# Mentee handbook The mentoring programme is designed to upskill potential candidates to take on maintainer and other formal roles, as well as offering support and guidance longer term. It is also designed to help improve and grow the Astropy community – both in terms of technical skills and inclusivity. This guidance is designed to help you build and maintain an effective mentoring relationship and support you through the mentoring process, and ultimately move into your desired role. ## What is mentoring? Mentoring is a professional partnership in which an experienced person (the mentor) assists another (the mentee) in developing specific skills and knowledge that will enhance the mentee’s professional and personal growth and help develop their skills. ### The mentoring relationship The purpose of the mentoring relationship is to: - Offer the mentee support and guidance, and help them to feel part of the Astropy community - Upskill the mentee in the mentor’s maintainer role - Identify skill / knowledge / behavioural gaps - Establish goals and action plans to meet these gaps - Assess progress and evaluate whether mentees are ready to progress to maintainer ### What is my role? Your role as a mentee is to manage the relationship with your mentor – as this is about your development, you need to own it. Identify your strengths and development areas specific to the role you would like to take on, and share this with your mentor to help them guide you in the most effective way. You will need to be clear about what you want from your mentoring and be open and candid about the support you need. Effective mentees: - Are willing to discuss failures and successes - Have a desire to learn & develop - identify and share their development goals - Give and receive honest feedback - Are accountable and reliable - Are respectful of the mentor’s time - Communicate regularly - Take advantage of opportunities Key points to remember: - Think about - what do you want to develop & focus on? Select and bring ideas for discussion to your meetings. - Ensure you keep appointments – ensure there is mutual respect for each other’s time. - It’s a two-way relationship. The mentor is here to guide you but will also be open to new ideas or ways of thinking – you may have an idea they’ve not considered before. Offer challenge and feedback to your mentor as well as receiving it. ### What should I expect from my mentor? Effective mentors: - Help the mentee think through their options and provide advice and guidance - Encourage and motivate - Role model behaviours - Nurture – be open and candid, enabling the mentee to confide in and trust them - Maximise learning opportunities - Create an environment of mutual respect - Listen, challenge and provide feedback - Communicate regularly ## The mentoring process ![Process Flowchart](./mentoring_process_flowchart.png) Successful applicants to the mentoring program will be paired with a suitable mentor (when possible) by the mentoring coordinator. Current members of the Astropy team may also identify potential mentees they would like to train in their role and encourage them to apply. Mentees will apply for the program by opening an issue on the astropy-mentoring repo, and the chosen mentor will be assigned to that issue. Once paired, the mentor and mentee will both be sent guidance and recommendations - including this documentation - by the mentoring coordinator. The mentor will then be responsible for holding regular meetings with the mentee, and for guiding and supporting them appropriately throughout the mentoring process. This is all described in more detail on the [main page](index.md). During meetings the mentee should be honest with the mentor about what they want to achieve from the program and where their current skills or behaviours fall short of that aim. For instance, the mentee might wish to become a sub-package maintainer but lack experience with that particular sub-package (skill/knowledge gap), or have a poor record of reviewing PRs (behavioural gap). Once identified, the mentor and mentee should agree an action plan to address these gaps. In each meeting the mentee's progress should be assessed, any new aims and gaps should be discussed and a new action plan should be agreed if necessary. Both the mentor and mentee will be prompted to check in with the mentoring coordinator monthly, to ensure that there are no issues requiring their attention. Additionally, every three months the mentor will be asked to decide whether the mentee has progressed enough to graduate to their chosen role or if they should continue with the mentoring program. These check-ins will use the mentee's application issue. If the mentee is ready to graduate, the mentor should nominate them for the role following the usual process. ### The first meeting *Conversation guide* To build a strong foundation for a mentoring relationship, it is critical to build trust and clearly establish expectations at the beginning. Your mentor will use the following questions to guide your first mentoring conversation, which will help you get to know one another and establish mutual expectations and goals. Think about the answers to these questions before meeting your mentor. Consider where you are now, and where you are trying to get to -- the specific skills, knowledge and behaviours you will need to take on your aspired role. Your mentor will help you identify these. **Background** - What is your background? - What are your greatest strengths and development areas? - What are your short-term goals? Long-term goals? **Expectations** - What topics would you like to cover to help you feel confident in this role? - What specific skills or knowledge would you like to cover in our meetings? - How do you prefer to communicate between meetings? - What role do you expect your mentor to play? - Are there any ground rules you would like to set? ## Further support If you need any more detail on any of the information in this handbook, come across a situation that isn't covered and need assistance or have questions relating to the running of the program itself, you should contact the mentoring coordinator. The current mentoring coordinator is Aperio Software Ltd., which is also administering the program. Stuart, Tom and Drew at Aperio can be reached through the [Astropy Slack](https://astropy.slack.com/), or you can send an email to [mentoring@aperiosoftware.com](mailto:mentoring@aperiosoftware.com).