KatysBlog

The SEED (Sun Engineering Enrichment and Development) mentoring term
was announced yesterday by CTO and SEED sponsor

Greg Papadopoulos. SEED is an Engineering-wide long-term leadership
growth program. SEED program participants are expected to rise
to the top of Sun Engineering’s individual contributor or management ranks.

The Recent Hire and Established staff terms of about 35 each
will start in September 2006. All materials are due 12 June 2006.
We already have 9 applications:

• Central USA: 3 [ 33% ]
• China: 1 [ 11% ]
• Russia: 1 [ 11% ]
• United Kingdom: 2 [ 22% ]
• Western USA: 2 [ 22% ]

The SEED program is not Sun’s only mentoring program. What makes
it different is that the SEED program is

• Sun’s only program in which about 75% of mentors are Sun executives (Distinguished Engineers, Directors, Fellows, Vice Presidents, etc.)
• open to all of Sun Engineering (any group, any location), with the goal of identifying and supporting future leaders of Engineering
• focussed on accelerating participants’ career development and learning overall (not on specific skills development)
• building and strengthening connections within Sun’s Engineering Community and with the rest of Sun
• free to participants, except for a small charge if they choose to take mentor partnership facilitation training

Despite their different goals, many mentoring programs have value,
depending on what the participant and their manager are looking for.

Last Thursday, the final pair in SEED’s legacy StorageTek term
was matched. A Senior Vice President accepted one of the
Storage managers as her first SEED mentee. The participant called
me to say how happy he is and how much he hopes to learn during the
next six months.

The metrics for this term of 28 participants who came to Sun through
the StorageTek acquisition ended well:

• 75% of the mentors
  are executives: 8 Vice Presidents (including one VP/Fellow, and two
  Senior VPs), and 13 Directors (including 8 Distinguished Engineers).

• 61% of the participants were matched with their #1 or #2 Mentor Wish List choice. Another 21% were matched with their #3 or #4 choice. As has been
  true in each of the last three SEED terms, about 80% of participants were matched with one of their first four choices. The remainder were matched with a Mentor lower down on their Mentor Wish List.

• The matching cycle time was 37 days (almost exactly the same as for
  the last two terms).

• This is an experienced group of mentors:
  • 2 SEED participant Alumni are returning as Mentors
  • 11 Mentors are serving for the 1st time with SEED (that is, 61% of
    this term’s mentors have been SEED mentors before)

  • 11 Mentors are in their 2nd time with SEED
  • 2 Star Mentors are in their 3rd or 4th time with SEED
  • 4 Superstar Mentors are in their 5th or 6th time with SEED

This week the next SEED regular terms will be announced (for both Recent
Hires and Established Staff). Anyone in Sun
Engineering world-wide who meets the selection criteria is welcome to apply.
All materials are due 12 June 2006.
SEED’s general selection criteria are:

1. All Participants are in Engineering.
2. Only regular Sun employees may participate.
3. Superior annual performance ratings are preferred.
4. Manager support is required.

SEED program participants are expected to rise to the top of Sun Engineering’s individual contributor or management ranks.