Opening up my Calendar

In the beginning of 2024, I decided to join ADPList as a mentor for anyone looking for tech career help! Until then, I'd been doing some mentoring in my own ways - I had a discord channel where I moderated a group of 20-30 folks learning how to code in bootcamps, self-taught journies, college programs, etc., and even some people practicing for tech interviews, aspiring UX designers, and more. It was super fun, but it was a bit hard to keep up with in an unstructured way.

I saw some folks in my LinkedIn network joining ADPList and remembered that it existed, and thought, "Hey! This could be a nice way to manage my mentoring time with clearer boundaries." I signed up, and opened up my calendar for a few hours one day a week in perpetuity.

What I've been up to!

To my surprise, I immediately got some bookings and have been going pretty steady with sessions every week, and it's been SO much fun meeting and helping great people. As a design technologist / UX engineer / design engineer (holy cow can we decide on one name lol), I've focused on offering help to people interested in UX/frontend careers. Gotta stay in your lane. Here's some stuff I've done so far:

• Helping career-switchers structure their learning so they focus on the important things as they try to break into tech
• Doing resume and portfolio reviews for more junior designers and engineers
• Demystifying the 'UX Engineer'/'Design Technologist' niche and what type of things we do
• Helping current engineers and designers figure out how to be more savvy in one of the other respective disciplines
• Motivating and encouraging people who need a little pep in their step 😁

I've got some great reviews from my mentees so far, which has been great validation that I'm really actually helping them out. I've scored a few of those cool badges in my short time too, like:

• Top 10 Mentors in Frontend Engineering
• Top 100 Mentors in UX Engineering

Maybe they're just vanity metrics lol but kinda cool to be making a splash, even if it's a tiny one!

💭 Community Feedback

Some of my mentees have left amazing feedback, which has definitely helped me feel confident that I'm addressing peoples' needs - I'm honored to share their kind reviews here, check 'em out!

Let's do a session! 😎

Looking for mentorship, a review of your portfolio/resume, a little encouragement on this crazy career journey you're on, or more? Come and find me on ADPList and signup on my calendar. Can't wait to meet with you!

Cheers, Branon