KatysBlog

Yesterday, all 109 SEED and PreSEED Engineering mentoring program participants
turned in the final versions of their 10-name Mentor Wish Lists. Also yesterday,
Tanya Jankot cleaned up the data, then she and I decided on who was the top
priority potentially available mentor for each new program participant, then I
sent out the first 65 personal email requests to potential mentors. Today,
I sent out the remaining 44 email requests. I have been getting
many enthusiastic responses from potential mentors. Four have already accepted
mentees (2 GSS SEEDs and 2 PreSEEDs).

Mentor request metrics:

• There were 442 unique potential mentors requested on the 109 Mentor Wish Lists.
• 14 potential mentors had more than one request at #1 priority.
• 65 potential mentors had 5 or more participants request them.
• 6 had more than ten requests.
• 14 was the highest number of requests for any potential mentor.

Unless the mentor is very experienced or says they already know
the mentee well, I ask them to have a pre-match discussion by phone or in person
to be sure it is a good fit. I expect many more matches soon. If experience
holds true, it will take three to six weeks to match everyone in both terms.
There will be very few matches toward the end of this month because of
Sun’s winter break.

Mentor matching metrics:

• In most terms since SEED started in 2001, about 80% of participants were
  matched with one of their top four priority choices. The remainder were matched
  with a Mentor lower down on their Mentor Wish List.
• About 70% of SEED mentors are executives (Directors, Principal Engineers,
  Fellows, or Vice Presidents) in any term. More senior mentees tend to be
  matched with more senior mentors. For example, in the 2008-2009 terms, the
  Recent Hire term had 65% executive mentors but the Established Staff term
  had 84% executive mentors.
• In the 2008-2009 terms, 77% of mentor-mentee pairs were working at
  a distance, another state or country from each other.
• Over 90% of SEED participants indicate satisfaction or strong
  satisfaction with the program in their quarterly reports.
• 100% of participants get matched with a mentor they requested.

More?

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

The 110 new participants in Sun’s worldwide Engineering mentoring program
are now working on their Mentor Wish Lists, due on 3 December. 14 of them
have already submitted their mentor requests. Creating the Mentor Wish List
is probably the hardest part of the SEED program.

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. In creating their Mentor Wish List, each SEED participant needs to
make two hard decisions:

1. What they want to learn
2. 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)

SEED provides a list of over 430 senior and executive staff who are eligible
and willing to be mentors. Most have provided their biographies,
personal web page links, blog links, and other background information to give
program participants context. Researching potential mentors is like writing
a university paper – hunting for leads, backtracking, looking for key words, hunting again. Most SEED participants spend many days creating their Mentor Wish Lists.

Sometimes the fastest way to find biographical information on someone (both inside Sun’s public web pages and on the public net itself) is to use an internet search. Search results will show if the potential mentor has a Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networking page and if there is a blog associated with them. I advise
SEED participants to search for information about themselves first, to give them an idea of what is out there.

For example, a Google search of “Katy Dickinson” produced 3,590 results with
links to individual blog entries plus:

1. 
   Katy Dickinson in The People at Sun Labs/CTO
2. 
   Blogger: User Profile: Katy Dickinson (not sure why this is
   hit #2 since I don’t use Blogger and the page is empty)
3. 
   Katy Dickinson » Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
   (I am on the ABI Advisory Board)
4. 
   Katy Dickinson | Facebook
5. 
   katy.dickinson’s Profile on icanhascheezburger (I didn’t know I had
   a profile here but I do like that photo of my cat)
6. 
   Katy Dickinson – ACM author profile page
7. 
   Katy Dickinson’s Public Profile on Plaxo
8. 
   Katy Dickinson – LinkedIn (I have a LinkedIn account but this is someone else
   with my name!)

Which is to say, there is a great deal of public information available on anyone
who has even a small presence in the world.

More?

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

Last night and today, we announced the worldwide all-Engineering PreSEED and
Global Sales and Services (GSS) SEED Engineering mentoring program participants for
the January-June 2009 terms. We picked 55 for each term.

Selection Metrics

About the 55 New PreSEED Participants:
======================================
103 PreSEED applications
14 disqualified for incomplete applications
34 had complete applications but they arrived too late for inclusion
53% selected
Location of Participants
1 Belgium, 2%
10 China, 18%
1 Czech Republic, 2%
1 France, 2%
2 Germany, 4%
9 India, 16%
2 Israel, 4%
1 Italy, 2%
2 Japan, 4%
1 Mexico, 2%
1 Norway, 2%
1 Korea, 2%
1 Russia, 2%
2 Singapore, 4%
1 Spain, 2%
1 UK, 2%
18 USA, 33%
8 California USA, 15%
4 Colorado, 7%
3 Massachusetts USA, 5%
2 Oregon, 4%
1 Texas USA, 2%
Division of Participants
21 GSS, 38%
2 Marketing, 4%
4 Microelectronics, 7%
22 Software Group, 40%
2 Storage Group, 4%
4 Systems, 7%
1 Worldwide Operations, 4%
Gender of Participants
10 Female, 18%
45 Male, 82%
About the 55 New GSS SEED Participants:
======================================
98 SEED applications
19 disqualified for incomplete applications
56% selected
Location of Participants
Australia   4,   8%
Austria   1,   2%
Belgium   1,   2%
China   5,   10%
Finland   1,   2%
France   1,  2%
Germany   5,
Greece   1,   2%
India   1,   2%
Japan   4,   8%
Singapore   1,   2%
Spain   3,   6%
Switzerland   1,   2%
Taiwan   1,   2%
United Kingdom   4,    8%
USA    20,    38%
California   4,   8%
Connecticut   2,   4%
Florida  3,    6%
Georgia  1,   2%
Michigan   1,   2%
New Jersey   3,    6%
Texas   5,   10%
Washington   1,   2%
Gender of Participants
2 Female, 4%
52 Male, 96%

The 110 new participants are now thinking about their Mentor Wish Lists –
due on 3 December. The first of two phone-in meetings with participants and
their managers to discuss mentor choices is tomorrow morning at 8 am.

More?

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