Onboarding new mentors
HackYourFuture would be nowhere without many fantastic mentors helping out on a voluntary basis! Here’s a document about how to onboard them well into our volunteering tasks.
Lots of people hear about HackYourFuture through social media, word of mouth, events, or other random sources - when it comes to getting in touch with us, most make use of the contact section of our website or the contact form in the volunteer section of the website. That’s our first point of digital contact with new mentors.
First contact
Usually, a mail comes in via our website contact form to [email protected] or people send a mail directly or through one of our social media messaging channels. From here, it will get forwarded to either the Education Manager or local Coordinator.
Standard reply
We reply with a slightly customized standard template mail and invite the new mentors for a 30min video call or in-person meeting. Below are examples of a standard mail reply that I’ve copied over and over… and over.
Subject: Volunteering at HackYourFuture - Magda
"Hi Magda,
Super nice of you to reach out! [add some personal touch]
It would be great to have a talk about the program and what you would most like to help out with. We could either set up a quick online call in the coming weeks - you can see if there's a suitable time for you in here. Are you located near Copenhagen or Aarhus? You could also simply swing by on a Sunday when we hold our workshops (between 12-16:00) and have a coffee and chat in person. Here’s where to find us: CPH | AAR
To find some more information about volunteering at HackYourFuture Denmark you can also check out this resource that explains a bit about the program and how things work: HackYourFuture Mentor Resources
Let me know if you have any more questions in the meantime! :)
Best, Chris"
Documenting the process
To keep an overview, we add all new volunteer applicants to a Trello board.
Add their initial message and the date you agree for them to visit on a new card and put that into the column on the very left, called “Received Mail”.
Sunday visit or Online meeting
Greet them on Sunday, give a tour, answer questions, let them join a class as an observer/helper. Have a bit of small talk and get a feeling for what they want to do, what they are like.
Walk them through the HackYourFuture Mentor Resources resource while sharing your screen and make sure they get the basics.
During this call, make sure you cover:
Volunteering roles & responsibilities
Explaining the Volunteering Journey (HWR → TA → LT)
How our Curriculum on GitHub works (screenshare)
How our Slack works (screenshare & demo)
How Mentor Booking happens via this sheet (screenshare)
Here’s a video of how we do it currently (approximately): HackYourFuture Onboarding Video
Once all goes well, ask them if they want to join our Slack and what email to use for the invite.
Send a welcome message on Slack like this:
Thanks for the lovely chat yesterday
Here's some more info about our Slack workspace and hopefully give you an overview.
About our team: We are currently 5 employees here who you can usually ask about anything.
@Christopher - Founder & Managing Director (Funding, Communications, Partnerships, Alumni)
@Karolina - Head of Education (curriculum, technical volunteers)
@Gabi - Student Assistant (Community Helper, Accounting & more)
@René - Project Coordinator/Community Builder: Aarhus (Mentor recruitment and engagement, assist in fundraising, main responsible for most things Aarhus-related)
We try to make everything smooth and easy for our volunteers as good as we can, but in the end proactivity and being communicative goes a long way in helping us figure out the best tasks for everyone :)
About our Slack workspace: I already added you to some relevant channels:
#mentorroom is for all volunteers (mentors)
#alumni is the channel for the graduated students & mentors. Main purpose is to help the graduates on the job hunt & inform them about additional workshops/ events & masterclasses that we do.
Some other interesting channels could be:
#jobapplication-feedback-support - giving feedback on CV’s and cover letters
#need-a-review - leftover homework submissions that need a review are put here and all volunteers can have a look & give feedback
#meetups - relevant events and meetups
#teach-yourself - for sharing good online resources for self-learning
#git-support - GIT specific questions
#javascript-support - JS specific questions
#react-support - React specific questions (etc. - these exist for all modules)
And then all the classes have their own individual channel - #class23 #class24 #class25 etc. and currently a [Insert relevant Masterclass, event etc.). All have corresponding (private) mentor channels that you join when you teach, assist or homework review for a specific class.
Our "newest" class is #class26 and they are just starting right now
Lastly, here’s a Google form about your preferred skills to share - just so we can keep an overview of what everyone is comfortable to mentor in: Skills Preference Form Sorry for a super long msg Keep asking if you have more questions and otherwise talk to you soon!
If they join the Slack workspace - continue to the next step. If they don’t - follow up once more if they got the invite (to be sure it’s not a technical hick-up).
Ask them to add a photo & use their real name, ideally, so students can easily identify them in person as well.
Distributing concrete tasks
If they are interested in being a Homework Helper in a specific module: Schedule it! Try to make them as proactive about it as possible.
If no concrete Volunteering role is available, consider sending them to #need-a-review, #job-application-feedback-support, or allocating them to a struggling student as a 1:1 buddy.
Trello again
Remember to move their card on the Trello board, so we know which mentors have visited on Sundays and received an onboarding.
Making sure they feel welcome & useful
Follow up if they are finding their way into the community! If there are any Mentor Beers or similar community events coming up, invite them!
Everyone joins because they want to help & feel some sort of reward, so we need to try and make that easy for them.
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