overview
Yes, we like to grow our own at Walter P Moore. Our Mentoring Program targets recent engineering graduates who join the firm. Mentoring is one reason our engineers have such confidence in one another. It’s how we say “stick around” meaningfully.

Mentoring is done by a team called the “Committee for the Success of….”—which says it all. Individual success is the goal, and through it, the firm’s continued success. The team approach increases accessibility to mentoring, spreads the load, and allows for different style of knowledge transfer. The mentoring process typically lasts for ….well, forever!

the ‘what’ of mentoring
An individual’s success is the ultimate goal. Four key objectives are to be attained by new engineers along the way: absorbing the company’s culture, integrating into the culture quickly, mastering the technical learning curve, and creating parameters for long-term fulfillment and, therefore, retention. In other words, we like to keep what we grow.

the who
Upon the engineer’s arrival, the Learning staff assign the mentor team; members rotate through it over time. Those assigned have no more than four years of engineering experience. This means they are young and do not yet have significant supervisory responsibilities. Having younger mentors does a couple of things: it brings together mentors and new graduates whose education framework is in close alignment. And it allows mentors to build their own leadership skills.

mentors-in-training
Mentors start by learning how to mentor. Mentors receive eight hours of training. Training topics are determined through a pre-training questionnaire. Mentors learn what their role is and what their expectations should be, what new engineers need to know starting out, how people learn, and how to listen and give feedback. The skills of mentoring candidates are measured at three months and six months and evaluations are shared between managers and mentors.