Future of Mentorship in the forum

[Reza_Ameri]

There used to be a mentorship app and ability to find and connect to mentors and mentees. This have been removed. Would you mind update status on the mentor app?

Any future plan for mentor and mentorship?

[#2]

These past couple of years have been challenging for me, both personally and professionally. As things (at least seem to) calm down, I was considering getting back into the mentoring space, and discovered the same thing you, Reza, have. I know that diversity, inclusivity, and mentoring are words MS uses, but I sometimes I see the opposite of that in terms of real action, like the mentoring capabilities we once used to have, back when Microsoft actually (probably because legal action required it) truly supported diversity in tech. But, maybe I am being too pessimistic. Maybe the mentoring stuff has just moved? Maybe it's a vibrant, active, robust program, filled with support and success, and we're just at the wrong address? Anyone able to help us out here?

[#3 · Accepted solution]

@Reza_Ameri @CA Callahan 

Thank you all so much for your participation and engagement with our mentorship program! We unfortunately had to make the difficult decision to take the group off of the Tribute app, but we have created a space right here in the Humans of IT community where you can continue these conversations in a private group hub. If you are interested in joining this private group to continue this work and these conversations, you can do so here.

[#4]

Hi @alwieczo ,

Thanks for the link, I actually joined the Tribute app and honestly, I was a bit concern about privacy and being a third-party app. I remember in the last conversation, there was an email and asking us to send an email and request to add us to the private group and I sent an email but I never received any response.

I just make a request to join the private group and I hope you grant me the permission to join the group.

[#5]

You're in! Took us a while to complete the offboarding and get this set up, but glad you are able to join and excited to have a space to support Humans of IT mentorship discussions and connections going forward!

[#6]

I went to the "here" link and signed up. Thank you for allowing me to get that far.

I have to ask- how do "mentees" request mentorship? Is there an app, a page, a thread they can use? With a very specifically private, members only mentor group, what is the mentee process? I worry about the non-public, "invite only," scavenger hunt, behind-closed-doors feel of this. I have to assume this is not by design and there is a public facing mentor-request piece coming?

[#7]

The private group hub is set up as a community-led discussion forum, so it allows you to post about what you are looking for in a mentor or mentee and hopefully connect with each other. We also encourage you to check out public mentoring programs such as https://www.mentoring.org/ if that is more what you are looking for!

[#8]

Thank you @alwieczo 

[#9]

I appreciate the link to a broader audience concerning mentoring. However, how would I tell mentees who are interested in the Microsoft, Humans in IT mentoring to sign up?

[#10]

I'm not sure I understand your question - anyone in this community can request access to the mentorship discussion space. We are no longer able to support an app or anything. Hoping that people can connect through that space and share mentorship stories, best practices, etc. If you have any concerns or other ideas, I'm more than happy to touch base with you 1:1.

[#11]

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding @alwieczo, but it was not easy to get invited to this group, there is no real advertising for other Humans to know where the mentoring is. Yes, you've got two of us here, maybe a few more, but I am not sure this effort is going to have any momentum if there is no mechanism for the public to be aware mentoring is going on. That's what I was asking. I had hoped there was a different surface for the mentees to join or something. Do you have a pool of mentees for mentors to choose. What is the mechanism here?