I have been working in the tech industry for more than 25 years in various roles (in IT, cybersecurity, and cloud), and after gaining years of experience, publishing more than 150 blog posts, 3 books on Amazon, and giving lectures multiple times, I thought that the next thing for me was to share my knowledge back with the industry and become a mentor.
I had this idea with me for a long time. Sometime in 2026, I saw a post on LinkedIn by a good friend of mine, Suzana Melo, who shared her experience as a mentor in a community I’d never heard of called Women Innovating in Cloud Africa (WIICA), and a mentorship program called Cloud HER.
I had a Zoom call with Suzana, and I asked her to connect me to someone from the program, and she was happy to connect me to Paula Ali Wakabi, who manages the program for women from Africa who are taking their first steps in the tech industry.
Since I don’t believe in physical boundaries between countries, and I truly believe everyone deserves the opportunity to enter the tech industry and be successful, after a Zoom call with Paula, I decided to jump into the water and join this mentorship program – a 12-week program.
By the end of June 2026, we had a kick-off meeting, where I found out that 54 people volunteered to be mentors for 188 mentees from around the world.
Around that time, I received an email from the program manager, updating me that two mentees were assigned to me.
As a mentor in the CloudHER program, I was asked to reach out to my two mentees, schedule kick-off calls, have an introduction meeting, and, at the end of each month, both mentors and mentees were asked to submit status reports (how many meetings took place, what topics we covered together, what the progress was, concerns, etc.)
I was assigned two mentees; both of them were women in the early stages of their careers, eager to learn and expand their knowledge, and taking the next challenge in their careers – one from Kenya, and the other from Nepal.
I have to admit, being a mentor in this program was not what I originally thought mentorship was about.
I thought that it would be a series of sessions where I would share knowledge about various topics I have experience with; in my case – the public cloud, since both mentees had some fundamental knowledge about AWS and wanted to learn more about the topic.
The first sessions were an introduction. We both shared our backgrounds, what we learned, and what my mentees wanted to achieve out of this program.
In the next sessions, we reviewed various topics related to AWS cloud, such as cloud infrastructure, network fundamentals, networking, security, resiliency, etc.
I have shared with both of my mentees links to learning materials and access to free training, based on the AWS platform.
We had several sessions like this, but then my mentees wanted something else.
One of my mentees wanted to build something, gain hands-on experience, and eventually be able to publish a blog post based on her new experience. We then had a session where I showed her how to deploy WordPress, based on Amazon Lightsail, and by the next session, she presented me with her new website. Then we worked together on adding WordPress plugins, followed by a session where she presented me with a draft of a blog post she wrote, which I liked a lot, and I gave her my feedback and some recommendations to add more content.
My other mentee wanted to prepare for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate, so we began several sessions about advanced topics such as deep security concepts, high availability, and even cloud-native applications. In parallel, we talked about her writing a blog post about her experience working with the SAP Business Data Cloud platform.
Around the 10th session, we had a conversation about how to improve the LinkedIn profile. We reviewed each of my mentee's LinkedIn profiles, passed section by section and we talked about how to fine-tune, how to make adjustments, how to present the mentee's strengths and how to remain active on LinkedIn, to catch-up the eyes of new followers and potential employers.
A couple of things I learned during the weeks of the mentorship program were timing and connectivity.
In terms of timing, at the end of each session, I checked with each of my mentees about their availability for the next session, taking into account that in many cases I took an hour during my working hours in the office, so I tried to schedule on Sundays when I had fewer meetings.
Finding time wasn't the only challenge, since sometimes we've agreed on the date and time, and at the last minute one of my mentees sends me a WhatsApp message asking to switch to another time due to a personal emergency. At first, I was disappointed since we've already scheduled the time, and I had closed the time on my calendar. But then it made me realize that the mentorship sessions we had are not about me – the focus is on my mentees, and if they would like to achieve something in their lives and careers, they would make the effort to join each of the sessions. At the end of the day, for me as a mentor, it was about "who I am in that situation": do I feel empowered to reschedule and move on with my daily tasks, or do I let it bother me for several hours? I chose to move on, reschedule, and return empowered for the next sessions.
In terms of connectivity, it may sound strange to someone living in a Western country, where electricity and a fast Internet connection are something that goes without saying. Still, I found out that in certain places around the globe, rain could cause power outages, and an Internet connection is not something that you should take for granted.
A few tips for someone who wants to be a mentor:
- Come open-minded – don't assume you have all the answers based on your experience. Don't come with a strict agenda; flow with the conversations to whatever your mentees would like to go, to be able to achieve their goals from a mentorship program.
- Respect other cultures – remember that people are coming with different backgrounds, different cultures, and sometimes English is not their main language.
- Create a safe space - allow your mentees to speak freely, to ask questions, and create for them a safe and respectful environment.
- Take something to yourself – don't forget that as a mentor you should also gain something from a mentorship program. In my case, since my mentees talked about taking the AWS certification exam, I also registered for the AWS Certified Security Specialty exam during the weeks of my mentorship program. Although I failed on the first attempt (I was missing 2 correct answers to pass the exam), I know that on my next attempt I will study harder and pass the exam. This is something I wanted to gain in my life to advance my professional career.
About the Author
Eyal Estrin is a cloud and information security architect with more than 25 years in the industry. He is the author of Cloud Security Handbook and Security for Cloud Native Applications.
The views expressed are his own.
