5 Lessons Learned: My Tech Women @ Intuit Mentor-Mentee Journey
“Mentorship is a critical part of building your personal board of directors, a group of trusted people that can help you on your path of self-discovery.”
— Alex Balazs — Chief Architect, Intuit
I know this to be true from my firsthand experiences.
Back in graduate school, I joined the Women in Computer Science (WiCS) at NCSU group, which was a pivotal time for building my confidence, my awareness of the huge women in tech movement in the U.S., and a real-world understanding of the importance of supporting one another throughout our career journeys.
Ever since, I’ve made it a priority to serve as both a mentor and mentee as a means for fostering my own growth while encouraging the growth of others. Over time, this has enabled me to create an awesome network of people who I can count on as my own personal board of directors.
That’s why I immediately joined the Tech Women @Intuit (TWI) group in 2016, upon moving to the San Francisco Bay Area and becoming a Software Engineer 2 with Intuit’s QuickBooks Accounting Automation team. It was exciting to have landed this job after meeting Intuit at Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) that year (WICS sponsored my ticket : )
I also had the opportunity to meet GHC founder, Telle Whitney (center in this pic). Through TWI, I volunteered with Girls Who Code. I also participated in Google Code-in and Google Summer of Code through AnitaB.org. I had the honor of mentoring two early-career women in tech in India and the U.S., and passing on what I was learning from working in a corporate environment for the very first time. It was especially gratifying when one of my mentees landed a job at Microsoft. We stay in touch and share advice to this day.
So, it was a natural progression to sign up for the TWI Mentorship program when it launched globally in 2020. What began as a pilot in 2018, with 14 mentor/mentee pairs, has grown into a thriving community in 2022, with 237 mentor/mentee pairs, and 386 individual participants across our tech organization, worldwide.
As we celebrate International Women in Engineering Day, I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned along the way. It’s been extremely satisfying, having brought meaning and richness to my journey. And, it’s something I’m delighted to share with you in this blog!
5 Lessons Learned: Getting the Most Out of Your Mentorship
#1 Find the right match (by being the right match!)
Tech Women @ Intuit makes this easy.
Participants are matched using an algorithm that incorporates attributes used during the pilot program’s manual matching process. In the enrollment form, applicants have an opportunity to describe the technical and leadership qualities they’re most interested in developing, and to share their career aspirations. They’re also prompted to weigh in the technical craft skill rubrics and company values they’d like to focus on most. The form also takes practical matters into account, such as time zone preferences.
Somehow I’ve found my perfect matches through the program, and find it hard to imagine how I would have found my mentor and mentee connections any other way.
For me, the “right match” is when the mentor shows up with the skills and interest in helping me to achieve the goals I signed up for in the intake form. In my first experience with a TWI Mentor, my goal was to understand more about the business side of Intuit since I was doing a Harvard course on “Disruptive Strategy.” My match helped me gain perspective. I also shared my goal to assume more responsibility at the next level, so it was perfect when this mentor shared how they worked on their promo portfolio.
The same happened with my second mentor, who was a Principal Engineer, and dedicated the time to review my portfolio in detail. This gave me the confidence to know that I was indeed ready for the next step in my career, given that they had familiarity with my projects from regular meetups every two to three weeks.
My biggest aha is that (like any relationship!) is to be mindful that it’s not just about seeking the right match, but BEING the right match. This has meant stretching into new areas of development, and learning as much from my mentees as I hope they’ve learned from me.
#2 Create a safe space
Creating a safe space is all about being open and building trust. You each need to know that whatever is being discussed in mentor-mentee meetings will never leave the room. This means you’re free to openly discuss and work through difficult issues, and to strategize on ways to navigate them.
I share examples of my own career trajectory to instill confidence with mentees in my ability to relate to their experiences, and to guide them accordingly. With my mentors, I have explained my needs on Day 1, and if they show signs of real interest in helping me, I call it a successful relationship!
#3 Make the most of your time together
A critical success factor for your new relationship, whether as a mentor or mentee, is to set clear goals and expectations. That means coming prepared and using the time strategically. This is particularly important if you’ve been matched with a super-busy tech exec.
As a mentor, I try to understand my mentee’s goals from the very start. What is the #1 priority I can help them with? What roadblocks are they trying to break through? What aspirations do they have? My years of experience with mentorship have prepared me to keep our conversation focused on specific goals and outcomes, and to establish an action plan, with accountability for us both.
#4 Step out of your comfort zone
It’s important to extend beyond your areas of subject matter expertise, your functional organization, or your business unit to gain a broader perspective from a diverse network.
At the outset of a career as a software engineer, we have multiple paths to choose from. All equally rewarding. We can become incredible coders. Building from that foundation, we can become outstanding contributors to our company’s mission and strategy, learning from leaders about navigating the business, and sharing our knowledge with others along the way. Whatever path you choose, being a mentor or mentee can be a catalyst for growth.
For me, it was important to focus on different areas for building my knowledge in every mentoring experience, which has directly led to new skills that I apply every day in participating in and contributing to our strategy as technical lead for QuickBooks Mobile.
#5 Foster connections for the long term
Build a foundation that will stand the test of time, beyond the mentorship program structure. You might have found the next member of your personal board of directors — or an opportunity to join someone else’s!
For me, it’s been rewarding to stay in touch with both of my mentors, one of whom I’ve been meeting with for more than a year and another who has since moved from Intuit to another tech company. My mentee (who got the job in Microsoft) recently reached out for advice for navigating a desired promotion. Basically, the channel is open as long as there’s mutual benefit, whether for moral support or achieving a career goal.
What’s Next for Tech Women @ Intuit?
Over the past couple of years, the Tech Women @ Intuit mentoring program has played a pivotal role in my career growth here at Intuit. In 2019, I was promoted from Software Engineer 2 to Senior Software Engineer. Subsequently, Intuit fully supported my mobility move within the QuickBooks Account Automation team, from a web/back-end engineering role to an iOS mobile engineering role, and has continued to encourage my professional growth and craft skills development.
Since then, I’m proud to have been promoted to Staff Software Engineer!
It’s been gratifying to participate in the growth and expansion of the TWI Mentorship program. Since 2018, it has essentially impacted 1,300+ technologists in multiple, 6-month cohorts worldwide.
I’m proud to work for a company that “walks the walk” in support of women in tech at Intuit.
Our diversity and inclusion approach starts at the top. We set goals, measure them, and hold ourselves accountable. In FY 2021, we met our goal for the representation of women in technology, at 30 percent of the technology organization. And, we’ve set a goal to increase the representation of women in technology roles at Intuit to 37 percent globally by FY 2024.
However, since 71% of leaders are likely to pick proteges of the same race and gender, people of color are often disproportionately affected by a lack of sponsorship and mentorship within their organization. That’s why TWI leadership expanded the program in 2021 to encompass members of underrepresented groups as well. This year, Intuit introduced a rolling model which has enabled employees to be able to join the program more easily throughout the year.
Special thanks to TWI leaders, Tracy Stone, and Kimbra Brookstein, for conceiving such a wonderful mentorship program, and to all my mentors and mentees who’ve made such a meaningful difference in my career.
Intuit has been an annual partner of AnitaB.org and sponsor of the Grace Hopper Celebration over many years. So, we’re excited to be back in person at the largest celebration of women in computing in the world (September 20–23, 2022). To learn more about our awesome culture and open tech roles, please join us!
Like me, it’s just possible that attending the conference could be your first step toward an incredible career in tech here at Intuit!
