Philosophy of the Program

One of the best ways to learn is to be taught by a guru… and that simple thought drives this program. We carefully match experienced people in the field of technical communications with those who want to learn and hone their skills as communicators. The mentors are selected based on the scope and depth of their practical experience – who’ve more than likely been there and done that, and learned (perhaps the hard way), in that process. And what’s all that learning worth, if the knowledge gained, isn’t shared? So, we hope as mentees, you’ll learn from your mentor’s mistakes and skills.

Mentors

Mentors are people who have a combination of knowledge and business experience to bring wisdom to the learning process. Being a mentor is not as easy as merely telling your mentee what to/not to do, just differentiating the right from the wrong, or having them send you a list of questions and answering them in an exam or essay format. It involves listening, analyzing and pin-pointing your mentee’s weaknesses, and encouraging them when you see them wavering. Listen to your mentees concerns, by asking open-ended questions to help them give you the details you need to help them best. Analyze the real gaps – area that needs your attention most and areas where just pointing them in the right direction is enough. Pin-point the true problem – maybe the mentee thinks their English needs improving, but real issue may be low self-confidence. A pep talk here is more appropriate than a book on English Grammar.

You need not necessarily be a manager or senior executive, but to become a mentor, you must demonstrate at least 4 years of solid experience in a field related to Technical Communications: Technical Writing, Instructional Designing, Information Mapping, Usability and User Experience, Technical Editing, and so on.  To register as a mentor, please email me at STCindia.mentorship@gmail.com with the subject “Mentorship 2010-Mentor”. Include your updated resume and the following information (I have given sample answers to make this simple):

• Name: Sumedh Nene
• Location (City): Toronto, Canada
• Weekly availability (hours) to meet mentees: min: 5, max: 20
• Summary of my total experience (4-5 lines): 15 years international experience in TW. Started as a TW, then Senior and Lead TW, freelanced for several years, became documentation manager of a large team. Worked in start ups and established MNCs
• Current job profile: PT Faculty at Univ of Toronto (Technical Editing & Publishing) | Senior Tech Writer
• Specific areas of interest for mentoring: anything goes – can include people & project management, technical writing, designing & writing successful documents…), Tools
• Specific areas you DO NOT wish to deal with: DITA, XML, Framemaker
• Why you wish to be a mentor: I love to help, if I can | I learned many things by trial and error – perhaps I could save people some frustrating time by sharing things that worked for me and I love to learn from other’s experiences and questions
• What do you think, will make you a good mentor: Having been in TechComms for over 15 years, and after running my own training institute and teaching in colleges for several years, I understand what the specific needs of the industry are and I can help bridge the gaps by ensuring my mentee is better prepared to tackle the TechComms domain as a professional
  

Mentees

Mentees are people who are already working as technical communicators and wish to polish their expertise – either in specific areas, or just have a well-rounded skill-set. (Those who are not currently working as technical communicators are welcome to participate, but preference will be given to those who are working as communicators right now). As mentees, you not only need to be able to trust your mentor and have faith in them, but you must be willing to listen, learn and share.

To register as a mentee, please email me at STCindia.mentorship@gmail.com with the subject “Mentorship 2010-Mentee”. Include your updated resume and the following information (I have given sample answers to make this simple):

• Name: Sumedh Nene
• Location (City): Toronto, Canada
• Weekly availability (hours) to meet mentors: min: 5, max: 20
• Summary of my total experience (4-5 lines): 15 years international experience in TW. Started as a TW, then Senior and Lead TW, freelanced for several years, became documentation manager of a large team. Worked in start ups and established MNCs
• Current job profile: Technical Writer, who is getting more involved in editing. Have to deal with GDs, IDs and senior executives as SMEs
• Specific areas of interest to be mentored in: Interviewing SMEs, dealing with senior Executives, learning effective editing techniques
• Specific areas you do not wish to deal with: DITA, XML, Framemaker
• Why you wish to be a mentee: I’ve taken more and more responsibility at work with not just writing but also editing – I wish to learn good editing techniques, so I can avoid common pitfalls and be more productive at my workplace
• What do you think, will make you a good mentee: I am open to all ideas, and I live with a live-and-learn attitude