KatysBlog

So far, we have 47 PreSEED mentor-mentee pairs (out of 54 available) and
39 SEED mentor-mentee pairs (out of 54 available). The two worldwide
Engineering mentoring terms are 80% matched in the first month (the cycle began
on 3 December). Mentors are from Canada, China, Czech Republic, France,
Germany, India, Israel, Netherlands, UK, and the USA (California, Florida, Georgia,
Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, and Virginia).
My December 2008 email file for SEED has 1,580 emails in it. One mentor
and one mentee have left Sun since matching started. There have only been
four matches since 22 December but the pace will pick up as people get back
to work from winter break. I plan to match the remaining mentees with mentors
of their choice in the next few weeks.

On 15 December, I started an experiment which I hope will improve
SEED communications. I set up a group for SEED
Engineering Mentoring mentees, mentors, and managers on
LinkedIn. In the first two weeks,
262 current and alumni SEED managers, mentors, and mentees have been
added to the new group. I have only had to decline a dozen or so requests
from non-SEED group wannabes. Some of those
LinkedIn requestors are from Sun,
some from outside. I have directed the Sun requestors to the SunWeb
pages for current SEED application information.

More?

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

We are 13 days into the SEED mentor matching cycle for the two
January-June 2009 terms. So far, 61 program participants are matched
(that’s 56% of the 109 total participants). The remaining 48 are
under consideration by potential mentors from their Mentor Wish Lists.
My December email file for SEED already has 1,235 emails in it.

Matching has been slower than for a usual term. By the second week
of a normal SEED mentor matching cycle, we usually have 75% of
participants matched. This slowed matching is probably due to
two causes: 1) We have about double the number of participants
than are usually matched at this time of year; 2) I decided
to ask all but the most senior and experienced mentors
to have a pre-match discussion with their potential mentee before I
declare the match. The restructuring that Sun announced last
month will be starting soon. In these stressful times, I want to
be sure that these mentoring pairs are a particularly good fit for
each other. Only about 1/3 of the participants in these terms are
based in the USA, so pre-match discussions take a while to set up.

Yesterday, I started an experiment which I hope will improve
SEED communications. I set up a group for SEED
Engineering Mentoring mentees, mentors, and managers on
LinkedIn. I announced
the group to the SEEDs last night and in less than a day, I
have approved 163 requests to join.

Why do this? Year after year, the most frequent request from SEED applicants and participants is for more information about potential
SEED mentors. Keeping good records on the 445 SEED potential mentors
is time-consuming, and the resulting list is always incomplete
and a little out of date, despite our best efforts.

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking
site which can be used as a self-updating professional address book.
By creating the new SEED group on LinkedIn, SEED and PreSEED
mentees, mentors, and managers can link to each other, find out about,
and keep track of each other more easily. The new SEED
Engineering Mentoring group is open to current and alumni
SEED program mentees, mentors, and managers. That is, staff
who are current and former Sun employees associated with the
SEED Engineering Mentoring program.

More?

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

We are six days into the SEED mentor matching cycle for the
January-June 2009 terms. So far, 18 program participants are matched.
The remaining 91 are under consideration by potential mentors from their
Mentor Wish Lists. I have already heard some response (“Yes”, “No”, or “I am
Thinking About It”) from 63 potential mentors. I just sent out 46
“Last Call” emails to the potential mentors who did not reply
– telling them that they just have a day or two until their week
of consideration is over and I go on to the next potentially available
mentor. As usual, the “Last Call” emails generated a large number
of responses of one kind or another. My December email file for SEED
already has 681 emails in it.

This early in the cycle, almost all of the matches are for mentors who
were #1 or #2 in priority on the 10-name Mentor Wish Lists. However, I
have already had to reach down to #6 or lower for some as-yet-unmatched
participants. Despite all of the information available, some participants
were confused. There were many lists which included names of mentors who are
too junior or too senior to serve, or who are known to be unavailable.
I skip those names when looking for the next highest priority potentially
available mentor on a list.

As usual, Sun’s senior executives are being very
generous with their time, often accepting a second mentee or
queuing up their next mentee to start right after they finish working
with their mentee whose term ends in March 2009. It is an honor and
a pleasure to work with such a big hearted group of talented people.

More?

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