The Mentorship Network for Women

New Approach to Career Success

Career success. All women want it, but how do you define it? Executive Producer of the Mentorship Network for Women, Dylan Rodrigues has developed a way to not only define career success, but also a method to track and achieve it as well.

As an executive technical consultant to Fortune 500 and government agencies, Dylan was very familiar with best practices, guidelines and methodologies. When Dylan started designing the Mentorship Network for Women, an online social community exclusively for women, she discovered that there was no widely accepted method for measuring career success. As this aspect was critical to the design of the Mentorship Network, she set out to define her own.

Many months and years of research led her to create the Mentorship System, a matrix of Career Focus Areas and Mentorship Focus Areas. The 26 Career Focus Areas cover all industries and professions, while the 10 Mentorship Focus Areas present areas for career improvement such as Compensation and Education.

This unique approach to defining and guiding career success allows women to focus on immediate, short, and long-term goals for different aspects of their career lives.

“I noticed that when I started to make lists of goals I wanted to accomplish in my career, they happened,” Dylan said. “By applying project management principles to my own career, I was able to mentor myself and further define my mentoring needs. This allowed me to identify the type of help I needed and the women I wanted to mentor me.”

Following are the Mentorship Focus Areas that Dylan has developed. See if you can define your own professional goals for each area.

Experience: What are your goals for obtaining the experience you need to further your career?
Education : What professional certifications or authorizations do you need to achieve your career success?
Compensation: What change in compensation are you seeking next?
Recognition: What do you need to do get the recognition you deserve for the work that you are doing?
Environment: How do you want to change your working environment?
Relationships: What are your plans to become a better team player or corporate representative?
Influence: How do you get the type of power you need to feel successful?
Leadership: What is your next leadership level to achieve?
Image: How are you going to improve your image?
Personal: Do you have any personal challenges affecting your success?

In the Mentorship Network for Women, there is an area for tracking goals and achievements based on the Mentorship System as well as an opportunity to define specific needs for a mentor or mentee.

For more information about the Mentorship Network for Women, contact Ms. Dylan Rodrigues at (510) 378-9543 or visit WomensMentorship.com.

Sponsorship for Mentorship Network

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 18, 2007, Philadelphia , PA

Event Management Program at Temple University becomes Founding Sponsor of RealSmartWomen.com, the Mentorship Network for Women.

“Traditional internship programs are not appropriate for most of my students who are employed full time,” says Dr. Joe Goldblatt, PhD CSEP, Director of the Event Leadership Certificate Executive Program and Director of Professional Development and Strategic Partnerships at Temple University. “That’s why when a former colleague of mine contacted me about listing our Event Leadership Certificate Executive Program on a unique mentorship site for women, I recognized the synergy right away.”

“Event management requires a good mix of education and experience to be successful. While my program provides practical education in the discipline of Event Management, finding mentors in the business to guide my students has been challenging,” Dr. Golblatt continues.

Recognizing the need for experienced guidance to build skills in the event management industry, premier event management author Dr. Goldblatt has found in RealSmartWomen.com a targeted solution to facilitate the learning process and a marketing solution to augment his recruitment strategy.

“I wanted to build a professional network where busy women can meet to share business success secrets and build formal one-on-one mentorship relationships,” said Ms. Dylan Rodrigues, Producer of the Real Smart Women Mentorship Network and former senior Internet consultant for IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“I noticed there were many internal corporate mentorship programs, local and state-run mentorship programs, but no central resource for mentorship for women. Women face different challenges than men in the workplace and finding women who can offer practical advice based on experience has been difficult for many working from home, in smaller businesses, or in traditionally male-dominated occupations.

By developing a cross-industry mentorship network focused on women, Dylan believes that the secrets shared by her community will help future generations of working women in their professional journey.

At RealSmartWomen.com, members can be listed as a Mentor or Prot?g?e candidate and choose professional and personal preferences for a Mentorship Alliance. Using the exclusive Mentorship Guidance System, members can share secrets, view mentorship resources, and track goals and achievements .

Real Smart Women Launch Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NO MEN ALLOWED
The Women-Only Mentorship Network Launches on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2006

Chateaugay, NY, March 7, 2006. A blend between Monster.com and Match.com, RealSmartWomen.com provides a matching service exclusively for career-minded women.

According to the latest US Census Bureau information, men in the United States making $35,000 a year are putting away an extra $8,000 more than women doing the same job each year. At the $100K level, it averages $23 thousand a year. While women are encouraged to succeed in male-dominated professions, they are still locked out by the "'ol boys network."

Witnessing this type of exclusion first hand at such firms as IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers, top Internet producer and management consultant Dylan Rodrigues has produced the Real Smart Women Mentorship Network to help women build their self-esteem.

"It's all about building confidence, earning respect, and achieving success. Our goal is to build an easily accessible network of working women for career advice, support, and companionship." says Ms. Rodrigues. "It's difficult for women to find the time to make professional connections with other women, especially if they telecommute or have home-based businesses. Making it easy to find the right help and advice is what the Real Smart Women Mentorship Network is all about."

This new virtual network for women is designed to cater to working women interested in building their careers and their self-confidence on the job. Open to women in any occupation at any level, the RealSmartWomen.com site hosts a matching service designed for women to build formal career-minded relationships with other women. The concept is that of a Mentor/Prot?g?e relationship, the Mentor being the more experienced woman advising the less experienced Prot?g?e.

The Mentorship Network was designed from the bottom up with needs of working women in mind. By registering with the network, women can build a professional member profile from a choice of 26 different Career Focus Areas covering over 800 distinct occupations. In addition women can build a Mentor Candidate profile and/or a Prot?g?e Candidate profile where they can choose from more than 100 advice topics from the ten major Mentorship Focus Areas.

Ms. Rodrigues attributes most of her success to the women mentors that have made it possible for her to work at executive levels for such clients as the United States Postal Service, the Department of Defense, Athletes Against Drugs, and the national Dutch telecom company, KPN.

Free membership in the network allows women to post their career and education experience for review by other members in an attempt to find a “match”. Members can also participate in discussion areas dealing with women-specific work-related issues such as “Work Life Balance” and “Equality in the Workplace.”

Career-minded women are encouraged to add a profile and join the Mentorship Network, even if they are not currently looking for a Prot?g?e or Mentor. Free membership registration at www.realsmartwomen.com also allows women to browse network members, mentor candidates and prot?g?e candidates. As a security feature, only verified Official Members can contact other members and no personally identifiable information about the women is made available through the site. Official Membership starts at $19.95 a year with specials and discounts during the grand opening the month of March. Professional women coaches and mentors are also welcome to register as “Professional Mentors” on the site for $29.99 a year.

For More Information please contact Dylan@RealSmartWomen.com
Dylan Rodrigues, Executive Producer
Real Smart Women Mentorship Network
(518) 354-8041

http://www.realsmartwomen.com