AMA: A word from my mentee...

Last week's satire "There should be a course for being laid off" went viral on Linkedin. After the article launched on Faangboss, two people texted me "this is really funny." Based on 2 texts, I figured it passes the bar for funny on LinkedIn.

I was right 😄 with 57,845 impressions and 367 reactions.

This weekend is busy, I am preparing my talk to University of Chicago and SAIC students for "How to create innovation" this Thursday. I got a new La Marzocco coffee machine to help me get through it fast.

Relevant to your interests

As a personal project, I am working with Aaron to create a new Youtube series "Speedrun to Senior" where I will try to speed up his skills and fill the gaps.

In our inaugural recording, we talked about our backgrounds, in his own words:

When I first booked a chat with Cat, I wasn’t sure how to present myself in a respectable way. At the time, I had just completed a UX course that Google offered on Coursera and was looking to get some advice on how to approach job hunting afterward.

I understood that other design professionals like Cat were voluntarily offering their time to chat with aspiring designers, students, and junior designers to support them in their journey and wanted to make a good impression that I wasn’t going to just waste their time.

Several thoughts came to mind. “Should I message them first? Do I give them some context so they can have some time to prepare? How far back do I need to go?” I ended up writing my life story starting from the moment I graduated from university and tried to highlight/convince Cat of my relevant soft skills that I brought over from my non-design experience. I thought maybe she’d be curious about how this career-changer landed on UX Design. I probably spent a good hour drafting the perfect story in chronological order and fearfully hit the send button.

Bad news: In a recent chat, I told Cat how we know each other, and to my surprise, she remembers nothing.

Fast-forward 3 years later, and I’m still learning a lot from her! I thought about how I can help others give compelling intros that give a head-start in their first mentorship calls.

To give your mentor some context for any necessary preparation, here are some things you could include:

1. Thank them for putting time aside to meet with you; they are doing this for no monetary gain after all.

2. Give a brief intro about yourself; depending on where you are in your career, professional or academic experience can be super helpful for them.

3. Share your current challenges (the more specific, the better) and what you hope to get out of the meeting with them.

Tip: Make sure your goal is something actionable.

Well, to be fair, I remembered I got coffee. ☕️ The first rule of mentorship is reciprocity. Most people who come to talk to you don't necessarily want their problems solved. They want you to tell them they are doing a fantastic job.

Have a great week ahead,