catehstn’s avatarcatehstn’s Twitter Archive—№ 27,813

                1. Fellow women in tech, how many mentoring requests do you get a month? Also interested in how you respond.
              1. …in reply to @catehstn
                I get 2-4. I handle in 3 main ways. The first is saying no - anything pipeline or where my main qualification is I used to work for Google.
            1. …in reply to @catehstn
              2) I reply explaining why their request is bad. I wrote about this (no one responds to these emails). catehuston.com/blog/2015/11/23/advice-mentors-and-questionably-helpful-emails/
          1. …in reply to @catehstn
            3) I reply with some initial thoughts and resources and invite them to follow up. Almost no one replies to these emails either.
        1. …in reply to @catehstn
          The net result: I get a lot of requests, most of which aren't followed up on. As a result I try to minimize time spent on the first email.
      1. …in reply to @catehstn
        This ask just re-enforces my view that we are still selling mentoring as a panacea but not helping people figure out what they want.
    1. …in reply to @catehstn
      It occurs to me of the 4 mentoring requests I fielded this week the 2 I feel most optimistic are where friends intro'd me with specific ask.
  1. …in reply to @catehstn
    Happier note, also found in inbox this week: a beautiful thank you note, which reminded me why I make time for those I think will value it.
    1. …in reply to @catehstn
      Finding the results to this fascinating. Please vote! catehstn/685066533861769216
      1. …in reply to @catehstn
        No discussion of the problems of "mentoring" as a catch all is complete without this post by my friend dianakimball themanual.org/read/issues/4/diana-kimball/article