IxDA Sydney Mentoring Program
Good mentoring relationships can be a rewarding and mutually beneficial experience for both the mentor and mentee. Being a mentor is an opportunity for you to enhance your own skills, develop leadership and management qualities, gain credibility in the industry and widen your network. It is also a chance to help a willing learner move forward in their careers.
Volunteer to help change someone’s world and your own.
IxDA Sydney is proud to have successfully run the mentoring program since 2012 to provide opportunities for interaction designers/UX designers of all levels to learn from more experienced professionals in the industry.
The applications for the 2022 mentoring program are now closed for the March to May 2022 session! Please subscribe to our mailing list to keep up-to-date for when we begin our 2023 session.
Program dates – March to May 2022
Due to the current state of COVID-19, we will be running one-on-one mentoring sessions with most meetings likely to be remote sessions (rather than face-to-face meetings). This will be at mentor and mentee discretion with what they feel most comfortable with.
The sessions will start at the beginning of March and continue to the end of May. Before applying, please make sure that you will be available during these months to fully participate in the 12 week program.
We will perform our standard matching process, where the mentoring team do the matching for you.
What if I can’t make this term of the program?
The program usually runs twice a year:
- Term 1 (March – May): One-on-one match
- One-to-one pair matching of mentors with mentees
- Applications currently open!
- Term 2 (September – Mid December): one-on-one match or group mentoring*
Please make sure that you join our IxDA Sydney mailing list so you can receive the latest updates on the program.
*Session type might change depending on availability.
Have more questions?
Our team (Sam Hancock and Vinita Israni) are here to support you! Take a look at our FAQs below and feel free to contact us at: mentoring@ixdasydney.org
IxDA Sydney Podcast
In 2022, IxDA Sydney launched a podcast as part of the Mentoring Program to support mentoring conversations from a diverse group of design thinkers and doers around Australia and Sydney. These conversations aspire to spark new perspectives, problem solving, and insight into other design teams.
These are available now, both in your usual Podcast-subscribing services as well as through the IxDA Syd website here: IxDA Sydney Podcast Season 1
FAQs
Who is the mentoring program for?
The program is open to all IxDA Sydney members, who express interest in becoming a mentor or to be mentored through the application forms, notified through the website, mailing list and social media.
What do I need to get involved?
- Your passion and enthusiasm to learn
- Your time commitment. We highly recommend that you allocate at least an hour a fortnight to catch-up with your mentor/mentee
- Be a mentor! Mentors are always high in demand. This is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to enhance their skills and develop their leadership skills by mentoring others with less experience.
How does it work?
- Before each term, the mentoring team will send out an invitation to express your interest in becoming a mentor / mentee as a survey. You must complete the survey by the due date.
- The mentoring team will read and analyse each response to find a match between a mentee and a suitable mentor for a “One on one” match, or assign them to an appropriate “Mentoring Circle Group” based on their skills, learning objectives and needs.
- The mentoring team will then contact all participants to let them know if they have been matched or not. For a “One on one” Term the number of successful matches is highly determined by the availability of mentors. We are always in need of more mentors!
- The successfully matched applicants will be contacted directly to introduce the mentors and mentee with contact details and guides on how to start.
- Once the Term starts, the mentor and mentee should schedule their first meeting. We recommend you do this within the first two weeks after you receive the email.
- The mentoring team will contact you to check in that everything went smoothly as it should and at regular intervals during the term. We are here to support you to make sure you have everything you need to get started.
Being a mentor
Your role as a mentor is to:
Being a mentor is a great way to enhance your skills by teaching other less experience than yours, learn new skills, practice your leadership skills and spread your network in the industry.
- Help your mentee identify their strengths and capitalise on them
- Help your mentee clarify their goals
- Motivate and inspire
- Broaden perspectives and ways of thinking
- Support your mentee to achieve their goals
- You don’t need a massive amount of experience to mentor someone. A student or graduate can learn a lot from someone even with 1-2 years’ industry experience.
We provide a set of guidelines to help you be a good mentor.
Being a mentee
Mentorship is a great way to accelerate your skills by receiving guidance from professionals in the industry.
As a mentee, you are expected to:
- Work with your mentor to define and achieve your goals
- Participate and commit to do your best in the program
- Respect the time and commitment that your mentor has provided
We provide a set of guidelines for mentees.
Code of Conduct
IxDA is committed to creating a safe and respectful community that is free of harassment. We expect all participants to follow the IxDA Global Code of Conduct policy.
In addition, the IXDA Sydney volunteers do all that we can to make this Mentoring Program to be a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. Hence, we expect all participants to follow the Mentoring Programme Code of Conduct as outlined on our website.
If you have any questions, please contact us at mentoring@ixdasydney.org