Window plant setup + product links!

I want to talk about mentorship today! There’s a lot of confusion and anxiety around mentorship likely because common advice on career panels to students and new grads is always “FIND A MENTOR”. I know I heard it when I was in school. It’s drilled into any career conversation that without A MENTOR, you’re never going to grow in your career.

A very common question I get in my inbox is, “I love your posts! How can I get more women to work at my company??”. It’s not a bad question but I’m just a developer and have never worked in recruiting or D+I so it’s not necessarily my area of expertise. That being said, with the acknowledgement that I have a large San Francisco/Bay Area bias since I’ve spent my entire career here, I have a few thoughts on how to attract and retain tech talent from underrepresented groups.

I have a confession.

I don’t think any little girl grows up with the goal of “I want to be an OSS Android browser developer” and to be totally honest, even as an adult I just kind of fell into it. I first joined Mozilla as an intern during my change-career journey mainly because I had taken one Android class, knew some Java, and applied on a whim at the right time to hit the recruiter’s inbox. Despite not actively seeking Mozilla or Android out, I immediately fell in love with the project and team and knew I had stumbled into a very special place. The problems were interesting, I had opportunities for leadership and growth from the start, and the people were kind, smart, and supportive.