For 4 years, I was heavily involved in the organization of the UX Writing Academy of the UX Writing Hub, mostly as a mentor, but also as an advisor to CEO Yuval Keshtcher in all sorts of areas, e.g. crisis comms, project management, student office hours, …
A few numbers
- I mentored more than 90 students, from Sydney to Seattle, from Buenos Aires to Bangalore.
- I reviewed about 600 student assignments, designed to train the students in all aspects of UX writing: microcopy, information architecture, style guides, user journey mapping, content research and testing,…
- I had more than 150 mentor calls to answer questions about assignments, portfolios, career opportunities, and best practices.
- I coached several students during a recruitment process and about 5 of them got a job offer even before the end of the academy. These were definitely some of the most gratifying moments of my mentoring career.
Learnings from my mentoring journey
- I have always preferred a job as an individual contributor and go into the proverbial weeds, but mentoring has taught me that it can also be enormously satisfying to guide and support people in their professional growth. Sharing my experience, seeing them pick it up, fall in love with the craft, and score a job in the end was truly incredible.
- Mentoring was instrumental in growing my confidence and find a healthy relationship with imposter syndrome. Now, I know that I have a ‘thing or two’ to say about UX writing and content design, but the more I know, the more I realise there is still so much to learn. So I think mentoring has helped me to become both more confident, and more humble.
A few words of my former students