Mentoring Culture

Culture isn’t what you say about your company, it’s what you do about it. At Worthwhile, mentorship is part of what they do to fulfill their mission to “cultivate people who will ensure that our community will flourish for generations,” says COO Ruben Hentzschel.

And some of that mentorship has happened in partnership with Build Carolina, South Carolina’s meeting place for fostering tech talent and connecting employers with that talent.

Ruben says mentorship is an investment; there’s a cost to the time taken away from income-generating work. Yet, it pays back in ways that have lasted beyond the tenure of Build Carolina apprentices.

“I think it also will elevate how mentors talk to clients,” Hentzschel says. “You’re focusing on where someone else is, you put yourself in their shoes. So, it improves how those individuals interact with others that don’t necessarily have a technical understanding.”

Build Carolina’s Develop Carolina software development apprenticeship recently became a federally registered apprenticeship program. To learn more about how your business can grow with Build Carolina, click here.

For young companies, Ruben suggests getting into the mentorship game early.

“Especially for entrepreneurs… it’s awesome if you can make that part of your business process and thought process early on. The earlier in the business you have your culture—the values you’re really standing for—that will help you engage in these kinds of programs. If not, all you do is run after the next deal.”