Mentorship 2018

Published

13 Aug 2018

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4 min

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mentoring career

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If you follow my work, you may recall that I started a formal mentorship program last year. I had the great privilege of working with two incredibly talented people—Amberley Romo and Manuel Matuzović—for a little over a year and enjoyed the hell out of the experience.

I had hoped to kick off a new mentorship session in January, but (as often happens) life got in the way. Now that I’m settled into a new city and a new routine, I’m itching to get things going again. And so I ask: How can I help you develop or further your career on the web?

What am I looking for in a mentee?

Whether you aspire to work on the web or you’re a veteran of the browser wars, if you think you could benefit from mentorship, I’d like to help. My ideal mentee is someone who’s passionate about the web and is—perhaps most of all—someone who I believe I can help.

To that end, my skills and knowledge will probably be most helpful to people interested in any or all of the these:

writing,
speaking,
designing/developing on the front end (but not with frameworks),
improving their UX skills,
championing accessibility, and
developing progressive web apps.

I’ve got scads of other interests and skills too, but those are probably the ones I’m most confident I can help with.

You don’t need to live near me or even in the same hemisphere. If you happen to be local to the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. or live somewhere that I’m traveling to over the next year, we’ll definitely meet in person, but that’s by no means a requirement. I’m based in the Pacific time zone (Seattle, Washington), but I’ll do my best to coordinate a regular time for us to chat that won’t require you hopping on Skype at two in the morning (unless that’s your thing). Email… Skype… Hangouts… I’m happy to work however you’re comfortable.

I’m afraid I don’t speak any languages other than English,¹ so that artificially restricts the pool of folks I can work with, but don’t worry if you don’t think your English is great. Honestly, it’s probably better than you give yourself credit for. It’s also 100% guaranteed to be better than my attempts at speaking pretty much any language other than English.

Who should apply?

Much of my work over the past twenty-plus years has been concentrated in the areas of accessibility and, more broadly, inclusive design. To create a web that can go anywhere and work for anyone, we need a diverse group of people making it happen. Sadly, our industry has a difficult time recruiting, developing, and, most importantly, retaining a diverse workforce. Given the egalitarian ideals that the web was founded on, that’s a travesty.

I want to see more diverse faces working on the web, speaking at conferences, writing articles, and getting promoted into leadership positions in design, UX, and development. And so this year I’m doing things a little differently: I will only be taking applications from folks who self-identify as part of an underrepresented group. Out of respect for your privacy, I’m not requiring that you label yourself in any particular way, but I do ask that you check your privilege and refrain from applying if you’re part of a group that is already heavily represented in our industry (such as white cis males).

What’s the application process?

Like last year, the application process is not meant to be challenging or time-consuming. I’d like you to write a public post somewhere on the web—such as on your blog, Medium, Twitter, or Mastodon—that discusses why you love the Web, what you love about working on it (or aspire to work on), and what your goals are for the coming year of your career. I’m not looking for any particular length; I’m trying to get a sense of you, your passion, and where your interests lie. I love seeing people publicly gush about why they love the web, but, if you’re more of a private person, you can write it in a non-public document stored somewhere on the web that you can share with me (such as on DraftIn, Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox).

Once you’ve done that, use this site’s contact form to send me the link, along with a brief note about why you’d like me as a mentor. Again, I’m not looking for any particular length, but I would appreciate it if you you could touch on where our passions overlap and how you think I can help. I want to make sure we’re a good fit. And please be honest… if you want me as a mentor because of the connections I have, say that—I appreciate honesty.

Anyway, that’s it. No big hoops to jump through. If that feels like too much writing and you’d rather speak to me in real-time, please drop me a line and say as much. I’d be happy to set up a time to chat.

Can you nominate someone?

If you know someone who you think would be a good fit for this, please nominate them! All I ask is that you introduce us with some context. The easiest (but most public) way is to @-message us both on Twitter. If you’d rather keep it private, you can kick off a DM thread with us if your nominee is on Twitter too (my DMs are open) or start the conversation by dropping me a note through the contact form on this site or sending me a message on any of the various platforms I frequent (Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on).

I look forward to working with you (or your friend)!

I’ll keep the lines open through Tuesday, 30 September 2018 in whatever your local timezone is. I met a ton of amazing folks last year through this process and got to work with two outstanding human beings. I truly look forward to getting to know you and taking one or two of you under my wing.