Andy wrote a post today called The End of the Mentoring Experiment, which is something we've talked about for some time. In fitting with the decision, and perhaps justifying it further, we decided to do this a few months back, but as with many things, we haven't gotten to it until today.
I remember when we started this, and we were very excited and interested. The first cycle of matches, using 8 people we hand picked, consumed a lot of time, and while it was successful, it was difficult to scale. We continued on a couple other cycles, trying to tweak to process a bit, but never found a way to manage this effectively, given other parts of our lives, and were never quite comfortable with automating too much of the experiment away.
We also struggled with the idea of accidently making some mistake, breaking someone's privacy, or causing harm to another's career or life. Andy wrote a few things about this, and it made sense to us.
We do believe in mentoring, and I hope that those of you looking to grow your careers take time to look for mentors. If you need advice or want help, ask. There are lots of people that will probably give you a little time. It's not a sign of weakness to need or want a mentor. It's a sign of maturity.
For those of you with some experience, keep an eye out for someone that might ask for help, or maybe just seem to be lost. Tread lightly, and carefully, but offer to be a sounding board if they'd like one. You can really make a difference in someone's career with a little effort.
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