By Jennifer Petrela, Manager, Mentoring Accelerator, Mentorat Québec // Collaboration
Scattered colleagues, uncertain futures. Interview with mentors and mentees from the tech community in Montreal on how mentoring influences their work, perspectives and relationships in times of pandemic.
> Pierre-Luc St-Charles, mentor: Fighting imposter syndrome
Pierre-Luc St-Charles, an applied research scientist at Mila, is in his early thirties. He’s passionate about his research in machine learning, he doesn’t count his hours in front of the screen and his free time is busy. Yet he was present at the virtual launch of the new Mila mentoring program on April 14, 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. Why did he raise his hand to become a mentor?
“I suffered a lot from impostor syndrome before settling on a path,” Pierre-Luc replies, ”It’s a daunting field where everything changes so fast that you’re without reference points. It’s like asking young people to jump on a train that’s moving very fast towards who knows where. As a mentor, then, I hope to be able to eliminate some of my mentees’ fears and doubts. This is all the more important in the current context. Physically being in a place with many others would have given mentees opportunities to be with people who share their concerns. COVID-19 has limited this dynamic, at least for a while, at least for this generation of researchers.”
> Shalaleh Rismani, mentee: A female mentor as role model
Shalaleh Rismani is packing her bags for Vancouver as the COVID-19 hits Canada. She has not yet found an apartment in Montreal. In agreement with her supervisor at McGill University, she agrees to start her PhD remotely. Her start as a researcher at Mila has to be done remotely.
I was so excited at the idea of meeting the people at Mila, but that’s the hardest part of the epidemic for me,” says Shalaleh, ”mourning the loss of being surrounded by people in the same field with whom to exchange ideas. I have to believe in this until July, maybe until August. We don’t know yet. That’s why I’m so happy to be part of the mentoring program. I’ll be able to bond with a few people, my mentor and co-mentee. Maybe we’ll even set up a virtual mentee group?”
Shalaleh asked for a female mentor. She explains her choice: “I’m curious to know how being a woman in this predominantly male field would have affected my mentor. I haven’t suffered from overt discrimination, but when I’m at a big conference and I can walk for hours without ever seeing another woman, it’s true that it’s an isolating experience. The value of an exemplary role model is real, it helps to form an identity.”
> Marie-Ève Malette, mentee: Conversations became very spontaneous
Marie-Ève Malette, a scientist in artificial intelligence at the Bank of Canada, is part of the first cohort of mentees in the Fin-ML Network. Her first meetings with her mentor began in October 2019, well before the start of the pandemic.
“We saw each other every two weeks,” Marie-Ève recounts, ”my mentor was enormously helpful in planning the next steps in my career. We don’t see each other in person any more, but the fact that we got to know each other before the distance created a great bond. For example, I regularly call him in the morning for coffee and a chat. Our conversations have become very spontaneous. Now that I’ve been offered a job, we’ve agreed that she’ll help me negotiate my salary.”
Tips for mentoring in confinement
Not all mentees fare equally well. For some, the transition to the virtual world was not an easy one. Marianne Lefebvre, President of Mentorat Québec, offers two tips for a successful mentoring relationship in times of pandemic (for a longer list of tips, read this article).
Tip 1
“First and foremost, don’t neglect the group spirit. Many mentoring programs operate on a cohort basis: a group of mentees begins the mentoring experience at the same time, often with a group training session that precedes the individual pairing. Millennials, in particular, seem to enjoy group activities. Mentees can be observed forming a Facebook group an hour or two after their first meeting, to compare notes and share experiences. It’s always rewarding to multiply sources of support, but during a situation as uncertain as the one we’re currently experiencing, they become almost essential.”
Tip 2
“Keep in touch between meetings. As social interaction decreases, the risk increases that mentors and mentees will feel isolated. Feeling isolated leads to loss of energy and motivation. Maintain your enthusiasm with regular interaction. Share an article, check in by text message – schedules and habits have been disrupted, so now may not be the time to formalize. Even a simple ‘hello’ can remind your mentor of the relationship and keep you on track.”
The Mila and Fin-ML Network mentoring programs are part of the Mentoral Accelerator, a Mentorat Québec program funded by the Government of Quebec.
