Polylink: Get a Mentor, Be a Mentor
By Teresa Mariani Hendrix
Angie Roldan (B.S., Business Administration, 1992) is a taxation division accountant in the San Jose office of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Christine Chau (B.S., Computer Science, 1995) is a tech veteran with experience at Deloitte & Touche, Excite! and EHealth.com who is now heading her own startup in San Mateo.
Roldan and Chau are just two of the many established alumni who have signed up to informally mentor recent grads and current students online via PolyLink, Cal Poly’s free private social network.
“I’m a huge proponent of mentoring,” Chau said. “I think it’s really important for everyone to have a mentor outside of your workplace – someone you can go to for advice, knowing that person has no other motive for the advice they give you.”
She still keeps in touch with her first mentor: Cal Poly Computer Science Professor Brad Terry.
Roldan is a mentor to several employees at PriceWaterhouseCoopers through the company’s internal program. PWC offers formal and informal mentoring to its employees. Roldan didn’t have a mentor when she started her career. Now, she believes everyone should have one.
“It’s just good to have someone there who’s been through it all before – someone you can bounce ideas off of,” Roldan said. “A lot of times when people graduate, they don’t know their way around in a corporate environment. There are things they don’t know about corporate culture. It’s easy to get lost – especially if your company is global.”
Mentors help new employees learn nuances and etiquette that aren’t covered in any class curriculum, she said.
In addition to accountants like Roldan and information technology gurus like Chau, alumni signed up as informal e-mentors so far include architects, corporate food purchasing brokers, organic produce company CEOs, banking executives, advertising and marketing managers, biotech company leaders, network TV web developers.
Those are just a handful of the career fields represented by the 116 alumni in The PolyLink Mentoring Group this month. The group (www.calpolylink.com/mentoring - login required) is the quickest and easiest place to browse for mentors (and mentees) for informal online e-mentoring.
The group is open to all alumni in PolyLink – currently 13,600 and growing (www.calpolylink.com).
Right now, the PolyLink Mentoring Group includes only alumni. But that’s about to change. This fall, all current Cal Poly seniors will be invited into PolyLink for the first time.
From now on, every crop of Cal Poly seniors will be invited into PolyLink each fall. And plenty of them will be looking for mentors.
Alumni mentors who join the PolyLink Mentoring Group can expect to provide advice and career tips to fellow Mustangs.
Mentees who join the group can expect to ask for (and get) advice and career tips on things like career field culture, resume writing, successful interviewing and job hunting strategies. They shouldn’t ask for or expect direct job offers. (Mentees: Ask your mentor about protocol on that.)
PolyLink Mentoring Group members will also receive e-mails on related Cal Poly events. Right now, that includes the first-ever Engineering Mentoring Day on campus Nov. 14.
The Cal Poly Alumni Association and the Cal Poly College of Engineering are teaming up that day to bring alumni to campus and meet with current students for “speed mentoring.” Interested engineering alumni who want to come to campus for the event can RSVP through the PolyLink Mentoring Group events calendar. Chau, a CPAA board member and engineering alumna, is one of the organizers.
How to Get Into PolyLink & the New PolyLink Mentoring Group
Alumni: if you’re already in PolyLink, visit www.calpolylink.com/mentoring today (login required) to see who’s a member and to join the group.
If you have forgotten your PolyLink Username, click here to have your Username sent to your e-mail address.
If you have forgotten your PolyLink password, click here to reset your password. You will receive an e-mail at this address with a link to reset your password.
If you have forgotten BOTH your PolyLink password and your Username, click the resend Username link first to have your Username sent to this e-mail address.
Once you have your PolyLink Username in hand, click the 'reset password' link and use it to reset your password.
These steps protect your security and your alumni information.
Not in PolyLink yet? Non-PolyLink alumni should have received their First Time Login ID in the e-mail announcing the September 2009 edition of Cal Poly Update. Check the message to look for your code, then visit www.calpolylink.com and click the “1st Time Login Button” up top to get in.
Reading this issue after you deleted that e-mail?
Click here to request your First Time Login ID code.
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