One of my greatest pleasures is mentoring and coaching. Helping people grow, learn, and achieve their goals is a great feeling and incredibly rewarding.

One of my objectives in mentoring is to make sure that underrepresented and marginalized people are getting solid support and seeing growth opportunities. In 2018 I worked with five people (outside my org chart, that is), and four of them are from backgrounds typically underrepresented within STEM (in general) and information security (in particular). Being involved with inclusive employee resource groups is a good thing in general, but also helped to make connections that helped foster this objective.

We had a lot of great conversations this year, asked a lot of good questions, and leaned into challenges. While I can’t dig into specifics of these (obviously), here are a few outcomes I’m happy to highlight:

  • One mentee turned around a toxic relationship with their manager, had a great quarter, and is excited for next year
  • Two mentees found better roles more suited to their skills and experience
  • Another mentee received a well-deserved promotion

I’m looking forward to new mentoring opportunities in 2019!

Related: other 2018 Review Posts: