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I also mentored for Plato and quit for very similar reasons. When I started, I thought I'd be helping people who are underrepresented in tech, or even just peop

by laurex 5y ago

I also mentored for Plato and quit for very similar reasons. When I started, I thought I'd be helping people who are underrepresented in tech, or even just people who had interesting goals that my experience or coaching might help them achieve. Instead, I found people whose companies were paying Plato to give them a service, weren't particularly self-motivated, and were highly traditional in their backgrounds. Worse still, they would schedule my calendar then cancel at the last minute, and Plato didn't seem to discourage this, even though they required me to block my calendar. Then they wanted me to spend my time writing a business case study that they could use to promote themselves. I actually think mentorship could be a great place for innovation, and I could even see "volunteering" or doing 'pro bono' work, but not when it has almost zero return even from a feel-good standpoint.

defaultname 5y ago
"I thought I'd be helping people who are underrepresented in tech" What made you believe this? The service doesn't seem to pitch that angle whatsoever. Indeed, being $300 USD per month (for what it is) puts it on a pretty pricey level and largely guarantees the opposite.
- kazinator 5y ago
  From a purely logical angle, people willing to fork out $300 a month for this could well be underrepresented in tech, not just those who cannot afford it.
CrazyCatDog 5y ago
I would check with your Alma Mater—we just stood this up 18 months ago at my business college, and the alumni jumped all over it. The system (peoplegrove platform) let’s you indicate how often you’re willing to connect with students, what your open to mentoring on (eg careers, industry, what courses world you take if you could roll back the clock (ps it’s always Analtics and scripting!), etc.) It has been thrilling to watch both mentoring alumni and growing students each benefit from these interactions, and there’s $0 involved for participants—-both sides have an incentive to play by the rules (it world be pretty embarrassing to have your former school ban you from talking to students for failure to follow protocol). And, the system connects to career services, so repeated abuse by students jeopardizes the services available to them (which in my college is HUGE).
tylermenezes 5y ago
One much more feel-good program I'm aware of -- Mentors In Tech is doing mentorship for community college students who want to break into the tech industry. [1] They're almost all from underrepresented backgrounds, many on their second career, and mentoring has a big proven impact on their outcomes. It's run by the person who founded the TEALS program which brought real CS teachers to thousands of high schools. [2] [1]: https://mentorsintech.com/ https://mentorsintech.com/ [2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/technology/microsoft-sends-engineers-to-schools-to-encourage-the-next-generation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/technology/microsoft-send...
Grustaf 5y ago
> people who are underrepresented in tech Sorry for the off-topic question, but why would you want to focus on people from _groups_ that are underrepresented? Wouldn't it make more sense to focus on _individuals_ that have had a hard time and need help getting into tech, regardless of demographic?

by laurex 5y ago

defaultname 5y ago

"I thought I'd be helping people who are underrepresented in tech" What made you believe this? The service doesn't seem to pitch that angle whatsoever. Indeed, being $300 USD per month (for what it is) puts it on a pretty pricey level and largely guarantees the opposite.

kazinator 5y ago
From a purely logical angle, people willing to fork out $300 a month for this could well be underrepresented in tech, not just those who cannot afford it.

CrazyCatDog 5y ago

I would check with your Alma Mater—we just stood this up 18 months ago at my business college, and the alumni jumped all over it. The system (peoplegrove platform) let’s you indicate how often you’re willing to connect with students, what your open to mentoring on (eg careers, industry, what courses world you take if you could roll back the clock (ps it’s always Analtics and scripting!), etc.) It has been thrilling to watch both mentoring alumni and growing students each benefit from these interactions, and there’s $0 involved for participants—-both sides have an incentive to play by the rules (it world be pretty embarrassing to have your former school ban you from talking to students for failure to follow protocol). And, the system connects to career services, so repeated abuse by students jeopardizes the services available to them (which in my college is HUGE).

tylermenezes 5y ago

One much more feel-good program I'm aware of -- Mentors In Tech is doing mentorship for community college students who want to break into the tech industry. [1] They're almost all from underrepresented backgrounds, many on their second career, and mentoring has a big proven impact on their outcomes. It's run by the person who founded the TEALS program which brought real CS teachers to thousands of high schools. [2] [1]: https://mentorsintech.com/ https://mentorsintech.com/ [2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/technology/microsoft-sends-engineers-to-schools-to-encourage-the-next-generation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/technology/microsoft-send...

Grustaf 5y ago

> people who are underrepresented in tech Sorry for the off-topic question, but why would you want to focus on people from _groups_ that are underrepresented? Wouldn't it make more sense to focus on _individuals_ that have had a hard time and need help getting into tech, regardless of demographic?