4

How to find someone to mentor?

Profile picture
Mid-Level Software Engineer [L4] at Googlea year ago
  • What do you do to find someone to mentor?
    • Anything that's worked really well?
    • Anything that's not worked well?
  • What do you do to qualify a potential mentee to make sure both you and they will be successful?

I recently saw a talk by someone L8 at my company. They believe everyone should mentor someone. It's not only a great way to improve at growing others, but also a great way to grow yourself.

So I'd like to try it out but am not entirely sure how to get started.

P.S. Yes, I've Googled this already. Asking a more vague question here because I've found all you tend to give really good insights that I'd never think of even asking for.

290
4

Discussion

(4 comments)
  • 4
    Profile picture
    ML Engineer Intern
    a year ago

    Coming from someone who would like a mentor, I agree with the responses here, an important thing in my opinion is to find someone with a similar background/experience/shared struggles to yours

    At the end of the day, we are all a product of our own experiences/struggles. Trying to mentor someone with a really different background/struggles can be challenging

    Often when mentors are able to relate to what I'm struggling with, I notice that they work with me the best

  • 3
    Profile picture
    Mid-Level Software Engineer at Other
    a year ago

    Look at google's internal mentorship platform too.

  • 1
    Profile picture
    Fractional CTO, Board Advisor, & VC Tech Advisor
    a year ago

    I guess it depends on what you want out of a mentee. Minimally, I'd probably want someone who is on an aggressive career path forward, but needs help. Typically there's also gonna be a personality match where you both just work well-together and styles of mentoring and learning match up.

    That said, generally just getting diverse perspectives bring a better worldview and is something you want to see in company executives.

    Since I'm an entrepreneur, I just hop on LinkedIn and say I've got time free, hand out my calendly, and just help whoever needs it.

    From a personal branding perspective, this makes you a leader that people will flock to for learning new things and the bigger you go the better in my mind.

  • 1
    Profile picture
    Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
    a year ago

    What do you do to find someone to mentor?

    As someone who's mentored a ton of engineers (it was big part of my promotion/growth at Meta), the process is actually pretty straightforward:

    1. You notice people in your team and sister teams who have a lot of promise that get along well with you
    2. You reach out to them to see if they want additional support
    3. They almost certainly say yes, and then you start mentoring them

    There's also the "free" way of getting a mentee which is applying for an intern. But interns are tricky as you don't control their initial quality.

    In terms of finding good mentees, your #1 priority is to find someone who is coachable. You shouldn't really care about their current skill level: The most important thing is that they've shown an ability to improve themselves and have a healthy mentality around growth. Here's a good discussion thread from the perspective of a mentee on how to spot those attributes: "How does one attract a sponsor who is invested in their growth?"

    After you find some mentees, check out the advice here: [Taro Top 10] Effective Mentorship And Growing Others