Last year I reached a career crossroads. I was planning to start a family but also wasn’t happy in the role I was in and couldn’t decide whether to leave the company or search for a role internally.
It felt indulgent to add ‘my mentor’ to the people in my ‘decision making unit’ but I desperately needed guidance from someone who had seen and been in my situation before.
In the not so distant past having a mentor was something reserved for the business elite, and the idea of having a mentor in everyday corporate life seemed as indulgent as having a chauffeur driven limo take you to work or a live in chef. But this ‘indulgence’ has rapidly gained popularity in corporate Australia and nowhere more so than the industry at the leading edge of innovation, the world of Information technology.
For those not familiar with the technology sector, it has a lot going for it. What it doesn’t have, however, is the best record when it comes to gender diversity.
According to Australian Computer Society 2013 research, the ratio of men to women in the IT industry is 70:30 , even more alarming is the lack of women in leadership positions.
There has been a lot written and said about why there are too few female leaders in the corporate world altogether and it’s far too big a topic to solve here, but what I am eager to ponder is the benefits of mentoring on creating a gender diverse workforce in the tech space.
Research taken from Female in Information Technology and Telecommunicaiton’s (FITT) 2013 Corporate Diversity report highlights a couple of interesting things about the sentiment of women working in technology sector. Firstly although 90% of those asked if they were planning to stay in the IT industry within the next five years said ‘yes’, 60% of the respondents also called said it’s tough for women to work in ICT as it’s ‘too male dominated’, and 56% said that there is a lack of female role models/mentors. A lack of opportunities to progress and inflexible work hours also contributed to the perception of the ICT sector providing a poor environment for women.
When FITT asked its members ‘what can your organisation do to enable women to senior positions’, the number one response (at 64%) was mentoring programs. Providing opportunities for more high profile projects, leadership training and flexible work options were also rated very highly as effective diversity programs, however the clear favourite was mentoring.
So what does a modern day mentoring relationship look like and how can you go about securing one?
Sheryl Sandberg made it clear in ‘Lean in’ that being approached by a stranger and asked ‘will you be my mentor’ can be extremely awkward for both parties. The best way for a mentoring relationship to form is organically by working alongside someone more senior and perhaps asking for advice when needed. What many women in technology are looking for is a mentor with benefits, i.e. a career sponsor who takes a prospective mentee under their senior ‘wing’, ensuring they get considered for opportunities and guidance on how to handle them.
FITT’s mentoring program pairs over 30 mentors and mentees each year. It also offers a ‘mentoring-lite’ program to give female tech graduates the opportunity to get inspired by the industry and also encourage a budding leader with 10 or so years’ experience the vital development opportunity to mentor someone mentor. It would be short-sighted to think the mentoring relationship benefits only the mentee. Mentors who sign up for the FITT program reported high levels of satisfaction, even describing the journey as pivotal to their own development.
One of the key callouts FITT receives from its members is that they desperately want to see female role models they can aspire to. How did these women navigate their careers? How do they stay visible during the child rearing years? How do they manage the balance in work and life that we all so desperately strive for? Sometimes having a role model can be just as powerful as formal one on one guidance.
While there are always challenges for women in a male dominated sector such as IT, having mentors available and visible female role models talking about their career journey and experiences creates an environment where women can not only succeed but thrive.