Frequently Asked Questions
Our Mentorships involve hands-on collaboration where a mentor will guide you and provide insight as you work on your project. Mentees complete the work, but mentors will do demonstrations, answer questions, outline efficient workflows, and give feedback to help you reach your desired outcome. We offer mentorships in one hour weekly sessions over the course of four or eight weeks depending on the complexity of your project. All mentorship programs include a mentee showcase, mentee showcase blog, and access to our community discord where you can receive ongoing support. Mentorships require an application process.
Career coaching can involve subjects like portfolio reviews with feedback, advice and direction on building a mentee’s online presence and personal brand, or interview strategies and preparation. Career coaching includes one two hour session with a 30 minute follow up, plus access to our community Discord. Career Coaching does not have an application process.
Our mentorships are best suited for those who are of a moderate to advanced skill level. We recommend that you’ve already completed some level of schooling before signing up. If you are self-taught, we require that you come with a demonstrable understanding of the basic principles in your area of focus, which we will determine by reviewing your portfolio during the application process.
For all of our mentorships, we also require that you come with a personal, academic, or professional project of your own that you want to work on over the course of your program. Since our sessions are tailored to each individual, it is the mentee’s responsibility to come with their own goals, projects, and focus areas. We provide learning resources, but we don’t provide any pre-made “coursework.”
We require that you complete the application process so we can review your portfolio and confirm that your current skill level and focus areas are suitable for our open mentorships. We do this to ensure that you will get the most out of our programs.
If you apply and are not selected for a mentorship, please understand that it is not because we believe you are not talented, or that you’re not “good enough.” Mentees are selected based on their level of experience, mentor and mentee availability, and most importantly, how much benefit we can see them getting from a mentorship at the current point they’re at in their craft. We do this to ensure mentees receive the maximum benefit from their time with our experts, which can largely depend on a mentee’s experience level coming into a mentorship.
Just because you’re not selected for a membership now, doesn’t mean that you won’t be accepted down the line. Continue working on personal projects to build your portfolio, apply again, and keep in touch in the meantime!
The ideal time to begin your mentorship is when you have identified or started on a project that you would like a mentor’s guidance on. This allows you and your mentor to work together to fully understand the scope and needs for each project early on, and allow you to refine your skills and receive feedback as you go.
Career coaching can begin whenever it’s most convenient for you. We recommend signing up when you have burning questions, a situation or specific goals you want guidance on, or if you’re stuck in a particular area of your career and looking for an expert’s advice.
We have a vast network of industry professionals with diverse expertise to pull from and we are constantly expanding our roster of mentors and mentorship programs. If you don’t see a mentor that specializes in your area of focus, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at contact@vesselforge.com and explain what you’re looking for. We will do our best to find a match for you. Even if we don’t have one now, we may in the future!
Any and all files you work on during your mentorship will be saved on our private Google drive so you will have long-term access to them.
We recommend taking only one Mentorship at a time to get the most out of the experience.
Yes! You can always sign up for another mentorship once you’ve completed one – we just don’t recommend that mentees enroll in multiple mentorships at a time.
No, we cannot and do not guarantee any internship or employment opportunities in the industry. We will do everything we can to make sure you are set up for success, but we can’t guarantee that a mentorship or career coaching program will directly lead to a professional opportunity of any kind.
While it is easiest for us to accommodate mentees based in the United States, it is possible we may be able to take on global clients from time to time based on mentor and mentee schedules and availability. Include your country of residence in your application, and if we think you’re a match for one of our programs we’ll reach out to you and request more information, such as your timezone, availability, and other pertinent info. We will evaluate global mentee eligibility on a case-by-case basis.
Currently, we only conduct sessions online, via video chat. Typically we use either Zoom, Discord, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet but can be flexible for your needs.
No, our mentors will not complete any portion of the project for you. We are here to guide and advise you, help you refine your skills, and provide feedback and insight. We will not execute the work for you, and all of the work and skill that goes into your project will need to come from you as a mentee.
It is the mentee’s responsibility to come into their mentorship with a project they want to work on, and to do the work necessary to complete the project.
We don’t accommodate breaks during mentorship programs. This is to ensure you get the most out of your mentorship experience with consistent feedback and progress, and also to respect the schedules of our Vessel Forge mentors and other mentees.
We are able to accommodate rescheduling a session on a case-by-case basis. We require 24 hours notice and that you reschedule your session for another time slot within one week of your original session. If you’re concerned you won’t be able to attend consistent weekly sessions during your mentorship program, we recommend waiting until you have a more flexible schedule.
If you do need to reschedule a session, contact your mentor and CC contact@vesselforge.com
Depending on mentor availability, we may be able to extend a four week mentorship to eight weeks if the mentee feels like more time or guidance is needed to complete their current project. However, we can’t guarantee this, as mentor schedules can often be busy and complicated. For this reason, we recommend that you come with a strong idea of how long your project will take to complete. If you are unsure, email us at contact@vesselforge.com with the details about your project, and we can give you a recommendation.
In most situations, we do not offer refunds. However, if at the three-week mark your project is nearly complete and you feel you overestimated the amount of time that your project would take, send an email to your mentor and contact@vesselforge.com explaining the situation. We may be able to downgrade you to a four-week session on a case-by-case basis.
No, we do not permit recording of sessions.
No, we do not offer financing. Services must be paid in full before the first session.
No, we do not offer refunds. The only exception to this is if you request to convert from an eight week program to a four week program before the end of your third week.
