Overview
| Informal Mentoring | Formal Mentoring |
|---|---|
| Editors asking and answering questions in the forums and live chat. | A controlled one-on-one interaction geared to educate a mentee on particular Waze editing skills. |
| Can take place anytime, without any special process to set up the interaction. | Must come to a formal agreement to start the mentorship, after careful selection of partners. |
| There is no approval process to be an informal mentor. | Only Waze can approve formal mentors. |
| Advice can range from exceptionally good to highly questionable depending upon the provider | Provided education is more predictable and controlled with high certainty for a positive outcome |
| Task oriented: solve a current problem in editing and nothing more (e.g., how to fix a particular junction that is giving bad directions or bad map appearance). | Goal oriented: intended to improve a particular mentee skill, not a particular feature on the map. |
| Generally lasts a few minutes or a few hours, with little to no recurring communication expected. | Repeated interaction, in a defined range of time on a specific range of topics, to improve a particular skill. |
| Provides instant answers to questions, but cannot track the quality of the information provided. | Helps ensure quality map edits over time as editors advance in rank. |
| Not expected to significantly change the abilities of the Mentee and no expectation for change in rank during or after the mentorship. | Expectation is to upgrade the mentee skills, allowing the mentee to rise in rank or at least close the gap toward a rise in rank. At mentor discretion, mentee may receive a (temporary) rank change to facilitate the mentorship. |
Formal mentoring
Formal Mentoring is a one-on-one interaction between a Mentee and Mentor with specific objectives of increasing skill, editor level, and Waze Community participation. With a specific Mentee-Mentor pair, agreed upon objective, start, and end, this process needs a bit more coordination. It also requires commitment from both the Mentee and Mentor to complete the objective. Mentoring could last a week to months - the Mentee and Mentor decide.
Formal Mentoring is conducted by a Waze-approved group of Mentors. If you wish to become a Mentor or Mentee, look on the Waze Forum about mentoring (below).
Formal mentoring summary
- Decide if Formal Mentoring is right for you.
- Look at the Formal mentoring guidelines to see if you want to be a Mentee or Mentor in Formal Mentoring.
- Please fill in this form Mentoring Form
- If you want to be a Mentee:
- Make a request on the Forum.
- Do you want to pick your own mentor? If you don't know one, look here:
- If you're not sure, you will be matched with a potential Mentor.
- Work with that Mentor to reach an agreement.
- If the Mentor is a match - Begin and complete mentoring.
- If the Mentor is not a match - Request assistance in terminating the mentorship as peacefully as possible; you may try again with a different Mentor.
- If you want to be a Mentor:
- Read and agree to the Formal mentor training
- Request to be granted the Mentor role (form under development)
- Suggest those to whom you'd like to Mentor.
- Survey the pool of Mentee requests and volunteer to help.
The last two suggestions are more appropriate after you receive sponsorship by a Waze Champ to be granted Mentor status.