Why did you decide to become a mentor?
The best part of my job for a while now has been coaching and mentoring others. For sure, I love to get my hands dirty and help build things, solve problems, and innovate, but helping others do the same thing has really been fulfilling. A few colleagues and friends have told me a number of times that I should just focus on coaching and mentoring others - so here I am! I am taking a break from my full-time operational gig so I can help others navigate their careers and achieve their goals in the tech world.
How did you get your career start?
I have always been a creative empathetic person that loves to build things. I love tech, music, travel, languages and working with others. I got degrees in Computer Science and Spanish and although I almost became a high-school Spanish teacher because of some amazing teachers early on, I ultimately decided to pursue my passion in music and tech and landed my first software engineering roles building educational music software.
I believe in following your passions and strengths and allowing those to lead you to amazing people, companies and products. I have led awesome teams to make innovate products - I started with piano teaching software, music software, and the worlds first streaming video and digital music products to more recently leading teams at Amazon Prime Video to build great content discovery experiences.
What do mentees usually come to you for?
I think it is key to listen, understand, and adapt my approach to where mentees are in the career and life journey. Often by listening and asking questions like - what are the top few things on your mind, what are your superpowers, and why did you seek out a mentor, I can quickly tailor an approach. I think empathy is key to these discussions and often by pattern matching our discussions to experiences I have gone through and learned from, we can quickly connect and have fruitful discussions.
What’s been your favourite mentorship success story so far?
In the past two years, I have mentored an awesome CX leader that has wanted to move into product at a top tech firm. Watching him learn, listen, take risks, and improve his confidence, has been super rewarding for the both of us. I am not sure he thought he could achieve his goal, but we both have learned things along the way and now he is a product management leader at a top tech company - I am so excited for him.
What are you getting out of being a mentor?
Now that I can spend most of my time focusing on coaching and mentoring, I am able to double-down on the relationships and the most fulfilling parts of my career. I am continuing the advice I was given a long time ago - to follow my passions and strengths and allowing those to lead me to amazing experiences and opportunities. I am excited to continue meeting new people and learning and helping others along the way.