►
Description
Read more about the Women at GitLab Mentorship Program in the GitLab Handbook: https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/inclusion/tmrg-gitlab-women/mentorship-program/
A
Well,
I'm
really
excited
to
kick
off
this
second
kickoff
session
of
our
women
at
get
lab
mentorship
program.
So
thanks
all
for
being
here,
it's
been
really
cool
to
be
part
of
this
program
over
the
last
about
year
for
me,
but
awesome
to
see
how
this
program
has
grown
since
it
started
in
2020
with
about
30
team
members
to
about
60
team
members
when
we
ran
this
program
last
year
and
now
to
just
over
a
hundred.
A
So
I
wanted
to
start
things
off
by
just
thanking
everyone
for
making
time
to
be
part
of
this
program.
It's
been
really
cool
to
learn
alongside
everyone,
and
I
have
a
mentor
in
this
iteration
which
is
really
exciting
to
be
part
of
the
program
in
that
way
too.
So
I'm
excited
to
chat
with
our
panel
today
and
to
follow
everyone's
success
through
this
program.
A
Once
we
get
started,
I'm
going
to
verbalize
the
questions
that
are
in
the
meeting
agenda
and
panelists
can
feel
free
to
just
jump
in
whenever
they
feel
like
they
want
to
answer.
We
don't
have
to
follow
a
specific
order
and,
along
that
same
line,
if
you
feel
like
you,
don't
have
anything
to
add
no
worries.
You
can
just
pass
on
the
question.
C
Everyone
I'm
brittany,
rhodey,
and
I
am
the
director
of
total
rewards
here
at
gitlab,
and
I
am
similarly
located
in
the
midwest
in
nebraska.
I've
been
actually
in
five
states
in
my
five
and
a
half
years
at
gitlab
and
so
excited
to
finally
be
settled
here
permanently,
but
I
will
pass
it
over
to
you
sophie.
D
E
F
F
E
G
A
C
So
I
had
the
very
fortunate
experience
of
being
able
to
mentor
actually
with
one
of
our
panelists
michael
mcbride
and
then
informally,
as
well
with
robin,
just
through
all
of
the
work
that
overlaps
between
total
rewards
and
legal.
And
so
you
know,
I
think,
from
the
formal
mentorship.
You
know
one
of
the
things
that
was
such
an
accomplishment
for
me
or
something
that
I
took
as
so
important
in
my
career
and
just
in
what
I
look
for
in
the
future
is
understanding
more
of
just
my
niche
of
business.
E
B
Yeah
I
agree,
michael
when
I
entered
the
women's
mentorship
program
for
the
first
time
I
was
a
named
account
executive
on
our
commercial
sales
team
and
I
had
high
aspirations
of
joining
our
leadership
team.
Here
I
get
love
as
an
area
sales
manager,
and
so
during
the
mentorship
program,
my
mentor
craig
vestal
he
was
able
to
identify
and
help
me
look
for
the
skills
and
key
qualities
that
make
a
great
leader
and
important
areas
to
focus
on
in
my
personal
individual
growth
plan.
B
So
several
months
later,
I
achieved
that
growth
plan
milestone
of
becoming
an
area
sales
manager
here
at
gitlab,
and
I
know
that
mentorship
personally
helped
me
really
further
develop
and
prepare
me
to
step
into
that
leadership
role
that
I'm
in
today,
and
so
that
was
pretty
pretty
transformable.
For
me,.
D
I'll
also
echo
what
kyla
said
my
mentor,
who
I
worked
with
in
the
first
iteration
of
the
mentorship
program
that
we
had
it
was
at
the
women
in
sales
program.
I
work
with
brian.
I
still
speak
with
him
regularly
brian
wise,
but
he
helped
me
just
take
my
career
from
being
an
individual
contributor,
so
I
came
in
to
get
lab
as
a
tan,
a
technical
account
manager
to
being
an
actual
manager.
It
seemed
like,
from
my
perspective
when
I
was
an
individual
contributor.
F
I'm
not
sure
I
have
anything
to
add
samantha,
I
see
you
having
my
name.
Everybody's
comments
have
been
really
kind
of
exactly
on
the
mark.
I
think
the
biggest
takeaway
I
I
had
from
going
through
this.
This
will
be
the
third
time
I'm
going
through
the
program
as
a
mentor,
and
I
think
how
much
empathy
it
builds
on
both
sides,
because,
typically
I'm
paired
with
somebody
who's
been
outside
of
my
organization.
It
helps
me
be
a
better
manager.
F
Quite
frankly,
it
helps
me
kind
of
break
things
down
for
folks
on
my
team
that
may
be
supporting
the
org
that
the
person
I'm
mentoring
is
in,
and
I
think
it's
you
know
it
actually
makes
me
feel
better
too
about
some
of
the
maybe
the
missteps
I've
made
throughout
my
careers
that
I
can
kind
of
help
educate
people
about
some
of
those
things
or
pitfalls
to
avoid,
and
it
feels
like,
maybe
they're.
You
know
worthwhile
having
gone
through
for
that
to
help
somebody
else
kind
of
circumvent
and
go
faster.
G
A
Okay
thanks
everyone,
I'm
gonna,
ask
this
second
question.
So
mentorship
is
a
growth
opportunity
both
for
mentors
and
mentees,
which
I
think
has
become
like
really
clear,
even
just
in
the
first
question,
and
I'm
wondering
what
is
something
unexpected
that
you
have
learned
from
your
mentee
or
from
your
mentor.
D
I
can
start
so
working
with
brian,
so
I
got
promoted
earlier
this
in
2021.
I
guess
in
the
fall
to
a
manager
position,
and
so
I'm
a
new
manager,
I'm
learning
all
the
different
nuances
of
being
a
manager,
handling
difficult
conversations,
those
types
of
situations-
and
so
I
bring
some
of
those
to
my
mentor
call
with
brian,
and
what
I
found
really
interesting
is
even
though
I'm
a
new
manager
and
he's
managed
for
a
long
time
and
has
experience
being
a
manager.
D
We
all
have
the
same
situations
and
issues
that
we
have
to
deal
with
every
day,
and
so
it's
not
that
just
because
I'm
new
that
I'm
dealing
with
it,
it's
every
manager
seems
to
be
dealing
with
the
same
thing.
So
we
talk
through
issues
together
and
come
to
conclusions
together
on
how
to
handle
situations.
C
You
know
niche
and
specializing
in
what
they
were
doing
for
that
role
to
gain
additional
knowledge
and
expertise,
and
it
was
really
cool
to
see
and
understand
why
you
might
take
different
opportunities
or
lateral
opportunities
within
a
business
to
be
able
to
build
your
knowledge
base
and
to
be
able
to
move
into
those
later
levels
of
leadership.
If
that's
what
you're
interested
in
or
different
levels
of
management,
if
that's
what
you're
interested
in
and
how
that
can
all
intersect
and
connect
together.
F
E
E
This
was
and
the
advice
was
you
should
leave
the
company
and
go
take
a
new
job
and
the
context
is
our
company
had
been
acquired
by
motorola,
a
big
giant
company.
This
was
back
when
I
worked
at
good
technology
and
my
manager,
you
know,
pulled
me
aside
and
said:
what
do
you?
What
are
you
thinking
about
doing
and
he's
you
know?
Basically,
you
know
probing.
E
You
know
with
this
post
acquisition-
and
I
was
you
know,
being
very
polite
in
my
response
and
he
said
under
no
circumstances
should
you
work
at
motorola
very
long.
He
goes
you
should
you
should
go,
take
a
vp
of
sales
job
and
I
wasn't
a
vp
of
sales
at
the
time
and
run
a
worldwide
sales
team,
and
you
shouldn't
take
anything
less
than
that
and
it
was
kind
of
this
jarring
moment.
But
it
was,
you
know,
the
kind
of
nudge
that
you
look
back
on
in
your
career,
that
I'm
still
appreciative
and
still
thankful.
E
You
know
decades
later
for
that
nudge
and-
and
I
I
still
keep
in
touch
with
him.
You
know
in
part
on
career
path
stuff
because
he
was
so
direct
and
supportive
of
me
personally
in
that
moment-
and
he
was
right
like
where,
where
this
was
going
at
motorola
was
going
to
be
very
bad
personally
for
a
lot
of
the
leaders
in
the
business
and
that
would
have
been
a
lost
couple
of
years.
E
C
Yeah
and
to
follow
up
on
that
too,
it's
also
what's
best
for
your
family,
and
I
remember
you
know
when
we
were
doing
some
sessions.
We
talked
about
the
roadie
family
business
and
what
does
that
look
like
and
what's
going
to
be
best,
for
you
know
your
family
unit
and
so
being
able
to
take
all
of
that
into
account
versus
specifically,
where
you're
at
in
your
role,
looking
at
it
zoning
out
and
thinking
of
the
long
term.
B
B
I
think
that
was
my
early
perception
of
what
the
mentorship
program
really
was,
and
I
think
that
through
my
my
experience
of
being
in
the
program,
is
that
my
meant
my
minds
are
really
opened
doors
for
me
and
that
I
said
hey,
I'm
really
excited
about
forecasting.
I
wanted
to
learn
more
about
it
and
he
invited
me
to
my
comic
bride's
cro
forecasting.
You
know
call
and
he
opened
up
opportunities
where
I
wouldn't
be
invited
to
those
calls.
B
A
F
B
Yeah,
I
agree
robin
I
think,
coming
from
a
perspective
of
the
mentee
side,
of
not
just
coming
to
the
conversation
expecting
things
to
be
in
in
the
dock
and
only
to
be
one-sided,
but
coming
prepared
with
things
that
you
want
to
talk
about
that
you
want
to
pursue
in
conversation
that
you
want
to
share
discussion
about
that.
It's
equal,
equally
balanced
on
each
side
of
you
know
it
was.
B
C
I
really
I
really
echo
this.
One
of
the
things
that
I
wanted
to
make
sure
when
I
went
into
the
mentorship
program
is
what
am
I
trying
to
get
out
of
it
and
so
putting
together
like
the
top
three
things
that
that
I
was
looking
for.
Out
of
you
know
the
conversations
over
time
and,
and
you
know
what
that
looked
like
from
how
to
structure
our
agenda
and
then
there
would
be
certain
items
that
we'd
circle
back
on
each
week
because
they
related
back
to
the
overall
top
three
themes,
or
maybe
it
didn't.
C
Maybe
we
we
discussed
it
and
I
needed
to
take
more
thoughts.
We'd,
take
it
off
the
agenda
and
I
needed
to
do
some
work
and
reflection
to
come
to
the
table
with
additional
information
to
be
able
to
advise,
and
I
think
that
that
really
helped
having
that
kind
of
overall
parameters.
On
on
what
I
was
looking
for,
so
that
we
could
get
as
far
as
we
could-
and
you
know
not
everything's
gonna
be
solved
in
a
day
and
some
of
those
things
I'm
still
looking
for
for
sure.
E
Simple
one,
it
seems
simple,
but
I
think
it's
really
powerful
and
it's
time
I
think
that
the
more
time
you
have
in
not
only
total
conversation,
but
in
the
specific
conversations
the
better
you
know,
a
one-hour
conversation
is
not
double
a
25-minute
conversation.
It's
it's
five
times
in
my
opinion,
because
you're
developing
a
relationship
you're
developing
some
trust
that
actually
puts
you
in
a
position
to
have
those
transparent
and
engaged
discussions.
E
So
put
the
time
into
it.
You
know
I
consider
the
the
plan
in
the
the
program
to
be
the
minimum.
That's
that's
sort
of
it's
not
like
that.
That's
the
perfect
formula-
and
you
know
take
a
a
moment
in
those
meetings
when
you
notice,
like
wow,
we're
on
to
something
here.
You
know
there's
this
this
this
topic
that
you've
got
a
tough
conversation
coming
up.
E
Why
don't
you
go
work
on
a
script
and
then
let's
have
a
call
in
two
days
and
let's
role
play
that
conversation
before
you
actually
go:
have
it
but
take
those
moments
to
to
create
more
time
because
there's
an
exponential
benefit.
I
think,
as
time
increases
it's
not
linear.
You
get
a
dramatically
bigger
impact
from
the
relationship.
A
Yeah
thanks
for
bringing
that
up,
michael
too,
because
the
last
iteration
of
the
program
was
three
months
long
and
there
was
an
option
to
extend
which
a
lot
of
people
did
and
based
on
feedback.
From
last
time.
We've
extended
this
one
to
be
formally
five
months,
which
just
like
you're
saying
exponentially,
like
adds
value
based
on
the
time
you
get
to
spend
with
your
mentor.
D
A
G
F
I
mean
the
program's
a
great
place
to
start
obviously,
and
then
I
think
you
know
also
talking
to
your
manager
and
asking
you
know
you'd
like
a
mentor:
do
they
have
any
suggestions
or
you
know,
could
they
help
you
make
introductions
or
roads
like
if
one
somebody
on
my
team
came
to
me?
I'd
I'd
want
to
help
them
find
somebody
great.
F
So
I
think
those
are
good
places
to
start,
and
then
I
think
if,
if
you
meet
somebody
kind
of
out
in
the
wild
that
you
know
you're
interested
in
talking
to
on
on
that
basis,
I
think
it's
always.
You
know
worthwhile
kind
of
asking
you
know
if
they
have
any
any
suggestions
about
how
to
do
this
and
see
if
it
needs
to
allow
a
natural
progression.
F
A
Great
well
we're
just
about
to
hit
time,
so
I
just
wanted
to
wrap
things
up
and
say.
Thank
you
again
to
all
of
our
panelists.
This
has
been
a
really
great
discussion
and
I
appreciate
you
all
being
vulnerable
and
sharing
your
experience
with
mentorship
for
everyone
who's
on
the
call.
If
you
have
any
questions
throughout
the
mentorship
or
you
need
support,
you
can
always
reach
out
in
the
women
get
lab
mentorship
channel,
and
I
will
follow
up
next
week
with
some
more
reminders
and
resources
as
we
kick
off
this
mentorship
program.