Why You Should Consider Becoming a Plato Mentor

Ashley Whitlatch
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read
Plato Mentors speaking at the 2018 ELEVATE Summit. From left to right: Brian Zotter, Head of Product Engineering at Medium, Madhura Dudghaonkar, Head of ML Engineering at Workday, and Seth Sakamoto, VP of Engineering at Envoy.

Plato is building a community of great Engineering and Product leaders.

Our mission is to connect respected leaders with the broader engineering community and help them make the right decisions in their lives as managers, by sharing personal experiences with one another.

So you’re curious…What does it mean to become a mentor at Plato?

Here are a few things to consider:

  • You’ll join a community of talented mentors with high profiles in engineering and product management: C-Suite, VP and Directors of Engineering and Product, and even Founders. They come from Zendesk, Airbnb, Facebook, Venmo, Box, Lyft, Coinbase, Betterment, Segment — among many others.
  • The community is made up of 250+ mentors worldwide today, and we’re growing rapidly.
  • You’ll also learn from others’ experiences in top tech companies of all sizes, and have opportunities to network with respected peers. 👇

“For me, being a mentor is a great way to form connections, self reflect and build a strong support system and network around me. With Plato, I have achieved just that and I am learning new things everyday.”

  • You’ll have the opportunity to grow your personal and company brand in a competitive job market — enabling you to attract the right type of tech talent.
  • You’ll be part of giving back to the greater engineering and product community. Have you ever had the feeling you wouldn’t be where you are today without that person who supported you or gave you valuable advice? That’s what we’re trying to provide for the leaders building the products of tomorrow.

How much time commitment is there? And how does it work?

  • You’ll dedicate a 30-min weekly slot that integrates into your normal routine.
  • We take care of the rest — matching and scheduling your calls. Your time is valuable, so there’s no time wasted on scheduling or finding relevant matches — just concentrate on having meaningful discussions.
  • An important component of the matching here at Plato is based on short stories shared by Mentors on situations, challenges, and wins they have experienced in the past — great content to spark a conversation.
  • We also look at additional criteria when matching (seniority, type of expertise, size of company, etc.) to ensure you’re going to have a great conversation.
  • As a Plato Mentor you’ll also get personalized feedback on your calls — every Mentor has a personalized dashboard so you can track your reliability and impact on the people you mentor.

“I really enjoy helping people…and I’ve also found that some of the best learnings come from hearing other people’s experiences, and I love hearing stories about the ways other people are approaching problems…Definitely recommend Plato to anyone who wants to learn about engineering management…It’s really a community of experts.”


Ready to chat with one of our team members? Book a 15 minute call

Don’t need any more convincing + ready to dive in as a Plato Mentor? Apply Today!

Inside Plato

Plato helps engineering leaders develop soft skills + build better teams through a powerful network of Mentors from the world's best companies.

Ashley Whitlatch

Written by

Exec Marketing Consultant #womanintech Currently: @solgaard_co + @language_drops, Google Play's 2018 AOTY. Frequent Flier, Lifestyle + Product Photographer

Inside Plato

Plato helps engineering leaders develop soft skills + build better teams through a powerful network of Mentors from the world's best companies.

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