Practical Guide to More Effective Mentorship | Dave O'Connor (Google, Twilio, Elastic)

Software Misadventures

After 17 years building SRE teams at Google and serving as the Site Lead for Engineering in Dublin, Dave joined Elastic as the Sr Director of Engineering and later VP of Engineering at Twilio. Following a recent career break, Dave now divides his time between coaching engineering leaders and consulting to help busy teams be more effective. In the heart of our conversation, Dave shares the frameworks and practical tips he's amassed for making the most of the mentorship experience.

Segments:

[00:01:45] Growing remote SRE team as the Google Dublin Site Lead

[00:19:49] Company Culture vs Company Values

[00:23:47] How to find companies that are serious about remote work

[00:34:26] Coaching vs Mentoring at Big vs Small companies

[00:38:35] How Google does coaching & mentoring

[00:41:38] What makes a good 1-1

[00:46:56] Considerations for seeking out a mentor

[01:03:27] Getting external mentorship while working at a small company

[1:08:20] How to set specific goals for mentorship

[1:20:13] The “CIA” Method for career decision making

[1:31:08] How to sunset mentorship 1-1s

[1:35:20] Venturing into consulting to help busy teams be more effective

[1:42:13] How to get started with consulting

Show Notes:

Dave on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrowadat/

Dave’s personal website: https://log.andvari.net/pages/about.html

Dave’s coaching website: https://www.strategichopes.co/

Service Level Objectives by Alex Hidalgo: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/implementing-service-level/9781492076803/

The Staff Engineer’s Path by Tanya Reilly: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-staff-engineers/9781098118723/

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