Gabriela Borutová has spent over a decade in tech, but what drives her as a Femme Palette mentor has little to do with technical skills. In this spotlight, she shares why she said yes to mentoring, how our upbringing as women shapes the way we see ourselves across every generation, and why professional growth is so often less about learning something new and more about finally being heard. Plus her advice for mentors who want to go beyond giving advice and start creating real, lasting change.
We asked Femme Palette mentor Danial Hassan for his recommendations and here are some of the top books he suggests mentors (and anyone looking to improve these skills) check out.
When mentee Glorybeth Castillo got laid off from her job, it was a major blow to her self-esteem. However, she decided to turn things around and signed up to the Femme Palette Mentoring program where she was matched with mentor Lucie Chmelikova. And within a few sessions, things started looking up.
Mentoring is a great way to give back by sharing what you’ve learned throughout your career and helping guide a mentee toward their goals. Maybe you’ve thought about being a mentor but aren’t sure where to begin. The good news is that you don’t need any formal mentoring experience to start, but there are several ways you can build up your mentoring experience and strengthen the skills you’ll need to be a great mentor. Here are a few ideas to help kick of your mentoring journey.
Mentoring is one of the popular development tools out there, yet not everyone is ready to take on this adventure. Some think that they are too old (or too young), some think they are not stuck in their career enough to start a mentoring relationship, others believe that relationship is too one-sided. All of the above are common myths in mentoring and are very untrue. I have talked with three Femme Palette mentors to define these myths and see the accurate picture.
Mentoring can be a transformative experience for everyone involved. But what makes a good mentor? While sharing your personal experience and guiding your mentee toward their goals is an essential part of being a mentor, it isn’t the be-all and end-all. Here are a few other key competencies to consider when deciding if becoming a mentor is right for you.
Even though our mentors are experts in their field, mentoring is a continuous learning journey for everyone involved. That’s why we recently invited our Chief Mentor,
Cristina Muntean, to answer some of the burning questions in our Mentor Community. An expert on mentoring, coaching, and strategic communications, here’s what she had to say about some of the hot topics on our mentors’ minds.
February is Black History Month. It’s a time of celebrating Black achievement throughout history and today, but also serves as a reminder to fight the systemic racism and inequality that Black people around the world still face today. To honor this observance, we reached out to Alexis Curtis-Harris and Aicha Diarra - both Femme Palette mentors and inspirational women - to ask them about their career, their motivation to become mentors, advice they wished they had received at the start of their career, as well as their favorite Black role model.
At Femme Palette, we care about the experience of our mentees, and therefore the quality of our mentors. That’s why we have recently made changes to our mentor recruitment to make the process more selective. This blog post will guide you through the steps and show you what to expect. Here is the ultimate guide to becoming a Femme Palette mentor!
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