Category Archives: Mentoring & Other Business

On 3 April, we announced PreSEED-2, the second pilot mentoring term aimed at helping Sun Engineering staff who have been getting almost all “Sun Standard” (2 or Standard-level) performance ratings onto a path which may lead them to higher engagement. PreSEED-2 applications can be submitted as of 14 April; the term will run June-December 2008. The first PreSEED pilot term is currently under way, running from March-September 2008. The PreSEED-1 metrics and feedback so far are good and the same or better than metrics of a regular SEED worldwide term. Between the announcement and 14 April, eligible Sun Software Members of the Technical Staff who are interested should talk with their managers about this opportunity.

The PreSEED-1 pilot participants are among those invited to the SEED
mentoring program’s MidTerm Event. The event starts with a dinner
tonight (after the Sun Labs Open House
closes), then continues with presentations tomorrow. 111 Sun attendees are
registered so far. About 20 of those SEED mentees, mentors, or managers are
calling in from locations around the world, including Zaventem Belgium, Velizy
France, Bangalore India, Prague Czech Republic, and Tokyo Japan.
Speakers will include:

• 
  Jonathan Schwartz (Chief Executive Officer and President)
• 
  Marc Tremblay (Sun Fellow, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Microelectronics)
• Tiki Dare (Director Trademark & Marketing Legal) speaking on
  OpenSolaris
• Chris Frank (Senior Staff Engineer, Industrial Design Architect, & SEED Alumnus, Sun Systems Group) speaking on “Out of the Box: Initial Experiences Create Lasting Impressions”
• 
  Darryl Gove (Senior Staff Engineer, SEED Mentor & Alumnus, Sun Software Group) speaking about his new book
  
  Solaris Application Programming
• 
  Nicole Yankelovich (Principal Engineer, & SEED Mentor, Sun Labs)
  speaking on
  
  “Wonderland: Using a 3D Virtual World for Collaboration”

After the speakers tomorrow, there will be a tour of Sun’s Menlo Park
Enterprise Technology Center by Rob Snevely, SEED Mentor and author of

Enterprise Data Center Design and Methodology.

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

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

Sun’s
Menlo Park Campus is in the middle of a major renovation
and is looking very good. A great deal of cleaning, new paint,
pruning and landscape upgrades have been seen during the last year.
MPK was a well designed and pretty campus to start with. Those of us
who work here have added small garden statuary and the occasional
birdfeeder to make it more homey. Here are some recent photos:

Pear blossoms

Pear blossom snow

New leaves

Hawthorne blossoms

New dry creek

Blossom walkway

Planter pansies

Ceanothus blooms

Pear and Oak

Oak flowers

Phil’s Memorial

Willow and oak

Fringe flowers

Gravel feature

Bunny statue

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

We matched the last PreSEED mentoring program participant with
his mentor today. We are now planning for a 2nd PreSEED pilot
term, to be announced very shortly. We have interviewed 4 of the
5 Directors whose staff are participating in the 1st pilot and
their feedback is positive. Here are the metrics so
far for PreSEED’s 1st term. These are very similar to the metrics
of a regular SEED worldwide term (except more PreSEEDs were matched
with mentors who were higher in priority on their Mentor Wish Lists).

This term had a 41 day matching cycle (19 Feb - 31 Mar 2008).
75% were matched in the first 13 days.
72% were matched with their 1st or 2nd priority mentor.
17% were matched with their 3rd or 4th priority mentor.
10% were matched with a mentor 5th or lower in priority.
31% of the mentoring pairs work in the same geographic location.
69% work at a distance from each other.
Countries in which participants and mentors in this term work are:
China, Czech Republic, France, India, Ireland, UK, and the USA.

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

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

The mentor matching cycle for the PreSEED pilot program participants
started on 19 February. 24 have been matched in 16 days (83%). There are
five participants left to match. All are now under consideration by
potential mentors.

The PreSEED pilot participants are among those invited to the SEED
mentoring program’s MidTerm Event on 11 April. 93 Sun attendees are registered
so far for this event. Speakers will include:

• 
  Jonathan Schwartz (Chief Executive Officer and President)
• 
  David Yen (Executive Vice President, Microelectronics)
• Tiki Dare (Associate General Counsel, Sun Legal) speaking on
  OpenSolaris
• Chris Frank (Senior Staff Engineer, Industrial Design Architect, & SEED Alumnus, Sun Systems Group) speaking on “Out of the Box: Initial Experiences Create Lasting
  Impressions”
• 
  Darryl Gove (Senior Staff Engineer, SEED Mentor & Alumnus, Sun Software Group)
  speaking about his new book
  
  Solaris Application Programming
• 
  Nicole Yankelovich (Principal Engineer, & SEED Mentor, Sun Labs)
  speaking on
  “Wonderland: Using a 3D Virtual World for Collaboration”

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

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

The mentor matching cycle for the PreSEED pilot program participants
started a week ago, on 19 February. 13 are matched so far, with 6 additional
potential Mentors having responded that they are considering it. 13 or 45% matched
during the first week is about the same rate of progress that I usually see in
a regular SEED worldwide Engineering term, so PreSEED is doing well.

So far, we have mentors matched from Bangalore (India), Broomfield (CO USA),
Brush Prairie (WA USA), Burlington (MA USA), Ft. Lauderdale (FL USA), Itasca (IL USA),
and Menlo Park (CA USA).

PreSEED has a number of differences from a regular SEED worldwide Engineering term.
Two PreSEED special requirements are: Mentors must talk with the Mentee’s Manager before
starting to work with the Mentee; a two hour mentoring partnership facilitation session
is required (for PreSEED Mentor and Mentee). I have been sending reminders to the
Mentors to meet with the Managers. It looks like those talks are happening.

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

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

The mentor matching cycle for the PreSEED program participants
started on 19 February. That is, the first email invitations went
out that day. Ten are matched so far with four additional
potential Mentors having responded that they are considering it.

If PreSEED follows the same pattern as the older SEED mentoring
program, Participants may be considered by as many as six potential Mentors
before a good match is found. Others are immediately matched with their first
choice. Each potential Mentor may have multiple email, phone, or
personal contacts with the program staff. Potential Mentors are
contacted serially in priority order and each one may take a long time
to respond and then decide. It may take about six
weeks to match all of the current PreSEED Participants.

The Participant is not kept informed of each step in the match process.
They will not know which potential Mentor from their “Mentor Wish List” is
contacted. Potential Mentors need to have space and time to consider the
possibilities of a mentoring partnership without risk of offending the
potential Mentee or interfering with future communications with them or
their Manager.

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

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

On 8 February, we accepted 29 PreSEED mentoring program participants
into the pilot program. The new participants are now creating their
15 name Mentor Wish Lists (due 19 February). About the New Participants:

Work Location:
* Central USA: 5  [ 17% ]
* China: 5  [ 17% ]
* Czech Republic: 1  [ 3% ]
* Eastern USA: 2  [ 7% ]
* France: 1  [ 3% ]
* India: 4  [ 13% ]
* United Kingdom: 1  [ 3% ]
* Western USA: 11  [ 37% ]
Division: 100% Sun's Software Group
Gender of Participants:
* female: 9  [ 31% ]
* male: 19  [ 66% ]
* decline to state: 1  [ 3% ]
7 Previously Applied to SEED, 24%
Countries of origin this term include: China, Czech Republic, France,
India, and the USA

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

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