Finding the right mentor shouldn’t feel like a guessing game. Our matching system uses a simple, transparent scoring algorithm to surface the mentors most likely to help you based on what you tell us matters.

What goes into a match

When you join the program, you tell us about yourself across a few different dimensions, we call them matching buckets. Each bucket captures something different about what makes a good mentor-mentee pairing. Common buckets include things like:

• Core competencies – the skills or topics you want help with
• Industry or sector – the field you work (or want to work) in
• Region, designation, or experience level – context that helps you connect with someone who’s walked a similar path

Mentors describe themselves using the same buckets, so we’re always comparing apples to apples.

How the score is calculated

For every mentor in the program, we calculate a match score against your profile. The logic is straightforward:

For each bucket, we count how many of your selections overlap with the mentor’s. We multiply that overlap by the bucket’s weight, then add up the totals across all buckets.

A mentor who matches you on three of your top competencies will score higher than one who matches on just one. A mentor who matches your region and your competencies will score higher than one who matches on competencies alone.

Why some buckets count more than others

Not every dimension is equally important, and your program administrators decide the priorities. Each bucket carries a weight that reflects how much it should influence the score. For example:

• A bucket marked as a “dealbreaker” (like geographic region in some programs) might be worth 50 points per match.
• A bucket marked as a “preference” (like a specific software tool) might be worth 10 points per match.

This lets the program reflect what actually matters in your community. An accounting association weights designations heavily; a regional networking group weights province above all else. Same algorithm, different priorities.

Why we cap your selections

You’ll notice each bucket has a maximum number of options you can choose. This is intentional. Forcing you to pick your top two competencies instead of fifteen produces sharper, more meaningful matches, and prevents anyone from gaming the system by selecting everything.

Transparent and tunable

The recommendations you see on the Mentor Gallery are sorted by this score, highest first. There’s no black-box AI, no hidden data, no opaque ranking. If you update your selections, your matches update immediately. If the program’s priorities shift, the weights can be re-tuned without rebuilding anything.

The goal: every connection should feel intentional, not random.