I'm a mentor: Kinda like Yoda only taller and less green

One of the really positive things we do here is "mentor" other folks in our same area of discipline. This can take on many forms, from helping a new hire to being a manager for a summer college intern. I'd call it a "best practice" for sure.

What I've been doing for the past year is having bi-weekly phone conversations with a developer down at our Silicon Valley Campus. We've never actually met; I'm not even 100% sure I know what product she works on (something PowerPoint-ish).

None of that seems to matter because in general, the career paths and frustrations we deal with are the same, even across states and product divisions. The only real difference is I've been here about 7 years longer than her.

We found each other via a contact she made at the yearly Woman Developers' Conference.

What do we talk about? Whatever she wants! My job is to listen and offer whatever little advice I can, even if it is to say, "I'm not sure what you should do." Today we talked about the annual review process, and I even shared with her the list of goals that my yearly review will be based on. But once we even talked about buying a new house.

What do I get out of this? Why do I recommend it? Well, I learn from her, too! Just knowing that other groups go through the same frustrations that my group does helps a lot. And I think that talking to someone who isn't involved in the product I work on makes it easier to focus on the types of discussions that "really matter" as far as career growth go, without worrying about the day-to-day topics of keeping on schedule and discussing features and such.

The experience has also encouraged me to seek out my own mentor and try to think of more non-traditional ways to allow other people to do the mentoring thing: Everything from a weekly lunch with newer folks on the team to developing contacts not associated with our product at all.

[Author: Dave Stewart]