Hi, everybody. My name is Vanessa Little. I am the Global CTO at Inter Dynamic Systems up here in Canada. And today I'd like to talk to you about a topic that's very near and dear to my heart. Being a mentor, specifically being a mentor to women in technology.I'd like to get started with one of my favorite quotes. Oops, there is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women. And this one comes to us from Madeleine Albright. Um Madeleine actually got held for this quote at the time she gave it and ended up issuing a public apology, but she's not wrong. And I for one really aligned with this sentiment. Um This is not really a radical or new concept throughout the da since the dawn of time, women have been helping other women to be successful and have been more successful when supported and surrounded by other women all the way from early cave women with co childcare to modern executives, fostering new and young minds as mentors.

So what even is a mentor as I define it? It's anyone with a specific skill, talent position or status that is aiding another in building that competency. That's it. It's pretty wide open. It could be a lot of things under the lens of women in technology. It can be someone that shows you a better library to write more effective or efficient code. It can be a seasoned executive that gives you strategies on how to get into the C suite over a cup of coffee one day. It can be anyone, anyone at all who is better at something than you are and would like and, and you would like to be good at that they can teach you. So why, why are mentors even necessary? This may be obvious to some but and there are many, many reasons why mentors are necessary. But these are the top three that really hit home for me. Firstly, the sentiment that if I work really, really hard and the quality of my work is excellent, I will be recognized and I will be promoted. This is not actually true. And I think most of us have probably lived through this at some point in our careers. I know personally, I spent a lot of time early in my career waiting for the kudos to come and wondering why they never did. Even though the quality of my work was better than those peers that were getting promoted.

I could have really benefited from a mentor at that time, that could have explained this concept to me and given me better strategies to move forward. Secondly, we've all heard of the boys club, this concept where the guy who plays golf with an executive or has a hockey buddy seems to get promoted sooner than other people with similar skills. The concept of leveraging one's network for personal gain is real and thriving and always has been so why as women would we not do the same and use it to our advantage? And finally, there are just not enough examples of successful women and leaders in technology for younger women to model and emulate. While the stats are better than they were, they're still not 5050 yet. And until they are, we need to do everything we can to help move this forward. Being a mentor can mean a lot of different things. The mentor relationship doesn't have to be rigid or very specifically defined. Let it be whatever it is, you need it to be, it doesn't need, need to be a burden, either we're all very busy and we can take it much or little time as we need out of our day or a week to spend time being a mentor or to be mentored as a mentee.

You can do things like meet for coffee once a month with a very specific agenda on topics you want to discuss. Or you can simply be available via text or email for ad hoc questions and advice. You can have me regular meetups and work on a specific project like co-author a white paper together, you can even send a recommendation for a good insurance company that's gonna save her a few points. My point is any of these things that you do, the combination of all of them together will give her a leg up and move forward and be successful that she, that she really needs. So which of us should be a mentor? The answer is simple. Anyone can be a mentor, any one of us, whether you're ac level exec or a recent university grad or even someone who's still in high school, there are still women and girls that are younger, that are less experienced than you that can benefit from your experience and your expertise and they are in need of your support.

Each and every one of us should be a mentor and a mentee. At some point in our careers, we can all benefit from that, that type of relationship. Uh The benefits for the mentee are pretty obvious. But as a mentor, you get to use your experience to pay it forward and really shape that next generation of female technologists, give them the opportunities that you didn't have, that you wish you did have. But another thing that it also offers you is it gives you valuable insight into the current state of affairs as we progress upwards in our career, we may lose touch into what's happening uh with the younger generation. And as such, being able to have a, a regular rapport with a, with a mentee. It gives us the opportunity to get some insight we otherwise wouldn't have had. It's also important to remember that mentorship is not a marriage. This is not a lifelong commitment. You don't need to stay in close contact with this person for the rest of your lives. But I really hope you would. Um at some point, you may outgrow your mentor. You may have imparted everything that you've, you're able to impart to your mentee. And that's ok. At this 0.1 of the best things you can do as a mentor is help her find a new mentor that has a skill that you don't have, that can teach her something that you don't have experience in so that she can continue to grow and you as a mentor, can find a new mentee that you can foster and continue to pay it forward.

So now in closing, I'd like to hit everyone with the following call to action, find a mentor, find a mentee right now today, don't wait any longer if you haven't already done this in your career. Uh Regardless of what stage you're at in your career, whether you're already an executive or you're just getting started, you can benefit from being both a mentor and a mentee. There are so many different ways that you can find someone to build this relationship with. You can join a mentorship program in your local community that will match you up with someone with similar interests. You can reach out to a female leader at work. You, you should also do your homework on linkedin. Find someone who has the job you've always wanted, find someone who has the career you wish you could have and reach out to her. You may be positively surprised by how she responds, attend conferences like this one and networking events and take advantage of them. Actually spend time speaking with people exchanging contact info, changing ideas, making friends. You never know how that's gonna be you further along in your career. Some of the best um legs up I've had in my career have come from people that I met at a conference just casually by sitting beside them during a lecture and starting to chat.

Years and years later, this person is an executive me a favor when I need one, you never really know how that's gonna pan out. So take advantage of these conferences and don't just passively attend them, spend the time to network, spend the time to meet people. It will be worth it in the long run. And finally, this one's for the mentors, don't just wait to be approached. It's very difficult for a young lady to approach someone that she admires and ask them for a favor as a mentor. If you meet a younger person that shows a lot of promise that really has that bright spark that you really think you can foster, make the offer be like, make the first move and let her know that you are available to be her mentor if she wants to be. So, finally, I'd like to thank you all for joining me today and we have a few minutes left. So I'd like to look at the, the Q and A to see if anybody has any questions. Nope. Um Yeah, and as I mentioned, um as I mentioned in chat here is my linkedin. Please feel free to join my linkedin. Send me an email, uh reach out on Twitter, whatever it is you'd like to talk about is fair game. Um We don't just have to talk about this session and I'd like to encourage you all to network with each other network with me.

Uh meet as many of these bright ladies that are attending this conference as you possibly can because it will benefit you later on in your career. All right. Thanks everyone and enjoy the rest of the conference. Oh, we do have a question that popped up in the Q and A. So I'll just address it while we still have time. Uh The question is you mentioned in passing a monthly meeting to discuss issues or interests. How do you make sure you keep this inclusive? For example, allies who want to help? Yeah, this is something that's important to point out. It doesn't necessarily have to be a woman to woman, mentor, mentee relationship. A mentor could be anybody and a mentor could be anyone as well. But um I framed it this way because of the, the nature of this conference. But your mentor could be anyone uh choose anyone from, like embrace diversity and find someone who aligns with your goals, aligns with the, the skills you want aligns with the expertise you'd like, doesn't matter if it's a woman, it doesn't matter where they come from. It doesn't matter how old or young they are. If you see something in them that you would like then approach them and, and you know, have them be, be your mentor.

Um There are a number of groups and uh if you reach out, I can probably help you find one in your local area where they'll have like a monthly networking group where they will invite anyone to come in and just, uh sometimes they'll have a speaker or sometimes they'll encourage people just to find mentors and mentees or they'll have a service where you fill out a little questionnaire about what you're looking for and what you have to offer and they'll actually match you up.

Um So I highly encourage anyone to embrace any of these things. And, and again, if you need help finding anyone, let me know. And um and I'm sure that there are a number of things at this conference that will lead you down the right path to, to finding a local group as well. Thanks. Uh If there are any other questions, I'm gonna be here until uh 20 after. So, feel free to ask them and I will answer them as best I can. Hey, folks. Excellent question popped up in the Q and A. How do I find young black women or LGBT Qi A plus to mentor? I just attended a talk before this, that talked about how black women receive even less support than mentorship in tech uh compared to um other female technologists. So how do you, how do you find them to mentor uh similar to the, to the, the way I mentioned previously for how to find finding a mentor and finding a mentee is pretty similar. Um Let me just flip back to that section of the slide. You can find them at work, you can join a mentorship program, you can find people on linkedin and just reach out out of the blue.

Um You can, you can leverage these types of networking events and this one is particularly um effective in that not all events are going to be as effective in finding a mentor and mentee. But this one in particular, I would really take advantage of if you're looking for someone, a mentor um mention in in the Global Chat that you're looking, you're looking to mentor someone and that you're, you're actively accepting new mentees. Uh I think anyone who's interested in that and, and you know, make it, make it known the type of mentees you're looking for and what you have to offer them. Um, and just, you know, put it out there. I think that would be a really good start. Yeah, I think you really do make a great point that, um, some of the specific female minority groups are really underserved in this area. Um, there are, there, I'm starting to see groups that are specific, um, to specific minorities popping up so that they're offered support and that they can join with like-minded people. And that's really great. I know the company that I work for um Converge, which is the parent company of ID X has a number of internal groups that, that, you know, specifically do this and help those, those communities connect with each other and support each other.

One thing that might be valuable for you to do is, you know, be the person that starts that group, but within your company, within your community, it doesn't necessarily have to be with your corporate organization. It could just be within your local community, you know, uh approach city council about getting some, some space out of the at a conference room. Once a month. You'd probably be surprised at how responsive and supportive people are and how quickly you're able to coordinate and launch a group like that. All right, we only have one minute left. I would like to thank all of you for your kind and wonderful comments and uh from the great questions, I had a great time speaking with you and I hope to speak to each and every one of you at some point later on. All right, everyone enjoy the rest of the conference and have an awesome day.