Your views please - How we describe the Meet a Mentor events

[Maggie Cranford]

Hi guys

The first thing I want to say is thank you to everyone who has immediately expressed interest in mentoring this academic year. Your involvement means everything to the success of the sessions, so it's awesome to know that we have so many people on board. Thank you!

We'll be posting a poll for actual sign-ups for mentoring on 19th November at UCL very soon. Dates for King's and Queen Mary are being discussed. 3 February is likely for King's...

I'm thinking of refreshing the text we use on the GDC meet up page to describe the sessions, and I thought I'd ask your opinion before I get to work. Here's what we said for the last MaM event:

Meet A Mentor 

• Have you always wondered what you want to do when you graduate?  
  
• Are you worried about all the talk of grads finding it hard to find work and what it will mean for you?  
  
• Do you want to know the difference between working in a bank, a gaming company or a startup?  
  
• What technology should you specialise in? Java, Ruby or any of the other countless programming languages? 
  

Now is the chance to find out. You may well have heard the buzz about the Meet a Mentor events - this is the next in a series of events open to all students. 

This is a chance for you to meet a variety of senior developers currently working in the industry; you will get a chance to listen to their stories and even ask them questions. It will be a 'speed dating' style event in groups of 5-8 with each mentor having 10-15 minutes to tell their story and share their experiences in the industry. We have an amazing line up on presenters, everything from startups to the financial and media industries, open source enthusiasts, senior developers, entrepreneurs and CTOs. You will also find an experienced recruiter who will be able give you advice and answer your questions regarding your career options, the software industry, job applications and different job positions.

Do you guys feel this represents the events well enough - any advice for how we should change it? 

I'll be looking to get the page live this week so people have plenty of time to sign up.

Thanks in advance for your views!

Maggie

[Abraham Marín Pérez]

Hi Maggie,

My 2 cents: I think the description sounds good, although there is a question that has come up before: "mentoring" evokes an activity that spans across time, while these sessions are configured as rather individual events. As a student, I can attend one event and get loads of usable feedback, and then attend a following event expecting my previous mentors to be there and to remember what we discussed so as to do some proper follow-up; since there is no guarantee that mentors in one event will attend following events, this follow-up may not happen.

Just to be clear: I don't think the format of the event needs to be modified, but maybe we need to set expectations so as to make sure nobody expects to find a mentor that they can follow up with over time. I hope that makes sense.

Many thanks,

Abraham

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[Simon Huggins]

This may come from my misunderstanding due to never having actually been able to attend one of these events, but...

My only concern is that this gives the impression that the only job in the IT industry is being a developer.
One useful thing a mentor can bring is the perspective of the variety of roles that exist in the IT sector and natural career progressions and side progressions that can happen. Not everyone ends up bring a developer, or wants to be a developer long term.

Is the event targeting only those wanting to be a developer, or those who want a career in IT generally?

Cheers

Simon.

--

[Matthew Eric Bassett]

Hi Maggie,

I agree with the concerns of Abraham and Simon. Additionally, I asked a
mentee whom I'm still in touch with what she thought of the event
description. She added that she thought the last point, about finding
our what languages folks are using, is one of the biggest things she
took away from there. Additionally, finding out about the different
roles that comp sci people can fill.

Though, on the whole, she thought the description matched the event
quite well.

Hope that helps,

M.e.

On 10/25/2015 02:59 PM, Maggie Cranford wrote:
> Hi guys
>
> The first thing I want to say is thank you to everyone who has
> immediately expressed interest in mentoring this academic year. Your
> involvement means everything to the success of the sessions, so it's
> awesome to know that we have so many people on board. Thank you!
>
> We'll be posting a poll for actual sign-ups for mentoring on 19th
> November at UCL very soon. Dates for King's and Queen Mary are being
> discussed. 3 February is likely for King's...
>
> I'm thinking of refreshing the text we use on the GDC meet up page to
> describe the sessions, and I thought I'd ask your opinion before I get
> to work. Here's what we said for the last MaM event:
>

> /Meet A Mentor /
>
> * /Have you always wondered what you want to do when you graduate?
> /
> * /Are you worried about all the talk of grads finding it hard to find

> work and what it will mean for you?

> /
> * /Do you want to know the difference between working in a bank, a

> gaming company or a startup?

> /
> * /What technology should you specialise in? Java, Ruby or any of the
> other countless programming languages?
> /
>
> /Now is the chance to find out. You may well have heard the buzz about

> the Meet a Mentor events - this is the next in a series of events open

> to all students. /
>
> /This is a chance for you to meet a variety of senior developers

> currently working in the industry; you will get a chance to listen to
> their stories and even ask them questions. It will be a 'speed dating'
> style event in groups of 5-8 with each mentor having 10-15 minutes to
> tell their story and share their experiences in the industry. We have an
> amazing line up on presenters, everything from startups to the financial
> and media industries, open source enthusiasts, senior developers,
> entrepreneurs and CTOs. You will also find an experienced recruiter who
> will be able give you advice and answer your questions regarding your
> career options, the software industry, job applications and different

> job positions./

>
>
> Do you guys feel this represents the events well enough - any advice for
> how we should change it?
>
> I'll be looking to get the page live this week so people have plenty of
> time to sign up.
>
> Thanks in advance for your views!
>
> Maggie
>

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[Maggie Cranford]

Hi guys

Thank you so much for the suggestions on this. I've taken the points raised into account, and I've also chatted with people at RecWorks who have been to student events and suggested that we linked the idea of career hacking more clearly to the MaM events - and I think that doing this also explains what we mean by mentors. It's less specifically about developers now as well...

I need to get the event publicised, so I think I will go with the following text this time, and I hope you all agree it's a step in the right direction. There will be new iterations as we progress, so please do keep the comments and ideas coming in!

Here's what I think I'll use (and I will be proof reading it one last time to pick up any last typos!):

Meet A Mentor - University College London

Meet a Mentor events are all about looking ahead to when you graduate. Now is the time to begin hacking your career!

Career hacking is about finding out from experienced people about the places you could get to in your career and the different ways to get there. Start now and you’ll be able to make better choices about your studies, your work experience and personal projects and the jobs you apply for. If you want to know more about career hacking this presentation is well worth checking out http://blog.recworks.co.uk/career-hacking/

Our Meet a Mentor sessions give you the best opportunity to meet experienced people who have already made it to a variety of awesome career destinations in IT. Don’t expect to be linked up to a long-term mentor who will follow your career and advise you as you go: Do expect to meet some ‘wise folk’ (see the presentation linked above for what we mean) who are happy to give their time to tell you about what it’s like working in their field of the IT sector right now and about their career paths and decisions.

How it works: This is a 'speed dating' style event where groups of 5-8 students have 10-15 minutes with each mentor. Mentors will tell you about their work and their company – be they in start-ups or huge multinationals - the tech they are using right now, and what it’s like to work in their chosen field, and they’ll answer your questions too. We have an amazing group of mentors, covering everything from startups to the financial and media industries, open source enthusiasts, senior developers, entrepreneurs and CTOs, so there will be a wide range of experience to learn from at the session. There will also be an experienced recruiter on hand who will be able give you advice and answer your questions regarding your career options and the different jobs that are available within the software industry, CVs and job applications. 

This is the first Meet a Mentor event of the 2015/16 academic year and it’s certain to be popular. It’s open to students on tech courses at all universities, so sign up now to be guaranteed a place at this event.  And please pass the news to fellow students at your own and other London universities so they don’t miss the opportunity.

Thanks again for your input. It is greatly appreciated!

Best wishes

Maggie

[Ged Byrne]

Hi Maggie,

That is sounding good.  It would be good if the relationship could be explained a little better.  The 'wise folk' jargon doesn't mean much to people who haven't read the full presentation.

How about something like this:

Industry experts say that 80% of today's jobs are landed through networking [1] and that networking is still the best way to find a job [2].  But how do you start building a network?  How do you make contact with other's who have already gained experience in the industry?

We have developed Career Hacking to help new arrivals like graduates make contact with the 'wise folk' who have been working with software for years.  It helps you move from the formal arrangements of education into the informal networks of reciprocation that can help drive your career forward.

Do not expect...

1. http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/80-of-today-s-jobs-are-landed-through-networking

2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2011/06/07/networking-is-still-the-best-way-to-find-a-job-survey-says/ 

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[Barry Cranford]

I hope you don’t mind me stepping in here Maggie - Thanks for your thoughts Ged (and everyone so far) - really appreciate it and as always it’s great to get everyone’s thoughts.

The point of the meet a mentor events is specifically not about helping people get jobs through networking, moreover it is about people understanding careers and options better. We are happy for people to build networks etc but we do not want that to be the purpose or theme of the events.

What we are trying to encourage is learning… or more specifically career hacking, which is about people speaking to those further ahead in their careers (mentors, coaches, advisors, wisefolk etc) who will be able to advise on the difference between various jobs and career options. (The destinations if you’ve viewed the presentation). We want to do what we can to avoid people getting the impression the events are about getting jobs - there are already enough of these kind of events at universities and it is not what students need.

We use the term ‘wise folk’ because there is often negativity around the term mentors because it implies a long term relationship but will take your thoughts/comments under advisement on this. 

Infact if there is anyone in this group that hasn’t viewed the presentation I’d highly recommend it as it perfectly sums up the goal of these events: http://blog.recworks.co.uk/career-hacking/

Cheers,

Barry

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