Welcome to the SME Mentoring Program!

We are glad you are here and excited for you to join us each year as you find the connections within SME membership to enrich your career. Whether you are looking for career advice, hoping to share your past experiences with someone, or just looking to meet someone within the industry and discuss topics, this program is designed to connect you with the people driving the industry.

Enrollment is now open for the 2025 SME Mentoring Program.

This year's program will accept enrollments from February 12, 2025. If you would like to participate in the 2025 Mentoring Program, you will be expected to be active from March 12, 2025 - September 10, 2025. 

What to expect:

• Mandatory Orientation – attend live in March or view on demand by April 12
• Mentors/Mentees will receive instruction on arranging mentor-mentee meetings, to be held virtually or in-person, as best suited for each pairing.
• Mid-program virtual check-in (and/or survey)
• Supported facilitation each month
• Program-end virtual evaluation (and/or survey)

Step 1:

In order to show up in the program search results properly, make sure your contact information is up to date, add a recent professional headshot for your profile photo, expand on your bio, include your education, languages spoken, job history information, technical interest, etc...

Once done, return to this page for step 2.

Step 4:

Connect with other participants by accepting their requests. You can deny requests if you think the match isn't a good fit. We do limit mentees to only have one active mentor during the program, and mentors to having 3 mentees.

Manage your relationships by following the link:

Step 2:

Enroll in the program as a mentor, a mentee or you can take part in the program as both. Your choice depends on what you would like to get out of the program. You don't need to be at a certain point in your career to be a mentor. You'll get something out of the program either way.

Anyone can be a mentor or a mentee!

Step 5:

Now is the time to meet with you connection! The easiest way is over a virtual meeting but you can connect through email, text, or in-person. We provide a few resources to help you along in this journey including a community discussion platform for advice, worksheets, meeting agendas, and more!

For jobs and hiring resources, please visit our career center.

Step 3:

Now that you are enrolled, you can search for connections using the demographics important to you. You can search by language, geographic region, or technical interest. If you aren't finding someone matching all your requirements, try broadening your search and try again.

Don't forget to send connection requests.