Mentoring
Level up your personal development through mentoring
ManawaTech offers a local mentoring program to members. Types of mentoring offered:
- Technical: Help build a specific technical skill with a language or tool
- Career: Support to move into leadership or management, set career goals, or find work. Build professionalism
- Business: Running tech startups, being a tech CEO or tech cofounder, doing the business of tech
- Identity: Someone similar to me in gender, culture, ethnicity, and beliefs: support to develop this aspect of your identity through your career in tech
- Group: Peer mentoring in a group, facilitated by an experienced leader
Thanks to Digital Skills Agency for sponsoring the mentoring program.
Find a Mentor
Register on our site to create a Mentee Profile. You can describe a bit about yourself and what you are looking for. Expect to meet with your mentor monthly for 6-12 months (or more often, or for longer as needed).
Mentors are screened and receive training to ensure both of you have quality interaction. We may match individuals as new mentors are approved, or may hold “mix and match” events where a number of mentors and mentees are invited to an informal event to build their own connections. If your profile says you are looking for a mentor around the time of an event, we will send an email to invite you.
Mentors offer their time and skills to help build local capacity and talent for the benefit of everyone (so be nice to them!)
Become a Mentor
Thank you for volunteering your experience and time. A great mentor is mostly someone who is a great listener, with a bit of experience to know the right questions to ask.
Register on our site to create a Mentoring Profile. You can describe a bit about yourself, what you have to offer, and the types of mentoring that interest you. Mentors are screened (a brief phone interview or coffee meeting), and receive mentoring skills training. The training is a compulsory quarterly meetup, which is a chance to pick up a new skill or two and share your mentoring experiences with other local mentors (peer support).
The mentoring program leadership team are volunteers too. If you have spare time to help, or useful ideas they welcome your support and energy.
Other national mentoring initiatives
Besides the ManawaTech mentoring program, there are other programs offered throughout New Zeland and offered in the Manawatu region.
ITP have a professional mentoring program https://itp.nz/Members/Mentoring. Mentors must be members of ITP, attend an induction, and a short training course. Mentees must also be ITP members. There is no cost to either (except the ITP membership fee). Expect to meet roughly 10 times in a 12 month period.
A student led initiative connecting tertiary students to industry via workshops, training, site visits, internships and mentoring.
Tech Women offer mentoring circles where 6 mentees and 2 mentors meet on a regular basis. There is nothing currently in the Manawatū, but reach out and maybe help something get started here. https://techwomen.nz/about-us/our-work/mentoring-circles/
Girls in years 9-11 join a day in the life of the tech sector. A number of local companies currently participate.