Which Shared Background Traits Are Important to Underrepresented CS Students in Career-Transition Mentorship Programs?

Abstract

Mentoring programs are a valuable strategy employed by both
educators and industry to improve retention, learning, and career
outcomes; they can also play a crucial role in diversifying Computer
Science. Although there has been much research into mentoring
programs for early college students and mid-career professionals,
less has been published about career-transition mentorship programs:
programs with a focus on gaining knowledge and achieving
short-term career objectives and little focus on belonging.
It is well documented that, for early college and mid-career mentorship
programs, matching mentees with mentors of a similar
social, economic, and demographic background is both very preferable
to mentees and leads to better outcomes. This paper explores
to what extent the same is true for career-transition mentoring.We
report on student preferences for students enrolled in one of two
mentoring programs which served primarily underrepresented students
studying Computer Science at US Community and Technical
Colleges (CTCs), who were close to graduating and planning to
transition into a career. (n=369) The paper found that, the more
mentorship focused on supporting specific specific knowledge gain,
the less students preferred a mentor of similar background, that it
had little effect on outcomes, and that some traits mattered more
than others. These results may influence how similar programs
prioritize mentor recruitment.