My mentorship journey at Dewberry, which encompasses my entire career, began with a self-realization about my own career influences followed by a determination to share my experiences with my peers. As my own journey progressed, I have sought to help others find the same mentorship opportunities that I was privileged to have.

Identifying My Most Important Career Influences

My self-realization came when I started to hear from friends who were interested in finding new opportunities and taking the next step in their career journey. I couldn’t help but look inward and wonder why I wasn’t itching to do the same. I immediately thought of the relationships I had built at Dewberry. Our people are a key differentiator that keep me from looking elsewhere. I had made many close friends and built trusted relationships, so why would I want to leave when I am surrounded by such passionate, intelligent, and caring people?  Then I thought about my project opportunities. Since the minute I started, I have been challenged to work on interesting, innovative, and meaningful projects. I was able to continually grow as an engineer, teacher, person, and friend.

Since the minute I started, I have been challenged to work on interesting, innovative, and meaningful projects. I was able to continually grow as an engineer, teacher, person, and friend. ” Matthew Alboum

But ultimately, the most important factor in my career choice to stay with Dewberry is the mentorship that offered me these opportunities. For me, my supervisor Bryan Garbasz embodied this, and I would not be where I am without him. In so many ways everything that came next was because of what he did for me, putting me on this path to start a decade long journey that, in some ways, is just beginning. He made sure that I had all the tools I needed, and in many cases put my needs before his own. 

Building a Mentor/Mentee Framework

Following the self-realization of the impact mentorship had on my career, I set out to replicate my experience with my peers. By sharing my vision and working closely with my business unit manager, we developed a pilot mentorship program. After a few years of interactions and many late nights of researching and gathering information, strategies, and tools, the pilot program launched with six pairs of mentees and mentors. The pilot lasted 12 months and combined a mix of cultivated group sessions with scheduled formal and informal meetings. Based on feedback from the pilot, we decided we needed to evolve the program to meet the needs of each office while also opening the doors to reach anyone who wanted to participate firmwide.

After some adjustments and the help of many other passionate mentorship advocates, we developed the Mentorship Building Workshops (MBW) consisting of a series of workshops with the intention of bringing together diverse groups of individuals who had similar interests. The sessions were not presented, but rather moderated. The goal of each session was to create connections while establishing pathways for people to find knowledge. While it was not the primary goal, we did hope that this would lead to successful mentorship relationships. The topics ranged from work-life balance, critical knowledge transfer, career and succession planning, and communication skills. We didn’t include agendas, instead the moderators nudged the discussion in the right direction. The sessions were recorded, summarized, and shared on our firm’s intranet. Most people who attended a session found them to be rewarding and walked away feeling more connected.

Finding Value in Mentorship

In my case, creating the MBW opened the door to one of the most unexpected and rewarding relationships I’ve had during my career. Through seeing my posts on our firm’s intranet and working together on the planning of the MBW, I was approached by someone in human resources who asked if I would be interested in mentoring an employee from another office. During an annual review it was decided that this individual might benefit from having a mentor outside of their immediate chain of command. This set off a chain of events that helped both of us grow in ways that we never expected, including helping me to realize I can make an effective and meaningful connection with someone who is hundreds of miles away.

The success of the MBW and my own personal mentoring experience was a defining point in my journey, but in many ways only the beginning. Through my experiences and exposure, I was tapped to work on one of the goals of our firm’s 2020-2025 strategic plan to help develop, implement, and promote a mentoring program within Dewberry. I truly can’t express how important this initiative is to me, and how grateful I am for the opportunity to work on it.