Developer Searchlight is an initiative organized to celebrate the leaders, mentors and builders of developer communities – interested parties can apply until September 16, 2022
Behind every motivated professional, there is a group of mentors who support and guide them. However, these mentors are not always recognized, since a large part of their performance and impact happens on individuals. That's why Twilio, the customer engagement platform that powers real-time, personalized experiences for today's leading brands, created the Developer Searchlight, an award to recognize the uplifting work of these professionals. Professionals from all areas can apply until September 16, 2022, by clicking on here.
The first edition of the awards aims to celebrate the leaders, mentors and community members who dedicate their time and energy to shaping the future of the developer profession. Developers around the world who know someone who has influenced their work at some stage, or is a great role model in their community, can nominate that professional for the award.
Winners will participate in an exclusive virtual roundtable with the company's CEO Jeff Lawson to discuss mentoring the developer community. Nominees will be selected first by a Twilio Developer Network committee and then by a panel of industry experts including: Abbesi Osunsade, Chief Executive Officer of Hustle Live; Eyal Manor, Chief Product Officer at Twilio; Jody Bailey, Chief Technology Officer at Stack Overflow; It is Lybra Clemons, Chief Diversity Officer at Twilio.
“When done well, mentoring has a positive impact beyond the immediate relationship. In a domino effect, a mentor imparts wisdom to a mentee, that person mentors someone else, and so on—and the impact is felt tenfold. Mentoring has played an important role in shaping so many strong careers, and this should be celebrated,” explains Asia Lum, program leader Hatch Apprenticeship by Twilio, a six-month software engineering apprenticeship program that offers individuals from non-traditional technical backgrounds (self-taught, bootcamps, etc.) a path to becoming impactful software engineers.
Developers deal with complex problems on a daily basis, and they do so by learning from the creativity and experience of their professional colleagues and work environment. These relationships can help these professionals connect the dots on an issue and see beyond what's in front of them. “In my role managing Twilio's Hatch learning program, I was fortunate to see firsthand how relationships with and between mentors help build and serve an inclusive community while fostering creativity. In any role, working with a mentor is often a catalyst for discovery,” comments Asia.
Five Essential Qualities of a Mentor
Mentorship comes in many forms, but Asia Lum offers some insight into five qualities she considers essential to making a long-term impact and excelling at the awards. A good mentor, from the executive's perspective:
- Guide your career growth – developers are problem solvers and learn throughout their lives, which is why mentorship is so important to this particular community. Having someone point you in the right direction or simply saying, “I've solved this problem before, and here's the solution” can make all the difference not just to a project, but to an entire career;
- lead with intention – whether in training, one-on-one meetings or problem solving, great relationships happen when both people are prepared and dedicated to working together. Intentionality creates a two-way street to share experiences, learn and grow together. The best mentees end up becoming the best mentors (in a domino effect) and future role models for the industry;
- Be open about your own challenges – there is no script for mentoring. It is about creating an open and transparent relationship between both parties. The real struggle moments are the moments that provide clarity in a career, and good mentors will be honest about their own moments of uncertainty. The failures or difficulties can be as impactful as the highlights;
- build equitable community – trusted mentors are important elements of an inclusive and equitable community across the organization. They are great connectors between similar and different groups of people and generally create a healthy space for everyone to connect and learn from each other;
- be a great listener – you might think of a mentor as someone who offers the best advice, but in Asia's experience, he must be the best listener. Being open and vulnerable in your work life can be difficult, but when you have a trusted advisor who is there to deal with your challenges by your side, it makes all the difference.
To nominate someone, or to check out Twilio's Developer Searchlight FAQ, visit: http://interactive.twilio.com/searchlight.
About Twilio
Today's leading companies rely on Twilio's Customer Engagement Platform (CEP) to build direct, personalized relationships with their customers around the world. Twilio's core communication APIs allow businesses to engage with their customers through voice, conversations, messaging, video and email. Twilio Segment, the leading customer data platform, enables companies to create highly personalized interactions and automated customer profiles based on first-party data from multiple channels. Twilio enables companies to use communications and data to add intelligence to every step of the customer journey, from sales to marketing, growth, customer service and many other engagement use cases, in a flexible and programmatic way. In 180 countries, millions of developers and hundreds of thousands of businesses use Twilio to create magical experiences for their customers.
