Reading a mentor profile
What the rating measures, what the reliability score measures instead, why a blank one is not a bad one, and what is worth checking before you book.
A mentor's page carries two numbers that look similar and measure different things. Reading them correctly is most of choosing well.
Rating and reliability are not the same number#
| Measures | Comes from | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | How good the sessions were. | Reviews left by people who attended one. |
| Reliability | Whether the session happened as promised - turning up, on time, not cancelling late. | The record of their bookings. |
Reliability is about conduct; rating is about quality. A mentor can be entirely reliable and averagely rated, and the reverse. If you are booking something time-critical - an interview is tomorrow - reliability is the number to weight.
A missing number is not a bad number#
What is worth checking#
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The service description, not the headline. A listing that says exactly what happens in the hour - what you bring, what you leave with - is written by somebody who has thought about the session. A vague one usually delivers a vague session.
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Whether their experience matches your question. Years of experience is on the profile; whether those years are in the thing you are asking about is in the prose.
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Their reviews, not just the average. A few sentences from somebody who booked the same service tells you more than the number above them.
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Their availability. A mentor with nothing bookable for three weeks is not the right answer to an interview on Thursday.
Their storefront#
/u/<username>/services lists everything one mentor has published. Worth opening even if you
arrived at one specific service - mentors often offer a cheaper short call alongside the long one,
and a package if you expect to come back.
You cannot message them first#
There is no way to ask a question before booking, and that is deliberate rather than missing. See messaging your mentor for what to do instead.
Related#
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