{"id":5240,"date":"2022-12-01T13:33:44","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T21:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/?p=5240"},"modified":"2022-12-20T00:17:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T08:17:25","slug":"mentoring-2023-want-some-help-from-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/mentoring-2023-want-some-help-from-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Mentoring 2023 \u2013 want some help from me?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[Edit 12\/16\/2022:the deadline for submissions is now closed.]<\/p>\n<p>In 2015 I mentored 54 people for six months.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020 I mentored 37 people on-and-off for over a year.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023 I&#8217;ll be mentoring ?&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Why do I do it? I get nothing from this; I just like doing it.<\/p>\n<p>I find it hugely rewarding to help people in a wide variety of non-technical subjects, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>General career development<\/li>\n<li>Deciding whether or not to change jobs<\/li>\n<li>Becoming a consultant<\/li>\n<li>R\u00e9sum\u00e9 review and enhancement<\/li>\n<li>How to hire people<\/li>\n<li>Increasing influence<\/li>\n<li>Learning how to work with their manager<\/li>\n<li>Communication skills (e.g. writing emails, writing documents, writing clearly)<\/li>\n<li>Community exposure<\/li>\n<li>Value of certifications<\/li>\n<li>Managing a team<\/li>\n<li>Persuasion skills<\/li>\n<li>Questioning skills<\/li>\n<li>Dealing with stress and frustration<\/li>\n<li>Work\/life balance<\/li>\n<li>Blogging<\/li>\n<li>Presentation skills and public speaking<\/li>\n<li>Time management<\/li>\n<li>Evaluating SQL Server skill set<\/li>\n<li>Goal setting<\/li>\n<li>Dealing with people<\/li>\n<li>Mentoring people<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If I remember correctly, in the last round I think I helped 7 or so people decide to change jobs for a better work environment suited to their goals, and several people to start public speaking (some of whom spoke at PASS a few weeks ago!). It was hugely satisfying to help so many people with their careers and lives, in a non-technical capacity.<\/p>\n<p>Now it\u2019s time to do it again, so this blog post serves as a call for prospective mentees!<\/p>\n<p>Please read the rest of this post carefully, so you\u2019re clear how this works. We\u2019re making a time commitment to each other so I want to be up-front about a few things.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some rules for how I do this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Everything is done over email, no exceptions. I like asynchronous. And sometimes I might not be able to reply for a week or two.<\/li>\n<li>I only speak English, but I\u2019m more than happy to work with anyone as long as I can understand what English you have.<\/li>\n<li>Mentoring will begin January 1, 2023 and end sometime in June, 2023.<\/li>\n<li>This isn\u2019t SQL Server consulting or mentoring, it\u2019s about you. I will not answer technical questions about SQL Server, no exceptions. But things like what to learn, how to learn, and so on are fair game.<\/li>\n<li>What you get out of this depends on what you put in \u2013 I won\u2019t chase you up to reply to anything I send.<\/li>\n<li>My mentoring style is very blunt and honest and I do not sugar-coat things. I don\u2019t mean I\u2019m rude, I\u2019m just clear and direct with my feedback and advice. If that\u2019s going to offend or upset you, don\u2019t enter.<\/li>\n<li>There are some topics I will refuse to discuss, including politics and religion. Full list disclosed to those who qualify.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here\u2019s how to put yourself on the list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Important: you cannot have been part of the Class of 2015 or the Class of 2020-1.<\/li>\n<li>Write a blog post explaining why you would like to be mentored, and then post a link to your post as a comment on this post (it won\u2019t appear right away as comments are moderated due to the amount of spam comments). <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">No blog post, no entry in the list, no exceptions.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li>Really, no exceptions means no exceptions. Same as in the past when I&#8217;ve been asked.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t make the post about me, make it about you. I already know about me :-) Think career, not technical problems.<\/li>\n<li>You\u2019ve got until Thursday 15th December at 23:59:59 PST \u2013 entries after that will not be considered.<\/li>\n<li>Comments are moderated \u2013 you won\u2019t see your comment until I approve it (which after 7-ish PST won\u2019t be until the next morning) so no need to post multiple comments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If this gets you to start a new blog or reactivate an old blog, so much the better!<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know how many people I\u2019ll decide to mentor this time around, and will likely just number everyone who wrote a good blog post and use a random function to pick X names. X will be between 10 and 50. What does \u2018good blog post\u2019 mean? You put some obvious thought and effort into it, but it\u2019s at my sole discretion. I don\u2019t care who you are, how old you are, where you are, who you work for, what gender you identify as, or how good your English is; you have as equal a chance of being picked as anyone else who wrote a good post.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t like the rules or how to enter? No problem \u2013 but they\u2019re not up for discussion, so just don\u2019t enter :-)<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll pick the Class of 2023 and announce them in a blog post some time before Wednesday, 21st December, so you\u2019ll need to watch for that post, which will ask you to email me.\u00a0 Note: if you are picked, your name and a link to your post will be published in that post. If you want to be anonymous online, write under a pseudonym and email me so I know who you are, and I\u2019ll use the pseudonym in the blog post.<\/p>\n<p>Have fun \u2013 I look forward to helping a bunch of you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Edit 12\/16\/2022:the deadline for submissions is now closed.] In 2015 I mentored 54 people for six months. In 2020 I mentored 37 people on-and-off for over a year. In 2023 I&#8217;ll be mentoring ?&#8230; Why do I do it? I get nothing from this; I just like doing it. I find it hugely rewarding to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mentoring 2023 \u2013 want some help from me? - Paul S. Randal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/paul\/mentoring-2023-want-some-help-from-me\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mentoring 2023 \u2013 want some help from me? - Paul S. 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