Mentorship Program
Note: A new format for mentorship will be launching in July 2024. Stay tuned for updates or email Christy Larsen, Director or Employer Partnerships with questions (christy@primeacademy.io)
Program Overview
Our small-group mentorship program is designed to help students establish meaningful connections to other practitioners within their field. We aim to connect resourceful, talented, and supportive professionals (including Prime alumni!) with Prime students in order to share multiple experiences and perspectives in an inclusive community-based setting.
Overall, we expect both mentors and mentees to:
- Model Prime values
- Share experiences and respect diversity of perspectives
- Seek to understand & actively listen
- Comfortable, professional, and balanced communication
More about these and additional tips for a positive mentorship program experience will be shared during the kick-off meeting.
"I've been a mentor for all cohorts since summer 2020 and I absolutely love getting to work with these students. Their passion, curiosity and talent is very motivating and helps me stay on top of my practice as a product designer."
-Hanorah V., Postlight
Timing & Expectations
A list of recommended meeting topics as well as strategies for staying connected will be shared following the kick-off meeting.
Full-Stack Engineering
Prime has two enrollment options for full-stack engineering students, which affects the duration (but not the overall time commitment) for mentorship.
- Full-time: Mentor groups virtually meet every other week (7 total) for the final 14 weeks of their program. Meetings are scheduled by Prime staff and take place over the lunch hour.
- Part-time: Mentor groups virtually meet once a month (7 total) for the final 24 weeks of their program. Meetings are scheduled by Prime staff and take place over the lunch hour.
Our Full-Stack program mentors are also asked to do one extra engagement outside of mentor meetings. Mentors are asked to participate in one (or more!) remote mock interview. These will be facilitated by the Prime staff and will take about 30 minutes of your time. Please watch your email for details.
User Experience
Our User Experience program mentors are asked to do four extra engagements outside of bi-weekly meetings. These will be facilitated by the Program Director and will take about 2-3 hours of your time.
- Mentor groups virtually meet every other week for 12 weeks (6 total). Meetings are scheduled by Prime staff and take place over the lunch hour.
Upcoming Engineering Cohorts
Glacier (May - August, Full-time)
- Kickoff Meeting (60 Minute Zoom): 5/9, 5:30 CST
Olympic (June - September, Full-time)
- Kickoff Meeting (60 Minute Zoom): 6/13, 5:30 CST
Pinnacles (July - October, Full-time)
- Kickoff Meeting (60 Minute Zoom): 7/18, 5:30 CST
Upcoming UX Cohorts
Kimball (June - August)
- Kickoff Meeting (60 Minute Zoom): 6/5, 5:30 CST
Meeting Focus areas
The following topics are recommended for each meeting.
- Introduce yourself! Name, background, location, company name, your title, etc.
- Discuss your journey into software development or user experience design.
- Exchange contact information.
- Tell us about a typical day for a developer/designer at your company.
- Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
- What has been your favorite part of being a Software Engineer/UX Designer?
- What has been the most challenging part of being an Engineer/UXer?
- Where do you find the most meaning in your work?
- What are your professional strengths and areas of improvement? Have they changed over time?
- What does professional development look like at your company?
- When did you land your first job after graduating (if Prime or bootcamp Alum)?
- What would you say was the biggest challenge and lesson learned from your first job?
- If you could go back in time to give yourself advice during the first three months of your first job, what would you tell yourself?
- What things do you look for in a company when you look/have looked for a job?
- What did onboarding look like for your current role?
- Give an example of when you had to work with someone who was difficult to get along with. How did you handle interactions with that person?
- Describe the best partner or supervisor with whom you’ve worked. What part of their managing style appealed to you?
- How do you help unfamiliar users navigate a complex system and stakeholders to understand an outsider’s position?
- How do you make the impersonal personal by articulating the interests of a group and helping decision-makers to see them as people rather than numbers?
- What can you tell us about your workplace culture?
- What incentives/perks does your workplace provide that you find valuable?
- What do people on your team do for lunch every day?
- Tell us about the social climate, workload, and work-life balance at your company.
- What would you say your company values?
- What general advice do you have on job searching?
- What does networking look like to you? What do you do? What does it mean to you?
- What was the best piece of advice you've received on job searching/networking?
- What networking opportunities have you found particularly useful?
- What has been your best strategy or approach for striking up a conversation with people at networking events/meet-ups/virtually?
- When looking for a job, what is your strategy for staying organized, focused, and motivated?
- Have any of you worked with a recruiter? If so, what have been your experiences? What are recruiters looking for?
- What did the interview process look like for your current job?
- What did you do to prepare for your interview, and what do you recommend?
- Did you have a technical component to your interview? Can you tell us more about what that was like?
- What interview questions do you recommend asking during an interview?
- What was the most challenging part of interviewing for you? What was challenging about it?
- Who typically interviews candidates for jobs?
Sign-up & Next steps
Interested? Simply sign up to let us know a little more about yourself, including which program and which cohort(s) you are interested in mentoring! We'll send a calendar invite for the kick-off meeting and more details closer to the date!