Xbox Announces New Mentorship Program for Women to Kickstart Their Gaming Careers

This week, Xbox has opened registration for a new global program known as “Mentoring: Kickstart Your Career,” designed to help give women the world over a chance to get their foot into the door of the increasingly growing video game industry.

According to an article from Forbes, those with mentors are five times more likely to be promoted than those without, whereas the mentors themselves are six times more likely to be promoted. Meanwhile, a 2019 survey shows that 82 percent of men have had male mentors, while only 69 percent of women have had female mentors.

Furthermore, the ESA reports that while 45 percent of gamers identify as female, 20-first shows a significantly lower percentage of those working in the industry as the same.

To help close this gap a bit, Xbox has opened free registration to those ages 18 and over until April 17th, with mentees selected later in the month.

Representing Canada on the global stage of this initiative is “Pinkyfoxtrot” Venessa Nyarko, who serves as a Producer at The Coalition, the Vancouver-based home of Xbox’s acclaimed Gears series.

Venessa is a passionate playmaker who brings teams together to develop cohesive storytelling that creates a rich player experience. She develops frameworks to make the best plays, getting the right people in the right conversations and executing on bringing all the pieces together for epic gameplay.

Q: What is the best advice you’ve received from a mentor or someone you admire in your career?

A: My first mentor loved the quote: “Life shrinks or expands in relation to one’s courage.” It inspired her to move from Latin America to Canada without her family for new opportunities. I’ve never forgotten it. When I was weighing entering game development and when I was deciding to move across country to work at Xbox, I held those words close to my heart and made the leap.

Q: What do you believe is the most important thing that a mentor can do for or share with their mentee?

A: I believe the most important thing that a mentor can do for their mentee is listen actively and engage with their lived experiences and questions genuinely. It’s not enough for a mentor to talk solely about themselves, a mentor should be able to provide a differing perspective as well as resources to support their mentee.

Q: Why is the Xbox Mentoring: Kickstart Your Career program important, and what do you hope mentees gain from the experience?

A: This mentoring program is so important because it offers a lens into the world of game development that can help guide and prepare the next generation – our future storytellers – by giving them a glimpse of what to expect as well as key advice to navigate entering the industry. Having this program when I was starting out would have been invaluable experience.

If you’re Canadian and reading this, you can register to here. If, on the other hand, you’re reading this from somewhere else in the world, you can learn about the mentors for other regions by checking out the Xbox Wire article here.

And if you don’t make it in, don’t fret; it sounds like there may be more opportunities going forward, as a Microsoft spokesperson tells us “We are kicking off the program to run for the next 3 months and evaluating how we can extend it going forward.”

Thanks for reading!

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David Oxford is a freelance writer of many varied interests. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.