Following last year's successful launch of the new .edu community at defcon, we are back for 2026. A key part of our mission is to help those in education support and defend their institutions, and help those in education choose their career path, so our mentorship program is returning.
This is where you come in.
We are opening today a call for both mentors & mentees, who will have an introductory meeting during def con.
We are looking for volunteers working in the cybersecurity industry, with at least 5 years of experience, who would like to spare a little time over the coming months to support motivated mentees in their growth journey.
Are you aged 18 or over, in education and looking to find your first role in cybersecurity? Are you in your first role and trying to figure out what's next? Then this program is for you.
Time commitment: We would ideally like these to be long term mentoring relationships. However, we know that people are busy so we propose the following minimum commitment:
- Be available to meet between mentor and mentee at def con - we'll set up a 'mixer' event for this during the con
- Be prepared to have roughly monthly calls between you both for the following 6 months
- Be motivated (mentee) and willing to help (mentor)
Interested? Sign up via the following forms:
- Mentors: (Now Closed)
- Mentees: (Now Closed)
We will then arrange matches and let you know the next steps. Please be aware that we will have limited slots available, so don't wait to submit your entry!
A note on privacy: in order to administer this program we will collect some basic info like names, email addresses, etc.. This won't be used in any way except to manage this mentoring process, and will be kept confidential, and not shared outside of the organizers of this program.