When you hear the word “mentoring,” you might picture someone fresh out of university or just starting their first role in tech, eager for guidance. And while early-career mentoring is powerful, there’s a growing trend we see at Femme Palette: more and more mid-level women in tech are actively seeking out mentors — and reaping major benefits. Whether you're a software engineer eyeing your first leadership role, a product manager navigating a complex team dynamic, or a data analyst feeling stuck in the same projects — mentoring at this stage isn’t about learning the ropes. It’s about gaining clarity, confidence, and strategy for your next move.
Even though our mentors are experts in their field, mentoring is a continuous learning journey for everyone involved. That’s why we recently invited our Chief Mentor,
Cristina Muntean, to answer some of the burning questions in our Mentor Community. An expert on mentoring, coaching, and strategic communications, here’s what she had to say about some of the hot topics on our mentors’ minds.
February is Black History Month. It’s a time of celebrating Black achievement throughout history and today, but also serves as a reminder to fight the systemic racism and inequality that Black people around the world still face today. To honor this observance, we reached out to Alexis Curtis-Harris and Aicha Diarra - both Femme Palette mentors and inspirational women - to ask them about their career, their motivation to become mentors, advice they wished they had received at the start of their career, as well as their favorite Black role model.
At Femme Palette, we care about the experience of our mentees, and therefore the quality of our mentors. That’s why we have recently made changes to our mentor recruitment to make the process more selective. This blog post will guide you through the steps and show you what to expect. Here is the ultimate guide to becoming a Femme Palette mentor!
When mentee Eliska Krychova was balancing two part-time jobs and looking to start a career abroad at the same time, her mentor Anca Trandaf jumped in to help. In this interview, they reflect on their mentoring sessions, the importance of asking for help and how you can benefit from mentoring even if your needs change over time.
Since September 2020, Femme Palette has been a proud partner of Czech non-profit organization Nadání a dovednosti. For nine years already, the platform has been helping students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to make sure their first career steps are heading in the right direction. As our give back initiative, we have been offering a couple free seats for Nadani a Dovednosti twice in a year. For each cohort, three young adults from Nadání a dovednosti’s project Rozhled were chosen to receive 6 months of mentoring from our global mentor community of experts. This year, we’re taking our partnership further and committed to help 50 young adults from the project Rozhled over the next 2 years. Keep on reading to learn more about what three of the selected mentees have achieved and why they appreciate being part of the program!
Zuzana Dobrovolna had already completed the Leadership program, but after starting a new role and chapter in her career, she felt in need of some guidance again. She joined the Mentoring program and got matched with mentor Petra Imrichova. In this interview, they discuss how mentoring has been a game changer and how important it is to be open and honest.
Mentoring Daniela Sedlonova (a professional mental coach and a Google certified trainer) seemed a challenge at first to her mentor Pavla Grigarova (a regional marketing lead at Google). But during their chemistry session, they both discovered it was a mentoring match made in heaven. Read about how mentoring has contributed to both of the ladies’ careers.
Feedback – it’s something that shouldn’t be missed when entering the mentoring relationship. The goal of mentoring is to develop and grow in both your professional and personal lives. However, growth doesn’t work without proper feedback. It’s essential to hear the other side and, even more important, to learn to speak out for yourself. Let’s dig deeper into why giving and receiving feedback in mentoring is crucial.
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