An inside look at Plato's 1-1 mentorship program
Now accepting applications for the Q2 mentorship cycle, running from May to July.
In case you didn’t know, Plato has been running a 1-1 quarterly mentorship program since Fall 2024 for our private community of engineering leaders. We’re currently wrapping up the second cohort as we ramp up the third one for Q2, running from May to July!
Huge kudos to the 116 participants who carved out time in the last six months to grow together and share insights with one another. We’ve gotten some great feedback from mentees about the impact of their mentors, so we wanted to share more details with our entire subscriber community who might be interested.
Impact on mentees
“Thank you so much for allowing these sessions to happen! I think I have built a meaningful relationship with my mentor!”
– Senior Software Engineer at First American, mentored by a Fractional VP of Engineering at LaunchIt AI
"The session with _____ was incredibly insightful. I gained a wealth of knowledge about technical leadership, including how to enhance my visibility at work. We also discussed specific actionable steps to improve my technical leadership skills.
One of the key points was to begin thinking in patterns when solving problems. We’ll start there and then delve into how to influence engineers in making technical decisions and connecting the dots to the business value."
- Senior Software Engineer at Apollo.io, mentored by a Staff Engineer at Abridge
Quarterly-based mentorship
Every quarter, members of our private community can choose to opt into 3 months of community-based mentorship as a mentor, mentee, or both. This program gives members a chance to experience personalized guidance, dig into specific subjects, and establish a meaningful relationship with a dedicated mentor on an individual basis. We run the program quarterly to give people a chance to pause, continue, or modify their mentorship arrangement every 3 months, depending on their needs at the time.
We started this program to help community members find a great mentor or mentee relationship that can lead to personal growth, shared learning, and (hopefully!) long-running connections. It can be hard to find a great mentor or mentee, but in the Plato community, we happen to have a wealth of incredible members from around the world.
What you can expect
🎙️ Live, Personalized Learning
Direct discussions with a mentor who tailors the learning experience to your needs.
🧩 Problem Solving
Receive quick, actionable advice from your mentor during a call to help you tackle challenges and solve problems.
📈 Continuous Improvement
Learn how to effectively receive feedback from your team and enhance your leadership potential through ongoing improvement.
🕳️ Unknown Unknowns
Engage in conversations with mentors who have walked in your shoes, gaining valuable insights and expanding your knowledge.
🌱 Career Advice + Development
Receive guidance on developing your leadership skills and advancing your career from experienced mentors who understand the path to success.
⏰ Flexible scheduling
Schedule sessions at your convenience for a personalized learning experience.
Become a Plato mentor, mentee, or both!
Some of you might be wondering, So how do I join this program? Sign me up!
Participating in our community mentorship program is only available to our private community, which is accessed through a paid Substack subscription.
The paid subscription will allow you to collaborate more meaningfully with hundreds of engineering leaders around the world, by granting you:
Access to a private Slack community of 500+ engineers
Access to 1-1 mentorship as a mentor, mentee, or both
Access to a Community Hub with resources, content, a curated list of coaches, a mentorship hub, and more
To view the pricing options, enter your email in the field below and click 'Subscribe'.
After you apply, we’ll manually match mentor/mentee pairs based on similar attributes and goals. Matched participants are expected to meet at least 3 times throughout the quarter (1x per month). We help facilitate your mentorship relationship by providing a 1-1 workbook template in Coda, regular check-ins, and a mentorship dashboard where you can log how your sessions went.
Note: If you apply as a mentor, we cannot guarantee that you’ll be matched since we typically have more mentees than mentors (a good problem to have!). However, we sometimes match mentees with multiple mentors, and continue to match folks on an ad hoc basis throughout the quarter.
If you’re seeking new direction, a way to give back, or just desire more connection, we’d love for you to join us.
Wishing you all a refreshing spring!
Rachel & the Plato team
P.S. In case you haven’t heard, Plato is now officially part of Coda + Grammarly’s combined entity! Together, we’re defining a new era of AI-native productivity. As of now, there are no major changes in flight for Plato – we're excited to continue building this community and seeking new ways to support you.
how to access slack/coda/join the program?