails from applicants,
managers, and recommenders with final submissions. I have been surprised to get several
dozen new applications today – usually, the last day of the 20-day-long application
period is dedicated to revisions and additional recommendations (polishing the apples
rather than planting new trees). I received the most recent new application just over
an hour ago.

The SEED mentoring program is accepting applications from Sun Engineering
staff worldwide for its Recent Hire and Established Staff mentoring terms which
will start in September 2008. (The next PreSEED term does not start until
January 2009.) To date, we have received 169 SEED applications, 122 of which
are complete. This total includes:

• Recent Hires: 45 applications, 28 complete
• Established Staff: 124 applications, 94 complete

More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at
http://research.sun.com/SEED/

Today at midnight is the deadline for the 2008-2009 SEED applications.
Until then, the SEED program is accepting applications from Sun Engineering
staff worldwide for its Recent Hire and Established Staff mentoring terms which
will start in September 2008. (The next PreSEED term does not start until
January 2009.) To date, we have received 155 SEED applications, 84 of which
are complete. This total includes:

• Recent Hires: 42 applications, 17 complete
• Established Staff: 113 applications, 67 complete

All materials are due today. In most terms, more SEED applications
are disqualified because materials are submitted
late or are incomplete than for any other reasons. SEED’s application
process is intended to collect information and also to provide an
opportunity for applicants to demonstrate that they are good
communicators, well thought of, organized, and can meet deadlines.

SEED has applications in so far from Sun Engineering staff working in Australia,
Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, P.R. China, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA.
They work for Sun Labs, Microelectronics, Global Sales and Services, Software,
Storage, Systems, and Worldwide Operations.

Tanya Jankot and I are exchanging many emails with applicants, managers, and
recommenders. My SEED email file for June has 759 emails in it already!
Extensive materials are available on our SEED web pages inside the Sun network.
We have process documents (including flow charts, of course), FAQs for applicants,
participants, and managers, best practices and how-to documents, and lists
of participants and mentors since 2001. Tanya recently automated the web pages
which list who has been a SEED or PreSEED participant from some of Sun’s
biggest non-US Engineering sites: 76 for Beijing and China, 120 for Bangalore
and India, 37 for Prague Czech Republic, and 50 in St. Petersburg Russia.
One of the best parts of managing this program is working with people
from all over the world who share a passion for Engineering and Computer
Science.

More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at

http://research.sun.com/SEED/

The SEED program is now accepting applications from Sun Engineering
staff worldwide for its Recent Hire and Established Staff terms which
will start in September 2008. (The next PreSEED term does not start until
January 2009.)
To date, we have received 134 SEED applications, 55 of which
are complete. This total includes:

• Recent Hires: 33 applications, 9 complete
• Established Staff: 101 applications, 46 complete

All materials are due by 9 June. In most terms, more SEED applications
are disqualified because materials are submitted
late or are incomplete than for any other reasons. SEED’s application
process is intended to collect information and also to provide an
opportunity for applicants to demonstrate that they are good
communicators, well thought of, organized, and can meet deadlines.

SEED has applications in so far from Sun Engineering staff working in Australia,
Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, P.R. China, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA.
They work for Sun Labs, Microelectronics, Global Sales and Services, Software,
Storage, Systems, and Worldwide Operations.

This weekend, Tanya Jankot and I are reviewing the applications for big
problems as they come in: we try to get back to the applicant or their
manager if there is something they can fix before the deadline. For
example, if someone was hired in 2006 but they provide annual performance
ratings for 2005, 2006, and 2007, this counts as a big problem that can
be fixed (we revise the application to drop the 2005 rating).

More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at

http://research.sun.com/SEED/

This morning, I matched the last of the mentors in the PreSEED-2
worldwide pilot mentoring term for Sun’s Software group. This
term runs from June – December 2008. All of the mentors in this
term are Engineering Managers, Staff Engineers, Senior Staff
Engineers or equivalent titles (that being the target title range
for mentors in this program) and all of the mentees are Members
of the Technical Staff or equivalent titles.

This represents a 31 day matching cycle (5 May - 5 June 2008).
69% were matched in the first 14 days.
59% were matched with their 1st or 2nd priority mentor.
27% were matched with their 3rd or 4th priority mentor.
14% were matched with a mentor 5th or lower in priority.
35% of the mentoring pairs work in the same geographic location.
65% work at a distance from each other.
24 of the mentors this term are also SEED participant alumni (47%).
20 of the mentors this term have been SEED mentors before (39%).

After PreSEED-2, PreSEED will no longer be a Pilot program.
The next PreSEED term will be worldwide for all of Engineering (not just Software),
to run January-June 2009, with applications in November 2008.
Software Chief Technologists

Bob Brewin (Distinguished Engineer and Vice President) and

Tim Marsland (Fellow and Vice President) are this PreSEED’s pilot term Champions.

Greg Papadopoulos (Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development) is the SEED
program executive sponsor.

PreSEED is part of the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program.
More information on SEED is available at

http://research.sun.com/SEED/

The SEED program is now accepting applications from Sun Engineering
staff worldwide for its Recent Hire and Established Staff terms which
will start in September 2008. (The next PreSEED term does not start until
January 2009.) The application deadline is 9 June.

To date, we have received 82 SEED applications, 23 of which
are complete. SEED has applications in
from Sun Engineering staff working in Canada, Czech Republic, India, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, P.R. China, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA.
They work for Sun Labs, Microelectronics, Global Sales and Services, Software,
Storage, Systems, and Worldwide Operations.
22 of the applicants are recent hires and the rest are established staff.

Last week, I sent out an email to the SEED list of 400+ potential mentors
to ask for volunteers to join this year’s Recent Hire executive Selection Committee.
I was looking for six or seven volunteers but got twenty so quickly that I
stopped accepting participant requests. What an amazing and enthusiastic
group of volunteers! SEED’s 2008-2009 Recent Hire executive
Selection Committee now includes two Distinguished Engineers, six Directors, and
a Senior Director, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, New Jersey, Beijing China,
Bangalore India, Prague Czech Republic, and Colorado. Three of the executives
are SEED participant alumni and seven are SEED mentors. I still need to pick
the SEED participant member of the Selection Committee from the 2007-2008
Recent Hire term.

More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at

http://research.sun.com/SEED/

The SEED program is now accepting applications from Sun Engineering
staff worldwide for its Recent Hire and Established Staff terms which
will start in September 2008. (The next PreSEED term does not start until
January 2009.) We had our worldwide phone-in program overview meeting
this morning.

To date, we have received 57 SEED applications, 15 of which
are complete. All materials are due by 9 June. SEED has applications in
from Sun Engineering staff working in Czech Republic, India, Ireland,
Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, P.R. China, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA.
They work for Sun Labs, Microelectronics, Global Sales and Services, Software,
Storage, Systems, and Worldwide Operations.
14 of the applicants are recent hires and the rest are established staff.

SEED Program Priorities are:
• 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.

More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at

http://research.sun.com/SEED/